Sage announces a global agreement with Microsoft to collaborate on future product development. This will include new Sage products built on Microsoft platforms and closer integration across the two companies’ respective product portfolios. Through this agreement, Sage will deliver next-generation accounting and bookkeeping productivity tools built on best-in-class Microsoft cloud solutions.

Small companies represent 99 per cent of the world’s businesses and have created two-thirds of all new jobs in the UK and U.S. since 2009. Through this agreement, Sage will be able to help small and medium businesses by giving access to the full extent of the two companies’ resources and technology.

Sage has worked with Microsoft for the past two decades, and the company is also a key customer for Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Azure. The announcement extends the relationship to deliver cloud, on-premise and hybrid solutions at a global level.

 Alan Laing, EVP, global strategic partnerships and alliances at Sage, commented: “We have enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Microsoft for many years at a local level, but this new agreement is about taking a step back to look at the bigger picture. We’re imagining what could be made possible for Small & Medium Businesses if our two organizations worked more closely together on a global scale.

“We’re really excited about the possibilities – the greatest developer minds working on the very latest platforms to build exciting new solutions for Small & Medium Business in the long-term. That’s what Sage is all about and we’re delighted to share that vision with Microsoft.”

“We’re pleased to be growing our relationship with Sage, building upon their work with Azure, and extending it to the Office 365 platform,” said Julia White, General Manager of Office 365 Product Marketing, Microsoft Corp. “By developing on the Office 365 platform, Sage will ultimately help accountants and bookkeepers to be more productive.”