"It should help driver greater integration and greater cross sell," Hare told analysts.

In its prepared statement, the company said the cloud should eliminate the need for maintenance or changes due to product upgrades.

Meanwhile, the company said organic revenue for the period just ended was up 6 percent over last year's corresponding period with organic recurring revenue up 10.1 percent. For the nine month's sales were up 6.1 percent, As the switch from the desktop to the cloud proceeds, software revenue fell while subscription income jumped by 33.2 percent.

Sage expects the trends to continue and to end the year of September 30 with at least 6-percent organic revenue growth and a 27-percent organic operating margin.

European companies use trading updates for their first and third quarters. Generally, income and revenue amounts are not disclosed and they typically talk about results only in percentages of change and where trends were or were not within management expectations.

Bob Scott

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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