Last month Sage acquired Bangert, a longtime Sage Intacct Construction partner, along with its AskRichard onboarding platform. The stated goal is faster construction deployments with less risk.
Look at what Sage actually bought, though, and onboarding is only part of the story.
Bangert made a name for themselves by building a repeatable business based on standardized guidance, subscription support, and structured implementation workflows that didn’t require starting from scratch with every customer. That capability now sits inside the vendor.
For the simpler end of the construction market, Sage now has a way to get customers live without routing every one of them through a partner. Sage hasn’t announced any plan to sell Sage Intacct Construction directly, and the press release emphasizes that the deal creates unspecified new opportunities for the channel.
Take that at face value. But the capability now exists inside the vendor where it simply didn’t before.
Sage isn’t alone in pursuing the “easy end of the market”.
Acumatica offers a useful parallel. Its APEX packages targeted distribution and manufacturing companies under 50 employees, bundling standardized functionality with rapid go-live support before expanding into construction. Acumatica also states plainly that it has no direct sales force and remains partner-led – yet it acquired Klear Systems, a VAR and consulting firm, presumably to bring implementation know-how in-house.
Two vendors, two acquisitions of frontline implementation capability, and similar public reassurance to the channel.
So where does that leave the future of the ERP channel?
The likely outcome isn’t the elimination of partners – it’s a clear division of labor.
As standardized implementations, basic training, and routine support become automated and migrate toward vendors, partners must focus on high-value advisory work: intricate process design, custom workflows, third-party integrations, and handling complex operational edge cases that generic playbooks cannot resolve.
While this type of consulting remains lucrative and stable, it requires a distinct approach compared to high-volume deployments and favors a completely different profile of consulting firm.
Bangert is an early test of just how far vendors can take that division in construction – and a quiet signal of where the broader ERP channel is heading next.