Jeff Lewis from Usage Business Solutions has been a part of Sage Accounting Solutions since June 2000. Jeff was born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA and attended Ohio State University. Jeff began his sales and sales management career in the Midwest as a sales professional with US Steel. Sales management experience and a Sales Management Apprenticeship Programme with Zig Ziglar opened the door to vast opportunities on the East Coast of the USA. With a strong desire to be number one in his field, Jeff moved to Washington D.C. with AGIP Oil. This led to opportunities for living and working abroad, namely in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, France, Israel and Egypt, where he developed country specific initiatives and built distribution centers. Utilizing local talent and combining it with proven management methods, he achieved the establishment of successful centers operating to this day throughout these territories. International business development became Jeff’s primary focus. Whilst in South Africa on holidays Jeff discovered opportunities within the freight and logistics arena and began working with AEI, BAX Global and then Fritz Companies (UPS) as Sales Director for Africa. His primary focus was to identify opportunities within Africa including joint ventures, acquisitions, agency options, branch operations and franchise style options and he soon became an expert in this field. From there Jeff migrated into the I.T. field with Ariel Technologies, developing the Sun Microsystems platform within the group in Africa. When the opportunity arose to join Ariel Technologies, Jeff migrated to information technology within the Sun Micro environment, developing skills related to governmental infrastructure and foundational based high end scale solutions for larger corporate customers. In July 2000, Jeff embarked on a mission to establish Sage Pastel Software internationally. Sage Software is listed on the London Stock Exchange and now has over 6 million users globally with 12,700 employees in 24 countries. Jeff’s business development methodology positioned Sage Pastel to become a serious market player in numerous foreign markets. Starting from a zero base, Jeff has built the division to the current position: 85 Business Partner distribution agents 52 countries 450 resellers 180,000 companies utilizing our software applications 340,000 end users operating our applications daily 13,500 + students certified on our programs 50+ Authorized training centers internationally In 2009 Jeff immigrated to Australia and established Usage Business Solutions, the Channel Partner for the region. Since Usage Business Solutions’ establishment Jeff has continued to build a network of resellers and distributors in over 55 countries, and has won numerous Sage sales awards. Usage Business prides itself on customer care and expertise with more than 75 years of combined experience in software products. Usage Business Solutions in Australia and New Zealand has a network of 40 qualified Business Partners who provide quality on-site implementation and consulting services. Their focus is the small to medium sized business market and specialises in easy to use and powerful accounting and ERP solutions.