Channel Checkup: Sage Offers Resellers Health-Care Software Opportunity

The software vendor is now recruiting solution providers, including new partners and resellers that already belong to the Sage Partner Advantage program, to carry the Sage Intergy, Sage Medical Manager and other software products from the Sage Healthcare Division.

“This market is in such high-growth mode [and] we don’t have the internal resources to keep up with it,” said Lee Horner, senior vice president of the Sage Healthcare Division, in an interview. “We believe this is a perfect opportunity to introduce a channel program and get more feet on the street.”

Sage intends to quickly ramp up channel sales of its health-care products: Horner’s goal is to have resellers account for between 30 and 40 percent of Sage’s health-care software sales within 12 months.

Sage acquired its health-care practice management (including scheduling, billing and claims submission) and EHR applications in 2006 when it bought Emdeon Practice Services for $565 million. The company assembled its own inside and field sales teams, which until now have accounted for between 90 and 95 percent of the health-care division’s sales, Horner said.

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The Sage products are targeted toward physician offices, clinics and small hospitals. There are some 150,000 practices with one or two doctors in the U.S. and less than 15 percent of them are believed to have EHR systems, Horner said.

Market researcher IDC forecasts that the market for EHR software also is growing 15 percent a year and will reach $4.85 billion by 2015. At least some of that growth is being spurred by funding from the federal government to encourage EHR adoption as a way of lowering health-care costs.

Sage currently has only eight channel partners who work with its health-care applications and Horner said the vendor wants to recruit 40 to 50 more. The company is seeking new partners who have health-care industry expertise, as well as current Sage partners who want to build a health-care practice. Most of those are expected to sell and deploy the applications and provide other services such as training, while a small number will focus just on implementation and integration work.

Sage said Alliance Solutions Group of Brandon, Fla., would be the first business partner to offer the Intergy health-care products under the Sage Partner Advantage program. ASG already works with Sage Timberline Office, Sage Master Builder and Sage FAS applications. “We’re very anxious to apply the elements of the program to capitalize on new market opportunities in healthcare,” said ASG managing member Mike Griffith, in a statement.

Qualifying resellers who join the Sage Partner Advantage program will gain access to such services as Hire Assist, which helps VARs recruit sales and consulting talent, and Fast Track for Growth, which helps resellers develop marketing campaigns. The company also will provide workshops in sales and consulting tailored for the health-care market.

“This allows them to hit the ground running from a skills and competency viewpoint,” said Tom Miller, vice president of channel management, in an interview. At its Insights channel partner conference in May Sage announced plans to expand many of the partner assistance programs like Hire Assist and Fast Track for Growth.