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Latest in Sage Restructuring: VP To Oversee Resellers

Irvine’s Sage Software Inc., Orange County’s second-biggest software maker after Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., is revamping how it sells its software for small and midsize businesses.

It recently created an executive position—vice president of channel management—and hired Microsoft Corp. veteran Tom Miller to fill it.

Sage, a unit of Britain’s Sage PLC with 400 workers here, has been plowing through a major restructuring for the better part of a year.

Chief Executive Sue Swenson, who came on board in 2007, has cut hundreds of jobs across Sage’s disparate business units. She’s also hired a handful of executives in Irvine.

The latest is Miller, who came from Fargo, N.D. -based Great Plains Software Inc., a maker of business software that was bought by Microsoft for $1.1 billion in 2001. Microsoft later folded the company into a unit called Microsoft Dynamics GP.

Swenson is simplifying Sage’s complex operations, which are broken down into several large groups throughout the country. Sage had grown bloated after 20 or so deals—there were redundant positions and the company struggled to get all of its businesses on the same page.

“Sage has grown in North America through the acquisitions of a lot of business units that each brought strategic products to the table,” Miller said. “It is, at the very best, challenging to integrate and leverage the organization structure and programs when you have diversity in terms of the types of channel partners and different competitive environments.”

Sage’s software streamlines tasks for companies, including accounting, purchasing, payroll processing and other day-to-day operations. Most of its software is sold through a network of local resellers that install the software and provide service.

Miller is set to focus the company’s efforts for marketing, training and communications with resellers under one roof.

“All the functions that are on my team were in different business units before,” he said. “Partner programs, channel marketing and channel readiness—all of that takes an awful lot of collaboration. If the nucleus isn’t there to have the team work together, the results could be different.”

Miller is Sage’s second executive hire from Great Plains. Earlier this year, the company named Jodi Ueker-Rust, former Great Plains chief operating officer, as vice president of Sage’s business solutions division in Irvine.

Miller served as the director of the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center in Fargo.

New Logo

Anaheim’s Targus Inc., which designs and markets laptop bags, backpacks and computer accessories, is getting a new look this fall.

After 25 years in business, the company is ditching its red and black logo for something a little more “consumer-centric,” according to Al Giazzon, vice president of marketing.

The company is looking to appeal to corporate workers and more casual buyers, such as students.

“We are changing the logo style and the look of the packaging,” he said. “A lot of our new business is coming from consumer categories, so our logo needed to make a bigger move to something that was a little softer.”

Last week the company debuted a simplified logo and a slew of products that are set to hit store shelves next month.

Consumer adoption of netbooks—lightweight, slimmed-down laptops—are driving the latest crop of products at Targus.

“The growth of netbooks really spurred continued demand for laptop accessories,” Giazzon said. “We ship more netbook bags than anyone.”

Targus has roughly 65% of the market for laptop bags. It sells in stores and online.

Some of its new bags take design cues from sports, fashion and active-wear, Giazzon said.

“We used this past year to do thousands of hours of focus groups and took the time to make Targus a much more consumer-centric brand than it was in the past,” he said.

The new products are set to be on store shelves next month.

Kofax Deal

Irvine’s Kofax PLC, which makes software that helps companies cut down on paper, recently bought Boston-based 170 Systems Inc. for $33 million in cash and debt.

170 Systems is a venture-backed startup that makes invoice processing and accounting software.

It has 140 workers and some 150 customers, including ConAgra Foods Inc., Juniper Networks Inc., Thomson Reuters Corp. and Verizon Wireless, a unit of Verizon Communications Inc.

Kofax Chief Executive Reynolds Bish said the acquisition addressed “a significant competitive disadvantage we’ve publicly acknowledged and discussed in some detail over the past year.”

The buy allows Kofax to integrate invoice processing that uses paper and electronic billing.

170 Systems had 2008 sales of about $28 million and wasn’t profitable.

Kofax makes scanning software used by businesses to get rid of paper and speed up work productivity.

The software collects paper documents, forms, invoices, e-mail and photos and organizes them into a searchable database of electronic files.

The company has recently announced a slew of customer wins in healthcare, logistics and with government agencies.

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