Avalara has named Bill Ingram as CFO. And the credentials the sales tax software company stresses in the press release announcing the hiring are just the things you would expect to need for an organization that might go public. According to the release, Ingram's experience includes "fund-raising (both private and public capital), SEC reporting, investor communications, strategic partnerships and M&A."

Industrial and Financial Systems, which markets enterprise-level software, has agreed to a buyout from private equity group IGT Holding. While the Swedish-based ERP company is outside of the usual kinds of software vendors covered here, it joins a steady stream of financial software providers that have been taken out of the publicly traded market by the private equity interests. The deal is worth about $1.1 billion.

SimPro, which owns Gem Accounts, is recruiting a reseller channel in the United States. It has hired Ken Del Gobbo, who has been president of Gem Accounts since October 2013, as VP of partnerships for North America to enlist VARs for simPro's job management software. That leaves the question of what is going on with Gem Accounts, which launched small business and mid-market versions of its accounting software two years ago?

Non-profit software vendor Abila, based in Austin, Texas, has hired Lars Powers as VP of software development. He was previously director of application development for Austin-based Newgistics from December 2014 until this month. He served as software development manager for the Austin office of 3M Health Care from August 2011 through November 2013.