Sage Summit 2016 was an amazing event! There were incredible keynote speakers, such as Richard Branson and Ashton Kutcher, countless opportunities to have meaningful conversations with Sage business partners and customers, there were the Sage product roadmaps and new technology, and then there was Hello Pegg.
It was the latter of that list that got me thinking… what is driving this new technology?
Hello Pegg!
Hello Pegg is a very exciting development in the history of Sage. The intent is to allow customers to manage their business admin through their favourite messaging apps. Basically, you ask a question, and Pegg finds out the answer for you. But why is this so appealing?
Well for me, it’s addressing one of the key themes driving our roadmap and the underlying premises of Sage Intelligence Reporting: To save customers time.
The world has become a very busy place where multi-tasking has become the norm. As I write this, I am listening to a webcast, checking emails, and responding to text messages on multiple instant messaging (IM) platforms. But, although the environment and technology have changed, 10 years ago, I was still multi-tasking and still feeling that there were too few hours in the day. So if everyone is still really busy, but we have a more time-saving technology, what are we filling our time with? And what do we actually need going forward?
From what I have heard at Summit, customers and business partners require insights from the masses of data (data we now have quicker access to). Microsoft calls this concept creating data joy from data drudgery. So how are we giving insights / answers to the questions that customers are asking? For Sage Intelligence, it’s two-fold:
- Providing the answers to 80% of our customers’ needs (through standard templates).
- Allowing customers to find their own answers to the other 20% (through easy-to-use reporting tools).
With almost 20 years of experience, Sage Intelligence understands the reports required by business owners and accountants, as well as the high-level business indicators that they need. These we provide for customers out-the-box in their Sage products, and later, as additional reports that are available for free through the Report Utility—so that they can get immediate value (without even asking the question).
Catering to our unique customers
However, over the years, we have realised that no two businesses are the same. This means there are always unique reporting requirements for a business. This could be as simple as adding a logo or tweaking an existing report, to as complex as creating a new report from scratch. To do this, we have provided really easy-to-use report creation tools.
These tools include the report manager, connector, layout generator, task pane, the online report designer, an Excel report designer, as well as seamless integration with Excel, Google, and now, PowerBI. All of the aforementioned aid the user in creating reports specific to their needs.
Most importantly, Sage Intelligence Reporting is seamlessly integrated with Excel and allows for complete flexibility to customers in customising their reports. Leveraging off of PowerBI and Google Sheets functionality will further allow for even better visualisations for customers going forward.
So while the questions to Hello Pegg may be the same, Sage Intelligence will be there to provide even better, more visual, and easier answers to act on. It will also provide the means to get further answers and display those answers in whatever form required, saving our customers not only time, but the hassle of dredging for answers they need in real time.
