Company Information

Sage at a glance

Sage is a leading supplier of business software, services and support to 5.8 million customers worldwide.  Whilst our heritage is in the small business market we also have the experience and expertise to meet the needs of specific industries and larger organisations.

We are a global company with more than 14,500 employees and more than 25 years of experience working with small and medium sized businesses. However, despite our global reach we have built our success on understanding and meeting the needs of customers in their local markets. Therefore the majority of our products and services are developed and supported locally. This ensures we provide a choice of high quality products and services which are relevant to our customers, use the most appropriate technology and are supported by local experts.

 

Further information on Sage

Sage Worldwide

Executive Committee members' biographies

Board of Directors members' biographies

View our latest reports

 

Key facts

  • More than 14,500 employees
  • 5.8 million customers
  • Offices in 26 countries around the world
  • Advise 1.7 million customers through support contracts
  • Manage 40,000 customer calls a day
  • Global network of 27,000 business partners and 40,000 accountants

Industry Awards

Sage prides itself on providing high quality software and services which are the most compelling fit with a customer’s country and industry.  We constantly strive to provide outstanding customer service to ensure we have the most satisfied and active customers in our industry.  We have won many awards in recognition of this including:

  • March 2009. Sage Germany won Initiative Mittelstand’s IT Innovation 2009 award for its Sage ERP X3 solution at this year’s CeBIT technology conference, which took place in Hanover. Sage Germany was awarded the prize in the “State Victor: Baden Württemberg” category for innovative IT solution best fulfilling mid-market companies’ needs.
  • January 2009. Sage SalesLogix v7.5 was named CRM Suite SMB Product of the Year for the second straight year in SearchCRM.com’s Products of the Year program. Judges cited Sage SalesLogix for its ease of use, innovation, and performance.
  • January 2009. Sage (UK) Limited was ranked joint number one for customer experience by an IT & Technology customer experience survey for Call Centre Focus (CCF), the UK’s leading customer contact magazine.
  • December 2008. Sage SalesLogix v7.5 and ACT! by Sage 2009 (11.0) won Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®)’s Customer Interaction Solutions® magazine (www.cismag.com) Product of the Year Awards. The Sage CRM Solutions were cited for outstanding innovation.
  • November 2008. Sage (UK) Limited won Business Software Supplier of The Year at the Annual Computing Magazine Awards for Excellence and Payroll Software Supplier of the Year at the annual Pay Awards, organised by Pay Magazine.
  • November 2008. The Sage Group plc and the Sage Gateshead won the BP Sustainability Award at the UK Arts & Business awards for an established, on-going partnership that continues to set standards in creative arts-business collaborations.
  • October 2008. Sage in Ireland won the Payroll Software Provider of the Year for medium to large companies at the Irish Payroll Association awards.
  • September 2008.  Sage ERP Solutions was awarded 5-Star Rankings In The CPA Technology Advisor 2008 Review for Sage Accpac 200 ERP 5.5 and Sage MAS 90 and 200 ERP 4.3.  All were awarded 5 star rankings in CPA Technology Advisor’s annual review of mid market accounting systems.
  • July 2008. Sage Symfonia in Poland won a Golden Customer Laurel, in the Business Software for Enterprises category, for its outstanding customer service - the third year in a row it has received this accolade. This led to it also being awarded the Platinum Grand Prix in the national business awards which are run by ‘Przegląd Gospodarczy’, a business supplement to the largest Polish financial and legal daily newspaper ‘Gazeta Prawna’.
  • June 2008. ACT! by Sage 2008 received a Product of the Year Award from Communication Solutions magazine.
  • April 2008. Sage SalesLogix v7.2 won ‘Product of the Year 2007’ in the CRM Suite, SMB category of the SearchCRM.com awards. Sage SalesLogix’s was praised for its innovative Web client, extensive customisation features and its mobile functionality.
  • March 2008.  Sage Software won the overall SMB Software Suites Channel Champion crown at the annual CRN Channel Champion Awards, one of the leading software industry awards programmes in North America.
  • January 2008.  Sage Germany won ‘Preferred Vendor 2008’ award from Channel Partner Magazine.
  • November 2007. Sage Germany won ‘ERP System of the Year‘ for the second time in a row for Sage bäurer, scoring maximum points from all of the judges.
  • November 2007. Sage Software in North America achieved a double success winning two awards at the World Contact Centre Awards for their commitment to providing outstanding customer service - a gold medal for the Best Contact Centre Agent category and a silver medal in the Best Contact Center with less 50 associates category.
  • November 2007. Sage Ireland won the Payroll Software Provider of the Year Award for Medium to Large Companies at the Irish Payroll Association (IPASS) Awards.
  • November 2007.  Sage Symfonia in Poland celebrated winning the prestigious Złoty BIT (Golden BIT) Award for best HR software for its Forte product line.
  • November 2007. Sage in South Africa (Softline Pastel) won Best Customer Service Award in the 2007 Business Process Enabling South Africa Awards (BPESA) which are selected by customers
  • November 2007. Sage Spain received a major national accolade winning a Golden Customer Relation Centre (CRC) Award for its small business division Sage SP.

Financial highlights for half-year ended 31 March 2009:

  • Statutory revenues increased by 17% to £748.4m (H1 2008: £640.4m), enhanced by favourable currency movements
    • On a currency neutral basis, revenues contracted 3%* (H1 2008: growth of 9%*)
  • EBITA† margin increased to 24% excluding restructuring charges; EBITA† margin maintained at 23% including restructuring charges (H1 2008: 23%*)
  • Statutory pre-tax profit of £139.2m (H1 2008: £122.6m), an increase of 14%
    • On a currency neutral basis, adjusted pre-tax profit^ contracted 3% to £159.3m (H1 2008: £164.1m) and excluding restructuring costs increased 3% to £169.4m
  • Operating cash flow of £187.0m (H1 2008: £187.4m), representing 111% of EBITA†
  • Strong balance sheet with a ratio of net debt to EBITDA† of 1.6x; interest cover of 13.2x with committed debt facilities of £830m to 2011
  • Interim dividend raised 3% to 2.50p per share (H1 2008: 2.43p per share), reflecting reliable cash flows and the strength of our business model

Operational and strategic highlights

  • Strong control of our cost base with annualised savings of £49.3m (equating to 4% of the full year 2008 cost base) with associated restructuring charges of £10.1m in the first half of the year; and an additional £13.0m cost incurred since 31 March 2009 to date
  • 4%* organic revenue contraction (H1 2008: 5%* organic revenue growth), reflecting a contraction of 15%* in organic software and software-related services revenues, offset by good organic subscription revenue growth
  • Organic subscription± revenue growth of 7%* in the UK and Mainland Europe; 14%* growth in Rest of World, contraction of 3%* in North America, giving 2%* growth for the Group
  • Renewal rates of support contracts maintained at 81% with continued strength in premium support and overall revenue growth in many of our product lines
  • Average of 40,000 customer support calls taken per day

 

*Foreign currency results for the half year ended 31 March 2008 have been retranslated based on the average exchange rates for the half year ended 31 March 2009 of $1.48/£1 and €1.14/£1 to facilitate the comparison of results.
^EBITA, adjusted pre-tax profit and earnings per share figures stated prior to amortisation of intangible fixed assets and after neutralisation of foreign exchange movements.
†EBITA is defined as earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of intangible fixed assets. EBITDA is defined as EBITA plus depreciation. 
±Subscription revenues are recurring in nature and include combined software/support contracts, maintenance and support, transaction revenues (payment and health insurance claims processing) and hosted products.

 

 

 

 

For further information on our financial performance please visit our investor relations website.