If it was just the fact that Doug Deane, owner of Sage reseller, DSD Business Systems, said he was looking at manufacturing packages outside of Sage, I would make such a big deal of this. But I sense a general change in the manufacturing software business. The fact that Exact Macola seems to have really faded from the scene may have helped spur movement. Deane also mentioned the flight of manufacturing from the U.S., which keeps shaking things up. At the same time, there is the movement upstream, Microsoft with Dynamics AX, and Sage with X3, that is reshaping this market. Deane is looking at Syspro, among others, and he wouldn’t be the first to move that way. Accounting Systems Inc. and Hightower both picked up Syspro. Read more...

For all I know, Lawson Software has been doing this for some time. But the fact that the vendor’s come page has the headline “Lawson is hiring” does indicate that the economy is getting better in the software market. There were nine positions posted this week alone. In December, Columbus IT Partner, the Danish Dynamics reselling, advertised for AX consultants in Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom and the United States. Last month, I got copied on an email from a reseller asking acquaintances to steer manufacturing job seekers its way. This fits with other economic metrics including Intuit's economic report for December that showed small business employment was up by .3 percent for the month, which the company said translation into an annual growth rate of about 3.4 percent.

Salesorder.com has an API connector available for eCommerce integration, although it’s still a beta product according to the headline with the announcement. The official description is that “This connector comes with pre-built connectors and also a custom connector where you (or we) can develop your own integration to a cart of your choice.” Salesorder.com is owned by Ray Tetlow, who also owns Skyytek, once NetSuite’s top VAR and now ramping up on sales of Business By Design. Read more...