North East software leader Sage has unveiled new look branding and new services for customers amid moves to “give some tailwinds” to global SMEs.
For the last few weeks, signage at the the major Tyneside employer’s head office at Cobalt Business Park has been covered up.
Now the covers have been removed to reveal that the company – which provides accounting, financial, HR and payroll tech solutions to SMEs around the world – has new look ‘Sage’ branding following a project with London based brand consultancy Wolff Olins.
The company said the new look Sage is a symbol of the firm’s evolution, and the changing needs of small and mid-size businesses.
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The unveiling came in tandem with announcements for a range of services, including the offer of Sage Member Masterclasses to all customers, addressing concerns from SMEs that the complexities of running a business are adding new pressures post-Covid. The launch gives customers access to Member Masterclasses from next month, offering insights through talks and articles from leading experts and trailblazers on the challenges that are most important for businesses today.
Chief executive Steve Hare said: “The refreshed Sage brand reflects the simplicity, flow, and confidence that Sage can give to customers through greater control and better insights so they’re ready to adapt and thrive in an ever-changing world. It is based on real insights about our customers, our colleagues and partners, and society. It is a symbol of what we stand for, the successes that have brought us here, and a promise for the experiences we will deliver in the future as we build the trusted network for SMBs.
“This isn’t just a change of the symbol– it’s a symbol of change. It’s really time to show that Sage has refreshed its approach in terms of how it’s serving its small and mid-sized businesses.
“We’ve made some big commitments reflecting our roots in the North East, including moving to Cobalt and then investing a very large sum of money in creating the global HQ campus there, putting sponsorship money to play to create The Sage down on the Gateshead Quay, and really continuing to recruit more and more into engineering, marketing, all the skills we need to be the digital business of the future and helping our customers digitise.
“We’re very passionate about the fact that we serve small to mid-sized businesses - we have some bigger customers because they have grown with us. We don’t try to capture the very big enterprise customers. We’re here to really focus on small and mid sized businesses and helping them in any way we can to make their lives easier.
“We’ve been around a very long time - we were founded in a pub in Newcastle and we’re very proud of that - now we’re using that heritage to refresh and send a clear signal that we’re going to be around for a very long time to come.”
Mr Hare said Sage is also doubling down on its commitment to make business simpler through a range of new services in the digital network, including giving firms access to essential accounting and bookkeeping tools directly via their bank app or web browser.
Sage already has employees dedicated to these solutions, but Mr Hare said it is also hiring more people, particularly in marketing, while some will be redeployed.
He said: “You’ve always been able to call Sage to help you with software needs and this reflects how we want you to be part of our community for life. Normally with these things, if people tried to access them individually they’d be very expensive. What we’re able to do is try to scale that through the membership scheme to allow people participating to get the benefits at scale, which they wouldn’t be able to do themselves.
“At the end of the day you went into business to pursue a dream, not to do admin and be burdened with compliance and problems. We want to do everything we can to turn that friction into an opportunity.
“Small and medium sized businesses need help. They’ve got a number of headwinds in their way from a macro perspective and we want to do everything we can to give them some tailwinds.”
Sage is also continuing to invest in communities, following on from its £10m investment in NewcastleGateshead Quays, which will see the creation of The Sage arena in 2024.
Last month the firm also announced it has become an Official Supporter of the Rugby World Cup 2023, in which it will partner Parthéna Consultants to provide software to France 2023. Further partnerships will be announced in the coming months, Mr Hare said.
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