My view is that there are fundamental difference between typical stretchers (around 70%) and switchers (30%) and a corresponding relationship with Direct vs VARs. The needs and expectations of switchers are typically more complex than stretchers (who are more likley to go direct) and whilst that creates an opportunity for VARS (increased services doing a migration), it's also a problem in that they need to demonstrate capabilities beyond just being QB experts. The positioning of QBES is also getting a little mixed of late...is it a significant mid-market contender or just QB with a few extra bells & whistles. It could (or should) easily be the former without losing the advantage of being the natural first choice for stretchers.

The one comment I would make is that Interact Commerce was doing about 50% of their sales via a direct salesforce. So the revenue numbers (and the direct selling expenses ) would be substantially higher on the same number of units as when Sage moved it to a 100% direct model fairly soon after acquisition. It still doesn't disprove what looks to be the truth by just looking on how long it has taken the product to move to a web environment. It was once the 'gold standard' in mid-market CRM and is definitely not there anymore in terms of perception.