Irvine , CA (December 02, 2009) – Sage North America, part of the Sage Group plc (LSE: SGE), announced today that total revenue for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2009 was $US 889.4 million, a decrease of 10%* over the same prior year period. Overall North America EBITA margin, including restructuring charges of $16.4 million incurred in the year, was 18% (2008:18%**) as the company effectively managed costs to increase efficiency. Excluding restructuring charges it was 20%.
UK-based The Sage Group plc reported global revenues of $2.22 billion for the year ended September 30, 2009, an increase of 11% over the same prior year period (at constant exchange rates**). EBITA was $494.8 million, or 22% margin including restructuring costs, 24% margin excluding restructuring costs, compared with 23% in 2008. The company added 245,000 customers worldwide during the year, bringing its total to 6.1 million businesses globally, excluding ACT! customers. The business added 123,000 customers in North America.
“Through our broad software and services portfolio, Sage is unique in being able to help small and mid-size businesses with their dual challenges to improve efficiency and productivity every day,” said Sage North America President and CEO, Sue Swenson. “Sage is helping businesses not only through our portfolio, but with a personal touch that’s often missing in the technology world, and a deep network of local and online resources made possible by our decades of experience. Our focus on customer experience is a key strength that has enabled us to maintain competitive revenue and strong profitability this past year.”
In 2009, Sage North America continued to focus on customer service, operational efficiency, and product innovation for its small and mid-size business customers.
The company expanded customer service through the use of digital social media, launching its SageSpark and MyBizCounts online communities which provide business owners and those considering starting a business with tools, education, and community support. The company also launched online communities for its Sage MAS ERP and Sage FAS Fixed Assets customers, adding to more than a dozen other customer communities the company hosts.
The company delivered more than 30 new or upgraded products for general business and the specialized needs of the construction, distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate sectors. Among the product launches were new versions of many of the company’s flagship business management solutions including Sage MAS ERP Extended Enterprise Suite and Sage SalesLogix; the new Sage Intergy EHR 5.5 electronic health records and practice management system for physicians’ practices; and Sage Project Lifecycle Management, a new software-as-a-service product that simplifies collaboration across the design and build cycle for construction and engineering teams. Other developments in software-as-a-service included Billing Boss, a free online invoicing tool, and a pre-release cloud edition of Sage SalesLogix using Amazon’s EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud).
The company also made significant operational improvements throughout the year, including methods for cross-selling payments solutions to customers, a focus on new business growth with the company’s business partners, and consolidation of back office processes.
Key organizational changes included the sale of the enterprise tax compliance business to Empower Corporation, enabling the company’s Employer Solutions business to focus on its existing leadership in human resources management systems; and the addition of some key executives to the team – former Microsoft executive Jodi Uecker-Rust as president of Sage Business Solutions, former Oracle and WebMD executive Motasim Najeeb as chief technology officer, and former CDC Software executive Juan Miguel Rodriguez as chief information officer.
*Results are in USD using an annual average exchange rate of 1.543 USD per GBP.
**Earnings before interest, tax and amortization, which excludes the effects of amortization of acquired intangible assets and the net amortization or capitalization of software development expenditure.
Source: Sage