Peachtree 2013 Annual Report Download - page 15

Core customer needs
We’ve been meeting our customers’ core needs for
many years. The evolution of our product and service
offering reflects the insight we have into what our
customers want.
Our software gives our customers greater control
over their business processes and is designed to
be efficient and secure but also familiar and intuitive.
Our support offering has developed from an appreciation
that small and medium sized businesses often need
somewhere to turn when faced with reporting and
legislative challenges. Our connected services comprise
a range of other complementary features, including
integrated payments, CRM and BI, so that we are
delivering a rounded and more complete user
experience to our customers.
Technology and pricing
Our technology strategy involves building cloud
products that address the specific needs of our
customer segments by incorporating the benefits
of connectivity, integration and mobility.
For start-up and small businesses we’ve built Sage One,
which is our low cost, easy to use accounting and
payroll solution that runs entirely in the cloud.
For our SMB customers we’re bringing our flagship
products to the cloud as part of our hybrid cloud
strategy. These solutions are designed to make the
transition from the on-premise world easier and
take advantage of the power of mobile applications
and connected services by providing access to business
data in the cloud. Sage 200 Online in the UK and Sage
Murano ERP Online in Spain were the first products
to go live this year, and several more are due to follow
in 2014.
We’ve also launched new subscription pricing models
for many of our products, which gives our customers
even greater flexibility and choice.
Technology and pricing are hugely important
opportunities for Sage because they offer us the chance
to do more for our customers and have much more
active relationships with them.
Combining the benefits
of technology with the
hallmarks of Sage to
deliver an extraordinary
customer experience.
The pace of change
The pace at which new technologies are being adopted
differs across our customer segments and varies by
business application.
For example, the industry is seeing faster take-up of
online CRM tools, whilst the move to cloud accounting,
tax and payroll is more measured.
Start-ups typically don’t have an existing infrastructure,
so they’re happy to go straight for a fully online solution.
Conversely, SMB and mid-market customers already
have systems that work and on which their people are
trained, which are factors they take into consideration
when they think about moving to the cloud.
It’s about choice
To ensure we’re meeting our customers’ established
needs, as well as bringing them new innovations,
we offer choice.
We’re doing this by introducing new products that
harness cloud technology, whilst also maintaining our
existing on-premise offerings so that our customers can
make their own decisions and move when they’re ready.
As our technology solutions are designed with the
prevailing needs and characteristics of our customer
segments in mind, we’re making it possible for them to
move to the cloud at a rate that is comfortable for them.
We believe success lies in delivering the right choices,
at the right pace, and at the right time.
To read about our technology
solutions and what this means for
our customers, turn to Capturing
the technology opportunity
on pages 22 and 23
13The Sage Group plc | Annual Report & Accounts 2013
Financial statementsGovernanceStrategic report