Sorry for the long time since my last update – I’m going to blame the madness that sweeps this office in the weeks leading up to Insights…those of you who don’t know, Sage Insights is the annual Business Partner conference. It’s a very large event which combines all of Sage Software’s products for North America. This year, the conference was held at the newly completed Gaylord Hotel in Washington DC. Accpac’s delegation was the largest for a single product, which made for a very exciting conference.
The general theme of the event can be summarized by these words: “We’re listening”. From the Accpac Keynote address, the tone was set for a very positive launch of Accpac 5.5, where Laurie Schultz (GM), Scott Zandbergen (VP of Product Management) and Rob King (VP of Strategic Marketing) reviewed what we had heard at the previous year’s conference, and how we had delivered – simplified product line, simplified pricing, single point of contact for CRM and Accpac, no more “nickel and diming” on option products that should be part of the core, etc. I know this sounds like a lot of corporate propaganda, so I hope that those of you who read this, and were present at the keynote can confirm in the comments that the atmosphere was very candid – it wasn’t all “rah-rah we’re great” but rather a continuation of our commitment to being customer connected, and market driven. The goal was to share with the crowd the level of confidence we have in this release. We did have a bit of “rah-rah” with AC/DC music and a t-shirt gun at the end, and to be honest, that was a blast, and the t-shirt is pretty cool, looking like a rock concert t-shirt, with the slogan “Accpac is Back!” (white letters on black t-shirt).
After we got to communicate how we delivered on our commitments, it was time to get back to listening mode. There were two “ask the Accpac Executives” sessions, and both were really well attended. Those sessions are very high energy, with Laurie setting the tone with her trademark candid, no nonsense style. Laurie was supported by Scott Z, Rob K, David Lahey (VP sales), Sean Fleming (Director of training and education) and Steve Leow (VP of R&D). The topics were very diverse, and the participation from all the partners was outstanding – I said it before, and I’ll say it again, it is a privilege to have a Business Partner community willing to tell it like it is – we need to hear this stuff…
This was my first Insights conference, and it was great to meet so many of our business partners. I had 4 sessions, and the one I was looking forward to delivering the most was “The Impact of Customer Connected Development on 5.6”. This was my vehicle to explain what Product Management brings to the table – from concrete and measurable market data and evidence priorities are identified, and those priorities are then turned into actual requirements that drive the product development. I outlined the key features being explored for 5.6, and while I won’t disclose them on this blog, if you’re interested, feel free to send me a message, we can chat about it. The core message was this: Technology shouldn’t drive our development efforts - The market dictates where we go from here, we’ll figure out the technology we need to make it happen.
This is actually a good segue for me to ask for a favor…I work very closely with a small group of Accpac Business Partners to get quick feedback on issues, requirements, design concepts, etc as we go through the development process. Because I respect your time and your privacy, I wouldn’t feel right sending random questions, and feedback requests by email, or picking up the phone for a quick chat unless I had explicit permission to do so…if you would like to help me as we work on our next versions, please let me know (contact me via this blog) and I will add you to my list of “go-to” people – remember, if you’re too busy to chat, or to reply to my emails, no worries, no pressure.
Below are some of the top priorities I got from listening to your feedback – in no particular order:
• Software Performance (this is a mix of processing speed, data entry speed, and reporting speed)
• Business Intelligence/dashboards/reporting
• Workflow
• Capacity/staffing
• Competitive intelligence wanted
I know there are a lot of things we can work on, but it helps to set a short list of “top 5” and knock them out of the park…feel free to share in the comments if you agree or not on the above priorities.
Cheers,
Hugo Croft-Levesque
Senior Product Manager
Sage Accpac ERP
PS. I didn't talk about all the fun I had hanging out with the partners at the event night, and late (very late) after that in the sports bar...some of what happens at Insights should stay at Insights...;)
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