The Vegas casino-size Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Fla.- where Thomson Reuters held its user conference recently- has an unusual set of names for meeting rooms – names like Ripple, Swirl, Facet, Bubble, Flash, Glitter, Glimmer, Slimmer. The Glimmer-Slimmer combination gave me a thought that will be familiar to Lord of the Rings fans, with the Deagol/Smeagol combination. "Would you like a room with two beds, my precious?"

Exact is seeking to expand its channel growth. But given how independent the company's units are in the United Sates, it is difficult to pick out the corporate program versus what is happening in this country. In a recent third-quarter analyst call, CEO Erik van der Meijden said Exact is building new reseller programs. "We had a big increase in reseller channel revenue," he added. But that applies to the Business Solutions division, which does not operate here, while revenue from the U.S. manufacturing packages – Macola, Max, JobBoss – was off.

SugarCRM has rolled out a new version and new pricing for its open source software. The company describes the product, SugarUX, as offering "an immersive, intuitive interface to CRM ..." There are four different editions in the product lineup. All editions offer sales automation and forecasting; marketing, support and call center automation; reporting and dashboards and SugarCRM Mobile. The tiers start with the Professional Edition which offers 15GB storage, for $35 per user, per month, billed annually.

Microsoft Master VAR Socius has signed Houston-based DYNx Solutions, which sells Dynamics GP. DYNx has become the 18th affiliate signed by Socius in 2012 and 1013. DYNx serves the oil and gas, manufacturing and lumber industries in Texas and Louisiana. Owner Dan O'Connell founded the company in December 2009 as DYNx Consulting after working at Dynamics VAR Interdyn Progressive Group, which was acquired by Aztec Systems, and Nextec. In 2012, he and Jose Quintero, the partner runs the Florida office, joined to form DYNx Solutions. The reseller also carries Dynamics CRM. After a somewhat slow start, Socius, based in Dublin, Ohio, has picked up speed in signing affiliates, although not as many as the SBS Group. The third Master VAR, Tribridge, has still signed only one in the same two years.