After serving four years at Sage North America, vice president of channel sales Tom Miller is set to retire at the end of March, with no immediate plans to replace him.
The announcement was made internally today by executive vice president of mid-market and CRM solutions Joe Langner, and will go out to more partners shortly.
Miller joined Sage in 2009, and after what he admitted was “a two-year plan that lasted four years,” he decided the timing was right for him to depart the company and retire. Miller oversaw much of the re-alignment and promotion of Sage’s channel programs, including the Firm of the Future Symposium and a new scoring methodology.
“I wanted to leave in a positive position, particularly since Joe [Langner] has been here. and with the direction we’re going the partners are more satisfied, now is was good time [for me to depart]. I feel I’ve built a good team for the channel and it’s just a good time for me to go,” said Miller. “Sage is in a really good place; it’s just a matter of them delivering and keeping the focus and providing the tools and services and education to our channel to supplement where they have gaps in skills and competence. Even [our connection to] the CPA community, Sage is not about just one product, it’s about that we know that CPAs cover a wide breadth when it comes to different clients. If we can just continue down this path, we will continue to be successful.”
While Sage has no immediate plans to fill Miller’s specific position, Langner noted that he will be taking on more of a “channel champion role,” and was supportive of Miller’s efforts in the relatively short time that he himself has been with Sage.
“Even though I’ve only been here for a year, in that time I can say what Tom has done to help our partners be more successful, partnering with our product marketing teams to roll out the scoring methodology and delivering better insight on where the best opportunities are has been well received,” said Langner. “The toughest part [of his departure] will be not having Tom here every day. I really do wish him the best. It’s great to leave on a high, but for our business I think the brand transformation is still top of mind and really connecting with entire ecosystem. We need to state our brand promise and deliver on that promise. It’s a lot of work to deliver on that.”
Langner also noted there will be some more alignment with sales and operations within Sage. More specifically:
• Channel Programs & Communications, led by director of partner programs Joo Sohn, will become part of Kevin Rooker’s team; Rooker is the vice president of sales management and operations.
• Partner Development & Strategy, led by senior director Ed Kless, will report to Sohn.
• Channel growth management leaders will align to the company’s sales vice presidents. Specifically, the Central Region’s Rick Burtt and the West Region’s Rachel Roselli will join Tim Sullivan’s team. The Canada and Latin America Region’s Brent Pieterick and the East Region’s Joe Carroll will join Mike Wingrove’s team.
• Sage ERP X3 channel recruitment and enablement leaders Roger Demers and Erin McGrane will align to Donna Armstrong, vice president of sales for Sage ERP X3.
