But the software company is taking pains to reassure channel partners that its cloud foray won’t cut resellers out of the picture.

“We will ensure that you play a role,” said Himanshu Palsule, executive vice president, in a keynote speech Tuesday at the company’s Insights partner conference in Denver. “You will not be disintermediated by connected services. You cannot. Think about it. You still own the customer relationship.”

Sage executives, in fact, presented the announcements at Insights as a new business opportunity for solution providers, much as SAP did this week as it rolls out its Business ByDesign suite of on-demand applications.

“If you are a partner, this is a tremendous opportunity,” said Tom Miller, Sage vice president of channel management, in an Insights keynote. “You have the business knowledge. You have the business process knowledge. We see opportunity for you to add value to these connected services.”

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Sage Software announced today that Sage CRM / SageCRM.com and Sage SalesLogix have been selected by ISM Inc., Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Contact Center strategic advisors, as Top 15 CRM Small & Medium Business Software Award winners for 2008. Sage CRM received the ISM award for the sixth consecutive year, while Sage SalesLogix received the award for a tenth straight year.

“Sage CRM Solutions consistently receive ISM recognition for reliability and flexibility, resulting in no small part from our research into how customers go about their work, and the manner in which we transfer this knowledge into product design” said David van Toor, senior vice president and general manager for Sage CRM Solutions, North America. “Our recently announced Sage CRM Solutions 2010 strategy – with its focus on interoperability, the connected front and back office, and the anywhere workforce experience – is specifically how we will continue delivering the functionality our customers need, so they in turn can deliver exceptional experiences for their customers.”

The Sage CRM Solutions were chosen after intensive testing by the ISM Software Lab at its Bethesda, Md.-based headquarters. Each product tested during ISM’s evaluation program was rated according to 217 selection criteria, including 103 business functions, 52 technical features, 36 implementation capabilities, 9 real time CRM criteria and 17 user support features.

“Sage Software is a leader in the industry and is to be praised for consistently obtaining Top 15 honors in our strenuous and comprehensive evaluations,” noted Barton Goldenberg, president, ISM