There is no formula for awarding funds. The four regional growth managers, who were put in place about a year ago, will consider spending proposals from resellers and hand out the cash. The idea is to “Come up with a marketing plan, monitor and co-fund the results,” says Miller. There is also no formula for how much the VAR contribution should be except that the proposal has to be aimed at growing the reseller’s Sage revenue. By the way, I have never liked the turn away from the spelling “co-op”. To me “coop” is something chickens nest in and is confusing in headlines. Mid-market EVP Joe Langner noted that Sage has also consolidated its marketing programs so that channel marketing is no longer separate from general marketing and overall, marketing is no longer organized by individual products. That practice led to “different divisions buying different prospect lists and using different marketing automation systems,” he said. The realignment fits into the company-wide plan articulated by Guy Berruyer, CEO of the parent Sage Group. One of observations about Sage's previous organization is that some products that had been acquired years ago were still being run as if they were independent companies.