Resellers: Sage Will Rebound From Johnson's Departure

Sage North America's resellers are lamenting the departure of Paul Johnson, the executive vice president of sales who helped rejuvenate the company's channel operations, but they remain optimistic about the strength of the software company's channel program going forward.

"I'm disappointed to see him go, but I'm not overly concerned about the impact on Sage," said Stephen Blythe, CEO of Blytheco, one of Sage North America's top resellers. He's hearing that the company could even transition into "growth mode" this year when a new CEO takes the company's helm, after focusing in recent years on improving profitability.

Sage disclosed Johnson's departure, reportedly to take a position with rival Intuit, in a letter to channel partners in mid-December. Tom Miller, vice president of channel management at Sage Business Solutions at Sage North America, part of the U.K.-based Sage Group PLC, has assumed Johnson's position on an interim basis while the company searches for a replacement.

Johnson's departure came just a couple of weeks after the announcement that Sage North America CEO Sue Swenson will retire by the middle of this year. Pascal Houillon, CEO of Sage France, has been tapped to lead the North American business once Swenson steps down. Sage also lost Jodi Uecker-Rust, head of Sage Business Solutions since February 2009, in October when she stepped down for personal reasons.

Next: Management Changes An Opportunity?

"He was a real strong advocate for the channel," said Mark Dresser, president of Dresser & Associates, a Scarborough, Maine-based solution provider who sells Sage Abra HRMS and Payroll applications. But he was quick to add: "From what I understand the new president, Pascal, also is a real strong channel advocate."

"It's a loss because [Johnson] was a pretty good communications conduit into Sage management," said Sam Biardo, CEO of Technology Advisors. Based in Des Plaines, Ill., Technology Advisors resells CRM and salesforce automation applications from Sage, Microsoft, SugarCRM and Salesforce.com.

But Biardo said management changes such as those Sage is going through can be opportunities for companies to make needed organizational changes. "I'll be interested to see what happens," he said, referring to Houillon taking the company's reins.

While about 60 percent of Technology Advisors' revenue is related to Sage, much of that is servicing Sage accounts, Biardo said, while most of the reseller's product pipeline is Microsoft Dynamics CRM applications.

Dresser said Johnson's departure would have a minimal impact given the caliber of the channel managers -- Miller among them -- and programs he put in place. Dresser, for example, said his company utilized Sage's Hire Assist program to hire a new sales representative in Atlanta and has leveraged sales and marketing resources Sage offers through its Marketing Alliance and Fast Track for Growth programs.