Looking Ahead: Sage Partner Events, AI Reality Checks, and Predictions

There may be errors in spelling, grammar, and accuracy in this machine-generated transcript.

Doug Lewis: So it's been a while since we recorded. Uh, not that anybody would ever know that there was a lapse in the recordings, but we're back, baby, and I'm actually excited.

Emily Madere: Busy. What has everyone been up to? Matt, you, Mr. Worldwide, you're always going places. Where have you been recently?

Matthew Lescault : Where have I been? I was in Atlanta over the weekend, but that was personal. I did get to see some Sage people, so that was nice. Um, but, uh, I had a personal thing. [00:00:30] Unfortunately, my aunt passed and was there for a celebration of life. But it was good to see family and and get get together. Where have I been before that? A lot of places. It's my future travels I'm focused on. So I'm headed to Barcelona for the partner summit for UK in Europe. And then I take a pit stop in Paris and I get to see a rugby game. And I actually lived in Paris for two years, so I think I'm going to go back.

Doug Lewis: Hold the phone. Whoa, that was a casual drop there. How have this? Never. I didn't realize you were that [00:01:00] cool.

Matthew Lescault : I can't speak French, so I don't really admit it that often. Um, I, uh, I was there for two years, uh, in middle school. So my father worked for the unions, uh, the AFL-CIO's international offices in Paris. And, uh, so there for two years, uh, we lived right near the pantheon, uh, in the fifth arrondissement. And, uh, I want to go down there, just sort of check out how it is. Is it the same? Has it changed? Uh.

Doug Lewis: And have you been there in the last, let's say, [00:01:30] four months?

Matthew Lescault : No.

Doug Lewis: Okay. Just checking, just getting that on record. No, I have not been in Paris.

Matthew Lescault : I haven't been in Paris in the last 20.

Emily Madere: So you have nothing to do with the jewels stolen at the Louvre?

Matthew Lescault : No, I probably wouldn't be on this podcast right now if I did. Um, just same.

Doug Lewis: Same.

Matthew Lescault : But, you know.

Doug Lewis: I did.

Emily Madere: Catch two guys. They just. So you know, they caught two guys.

Matthew Lescault : Hey, they beat snitches, get stitches. That's all I'm saying. No, [00:02:00] but, uh, my business partner has been living in Paris for about the last year. Uh, so get to see him as well while I'm there. Which is. Which is really nice. So do that. And then I will meet Emily in Florida for a partner summit for North America. Um, and I hope to come back to my locks not being changed at home. So these are my goals.

Emily Madere: What about you, Doug? What have you been up to?

Doug Lewis: Oh, uh, too much, uh, shockingly busy here. I don't know why a lot of people want [00:02:30] a piece of me these days. Uh, actually, this past week was shot. It was relaxing. It was a relaxing week for me. I actually.

Emily Madere: Took.

Doug Lewis: The took the the little guy in the family down to Florida for a full week. Um, first time with my little guy seeing the ocean. That was interesting. Uh, love the shells. Uh, got a little tan. As you can see, I'm usually pasty white. Uh, you know, enter. Matt.

Matthew Lescault : Yeah. Hello.

Doug Lewis: Exactly. That's what I usually look like. So I have a little bit of tan now. I'm not used to it. It'll be gone in, like, three days. Don't worry about it. Uh, so I'm feeling a little bit charged, which is, [00:03:00] uh, a rarity for me these days. Uh, so I'm feeling pretty good, you know. But what did.

Matthew Lescault : Your son like the most about the beach?

Doug Lewis: Um, well, it took a little bit of, like, adapting to it. Like he had no clue what it was. Of course, you know, you walk in, it's it's cold. It's it's the ocean. It's cold. And we're on the Gulf and, uh, the Gulf of, uh, America. Mexico. I don't know what we're calling it these days. Um, there's a lot of hats. A lot of hats there. Though the Gulf of America [00:03:30] hats being sold in this. But we don't have to get into it.

Matthew Lescault : How many did you buy?

Doug Lewis: Uh, a clean six. A clean six of them. I figured, you.

Emily Madere: Know, make it A7A different day.

Doug Lewis: I'm not going to wear one on Sunday. I'm not wearing that to church. Come on now. That's. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. Uh, so I think it was it was like a learning curve. You know, you get cold, you're cold. But I think what he liked the most is love picking up the little shells. He had his little bucket putting the shell in the bucket Yet shockingly breaking, you know, shaking and breaking all the shells and dumping them out [00:04:00] and then filling it up again over and over and over and over. Uh, so that was that was fun for me because I just got to sit there and, and just watch him do this while I was drinking a beer on the beach. And, uh, I think, uh, that initial shock of just seeing the ocean for the first time really kind of blew him out of the water, no pun intended.

Matthew Lescault : That's cool. That's cool.

Doug Lewis: Yeah. That was a fun time. Emily, how about yourself? What have you been up to?

Emily Madere: Um, I haven't been up to much. I was, uh, thinking to myself before this call, I was like, [00:04:30] man, I just feel like I'm dragging. Like, I can't wait until, like, my time off at the end of the year, you know, like, took, like, my bulk time. Um, so I just can't wait. I have a lot of trips planned for work. I'm going to Orlando. Boston, a conference in Lafayette in early November, San Diego in December. Um, but I'm really excited. I'm going to the Renaissance Festival this weekend, so I'm super pumped for that.

Matthew Lescault : Okay. Are you dressing [00:05:00] up?

Emily Madere: Of course. Yeah, I am a theater kid at heart. Yes, I'm going to be a pirate.

Matthew Lescault : One of my wife's, uh, very, very good friends. Uh, husband is has his own forge in his backyard, makes his own chainmail. They, you know, big into Renaissance festival. I have to say, it's pretty cool. I don't have the patience for those kind of things, but when other people do it, I'm like, yep, I'll watch.

Emily Madere: Yeah, I have, like, all the pieces of my costume together. Like I have purple feathers coming in the mail today. It's [00:05:30] I'm really looking forward to it.

Matthew Lescault : All right, all right.

Matthew Lescault : Well, you didn't mention going to Florida to partner someone. I guess I already did that for you.

Emily Madere: Yeah, I did say Orlando.

Matthew Lescault : Okay.

Doug Lewis: Well, let's hold on. Maybe we set the tone there because that's a that's a good segue, which is surprising for you, Matt, because usually you're horrible at those. So realistically want to see if we can focus our discussion with no agenda whatsoever, by the way, and be very clear about that upfront on future events. Partner summits. Uh, everything [00:06:00] Sage moving into 2026. We're not writing off 2025 quite yet, but we're getting, uh, long in the tooth on the year. So I want to focus kind of on the next six months, 12 months, what it looks like, different events people can attend, different community building, you know, networking events, conferences, all this fun stuff. So the two of you are going to be together. That'll be just a A.

Emily Madere: And to be clear, it is Sage's FY 2026. That's October.

Matthew Lescault : I was going to say 930 was the end of the financial year. So we're already in Q1 for for sage [00:06:30] now for when can.

Doug Lewis: We expect some results? That's what I want to know. When can we see those numbers? When can we see those numbers?

Matthew Lescault : You mean like sage publicly putting out the numbers?

Doug Lewis: Yes. We're are we a good ten months away from that already at this point?

Matthew Lescault : No, I don't think so.

Matthew Lescault : I mean, I think, uh, because of the way that the UK stock market works, they report every six months, uh, as opposed to how the US does it on a quarterly basis. I think we expect to see numbers out in November. I could [00:07:00] be wrong about that, but I think that's what we'd see for, uh, for the final, uh, the six month update and then the annual, uh, annual financials. My understanding is looks strong. Uh, they're beaten, uh, beat their numbers. Um, now it's interesting. And and all these organizations, you have the internal ones that they beat us up on, and they have external ones that they publicize. They beat those. They didn't beat the ones that externally. And that's why we get beat up a lot as partners. But I shouldn't say beat up. But you know, pressure's always on.

Doug Lewis: Pressure's [00:07:30] always on to sell. Everyone on this call knows that. Probably everybody listening knows that as well. Always have to be selling generating that revenue. So what are the two you can be doing down in Orlando. What's the event? What's the theme. What are we looking at.

Emily Madere: So it's called Sage future for partners. But I think previously it was like Sage's partner sales kickoff. Um, and I've went to another one that was in Chicago last year, and it's just a time, um, where partners, value added reseller partners, SIP partners, [00:08:00] partners who sell Sage X3 come together and Sage kind of like here's some better ways to do things. Did you know we offer this new marketing thing now? Um, they're probably going to release some new items, so that'll always be fun. Um, and it's a chance for, you know, folks to connect with other people to learn best practices. All that jazz.

Matthew Lescault : Yeah. So it acts as a dual event. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday is for partners Wednesday Thursday Friday is an internal sales kickoff at Sage. [00:08:30] Wednesday is the overlap day so that we get to see some of the colleagues, uh, that we work with from a sales perspective. Um, I'll kind of reiterate, what Emily talked about is like, this is really about sort of, you know, hitting the year strong. What are the, you know, what are we doing as partners to drive leads, shows, drive closes and sales? Uh, and what, uh, what kind of focus does Sage think that we should have for this coming year? As we know, uh, the overall economic climate has changed a lot [00:09:00] here. Uh, recently, uh, different industries are impacted differently. So I think there's a kind of a shift in focus when it comes to sales. So, uh, historically, Sage has been very nonprofit, uh, dominant. Uh, that's not going to change. But we all know the nonprofit landscape is is challenged currently. Uh, so I think we'll see some more focus around healthcare, more focused around, uh, cre I'm hearing some murmurs around some, um, some interesting updates coming [00:09:30] into the, into the new year. I'm not going to, uh, to say something that may be wrong, but I'm interested in what's going to be, uh, announced there. So it's really that, uh, kicking the year off strong, uh, type of event. It's, uh, it's a pump you up and and get you get you moving.

Doug Lewis: Now there's there's two of them. Correct. So the the Barcelona, Barcelona even though I can't say it properly, uh, version of this, uh, event and then the Orlando version here in the States. Matt, you're going to both, if I'm not mistaken.

Matthew Lescault : I am I [00:10:00] am so.

Matthew Lescault : Uh, Barcelona is the week before, uh, the North American Barcelona. Look, I can barely speak English. Don't don't don't get me there. So, uh, I'm really excited to go. There would be my first time doing the UK in Europe. So it's UK, Ireland, Africa and Europe. Um, conference. Uh, it's interesting, I was I was wondering if there's going to be like, same time. It doesn't make sense because how are you going to have executives, you know, at each event if it was so [00:10:30] uh, it'll be a little bit of, of the same, but there'll be a lot of differences. So what happens on the, uh, uh, the UK Europe side is you break down into real regional breakouts. And so depending on what regions you sell into, you have different paths from that perspective With North America, it's not as much like that. Uh, it really is centered around a universal goal for North America. Yes, we have Canada and the US from that. Um, and maybe, Emily, you would [00:11:00] know better than I on this is if there's really a Canadian track versus a US track, but my understanding is really kind of one.

Emily Madere: Yeah. When I was looking at the tracks, they were split out to, um, a sales track, a marketing track, an IEP track, and then a X-3 track.

Matthew Lescault : Yep. Which I also understand that X-3 is another, uh, major push that, uh, Sage has. We've talked about a little bit, uh, in past episodes. And X-3 is really that manufacturing capability, [00:11:30] uh, within Sage and X-3 has been a, uh, really a custom developed product in the sense that it has a lot of customizations and you can do a lot with it, and they're going down into more of a, uh, more of a, uh, configuration model, like, intact to try to make it easier to deploy. And I know that's a major push now. I don't think either myself or Emily's firm is driving into the X3 space. Stop me if I'm wrong. Emily. Yeah. No, it'll be interesting [00:12:00] to see how that's going to kind of play in a dynamic with intact. And I don't think it will, um, overlap each other. It'll be complementary from an industry perspective.

Doug Lewis: So I'm curious because, you know, I got a lot of accounting industry events all over the place, and, uh, I artificial intelligence AI can't hear enough about this thing, right? Everyone just keeps talking about it.

Emily Madere: I'm honestly so tired of hearing about AI.

Doug Lewis: Like, okay. I'm glad.

Emily Madere: Yeah, yeah, I'm kind of. I'm over [00:12:30] it. Like, it's it's like, what's next? You know.

Doug Lewis: So my my question, I guess to the two of you here is, you know, at the, you know, future for partners events here. Uh, coming up, should we expect a heavy emphasis on artificial intelligence still being you know what?

Emily Madere: Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Is it going to are we getting to the practical use stages of this thing. Where are we going. Because everyone has just been talking about this nonstop.

Emily Madere: Yeah. With intact, I think we're already in the practical use of it with AP automation. So that's [00:13:00] the ability for the AI bot to read the bill and then code it for, um, the clients. So I think and that's just one of them. So I think we're already there to the practical use. I think we are nearing, um, kind of what Aaron Harris had planned kind of all along is really letting AI, um, transform how you do business. And so I think we're going there in that space. So I think we'll hear more about products that he's releasing that will let you do that. Like, um, what is [00:13:30] it? What does it matter? It's a copilot. Close, close assist.

Matthew Lescault : Yes, it's the close assist. Um, yeah. You know, I'm actually not tired of hearing about AI. I'm tired about the fear of AI and the lack of understanding around it and the overall kind of everybody being the expert about it. So.

Doug Lewis: Um, that's a good way to put it.

Emily Madere: Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Doug Lewis: That's why I said kind of practical use cases and knowledge and takeaway, because there's so many people out there predicting, you know, the end of this or this [00:14:00] is going to do all this or your productivity is going to quadruple overnight and all this garbage with very little practical steps on how to implement artificial intelligence through the base of outsourcing or accounting firms or any business for that matter. And that that's where I get frustrated with some of it.

Matthew Lescault : Well, I mean I can tell you that we are implementing, uh, AI models within our organization at a very, very, uh, elementary level. I mean, not like over, uh, over hype what we're doing. Um, [00:14:30] I look at AI, especially right now as an opportunity to fill gaps. You know, us as organizations, especially in the county, uh, industry arena, however you want to put that, we all know that we don't have time in the day. Isn't that the big conversation, Doug? That you talk to these firms and there's not enough people. There's not enough time in the day. And what I see as being challenging is, uh, how do you get some of the more basic administrative stuff done [00:15:00] if everybody's just focused on one thing? If we're focused on client services, how are we handling our internal operations? How are we becoming better at deploying? That's where I'm focused in on it. And I'm no expert, but I'm saying, hey, how can we do this little thing slightly better using AI to support us? Um, I'm also getting very concerned with the over simplification of AI. The reason it's not going to go anywhere is right now, what you're seeing from an enterprise value within organizations [00:15:30] is that those software companies that are deploying AI or even, say, AI get evaluation, kick, uh, boost, like immediately.

Matthew Lescault : But what we're going to happen here is there's going to be a correction of actual organizations that are deploying it in a useful manner, and organizations that say they are, but it's not actually. And that's what I think we as consumers have to be really careful about when it comes to this. I expect a lot of conversation around AI. Um, Intuit [00:16:00] Connect is happening right now. I don't know if anybody saw that. Um, and I don't know if anybody saw that. Intuit came out with their agents, their AP agent and their AR agent and their procurement agent and so forth. And I think that you're going to really continue to see a a race in the accounting space of how that Agentic is deployed. How is it how do consumers perceive maybe not not the reality, but perceive the, [00:16:30] uh, the utilization of AI? Just I could talk more than Emily ever wants me to about this.

Emily Madere: No, no. And I think what you said, like, I'm not tired of hearing AI because I think it's an important tool. But just like the misinformation around it and the, you know, everything you said.

Doug Lewis: I don't even know if it's misinformation or just non-information. It's the same.

Emily Madere: Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Okay. Come on. What are we doing here? Uh, so that being said, artificial intelligence is definitely going to be on the docket. [00:17:00] Probably a lot of tracks focused around that talk point. What else can people expect? Let's focus on the US Orlando event as opposed to the international event. Because, Matt, you alluded there's several differences. There's going to be kind of a different focal points, different structure and all that fun stuff. So focusing on the US event, what can attendees expect if it's their first time going, you know, what topic should they hit? What's what's something you can't miss? Just give a little flavor for anybody who's thinking about attending or already planning to.

Matthew Lescault : Well, I want to be clear, this is technically an invite only [00:17:30] event. The partner summit, so the people are going have been asked to go. And when you're asked to go, you go, ooh.

Doug Lewis: That was wow. Okay. That was strong.

Matthew Lescault : No, I mean that that's the expectation contractually. If, uh, we are mandated to have representatives at these events and, uh.

Emily Madere: It was, uh, two, I think it was two people per organization.

Doug Lewis: So size wise, what are we expecting [00:18:00] from attendees? Ballpark. Me?

Emily Madere: Uh, how many partners do you think there are? Matt? I can do some quick.

Matthew Lescault : Well, there's about 120 ish vars. There's about 350 CIPs. I'd suspect that 80% of the vars are dual, uh, authorized. I wouldn't expect to see 100% CIP. I would expect to see about a 20% attendance from CIP side. Uh, and then you have all your your Sage people. So you're probably talking 5 to [00:18:30] 700 people is my guess. I didn't actually do any math on that. I just said a lot of words that came up.

Emily Madere: No, you're right. I mean, I got 500 and I was going to kind of give it a little bit more for Sage people. So yeah, you're kind of right on the money.

Matthew Lescault : Well, there you go.

Doug Lewis: So this is relatively more intimate event. I mean, this is where you're actually going to have pretty, pretty deep conversations with people.

Matthew Lescault : Add another zero. And that's how many people were at Sage future in Atlanta. Yeah. So yeah.

Doug Lewis: Well that's actually a good kind of talking point. So you know, Sage future versus future for partners. You know, customer versus the partner type of events. [00:19:00] What's the main difference in terms of content structure. You know what. Give me some flavor there.

Matthew Lescault : Well, remember I think this is really, really heavily focused on two aspects sales. Number one that's why it's an Sko. And two is delivery. So if you're going to sell you better deliver well because you impact the brand of intact through the implementation and the overall, you know, G2 scores and NPS scoring and so forth. And [00:19:30] so my expectation would be those are the two main educational paths. And then we're going to learn because we'll be under NDA there. There'll be certain things we can we can talk about afterwards. And obviously, I assume everybody here expects us to do a show after the event. Um, um, uh, what to come in the next year? What the focus, what the roadmap is, what to get excited about and what Sage will deploy and announce. Uh, Emily?

Emily Madere: Yes. And I can tell you. [00:20:00] Yeah, it's going to be sales focused. I mean, number one, Sage is a a sales organization, so there's gonna be a lot of numbers thrown around. There's gonna be a lot of new things. I'm expecting Sage to. I don't want to say too much because I'm not sure yet, but I'm expecting Sage to kind of do a change up from what they've kind of gone to market with. So, um, TBD because I want to see if my prediction is right before.

Matthew Lescault : Without your prediction, [00:20:30] give a little bit more meat to.

Doug Lewis: What kind of change ups don't throw the numbers. Or they say, give me just General concepts of ideas.

Emily Madere: I think that I don't even know how to say it, but Sage has historically gone to market a certain way with a certain, um, saying a certain phrase, a certain way. They've gone to market, and I think that competitively that is changing. [00:21:00]

Doug Lewis: I feel like I just ate a bag of potato chips with with hearing that.

Emily Madere: You said a lot of stuff.

Doug Lewis: And I was eating it, but I don't I'm like, not.

Emily Madere: Full. Yeah, I know.

Doug Lewis: There's nothing there.

Emily Madere: Yeah. That was a very politician answer of me. Um, so I don't know. We'll see. I'll. I'll get back with y'all.

Doug Lewis: Okay.

Matthew Lescault : I'm gonna I'm gonna try here my best to interpret. What, uh, Emily.

Emily Madere: You [00:21:30] might know what I'm talking about.

Matthew Lescault : I think we're going to see a different go to market messaging strategy out of Sage that is geared towards market share focus as opposed to individual target focus.

Emily Madere: That was beautiful. That that was I was trying to say words are hard for me this morning, apparently.

Doug Lewis: Okay, I like it. So both of you [00:22:00] have been to this this event in the past? Um, kind of looking forward the next six, 12 months. What other events are out there for people in the Sage ecosystem if they want to get together, learn more. I mean, paint me a picture of other than just the Sage future for partners events here coming up next month, what can people expect? Where can they find these events? What should they attend? You know where? Where is time and money well spent?

Matthew Lescault : Well, first and foremost, there's an events page on Sage's website that lists every one of [00:22:30] their sponsored events. Maybe not sponsored is the right word, but they're, uh. There official official events which is really Partner summit and the customer event two per year major ones. Also on the events, uh, page, I do think they list out major conferences that they're sponsors of. I have to double check that. I haven't been on that events, uh, page in quite some time. Um, but I think.

Emily Madere: Uh, image floating around, uh, Sage is going to be at a lot of construction [00:23:00] events, like a construction conferences. I think they have slated to go to 12 or 15 over the next year.

Doug Lewis: Now, is that an uptick from previous years, from what you've seen or.

Emily Madere: Uh, Sage. Sage Intacct specifically is going to be a lot in construction, especially with the recent announcement of their, uh, procore relationship.

Matthew Lescault : I also wonder if that is an indication of a change that Sage will start direct selling KRI. [00:23:30]

Emily Madere: I, uh.

Matthew Lescault : I don't know. I mean, I'm not.

Doug Lewis: Don't say it like that. Either make the prediction or don't you know what I mean? Stick to your guns.

Emily Madere: Well, I can tell you from a historical standpoint, Sage direct has never sold KRI KRI is a very obviously a very, very advanced product. Um, and I know there has been some talks about it and I think some hesitation around it.

Matthew Lescault : Yeah. I have no idea. Like I'm, I'm my firm's not [00:24:00] enabled to do KRI. I just if Sage is sponsoring major events in that space, I just wonder if that indicates a a shift in, uh, in that approach. I'm not sure. I.

Emily Madere: I don't know, I don't know. We'll see.

Matthew Lescault : Emily would technically know more than me when it comes to this. Whether or not she'll tell you.

Emily Madere: There has been I think there's been talks. I know last year. They were heavily talking about it, but then nothing really happened.

Doug Lewis: Love [00:24:30] that. Yeah. Okay. So I want to circle back to something to about, you know, artificial intelligence, AI, blah, blah blah. Some things are practical, some are not. Some are pie in the sky garbage. Talk about copilot. I mean, we talked about it a while ago. It's it's been around now for a little bit, if I'm not mistaken. Have the two of you seen real traction with this? Any customer stories, any personal stories with with copilot, or is this something that's still kind of being introduced?

Matthew Lescault : So, [00:25:00] Emily, let me let me have you go first. You maybe have more insight than I do on this side.

Emily Madere: So the copilot that's integrated into the help function of intact. Yes. We have clients using that. The copilot that is in intact. I still think it's an early adopter. And so none of our clients wanted to be in the early adopter program. So. No. And then from a demo perspective, because Karen Halligan, who's [00:25:30] been on this podcast, she does all of my demos, We haven't started demoing it yet just because we don't want to demo something that is still an early adopter and that, you know, our clients can't have yet.

Matthew Lescault : I thought they announced at future when we were in Atlanta, that it's now in general availability.

Emily Madere: I am not sure. To my knowledge, none of our clients are currently using it.

Matthew Lescault : My understanding was it was launched into general availability, but [00:26:00] still in um, I don't want to call it early adopter, but it's still in the infancy of how it's being deployed. And, uh, and so I don't have a lot of insight into it, uh, as of yet. And I don't see a lot of conversation about it even in the sales cycles right now. Um, so I think that they're being they're focusing heavily on the messaging around trust before pushing on the actual adoption.

Doug Lewis: Do you think that the copilot discussion is [00:26:30] going to be lumped in with the greater AI kind of tracks and sessions they have on the books, is that going to be more of a separate discussion?

Matthew Lescault : I think we're going to hear announcements as to the plans around AI and how it's going to be deployed, what's going to be sort of available to all customers, what will be upsells and things of that nature and what that roadmap looks like. That would be my guess. Um, understand that copilot is functionally embedded into intact, but [00:27:00] it is there to support the entire product base of Sage. So this is not just an intact conversation. Uh, and I think that plays a role into this. And I think they I have no basis for this statement, but my guess is that if they wanted to support the entire client base, if they roll it out too quickly within one product, it's going to be perceived as a one product solution. And I think they want to avoid that. And it goes back to my statement around [00:27:30] sort of like your enterprise value of an organization. You don't want to be looked at as only a subset of your product base having this type of technology.

Doug Lewis: Yeah, that makes sense. Um, you know, kind of a big, big piece of this. Emily, if I'm not mistaken, this specific event we're really focusing on here, uh, used to be called the sales kickoff. Correct. That's how they kind of sold it in the past. It's still called it in the past.

Matthew Lescault : Partner summit and Sko. So Sko for [00:28:00] them for Sage internally happens in the second half of the week after we after we leave.

Doug Lewis: Basically I guess the question is both of you are, you know, long term partners, you know of the program, friends of the family, you know, for this, this upcoming fiscal year, a lot of I'll call it, uh, to put it nicely. Economic instability, I would say globally right now, uh, is the nicest way. I'm Switzerland, I'm right in the middle, uh, you know, are [00:28:30] we seeing or do you predict we're going to see more price sensitivity? You know, with the end user, the end customers when adopting, implementing, renewing Sage Intacct. I mean, is this something that you think is going to be a bigger discussion over the next 6 to 12 months? Here is price sensitivity or do you think that's something that's a little bit it's not it's not as a focal point as some might believe it.

Emily Madere: Um, I think regardless, people are sensitive to price [00:29:00] no matter what is going on in the environment. If I ever meet someone that's like, okay, yeah, whatever, I would be very surprised. Um, so I've been selling intact for almost four years. That has never happened. Um.

Matthew Lescault : I mean, I get blank checks all the time. I don't know what she's talking about, but.

Emily Madere: Oh, yeah, apparently Mac gets blank checks. Um, but.

Doug Lewis: And you weren't in Paris recently. I just double check on that one. I'm just hitting that one. I'm circling back there one more time. No. Um. Yeah.

Emily Madere: And you weren't on a construction list? Um, [00:29:30] yeah, I, I think people are price sensitive all the time. Now I get I get what your question is coming from. Um, but there's a lot of things happening right now. So Great Plains, Microsoft, Great Plains is still phasing out. So those people still need to make the move. So they're still going to have to make a decision, spend the money regardless. Um, QuickBooks desktop is still is phased is phased out at this point. Like those people who are still in QuickBooks desktop, they need to spend the money and make the move. Um, I [00:30:00] find people are less, um, choosy on the software side and more kind of price sensitive on the implementation side. So that's kind of where I see people kind of being more price sensitive. Again, that was like eating potato chips. I do not know what's wrong with my thought process.

Doug Lewis: Well, no, I feel like that was more like eating like a banana. It's like, I like I'm kind of like it's something there. Like I'm kind.

Emily Madere: Of. Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Like I still. I'm not happy about. [00:30:30]

Matthew Lescault : These analogies are terrible, by the way. I'm just going to throw it out there. Potato chips and bananas. I'm.

Emily Madere: What an excellent combination, though.

Doug Lewis: You can jump in any time you'd like. Matt I'll tell you.

Matthew Lescault : So you're absolutely going to see a shift of more price sensitivity in the selection process. Uh, we all know that as there's economic uncertainty, people want to preserve cash, quite frankly, and they want to be cash stable. That doesn't take away from anything that Emily said. People have [00:31:00] always been price sensitive because they want to deploy their cash and their money in the most strategic way that they can. And the easiest way to be strategic about your money is have more more of it and spend less of it. Um.

Doug Lewis: As you write a book about that, that's that's that's good.

Matthew Lescault : Book is.

Emily Madere: Over.

Matthew Lescault : That's good.

Doug Lewis: I'm more of a tweet. Yeah.

Matthew Lescault : Now, what's really interesting that I've seen historically is that economic uncertainty also drives organizations to think differently and to try to focus around how they can [00:31:30] operate more effectively and more nimbly. So one of the best ways to do that is with strong financial data and so forth. And what I've found in our sort of long term economic boom that we've been in, which it really has been a very long economic boom that we've been in, is that when when you're when everything is pretty rosy, people don't care as much about the detail. But when things start to get get difficult, that that changes [00:32:00] a lot. And so I think that gives us an opportunity or those partners that understand how to truly value, sell and truly storytell around how it can impact organizations in a net positive cash flow way. You know, and talk through how, you know, within a 12 month period. This is how you should be maybe net neutral from a cost perspective or even a cost savings perspective, but more importantly, how you can be more competitive [00:32:30] in a in a, uh, time of economic uncertainty in which competition becomes more fierce. And so it's going to be our job to, uh, to drive that kind of messaging and, and deliver those type of services. I also think that it's going to be an interesting time for the overall, uh, industry as a whole. So this whole concept of being a value added, resellers, you sell and you support [00:33:00] the software, you know, a lot of organizations sell and kind of support. And I think that as economic uncertainty happens, people will begin, begin to expect more of their partners. And that's going to create its own level of dissatisfaction, its own change within the ecosystem. That'll be something very interesting to keep an eye on. Uh, As as Vaas, as organizations like ours, and provide opportunities not only to to gain more clients that are using intact, [00:33:30] but to gain clients that are using other products that aren't getting supported in the same way.

Doug Lewis: So yeah, and you know, I don't want to say that there's going to be like a collapse or anything. That's not what I'm getting at. I just you when we enter these times of economic uncertainty, people generally tighten tighten the belt a little bit. Um, and I guess I'll take it a step further because, you know, Matt, some of your points there. Yes. Everyone's going to be a little more price sensitive. Most likely. Right. Moving forward over the next [00:34:00] year, I guess in your in your mind, do you think that that price sensitivity is going to be skewed more towards the enterprise level, the SMB level sized organizations? I mean, just from from your experience, where do you see that maybe playing out or hitting the hardest from a price sensitivity standpoint?

Matthew Lescault : That's a that's a tough question. I mean, I think it's going to be it's going to be systematic. It's going to be in general. But we've already [00:34:30] seen it in the technology space. I mean, think about the layoffs that have happened, uh, in the major technology organizations. And they know that if they can't, uh, grow top line revenue at the pace that they want, they need to grow bottom line profitability to meet their targets and to, uh, and to create, uh, returns for their shareholders, quite frankly. I mean, that's the that's the job of publicly traded companies for the Sage client base. That's not really our client base in a lot of ways. [00:35:00] Okay. And enterprise is not where Sage, uh, sits as its core client base. We have enterprise clients. It can support enterprise clients. I don't I don't want to take away from that, but, uh, Sage is always talked about being an SMB and mid-market. Uh, uh, or have an SMB and mid-market Tam. Him. Um, and, uh, I think that if we look at that, uh, component, what you're going to find is differentiation within industries, [00:35:30] not necessarily within size. That's my guess. Now, obviously your lowest, I want to say.

Emily Madere: You know, kind of like what you said at the beginning, the call nonprofits.

Matthew Lescault : I think, uh, I just also see it's like nonprofits. It's going to be interesting because if I'm talking to a nonprofit that has a full time grant administrator because everything is manual and we can turn that into a part time grant administrator. I'm just I'm just [00:36:00] saying I'm not looking to get fire people or anything else like that. That allows an organization to be more nimble. And so they'll have we have to think that way. So it'll be interesting to see where it goes. But you're going to see a difference in tightening around technology in certain sectors, people in certain sectors, you know, and then a change in business strategy. Also. And that will that will impact their buying, uh, persona. So and you said, you know, you're not predicting [00:36:30] a crash. There's many people that are there's many people that are that are making similarities to the.com crash when it comes to AI and, and how, uh, and how, uh, these organizations are being valued. There's people that are, uh, making similarities to, to the Great Depression and how we're, we're debt leveraged, uh, so much in the biggest organizations. So there's a lot of conversation. I try to I try to walk a path that goes like the things I can't control, I can't [00:37:00] allow to to to to drive me nuts. Um, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of pessimism, uh, in the marketplace, but I agree.

Doug Lewis: And that's, that's, I hate that because I, I'm bullish on growth and optimism here. Uh, you know, I think some organizations that may or may not, you know, deserve to be around, Might have have some struggles here in the, uh, the next year or so, but, uh, I agree, you always gotta look at the glass half full. Um, but that's I think that's what this specific event we're talking about, future for partners, [00:37:30] is kind of all about, like figuring out how can we adapt, how can we do it? Uh, how can we do all this fun stuff? So I'm gonna challenge you guys.

Emily Madere: Do have a pretty interesting, uh, session I'm going to attend. Um, and it's the last session of the last day, but it's a negotiation, so I am excited to attend that one.

Matthew Lescault : It's on.

Doug Lewis: Negotiation. Okay.

Emily Madere: Yeah. Negotiation.

Doug Lewis: Can you elaborate a smidge on that one?

Emily Madere: It just said learn how to negotiate better. And I was like, I, you know, I might be interested in that.

Matthew Lescault : Mm. So [00:38:00] are they having a guest speaker?

Doug Lewis: It's, uh. Oh, God. What's, uh, what's his face? Uh, the Jordan Belfort. Jordan Belfort, the wolf of Wall Street guy. That'd be hilarious.

Matthew Lescault : Uh, no. Actually, Cleo, I went to Cleo conference a couple years ago. They brought in a and he's well known. I forget the name right now, but an ex FBI negotiator to talk about.

Doug Lewis: A hostage negotiator.

Emily Madere: Yeah, yeah.

Doug Lewis: That's cool. Cool. Yeah.

Emily Madere: That's cool. I know little to nothing about it, but I'm excited for it.

Doug Lewis: Little [00:38:30] to nothing about negotiation in general or hostage.

Emily Madere: Oh, no. No, the both.

Doug Lewis: I dabble, I dabble.

Emily Madere: I meant to session. Uh, but.

Matthew Lescault : What's the first rule of negotiation? Let's let's let's let's quiz the two of you first. Rule negotiation.

Doug Lewis: Aim high. No, you gotta you have to establish. You have to establish rapport right out the gate. That's that's always the first rule in everything you have to you have to find common ground, establish rapport and make them trust you. Emily. That's it.

Emily Madere: Look, my philosophy is just [00:39:00] be nice and transparent. So maybe I'm not doing it right now.

Matthew Lescault : Look, I don't think there's any one one way, um, you know, I think, uh, I think negotiation, the first rule negotiation tends to be understand your audience. Nice. Might not work for certain people. Like if it's Doug. Doug likes to be a you know what? So like, you treat him like that and he likes you.

Doug Lewis: An awesome person. I don't know what I assume that's.

Matthew Lescault : First letter, right?

Doug Lewis: Yeah, yeah. Oh. [00:39:30] Just awesome. Yeah.

Matthew Lescault : Not a letter. The letter. Yeah.

Doug Lewis: Amazing. That's right.

Emily Madere: Son of a gun.

Doug Lewis: I like you today. I can't.

Emily Madere: Say.

Doug Lewis: That.

Emily Madere: I, like, you know, about negotiation. There's so many different ways to do it. Um, different. Different strokes for different folks.

Doug Lewis: I like that. And, um, before we wrap, I want to challenge both of you with just a wild swing question here. So let's focus on the Orlando right future partners event here. Again, give me just a wild prediction. It has to be a specific one this time. Something you think's going to get announced. Something [00:40:00] you hope gets announced. Give me a wild prediction. We'll come back and see if either one of you is right. Emily I'll kick it to you first.

Emily Madere: Something that's coming to me. It's a Matt.

Doug Lewis: Matt. Matt. He talks too much. You're up. Yeah. Wild swing. Something you're hoping for. Something you're predicting, something that most people wouldn't see coming.

Emily Madere: Okay, so I have a lot of transportation clients just because I think where we're located in South Louisiana, we have a lot of maritime, [00:40:30] uh, three poles, trucking, transportation. So I think that Sage is going to have a maybe specific transportation offering.

Doug Lewis: Okay, I like it. That's that's specific.

Emily Madere: I'm just kind of throwing it out there.

Doug Lewis: I like that. Matt. You're up.

Matthew Lescault : Um.

Doug Lewis: Wild swing.

Matthew Lescault : I'm trying to make sure I don't say anything. I actually do know. Um.

Doug Lewis: Good [00:41:00] thing we can edit this.

Matthew Lescault : I don't actually know anything. That's my problem. Um, the, uh.

Doug Lewis: Don't edit that. Don't edit that. Leave that in, leave that in.

Matthew Lescault : Hey, Doug.

Doug Lewis: I'm going to make them the ringtone on my phone. I don't know anything All right, wild swing. What are we going to. What are we going to here? What are we going to see?

Matthew Lescault : I mean, there's no way this is true, but Baker Tilly is not partner of the year.

Emily Madere: That's not true.But.

Doug Lewis: Okay,

Matthew Lescault : I know it's not true, [00:41:30] but that would be like a I mean, Baker.

Doug Lewis: Tilly, are you willing to take a step further and throw a throw a dark horse into that ring there? Give me a name.

Matthew Lescault : Should we go with Eisner?

Emily Madere: Amper I it's definitely not going to be Eisner. Maybe CLA.

Matthew Lescault : Maybe CLA.

Doug Lewis: Okay. All right. You you gave me something. We'll have to. We'll have to follow up on that, uh, to see if either one of these predictions is at all even accurate or comes true. Uh, to wrap it up, though, we got to do a horrible dad joke. Uh, again, I'll.

Emily Madere: Throw.

Doug Lewis: It out to the audience.

Emily Madere: You are kidding [00:42:00] me. Yes, yes, I saw it.

Doug Lewis: A horrible mom joke here.

Emily Madere: Okay, I have one. Okay, okay. What is the difference between black eyed peas and chick peas?

Doug Lewis: Oh.

Doug Lewis: Uh, boy.

Matthew Lescault : One's a band.

Doug Lewis: I don't even like. I don't even have a guess on this one. Um, my mind went straight to the gutter. Um.

Emily Madere: Now [00:42:30] you know.

Doug Lewis: How I have. No, I have no clue. What is the difference? Emily?

Emily Madere: Okay. Matt was kind of close. Black eyed peas can sing and chickpeas can. Hummus.

Doug Lewis: Oh, okay. That was good. That was good. That was that was that was a really good one.

Doug Lewis: I actually really enjoyed it. It's fun being on the other side of this.

Emily Madere: I've been telling my joke all week. My husband is tired of it.

Doug Lewis: Oh, it's you. Like you've been just running that one back.

Emily Madere: Yeah, I think it's so funny. I think it's hilarious. [00:43:00]

Doug Lewis: No, that was good. That was good. That was.

Doug Lewis: Very appropriate.

Matthew Lescault : I'm kind of mad that Doug didn't even have a guess here.

Doug Lewis: I didn't, because immediately my mind went to the gutter and we're recording this, which is not good for that, so.

Matthew Lescault : I don't know butnow I need to hear it.

Doug Lewis: Better off staying silent. Next time we have a beer. Maybe. How about that? And I can tell you my guess. Yeah.

Matthew Lescault : When's the nexttime we're seeing each other.

Doug Lewis: It's a good question. I was actually just looking at the calendar. Um, I'm going to be in Orlando, [00:43:30] ironically, like a day or two before this event. I didn't even realize it.

Matthew Lescault : You mean the week before?

Doug Lewis: No. Like, like a day or two before. I'm there. Like November, early, uh, early November. Uh, for a different event, which I won't mention on here.

Doug Lewis: Just for the for the, uh, for the sake of uniformity, won't mention that event name. Um, but, yeah, maybe we can link up. We'll figure that out offline. But in the interim, we've rambled on enough. There's been some wild predictions. Wild swings. Uh, this has been a fun [00:44:00] one. I'm interested to see the follow up on this guy as well. Um, get a little bit of an insider take since this is a closed event so not anyone can attend. It'll be fun. We'll follow up on this in a couple episodes and see how wildly right or wrong you both were about what's about to happen here.

Matthew Lescault : Well, I know I'm wrong about what I what I said and.

Doug Lewis: We.All know that. We always know that.

Matthew Lescault : The, uh, the other thing is, I think we're hoping to record one at, um, at the [00:44:30] conference. You'll obviously be in your in your office with your sign, but we'll have our headphones on and, and, uh, and do it from there, give a little update of what's really what's going on in real time, and then do a wrap up a week or two later.

Doug Lewis: Well, that'll be noisy and fun. And it's something I really look forward to, much like our next recording as well. So thanks for listening. Uh, come on back, y'all. We'll see you. If these two kiddos are right or wrong about what's happening in Sage future for partners. Thanks for listening. [00:45:00]

Emily Madere: Bye.