Karen Ainley

• Various roles across Salesforce.com Products (Sage Financials & Sage People); SBCA; SBS Platform; New Ventures & Partnerships.
• Leading overarching small segment Vision & Strategy for category or cross segment initiatives
• Lead Product Management & Product Marketing teams as well as account management and support teams globally in a matrix environment
• Deliver products or services to market from ideation, through delivery and go to market

Promotion/relevelling of role as team and remit expanded
Recommendation to Ex.Co. & Board presentation to EOL product

• Accountable for product Vison and commercial strategy for New Venture with Salesforce
• Led a team of product managers, product marketing managers and technical evangelists
• Ownership of product lifecycle from concept, strategy, roadmaps to launch and GTM
• Worked across Sage, Salesforce, and other strategic partners to ensure successful product launch
• Recruitment of new partner channel
• Assisting with formation of CBC concept and customer success teams in Europe and NA

• Lead virtual teams across 7 European countries to achieve revenue and customer goals for our online and mobile products
• Identify areas of best practice and replicate in other geographies
• Accountable for product strategy and roadmaps and prioritisation based on comprehensive business cases and ROI priorities
• Determine and execute appropriate routes to market
• Define pricing strategies and customer retention plans
• Balance the priorities of the individual country focus… Show more

• Lead virtual teams across 7 European countries to achieve revenue and customer goals for our online and mobile products
• Identify areas of best practice and replicate in other geographies
• Accountable for product strategy and roadmaps and prioritisation based on comprehensive business cases and ROI priorities
• Determine and execute appropriate routes to market
• Define pricing strategies and customer retention plans
• Balance the priorities of the individual country focus with the segment priorities and goals
• Prepare and communicate business plans for the segment
• Prepare and share strategy and vision materials and gain acceptance at all levels
• Chair customer journey mapping sessions and deliver products to market ensuring that the customer is at the heart of what we deliver
• Lead and build relationships with R&D teams across Europe to ensure on time delivery of road mapped priorities Show less

• Various product releases including the recent release of Sage 200 Online, including building new subscription commercial models and embarking on a programme of partner and customer enablement as well as engaging with 3rd parties such as Microsoft
• Leading the SMB category team in defining strategies for our SMB portfolio of today and tomorrow
• Identifying opportunities to expand the reach of our product and service portfolio to the wider SMB market space and consider channel… Show more

• Various product releases including the recent release of Sage 200 Online, including building new subscription commercial models and embarking on a programme of partner and customer enablement as well as engaging with 3rd parties such as Microsoft
• Leading the SMB category team in defining strategies for our SMB portfolio of today and tomorrow
• Identifying opportunities to expand the reach of our product and service portfolio to the wider SMB market space and consider channel implications and alternative routes to market
• Preparation of product management & strategy documentation and business plans
• Engage with counterparts across the Sage Group and represent the UKI on pan-European initiatives such as Hermes, SEOS and CRM Cross Sell
• Portfolio management – to ensure the success of end-of-life initiatives for our sunset product range, minimising customer attrition and dissatisfaction
• Business partner engagement through regular forums, events, and visits
• Engaging with X3 team as part of Project Sky to offer advice and share learning’s from the Sage 200 Online release
• Represent UKI on various Project Leopard steering groups and the Global Pricing Forum
• Lead on the business planning pricing stream which involved bringing a core team together from across all segments as well as Ireland and ensuring that templates were completed correctly for each segment and delivered on time.
• Leading on some cross Op Co projects, such as the Commercial Competency Project for the GPF. This involved overcoming language barriers and different cultures.
• Set, manage, and deliver annual and quarterly budgets & forecasts in conjunction with Finance & Sales.
• People leadership and talent development, including coaching, mentoring, and encouraging self-development Show less

• Building strategic roadmaps by monitoring market trends, competitor activity and technology changes to ensure Sage 200 is not only current but innovative and future-proof
• Liaising with Business Partners and customers at BPACs, customer days and events to gather feedback on requirements and drive revenues.
• Liaise with internal teams, pre-sales, support, and customer development teams to provide regular updates and gather feedback
• Assume product owner role in SCRUM iteration… Show more

• Building strategic roadmaps by monitoring market trends, competitor activity and technology changes to ensure Sage 200 is not only current but innovative and future-proof
• Liaising with Business Partners and customers at BPACs, customer days and events to gather feedback on requirements and drive revenues.
• Liaise with internal teams, pre-sales, support, and customer development teams to provide regular updates and gather feedback
• Assume product owner role in SCRUM iteration meetings
• Work closely with analysts in R&D to ensure we deliver functionality that will drive sales of the software
• Manage the demonstration environment project
• Liaise with other product managers across Sage to ensure we deliver the right features for the suite as a whole
• Excellent customer service skills Show less

• Providing specialist support to business partners during the implementation of mid market accounting and ERP software.
• Ensuring team target is achieved.
• Carrying out 1-to-1 appraisals and annual reviews including performance management.
• Project Management.
• Ensuring product knowledge is up to date throughout the team, and product portfolio is as wide as possible to implement solutions rather than individual programs.
• Self-organisation and time… Show more

• Providing specialist support to business partners during the implementation of mid market accounting and ERP software.
• Ensuring team target is achieved.
• Carrying out 1-to-1 appraisals and annual reviews including performance management.
• Project Management.
• Ensuring product knowledge is up to date throughout the team, and product portfolio is as wide as possible to implement solutions rather than individual programs.
• Self-organisation and time management.
• Recommendation to CEO around how to make professional services successful when working with an indirect channel Show less

Working in the channel with our business partners to demonstrate Sage 200. I helped to train business partners to sell Sage 200 and also presented at events for both Sage and partners

Supporting Sage products across Small Business, Accountants products and Medium Business Products