In his position as CFO and interim COO, Sage said Hare will have full executive authority to run the business until the appointment of the new CEO. Kelly will remain available to the group until he leaves on 31 May 2019, and the company has begun the process of finding his replacement.

Sage said: ‘The group remains focused on completing its evolution to a software as a service (SaaS) business, driven by Sage business cloud and providing outstanding customer experience, with greater prioritisation on accelerating the operational execution required to realise the significant opportunity available to Sage.

‘In seeking a new CEO, the board is particularly focused on finding an executive practiced in embedding sustainable processes at scale for the next phase of the Sage journey to capture the significant opportunities ahead.’

Donald Brydon, chairman, said: ‘Stephen has much to be proud of in the very heavy lifting he has led as the group is transformed. He energised the group, drove change with relentless focus on customers, and under his leadership the strategy to become a leading SaaS business has been defined.

‘The board remains fully supportive of the overall strategy. We wish Stephen well in the next phase of his life.’

Kelly said: ‘I joined Sage four years ago and am immensely proud of the extraordinary change that I have had the privilege to lead. I joined a fragmented organisation with minimal presence in the cloud.

‘The major cultural transformation has created Sage business cloud which has now grown to £386m of annualised recurring revenue (ARR) from a standing start and has driven total shareholder return for Sage of over twice that of the FTSE100 during my tenure.’

 Sage said the group continues to trade in line with previous full year FY18 guidance of around 7% organic revenue growth and around 27.5% organic operating margin. It will announce its FY18 full year results on 21 November.

Report by Pat Sweet