Sage Blog

I had a great day at Sage Connect, the Sage UK and Irelands Accountants Division event at the British Museum this week: buzz, interaction, vision and inspiration.

Now, I’m not grading my own paper here. Yes, as  Head of  Marketing for the Accountants Division, it’s my budget and my team’s responsibility – but that’s precisely the point. The team headed by Lisa Benner did an incredible job and enabled me to focus on the key aspects of the day: customer and partner learnings, Sage’s Cloud vision for accountants, iXBRL and compliance – and real humour from speakers Nick Hewer and Spencer Kelly.

Sage and Blackberry

Main sponsor RIM delighted accountants and our teams with the extent of business tasks you can get done on the BlackBerry – many were unaware that you could do your time and billing on the device, link to Sage 200 and Sage CRM Solutions as Taylorcocks Accountants described in a recent case study

Nick Goode, Sage Accountants Division

. Accountants always tell us: we are a time-bound profession and any savings on task execution means more billing time and faster resolution for customers. We enjoyed a dinner in London with the RIM team and there is real appetite for more mobile solutions for our accountant customers.

iXBRL

Doing new cool stuff on the Blackberry is always enticing – as is, for our customers and for us, tax, compliance and of course iXBRL. Julian Hatt from HMRC did a tremendous job of answering many questions about compliance, setting our customers minds at rest. For example, HMRC are adopting a “soft landing” approach where iXBRL filings will be treated leniently in the first two years after mandatory online filing in April next year. He also confirmed to the audience that expert systems such as the Sage Accounts Production product range are needed, that while HMRC does have an online tool it is only for “occasional use” for clubs, as an example. I picked up a question on the Q&A Panel regarding word tagging – that accounts prepared in Word and Excel will have to be tagged and that we will provide a product for this along with the XBRL enablement of our tax and accounts production software. Your views on outsourced tagging are welcome. With Companies House representatives also present throughout the day (a big thank you again), customers were able to get the information they need live and direct.

Future directions?

I also had the pleasure of welcoming Gina Dyer of AccountingWeb to one of my breakout sessions on Cloud computing and online solutions for Sage Accountants Division.

Through interaction with customers and partners during the sessions, I was able to draw pictures of customer needs: online collaboration between accountants and their customers; mobile access for onsite accounts review and editing; cool ideas like e-invoicing; the real demand for online payments leveraging the fast-growing Sage Pay solution; and most of all, the confirmation from our customers and partners that an “all cloud” position would be wrong; that our vast customer base means one size does not fit all and that our rollout of products and services online over the coming months and years is the right approach.

Sincere thanks to all who contributed to the debates – our only regret was lack of time!

Celebrating Success

Jayne Archbold, the Managing Director of the Accountants  Division, awarded 12  of our customers and partners for innovation, business growth, customer service, beta involvement and more. As each winner took to the stage, a different “money” themed tune blasted out (Pink Floyd, Simply Red, The Beatles and the Flying Lizards – remember them?) – I think it worked, good fun and sincere thanks and congratulations to all our winners.

I loved the way that Gina was able to get a video of Nick Hewer from the apprentice during the drinks reception. Nick had given us the inside view on The Apprentice. I completely agreed with him that the worst ever task execution was the army guy who tried to sell Macro cheddar to the French and cook sausages over a baked bean tin… And thanks Nick for your comments about how Sage grew from a tiny start-up in 1981 to the global giant we are today.

Past, present and future: the iconic British  museum with its Egyptian obelisks at the head of the stairs leading down to the event, where we entered the very real business of accountants, representing every type of British business at work today and every day; and with us now and into the future, the new worlds of online filing, payments, collaboration and services for accountants.

Of the tweets (#SageConnect) and emails on the event, the comment I liked most is that our desire to understand exactly what accountant customers need is palpable. At our core at Sage is Extraordinary Customer Experience, in using Sage products to run your business and in the services we provide.  Feedback, as ever, welcome.

Nick Goode, Head of Commercial Marketing, Sage Accountants Division

Here at Sage we’re busy organising a special event for our Sage accountants on the 21 July. If you’ve not come across a Sage accountant before, you’re probably wondering what they are.

What are Sage accountants?

Well, Sage accountants aim to deliver the best possible service to their customers when it comes to Sage software and services. So, if you’re looking for an accountant it’s a great place to start.

It’s a really important relationship to us, so not only do they get training, specialist software and dedicated support from us, this year we are inviting them along to an exclusive event, Sage Connect 2010.

 Sage Connect 2010 event

Sage Connect 2010 gives our accountants a chance to stay ahead of their peers with the latest information from industry leaders, as well as inside information about us, and what lies ahead.

If you’re one of our accountants, you should have received your invite by now, and hopefully you’ve already got it in your diary. And here are the  keynote speeches you’ll get to see:

• Julian Hatt from the HMRC who’ll be talking about the Corporation Tax and iXBRL aspects of Lord Carter of Coles’ 2006 Report: Review of HMRC Online Services, as well as HMRC’s approach towards transitional measures and extraneous developments that are impacting on the implementation of iXBRL
• Spencer Kelly from BBC’s “Click” will be giving an insight into business technology and emerging trends
• Michelle Sansome of the Accounting Standards Board will provide an overview of plans and timelines for International Financial Report Standards for SMEs and Microentities
• Jack Mansfield from Companies House will speak about eFiling plans and future developments

Help shape the way we develop our software and services

Have you got ideas or opinions regarding our software? Then, you’ll have a chance to pose your questions to the Sage team, including Jayne Archbold (Managing Director of Sage Accountants’ Division), and Heads of Research and Development for some of your key Sage software. You’ll also find out how to become a BETA customer and help with shaping Sage software, and as a taster get the first glimpse of the features in Sage Practice Solution.

Workshops

There’s a wealth of workshops available to you, with something for everyone. Personally I’m looking forward to ‘Cloud Computing? What, Why and How?’

Celebrating success

We’re particularly excited to introduce our Sage Accountants’ Awards 2010, which will be co-hosted by Nick Hewer from BBC’s The Apprentice.

This is a chance to celebrate and recognise the achievements of accountants in practice, and the contribution they make to UK businesses. With our Pulse survey showing that 60% of small businesses want sound business advice and consultancy from their accountants, it certainly seems like the right time to celebrate the contribution made by Sage accountants to British business.

If you’ve been entered we wish you the best of luck.

Come and join us

One of the most productive aspects of conferences is networking, and we’ll be hosting a drinks reception in the evening. You’ll have a chance to have a more informal chat with other attendees and the Sage team, so we’re looking forward to seeing you there!

If you’d like to join us, please send an email to sageconnect2010@sage.com

Daniel Duran, Sage Accountants’ Division