It is All About the Platform
To really get why Sage made this move, you have to differentiate between two frequently used terms: Sage Business Cloud and the Sage Platform. Think of Sage Business Cloud as the storefront. It is the brand name for all the cloud products users can buy. The Sage Platform, on the other hand, is the foundation and the plumbing underneath. It is the actual technology and set of APIs that Sage is building to make all those different products finally talk to each other in a smart, unified way. This acquisition is not just about adding another product to the storefront; it is a serious investment in strengthening that foundation.
So, What About Sage People?
Sage’s acquisition of Fairsail in 2017, for around $143 million, led to its rebranding as Sage People. Sage was already a minority investor in Fairsail, an HR solution built entirely on the Salesforce platform. This has historically made selling and integrating Sage People a potentially complex process due to the separate Salesforce ecosystem. Today, Sage People reportedly supports over 400,000 employees. This historical context is important when considering questions that may arise regarding Sage People in light of Sage’s other mid-market HR solutions.
And that is where the Criterion acquisition comes in. It is Sage’s answer to this exact problem.
By buying Criterion, Sage now owns a modern HR and payroll solution with its own technology stack. The bottom line for consultants is this: Criterion is positioned to be the go to, native HCM solution for your Sage Intacct customers. It gives you a clean, tightly integrated story for finance and HR without the extra baggage of the Salesforce platform. While Sage People will likely stick around for big, global companies already using Salesforce, Criterion is the powerful, home grown answer that Sage has needed for the core of its mid market base.
Source: Sage Press Release
