Without going back to 2014 exhibitor list, it still seems safe to say that the floor of the Atlanta Microsoft Convergence show this month had more resellers than ever as exhibitors. There also seemed to be a bumper crop of international resellers. Asking that question of everyone I ran into brought general agreement on that point. Of course, getting around seemed tough because the floor layout was like Manhattan Streets below Canal Street—there were diagonal aisles between exhibits that abutted vertical aisles.

Sage North America is going to use the Net Promoter System to assess how end-user companies view reseller performance. In its most basic form, Net Promoter takes the number of customers who would not recommend a product or service and subtracts those from the number who would recommend them. "We want to make it more of an educational partner experience at this point," Don Deshaies, Sage's VP of product management said. "I think over time there is an opportunity to evolve benefits."

NetSuite has agreed to integrate the NetSuite ERP suite with the UltiPro HCM application from Ultimate Software. Besides integrating applications, the companies are cross-selling each others' products in the HCM and ERP spaces. In a prepared statement, NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson said, "The combination of Ultimate's robust HCM functionality together with NetSuite's system of record for core operational processes provides our customers with a tightly integrated solution to run the core aspects of their business."

The call for entries for Bob Scott's Top 100 VARs is open for the 2015 selection. And however many names repeat there are always surprises--those companies that are not widely known, but belong on the list. Each year, some companies disappear, although looking at the 2014 selection, the companies there are still in business. Whether they lose out to faster-growing competitors is another story.