At Sage Future, Channel Partners Central to Outcomes

Sage held its annual conference this week in Atlanta, bringing together channel partners and customers to showcase its latest solutions for business financial management teams worldwide. Channel Insider spoke with product and channel executives at Sage to learn more about how partners remain central to the company’s growth.

Sage Intacct and other agentic AI innovations form backbone of tech announcements

Sage rolled out a series of enhancements to its popular Intacct platform and other solutions, many of which leverage artificial intelligence to provide suggestions and automate various tasks. For channel partners, Sage says, the innovations are an opportunity to help customers embrace AI.

“There’s a lot of opportunity in the market right now, and a lot of it is being driven by AI. We are putting our partners in the pole position when we think about bringing these solutions to market,” said Nancy Sperry, Sage’s VP of US partner sales. “We are also very deliberate about how we bring our AI solutions to market and build for our customers’ needs. When our partners see what we offer and can understand how beneficial it is, it becomes tangible to them. When customers raise their hands and say they are ready to talk about AI, we want our partners to have solutions ready to go.”

Sage executives say the AI enhancements and new solutions are an extension of the commitment they make to customers every day to bring products to market that address business needs.

“What we are building is based in a foundation of building trust with responsible AI,” said Aravinda Gollapudi, SVP of medium platform and engineering. “What we are doing is actually very specific to use case, and we are leaving the customer in control. We aren’t making things gimmicky, we are driving real value to our customers.”

For Sperry, a crucial part of building successful outcomes with partners is to take note of what resonates with them as individuals and ensure her team continues to bring that product forward in the months ahead, forming a tail of opportunity once the conference wraps and everyone returns to their daily tasks.

“Coming off events like this, I want partners to see our passion, and I want my team to look at our partners as individuals, because everyone is a little different, and then determine where we can go from here,” Sperry said. “We work really hard to get here, to the point where we are all on the same page and at the same place, but in a lot of ways, this is really just the start of the conversation.”

Technology is only one component of strong channel partnerships

Channel Insider will cover the various technology announcements from Sage Future over the coming days. To Sperry, the technology is only one part of a comprehensive approach to the channel that fosters successful partnerships.

“Here’s the thing about partnerships: they are so successful because there are always two teams at the table,” Sperry said. “My team, and our whole organization, want customers to succeed, but we can’t do that alone. I need partners on the other side of the table that are just as invested and just as willing to show up for the outcome we all want.”

Sperry leads a partner team within Sage, hyper-focused on building, supporting, and maintaining partnerships. However, she said the work she brings to partners encompasses the broader company’s approach to building products that users can trust.

“We know at the end of the day that when our partners win and grow their business, then we grow, too,” Sperry said. “When we build a shared vision with our partners, then we accelerate our growth together, and then the outcomes we build for customers succeed.”

We spoke with Nancy Sperry back in March about how the Sage team builds its business on trust. Revisit that story to learn more about the Sage channel program.