Peachtree 2015 Annual Report Download - page 14

Progress of execution
At our Capital Markets day in June, we presented the five
pillars of our strategy. We are already implementing each
of them and embedding the supporting behaviours and
structures that make the strategy sustainable.
Customers for Life
– We have increased the contract renewal rate to 84%
(FY14: 83%) by focussing on deeper subscription
relationships with new and existing customers.
– We are investing in migration tools to Growth products
to enable seamless pathways for customers that are
growing and require the next level of product to best
suit their needs.
– Customers have welcomed our commitment to halt
‘end of life’ and ‘forced migrations’ which have typified
most technology companies’ history.
– One of Sage’s unique selling points is a focus on
providing accounting, payroll, HR and payments systems
to businesses from start-up as they grow to thousands of
employees, providing customer choice from on-premise
deployed products, to native cloud soware as a service
(SaaS) and hybrids of the two.
Winning in the Market
– A relentless focus on gaining new customers is being
established throughout Sage.
– We have created Customer Business Centres (CBCs)
in Atlanta and Dublin which bring together all teams
involved in digital marketing, lead qualification, sales,
service and renewals. The CBCs foster collaboration
and provide a platform for accelerated growth.
– We are aracting new customers particularly with
global products and this is evidenced with Sage One
subscription additions which ran at around 10,000 per
month in the second half.
– To drive growth in global products, we have cut
complexity for our partner ecosystem by creating a single
Global Partner Programme (GPP) for all new partners that
want to sell our global products, over time replacing the
different programmes in each country. The GPP will
harmonise and simplify the way we work with partners
and beer support them to drive sales to new customers.
– We celebrated the success of partners and customers at
Sage Summit, our flagship event and one of the largest
gatherings of Entrepreneurs in the world. In 2015, Summit
was bigger than ever before with over 24,000 participants
on-line and in person.
Revolutionise Business
– During the year, 87% of our research and development
spend was concentrated on growth products, which now
number less than 100 and from which we are deriving all
of our revenue growth.
– Our development cycles are also reducing as we focus
on providing additional value to customers more
regularly, evidenced by approximately 250 product
launches or feature releases for our growth products
throughout FY15. Sage Impact, our global product for
accountants was created in just 51 days.
– In testament to our increasing pace of development,
we received recognition for our product innovation from
a ra of industry commentators, including EXPERTON
in Germany for the Cloud Leader award, Muy Pymes in
Spain for the Best Cloud Solution, and K2 in the US for
the Best Mobile Strategy, Best use of Social Media,
Best New Cloud Products and the PRIME overall award.
– To support our golden triangle product proposition, we
are saving time for our customers and helping them to
get paid faster by optimising the integration of payments
products in the UK with our accounting and payroll
solutions. Sage Payments enables customers to take full
control of the movement of money from their business,
complementing the existing service to receive payments.
It was launched during the year and is a revolutionary new
solution to initiate payments to customers and suppliers
directly from Sage accounting and payroll soware.
Capacity for Growth
– We are implementing our target global operating model
by embedding common procedures and information
systems, driving consistency and supporting growth.
A functional model has been introduced whereby our
colleagues in Finance, HR, IT, Legal, Marketing and
Communications report to global functional heads.
– As an example of greater consistency, we reduced the
number of sales compensation plans from 129 to four.
Countries have been empowered to take primary
responsibility for customers and market facing sales,
support and services.
– The functional model will yield efficiency as well as
improving the quality of delivery. General and
Administrative expenses (“G&A”) represents 19% of
organic revenue and we are commied to reducing this
level by improving efficiency. Our scalable finance function
will be run using Sage X3, which is being introduced
throughout the business as part of the overall program.
– Increased accountability with appropriate delegated
authority and common objectives have been introduced
throughout all newly established global functions.
– The Sage management team has been strengthened
both geographically and functionally. Of the top 100
leaders, 38 have been changed during FY15 with 24
recruited from outside and 14 promoted internally.
Chief executive’s review continued
The Sage Group plc | Annual Report & Accounts 2015
12