CoE - Newsletter - March 2023

Innovation is a key driver of success in our team, but we also recognize that efficiency is critical to our business. While we are brimming with new ideas, we understand the importance of prioritizing those that align with our partners' needs.

To ensure we are focusing on the most sought-after topics, we have implemented a process to gather input from our partners before we embark on any new projects. We will periodically post surveys on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Sage University, and Sage City, asking our partners to indicate which topics are of most interest to them.

This is just the first step on our journey to prioritize our partners' needs, which has become an integral part of our day-to-day operations. By listening closely to our partners and focusing on their interests, we are confident that we can continue to drive innovation while maintaining the high level of efficiency required to succeed in our industry.

In this newsletter we are going to interview one of our CoE manager and some colleagues regarding our initiatives and programs.

Bruno Marchand

The Central Center of Excellence

What is the CCoE role in the Sage organization?

We are there to help the regional Centers Of Excellence and ultimately our partners to sell and implement Sage X3. Providing expert level assistance and knowledge where it is required. We want to get closer to our partners to understand what they do and how we can better help them. How can we provide the knowledge they need when they need it?

Enablement

What are the benefits of Expert workshops and how can they make a difference?

In today's fast-paced business environment, staying ahead of the curve is essential. That's why our team is proud to offer Expert workshops, including our popular bootcamps.

With the rise of Learning 4.0, traditional approaches to learning and development are no longer enough. Our Expert workshops provide cutting-edge techniques and practical insights to help our partners achieve their goals.

Our bootcamps have already proven to be a game-changer, providing attendees with valuable tips, tricks, and best practices. But we didn't stop there. Our new practices factory sessions take things to the next level, offering a more interactive and practical approach to learning.

The benefits of our Expert workshops are clear. They provide new and innovative approaches to learning, giving our partners a competitive edge in their industries. Plus, by sharing tips and best practices, we help our partners achieve their goals faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Invest in your team's success with our Expert workshops. Join us for a bootcamp or new practices factory session and discover the difference for yourself.

What is the difference between Expert sessions and core training?

While core training provides a broad foundation of knowledge and skills, expert sessions focus on specific areas of expertise and provide more advanced and specialized knowledge. CCoE expert workshops are an additional offer closer to the field and based on real world experience, the idea is to share best practices and tips and tricks and focused on real business cases.

Why would partners benefit from private sessions when they already exist in Sage University?

Private sessions offer partners a more customized and personalized learning experience that can be tailored to their specific needs, provide a confidential setting for discussing sensitive information, offer greater flexibility, more interaction with the trainer, and deeper learning than is available through Sage Universities standard training. They also provide a cost-effective way of ensuring a number of the partner staff can benefit from the knowledge.

Mentoring

What makes the Mentoring program into a win-win program?

We get a closer relationship with our partners, and they get a closer relationship with us. Partners get to speed up the on-boarding and experience of their consultants while we get to learn what the current needs are in the marketplace and our mentors get valuable experience.

In a nutshell, it allows partnerships to be created with the companies being mentored.

What is the major challenge you are facing with the mentoring program? What is the lesson learnt you are already applying into your current programs?

Ensuing we adapt the program for the mentee's individual requirements and speed of learning. We have found the optimum is mentoring people on subjects just before they need to apply it in a project, allowing them to use the knowledge while it is still fresh with our assistance. Or even while they are facing the issue in the project. It′s an enriching challenge for us to be able to help and develop solution to complex subjects with a short deadline, this real-world experience means consultants learn faster.

Think in a more holistic way…You are mentoring one or several consultants, we can see the huge direct benefit for them. Which are the resulting benefits for the partner as an entity? Are the other colleagues getting benefit as well?

Mentoring can be one to one or one to many. It all depends on the requirements of the partners and mentees. There may be a benefit of group sessions in certain areas and one to one sessions in other areas. Partners can benefit from bringing additional people into some of the sessions to enhance their knowledge even if they are not part of the mentoring program.

Can anybody be a mentor? The answer is yes of course, but if you could choose which skills and capabilities you would ask for from a Sage CCoE mentor.

To be a mentor you must want to be a mentor. The mentee becomes a priority and you must be committed to passing your knowledge, both functional and soft skills based, onto them. Only by doing this can we ensure the speed of development and huge knowledge uptake the program can provide.

Besides that, and besides the knowledge on the topic and experience in the field, we would recommend people with empathy, being able to step in the others shoes, a reflective person being able to get back to their past and identify what works and what doesn’t work to use this as a tool with the mentee. Also, an analytical, innovative, social and adventurous person willing to take the mentee to the highest level.

Regarding numbers? How many programs is your team currently running?

Our team is currently running three programs in parallel; we have already completed one and we are in discussions to start three more programs soon. It is definitely becoming trending topic!

In terms of scalability, how do you foresee this program in 2 years' time?

While our main focus if on Sage X3 at the moment the program is transferrable to Sage Intacct and Sage Intacct Manufacturing. We are seeing it as a program not only to develop new consultants but a way to develop senior consultants on specific functionality. One to one guidance as they complete for example their first PJM or Web Scheduling solution. We are talking to partners in many countries on a day to day basis and their feedback, as with everything we do, will guide our future direction.

CCoE SEED Enhanced Package

Is the CCoE SEED Enhanced Package a powerful but unknown tool? Is this something you want to keep secret?

(Laughing). Absolutely not, in fact, funny enough, we have started this year a worldwide information campaign to all our partners since we have realized that most of them were not aware of the capabilities of our CCoE SEED Enhanced Package. Capabilities like for example being able to have an out of the box working environment pre-installed with global tech partners solutions like SEI, SDA, Web Scheduling, Procession, ATP…

Presentations to our partners are currently happening and we aim to do a 2023R1 release presentation around June. Like what we do with New Features Highlights, that is becoming the sessions our partners always like to follow.

Any questions about this, you can contact [email protected], who will be more than happy to explain this project in much more detail.

Is the CCoE SEED Enhanced Package only for pre-sales?

No, this is the myth we are trying to break during the sessions we deliver. It would be absolutely beneficial for all consultants to start getting used to this environment, testing the interfaces with some of the most important global tech partners solutions and using our included demo scripts and visual process to learn and enhance their knowledge on dedicated functionality. We need to open our mind and include this solution when onboarding new consultants.

One to One meetings

I have heard that you are conducting round tables around the globe and scheduling one to one meetings with partners? Which benefits they could get from that?

It is an ideal opportunity for us to find out exactly what our partners are doing and how we can help them. What challenges are they facing that we can assist with. This could be private expert sessions on key topics where our experts can go into more detail on subjects of interest to the partner. Through mentoring we can help new and experienced consultants on their career path. The intention is to build closer relationships with our ecosystem, so we are responsive to their needs. Our partner’s success is our success.

Finance challenge? What happens with finance workshops and assistance?

Finance requires innovation. Our goal now is to use entry points, BI tools, workflows, formulas, etc.. to go the extra mile on what the standard Sage X3 can provide. In the other modules we tell stories. In finance sometimes we focus too much on figures and we must start telling stories to better help the ecosystem.

Summit 2023

What can we expect from the next 2023R1 New Features Highlights?

No major changes here, besides the fact that the sessions are already very rich. We will add some details on small bugs fixed or small functionalities include even if they are small topics like adding a formula or modifying a specific field. We want you to be aware even about the smallest things . Things that otherwise you would not be aware of.

We will also present to you a new enablement session format that we are working actively working with it so you will benefit better of our sessions and look forward to joining them.

See below the upcoming dates so you can join us through Sage University!

New Features Hightlights

What can we expect from the next 2023R1 New Features Highlights?

No major changes here, besides the fact that the sessions are already very rich. We will add some details on small bugs fixed or small functionalities include even if they are small topics like adding a formula or modifying a specific field. We want you to be aware even about the smallest things . Things that otherwise you would not be aware of.

We will also present to you a new enablement session format that we are working actively working with it so you will benefit better of our sessions and look forward to joining them.

See below the upcoming dates so you can join us through Sage University!

Local COE Collaboration

Could you please give us an example where you are tightly collaborating with a Sage Local CoE?

Absolutely, to pick one of them, the new Project Management track. Coming from a Portuguese partner request, this is something that has been requested by many partners all around the world and now is the time to launch a renewed version of it. Great part of the project success comes from having a project manager, although sometimes this is underestimated.

So, we are collaborating with the Project Management team in the Portuguese CoE to build a Project management track focused on Sage X3 implementation best practices, a bit of methodology and tools, project management mindset and more importantly the main pain points and common situations that we are used to face in our Sage X3 projects and how to deal with them.

Will be an interactive session where all the attendees will be able to provide their own experiences so we can discuss and benefit from each other. Let′s share tips and tricks! Together we succeed.

How And When To Use The Services

Why would a business partner avail themselves of the services provided by the Sage Central Center of Excellence - Expert Services Team?

We are a team of professionals with a wide range of different skill sets and have a depth of knowledge and experience ready to assist the business partner and customer communities. The expertise of the team encompasses the key skills required to design, build, advise, implement, and assist with a variety of projects, from simple functional process investigations to multiple company, multi-country, and multi-legislation solutions.

How can the Sage Central Center of Excellence assist you in satisfying complicated customer requests and functional requirements?

Some examples of how we have assisted BPs and customers within the past few months include having dealt with enhancing the customer experience with “BSI”, aiding in the creation of a fully operational CAMT053 /054 statement merging, import and matching feature. Additionally, the team has been able to assist a BP with the complex issue of exchange rate variance calculations within a manual matching environment. The investigation precisely pinpointed the area of failure, and the details were passed to R&D to provide a solution. We are confident that we will be able to assist you with your challenges also.

When is the right time to engage with the Sage Central Center of Excellence - Expert Services Team?

Any time there are uncertainties, complexities, or knowledge gaps both with, and within the implementation cycle. Sage Expert Services are here to help with a broad range of topics whether this is at the inception of a large project, towards the end of an implementation or as a one-off contact seeking assistance with a unique issue.