The company pictured Sage Life as more than just an accounting package and as serving a new market, and one different than addred by its struggling Sage One line, which was relaunched in the United States this month. The product is described as having social networking at its core. After debuting in the United States, Life will move to other countries, starting with the United Kingdom.

Doug LaBahn, recently named as global VP for product marketing for Life, said the application is aimed at companies with 10 to 200 employees. He also said Sage has worked with companies who of that size that are unhappy with Intuit's QuickBooks. "We have been working with those customers to identify their needs and requirements," he said.

However, Sage officials declined to discuss Life in terms of where it fits in relationship to other Sage products, although they said it would not interfere with plans for Sage CRM, 300 and X3, and noted the preferred CRM product for Life customers is Salesforce CRM cloud.

The size of companies listed definitely incorporates the target market addressed by Sage 50 U.S. (Peachtree), which has been generally described as suited for companies bigger than those using QuickBooks. It would also cover a good deal of the Sage 100 market.

Sage will sell Life only to new users, not to those who already own Sage accounting products. The company did not say what its plans are for companies that might outgrow Life. But it provided a general plan for Sage One, which is says is aimed at sole traders, self-employed, entrepreneurs and small owner-led businesses.

"In the near future, we will announce when Sage One customers will be able to move to Sage Life, if they choose to do so," the company said through a spokesperson. There has been no direct statement about the software architecture. However, the spokesperson noted, regarding the software design of Sage One and Sage Life, "the two products are designed in close collaboration with customers from their respective target segments, so there are important differentiators between them."

Bob Scott

• Email

Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind