Sage ERP X3 Gathers Market Momentum
o New Customer Wins and Partnerships Signal Sage ERP X3 Global Growth
o Sage ERP X3 Launched in Russia and Austria
Sage ERP X3, Sage Group's global mid market ERP software, has rapidly become one of the leading ERP vendors since the global launch of Sage ERP X3
v6 in January 2010. In the last twelve months:
o 300 new customers have adopted Sage ERP X3 taking the total
number of customers globally to more than 3,000 customers
o Sage ERP X3 is now available in 53 countries
o Sage ERP has more than 165,000 users worldwide
Sage ERP X3 has recently been included in the 2010 Magic Quadrant for ERP for Product-Centric Midmarket Companies* addressing the needs of product-centric companies with between 100 and 999 employees, and with annual revenue between US$50 million and US$1 billion.
Sage ERP X3 progresses over upper midmarket
Sage ERP X3 is primarily aimed at midmarket companies looking for a cost-effective, easy to use and comprehensive solution. Sage ERP X3 can accommodate the most complex midmarket business requirements from dispersed local organizations to global HQ. Sage ERP X3 (multi-legislative, multilingual, multi-currency solution) integrates everything to make a company more efficient: analysis and reporting, financial accounting and management control, operational management (production, purchasing, sales, and inventory). As a result the Sage ERP X3 product is constantly evolving to bring customers state-of-the-art business functionality and technology. The latest version V6.1 offers SAFE X3 WAS (Web Application Server) and Web Services (in REST and SOAP flavours), a new way to leverage ERP based processes for web and e-business solutions including a web portal, directory synchronization, eclipse source editor environment and e-applications as well as REST protocol integration to facilitate collaboration. The next product upgrade to be announced next quarter will focus on Enterprise 2.0, business intelligence services and Sage Enterprise Webtop(TM).
Sage ERP X3 has expanded its partnership with Logica plc, a global systems integrator, to support multi-country ERP projects and has worked with Microsoft, Oracle and Netvibes to develop and deliver a truly innovative and global ERP solution.
Christophe Letellier, Sage ERP X3 Worldwide General Manager,
said: "The usability, agility and tailored provision for mid-market companies that Sage ERP X3 delivers, allows companies to get a complete view of a company's operations and total financial control throughout the entire organisation. Undoubtedly as more and more companies increase international operations, global sales and supplier activity they require a flexible ERP solution, with room for the solution to be tailored to fit many business requirements, be it deployable either on premise or on the web."
In the last twelve months, 300 new customers have adopted Sage ERP X3
The product's simplicity, speed of implementation, cost effectiveness, user and web centricity has proved popular amongst mid-sized companies.
Recent customers include Crown Holdings, Inc. a leading manufacturer of packaging products for consumer marketing companies around the world present in 41 countries, employing 20,510 people; leading international pharmaceutical laboratory Ethypharm; Italian manufacturer Minetti S.P.A; Van Genechten Packaging, the pan-European specialist in packaging technology; Avmor Ltd., a global manufacturer and distributor of quality industry cleaning products; and Namakwa Diamonds, the integrated diamond resource group listed on the London Stock Exchange.
CIO of Namakwa Diamonds, Anton Jacobsz says: "Sage ERP X3 enables us to not only run one system across the entire mine, but we can also report via company, region and the overall group. We are able to access the system in real time with a simple internet browser internally and externally because Sage ERP X3 has a dynamic, intuitive web 2.0 portal that provides easy access to the ERP and external application data. We are also able to integrate branches, subsidiaries and work with other business applications."
Sage ERP X3 introduced to the Russian and Austrian markets
During the last 12 months Sage ERP X3 has launched in the Russian market, which Sage plc announced in November 2010 in conjunction with local partner the Energy Consulting Group. Sage ERP X3 has now been localised for the Russian market, and the software fully satisfies the legal requirements of the Russian Federation, including support of local financial reporting and tax accounting standards.
Mikhail Ponomarev, CEO of Energy Consulting Group, said: "Why Sage ERP X3?" people ask us. For me, the answer is clear: Sage is a global ERP leader in mid-sized and larger companies. According to the Gartner Sage is the 3rd largest ERP solution provider to businesses worldwide with 8% market share (1), concentrating mainly on intermediate business. The potential for mid-sized companies in Russia is great. Nowadays, in conditions of growing business competition the main task for business owners and top managers is management process optimisation and cost control. Already several thousand companies use Sage ERP X3 in the world. We believe the Sage ERP X3 product combines global "best practice" of automated management, which can successfully be used in Russia".
Christophe Letellier, General Manager, Sage ERP X3 world-wide said: "In Russia, there is a clear market demand as well as opportunities to introduce a new product that meets the international requirements of today's businesses while being truly relevant to local ways to conducting businesses. This is why this is not only a product but a solution offered together with local presence and expertise via Energy Consulting, who will be able to accelerate implementations and provide a best-in-class understanding to our Russian clients of how to support all their business processes with Sage ERP X3".
Sage ERP X3 also launched in Austria in November 2010. The launch in Austria followed the merger of two of Sage's Austrian subsidiaries in January 2010 and a sharpening of its domestic brand identity.
"With the launch of our international solution for the upper mid-market in Austria, we are pursuing our current strategy of having locally developed solutions for local SMEs - which makes up much of our business; as well as offering Sage ERP X3 in more countries in the world, to complement our portfolio to international companies. Austria is an important market for us since it is rich of solid international companies that will find a great fit with Sage ERP X3. I am therefore convinced that our internationally successful software will prevail in the Austrian market ", said Christophe Letellier, General Manager Sage ERP X3.
"Based on internal insight, a variety of our mid-market customers already have international operations," said Christian Buell, Mid-Market Business Manager Sage Ltd Austria. In particular, the EU's eastward expansion and the opening of the Chinese market is fuelling demand for software solutions for international companies that want to grow internationally. With Sage ERP X3, we now offer these customers a solution that meets the requirements of multinational companies and covers different language versions in addition to the country-specific legislation, "said Christian Buell.
Sage ERP X3 international development speed-up by a new team
Having recognised that customers increasingly require solutions to manage businesses at an international level, Sage has recently introduced an international team to support the development of the Sage ERP X3 business by sharing knowledge, skills and resource, business development, country enablement, training and consulting and international support. In addition to the international team, Sage ERP X3 benefits from Sage's obvious intimacy with midmarket companies, already serving more than 580,000 companies of 100 employees or more. It is strengthened by the energy and proximity of the operational countries, whose activity and expertise over their own market are key drivers for sales, development and R&D. Sage's global ERP X3 community now consists of more than 500 people within Sage and over 1,500 external consultants from more than 200 business partners and system integrators around the world.
This international team is led by software veteran Christophe Vanackere, Director of International Development for Sage ERP X3, who joined in February 2010. He brings with him 15 years of international business development experience gained from managing international sales teams and operations for a number of companies.
Christophe Vanackere said: "Our ambition to drive growth aggressively in all 53 countries where Sage ERP X3 is already established as well as expand in new geographies. The increasing strength of our partner community and their industry solutions in discrete and process manufacturing, distribution and services makes Sage ERP X3 even more relevant to all midsized businesses around the world."
Emmanuel Obadia, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Products now drives Marketing & Communication globally for Sage ERP X3 on top of his previous responsibilities for Product Management and Product Marketing. His team focuses on driving global integrated and marketing programs, partner & alliances marketing together with a comprehensive communication and social media strategy to accelerate Sage ERP X3 leadership in all geographies.
Emmanuel Obadia said: "The recent appointment of our team to reinforce Sage's footprint in upper midmarket and above with Sage ERP X3 worldwide is an exciting challenge. Sage's pragmatism, business understanding and experience serving 6.3 Million businesses worldwide definitely bring a lot of value to our today's customers and will to future customers. Sage live and breathe business to deliver an extraordinary experience on how to leverage business application for executives to meet their goals."
* Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for ERP for Product-Centric Midmarket Companies, C. Hestermann et al, December 17, 2010.
(1) Source: Gartner, Market Share: ERP Software, Worldwide, 2008 - By Chris Pang, Yanna Dharmasthira, Chad Eschinger and Koji Motoyoshi
About The Sage Group plc
The Sage Group plc is a leading global supplier of business management software and related products and services, principally for small to medium-sized enterprises. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989. Sage has 6.2 million customers and 13,100 employees worldwide. Sage operates in over 24 countries covering the UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, India and China. For further information please visit www.sage.com.
About Sage ERP X3 (http://www.sageerpx3.com)
Sage ERP X3 is a dedicated solution for mid-market and larger companies with international demands enables its clients to transform and perform through technologies. Over 3,000 customers representing 165,000 users worldwide already chose Sage ERP X3 because it is easy to use, fast to deploy and cost effective. For more than 10 years Sage ERP X3 has been a proven and comprehensive ERP solution addressing mid-market companies specific requirements and challenges in various industries from manufacturing, services to distribution and many more. Sage ERP X3 is present in 53 countries and counts a network of more than 1,500 Sage professionals and 200 partners in its ecosystem.
About The Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Source: The Sage Group plc
For further media enquiries: Please contact: sagex3team@redconsultancy.com, Tel: +44-207-0256500 and speak to David Vindel
