Sage Transform 2022 News and Event Recap
Sage Transform 2022 is currently underway, and so far there has been some really cool announcements made. Sage has made several announcements demonstrating its progress against the company’s strategy of becoming on of the top trusted networks for SMBs by knocking down barriers to productivity, efficiency, sustainability, and helping businesses to flow. Read on to learn about this year’s news including a key acquisition, product enhancements, a strategic sports partnership deal, and more!
This Year's Announcements
Sage acquires Spherics to help SMBs measure and cut their carbon emissions
Sage announced that it has completed the acquisition of Spherics, a carbon accounting solution to help businesses easily understand and reduce their environmental impact. The acquisition reinforces Sage’s commitment to sustainability, in line with its purpose of knocking down barriers so everyone can thrive. Sage has pledged to fight climate change and help protect the planet, by halving its own emissions by 2030 and becoming net zero by 2040, by supporting SMBs to get to net zero, and by advocating for policy and regulatory frameworks to support the transition to a low carbon economy.
Spherics automates the process of calculating emissions by ingesting data from a customer’s accounting software and matching transactions to emission factors to create an initial estimate of their carbon footprint. The software then guides the customer to refine this estimate by submitting further data for a more accurate calculation – supporting SMBs on their journey to net zero. Learn more here.
“We know that SMBs care about the impact they have on the environment, and our research shows that they want to work with suppliers and partners that can help them understand and address it. The acquisition of Spherics represents an important milestone in our sustainability strategy. By combining Spherics’ innovative software with Sage's digital network, we are connecting businesses with their customer and supplier emissions data, enabling easy and collaborative climate action across value chains which helps to reduce carbon.”
Sage expands into new markets and capabilities to boost SMBs’ productivity
Sage announced increased investment in Sage Intacct and this year’s event. Through a series of significant product updates and enhancements, more customers will be able to experience increased productivity and smoother business processes.
Further investments in scaling up Sage Intacct will enable customers to automate processes, boost productivity and free up time to focus on running their businesses. Among the key Sage Intacct enhancements Sage announced expanding the solution to continental Europe with the first launch in France, solutions for new verticals, and scaling existing capabilities that will empower SMBs to simplify managing the complexities of their business with greater insight and efficiencies. Learn more here.
Leveraging Sage’s global presence and compliance expertise, Sage Intacct is expanding its core financial offering into continental Europe, starting with France by the end of the year – the first non-English speaking country for Sage Intacct.
This will enable multi-national customers, operating in France, to expand their operations with Sage Intacct faster and easier. It will also offer France-based companies the power of Sage Intacct’s modern cloud capabilities to simplify and automate their multi-entity financial operations giving them data and insights to better run their business.
Sage Intacct core financials will be available in France by the end of the year
Following the Sage Intacct Manufacturing release in France and the UK earlier in 2022, Sage Intacct Manufacturing will be available for customers in the US from 2023. The cloud-native solution extends Sage Intacct to deliver industry capabilities for businesses specialising in discrete manufacturing and distribution, enabling them to streamline end-to-end operations and increase productivity.
Early adopter available in the US from mid-October. General availability in the US is planned for the middle of 2023.
Sage Intacct has continued to deliver deeper financials as well as broaden the solution with new financial, operational, and pre-construction modules for payroll, property management, field service operations, and construction estimating. By providing a rich and broad set of capabilities that seamlessly work together, Sage Intacct for Construction and Real-Estate enables construction customers to simplify managing the complexities of their business with greater insight and efficiencies.
Sage Intacct Construction and Real Estate is generally available in the US, Canada, and Australia. Sage Intacct Construction Payroll is available for Early Adopters in US, with General Availability expected in 2023. Sage Intacct Field Operations and Sage Intacct Estimating is available for Early Adopters in US, Canada, and Australia with General Availability expected in 2023.
Sage Intacct customers can now automate inventory transactions with barcoding and mobile data capture for real-time, company-wide, visibility and control, improved accuracy, and reduced data entry. Sage Intacct Inventory Automation provides cloud-based inventory management to help businesses ensure their stock and inventory is utilised efficiently and keeps the business flowing.
Sage Intacct Inventory Automation is now in general availability for Sage Intacct customers across North America.
This new functionality helps businesses simplify compliance with ASC 842* lease accounting standards in the US. The cloud native solution automates lease accounting processes, including payments, lease liability, and Right of Use asset depreciation. Organizations will access all their lease accounting and compliance data in a centralized location and gain lease insights with multi-dimensional reports and dashboards.
Sage Intacct Lease Accounting is available in the US in an early adopter program. General availability is expected in early 2023.
Sage Intacct continues its investment in accounts payable to enable an automated end-to-end workflow from bill receipt to payment, reconciliation, and reporting. AI-powered bill automation receives, scans, and populates draft bills, including matching to vendors, coding accounts and dimensions, and identifying duplicate bills and exceptions. It complements the automated payment functionality, Vendor Payments powered by CSI, that was released earlier in 2022. The combination of bill automation and vendor payments helps customers streamline and simplify AP processing, spend less time on manual tasks and get payments out faster alongside paying vendors the way they prefer to be paid.
AP Bill Automation is rolling out to US customers beginning with Sage Intacct 2022 Release 4 . The rollout across US channels is planned for 2023. Pricing is per transaction. There are no subscription or implementation fees.
New product integrations with Microsoft to make life easier for SMBs
Sage announced that it now provides customers with enhanced capabilities integrated into Microsoft Teams to help simplify and automate workflows. Customers can now take friction out of day-to-day tasks by submitting and approving accounting and people processes directly through Teams, rather than in the Sage Intacct or Sage People application – reducing the need to toggle between solutions. This means customers can simply and securely approve expenses and review leave requests via a Teams notification.
In addition, making Sage Intacct and Sage Active available on Microsoft Azure will give Microsoft customers access to Sage’s award-winning cloud financials solutions in an easy to use, secure environment. This gives SMBs the opportunity to benefit from the flexibility and scalability that Microsoft’s cloud provides when choosing Sage products. Learn more here.
“Earlier this year we expanded our relationship with Microsoft by committing to hosting Sage Intacct and Sage Active on Microsoft Azure. Now, Microsoft customers can access Sage solutions directly from the Azure cloud, as well as gain the productivity that the Sage Intacct and Sage People app for Teams provides. We are proud to innovate for our customers and deliver value through partnership – this is just the start.”
Sage becomes official partner of Major League Baseball in tech brand’s first North American sports partnership
Sage is teaming up with Major League Baseball (MLB) in a multi-year sponsorship deal – the global tech company’s first North American sports partnership.
Sage will integrate with MLB broadcasts by sponsoring in-game ‘Pitching Decisions’ features on select televised and streamed games. This new sponsored broadcast feature will bring fresh insights and in-depth analysis around pitching to fans of all 30 Clubs during the regular season, Postseason and All-Star Week.
The Sage brand will appear across various media platforms covering games league-wide, including on Apple TV+, MLB Network and MLB.com, beginning with the 2023 regular season and including the introduction of “Pitcher Power Rankings Presented by Sage.”
Sage will also support MLB’s Diverse Business Partners (DBP) Program, helping to find new opportunities and support business growth for minority-owned businesses across America. Major League Baseball continues to be an industry leader of economic inclusivity within professional sports through the DBP program. The program has cultivated new and existing partnerships with underrepresented businesses, including Black-owned, Latino/a-owned, Asian-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned, LGBTQ-owned and other underrepresented small businesses, to serve and supply MLB entities and MLB Clubs.
Overall, Sage made some really exciting announcements at this year’s event and we’re looking forward to watching everything come to life and seeing what else is in store for the future!
