News and Analysis

News and Analysis (15669)

SWK PREPARES FOR EXPANSION

No details were given perhaps the recent move into the Sage X-3 line was in mind, but in sending along the first quarter financial for SWK Technologies, the company mentioned it is preparing for its next round of expansion as an explanation for an increase in SG&A expenses. SWK, based in Livingston, N.J., is a Sage reseller that is owned by Trey Resources and for the last two quarters has been providing the SWK-only results as a contrast with Trey. For the first quarter ended March 31, revenue was $1.83 million and SWK lost $106,527. Read more...

TIER AND MAINTENANCE MOVES POPULAR AT INSIGHTS

In the scheme of things, it sounds relatively minor. But Sage pleased resellers by announcing at its Insights conference that sales of Peachtree Quantum and Simply Accounting will count towards meeting reseller tier requirements. That’s a big improvement for all since VARs now have an incentive to sell those products. One said the previous status was a  disincentive to sell those other Sage products. And that’s part of the message from the show – Sage is becoming one company instead of a conglomeration of acquired products. Read more...

INTUIT SHIFTS QB STRATEGY

Intuit has spent the last two years saying free is not free and using products that initially have no charge to hook customers who will buy more services. But in this week's third-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Brad Smith said Intuit has downplayed the use of the free QB Simple Start package. Instead, Intuit is putting emphasis on getting new customers into the product franchise via offerings such as the QuickBooks Online edition and its Web site service. Read more...

SAGE TAKES FUNDRAISING ONLINE

A pure SaaS product in a family of on-premise models, Sage Fundraising Online, is getting touted as at least a minor breakthrough product and based on some limited interviews with MIP resellers, it's going to get a good reception. Bruce Nickerson of B.L. Nickerson & Associates of Mendham, N.J., said advantages include that there's it's very easy to install and that the pricing beats virtually “anything out there.” The importance of Fundraising Online goes beyond the VARs like Nickerson, who sell Sage’s MIP NFP accounting line. Read more...

MILLER; ROOM IN SAGE'S BIG TENT

The most important strategic statement to come out of Sage Insights was a statement by Tom Miller, VP of channel management, that Sage is not going to deliberately weed out the smaller resellers the way its rival Microsoft is doing. Asked about Sage’s views, Miller said the company believes there is room for small resellers and accountants, not just the larger, expanding VARs. “It’s a big tent,” was his way of expressing it. Read more...

MICROSOFT EXTENDS CONNECTIONS TO SAP

Just as the competition between Microsoft and SAP appears likely to start heating up, Microsoft has extended its connections between its Dynamics AX and SAP Business Suite. The company says a new connector accelerates two-tier ERP deployments between the two, enabling IT organizations to use Dynamics AX in subsidiaries, divisions or branches and to easily connect with SAP installations at HQ locations. Read more...

SILVEREDGE GETS PARTNER AWARD

SilverEdge Systems Software of Schaumburg, Ill. has received the Deltek Partner Award for its implementation of Deltek Vision at American StructurePoint. The VSE Corp. won the Business Impact award, which Deltek said it got for use of Deltek’s government contracting applications that won in VSE winning millions of dollars in government contracts. The Innovation Award went to architecture and engineering design firm, Ballinger, for its innovative use of Deltek Vision’s capabilities to build custom project information center dashboards. The Implementation Award went to QinetiQ North America for its implementation of Costpoint across thousands of users in multiple customers. Read more...

SAGE CONSIDERS ANOTHER X3 IMPORT

Sage X3Sage North America is studying whether to bring X3 Standard, a less-sophisticated version of its high-end manufacturing package into the United States. During the Insights reseller conference, that product's name got translated by the gossip mill into "X2", which serves as a handy way to think about the product, although not an officially accurate term. The version of X3 that has been introduced here is the X3 Premium, according to Himanshu Palsule, VP of product strategy and marketing for Sage Business Solutions. Read more...

BIG MAC ATTACK IN PRESS AND ANALYST CORPS

MacBook ProThis is not about editors at a trade show buffet, which is something like an attack by locusts. It's about the Macintosh computer and its spread among press and analysts and even some resellers. The trend is hardly major at this point. Yet, Macs have been showing up in greater numbers, at least that's what I think I saw at Microsoft Convergence and Sage Insights. It doesn't take much to represent greater numbers because there were hardly any before. Read more...

SAP LAUNCHES BUSINESS BYDESIGN

After a two-year delay, SAP has gotten a version of its SaaS product BusinessByDesign to market that it is ready to take to volume. Volume is anything exceeding the roughly 100 customers it has acquired over the last few months as it worked out the problem with previous versions. Still, I think SAP is going to be a factor in the midmaret, the target for BBD. Read more...

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