Sage reviews

Strategy - company portrays itself as a leading SaaS cloud business, and management forces this message down the throat of investors and colleagues. Unfortunately Sage has neither the products, back office systems or expertise to actually deliver this strategy. The company has neglected to invest in any of the above as the CFO now (now COO) committed to delivering an unachievable profit margin to artificially boost the share price (and his own share options). Current product portfolio is confusing mashup of on-prem/hybrid cloud, none of which is actually the native cloud the business dreams of (native cloud revenue is embarrassingly small). Leadership - sage is run by a culture of fear. Huge turnover at the VP and above level means that every new senior leader feels on borrowed time. Consequently they make short term decisions focused on keeping themselves in role, rather than challenging current thinking and setting a course for the long run. Previous CEO sacked staffed with relish - new COO will enjoy it even more. Investment - company has not invested in its people over the last 3-4 years. Employees made to feel they should be grateful for having a job at all, rather than part of a FTSE 100 on an exciting journey. Board decided to pay out £3m to its CEO (now fired) in December, but cancelled the company bonus scheme despite hitting all shareholder expectations. Expect the same decision this year, but worse as they actually missed shareholder guidance this time. Whoops.

The management in IT specifically are more interested in each other than the teams below them. There is zero emotional investment from heads of department. IT in Newcastle has seen some key people leave, heads of department, senior managers and team leaders who have been working hard for Sage since it came about. No doubt some one at our new HQ (the Shard) will send a reply to this to tell you is a performance culture where you will be rewarded and things change, and we continually invest in people and we are one, and we live and breath customer service ... This is sadly not the truth and complete PR. Of course there is a need for change, most welcome that as Sage moves very slowly (unless we are talking headcount turnover). But there is a reason the score for Sage is so low, and that is because 80% of these reviews are factually true. We have had a lot of changes in the UKI leadership, most recently (with one of the most influential tech women leaving) and this kind of turnover is unhealthy and shows it's not just IT with issues. There are people who are working their socks off with little to no reward (except this years share save) and covering positions they are not being rewarded for - they are expected to like it or lump it. And it's great some people saying just leave. It's not that simple, most of us have been here a long time and are emotionally invested too. So yes, we most likely will leave but it's not a decision I personally take lightly. You are also asked to retweet the CEO as part of your SMART OBJECTIVES which is slightly odd as most of us use a sage created account and have no followers. Promotions in IT are based on who you know, not what you know.