Hare said the impact of Cloud should not be measured in its financial impact this year, but in how it changes the way products are used. "It should help drive greater integration and greater cross sell," Hare told analysts. The company said the cloud should eliminate the need for maintenance or changes due to product upgrades. At its Summit conference this week, Sage followed a practice I have long argued against as counter-productive for companies. It had no news leading up to the conference and then dropped a load of press releases, often paper-thin in describing products. I believe that companies should design campaigns that offer news before, during and after a show to generate a stream of publicity. Otherwise, you get a pattern of nothing, a huge spike and then nothing or coverage that quickly dies in the press.