Whatever specifically led to the September resignation of Peter Karpas as CEO of Xero North America, the New Zealand cloud company's half-year report points in the direction. Under U.S. performance in the presentation is the phrase "Dissatisfied with execution and leadership". This is not where you want to be when you are the challenger. In its operating report for the first half ended September 30, Xero said it is recruiting a local leadership team.

How it's being done is not clear. But in last month's Investor's Day, CEO Brad Smith sketched out how Intuit is helping small businesses get financing in what is clearly a test. Whether this should be called brokering or not, Intuit is using data analysis to help businesses overcome credit scores. Smith noted that six out of 10 businesses are denied loans because of their FICA scores. "We have the ability to look inside of QuickBooks and to look at invoices you have sent out and receivables you have coming and your cash flow," Smith said.

The fact that the Randy and Andy party—replete with cellphone "wristbands" is going to Barcelona, Spain, is interesting. That is particularly for those who will miss the event on November 4. But it represents the movement of resellers worldwide, whether from this country to international operations for from other countries into the United States. Randy and Andy are Randy Forkner of Collins Computing and Andy Vabulas of I.B.I.S. and they have made their festivities hot tickets at Microsoft's Convergence and World Wide Partner Conference in the United States.

Columbus, the Copenhagen, Denmark-based VAR and consulting firm, has acquired Dynamics Anywhere. Technically, the Netherlands-based target was purchased by To-Increase, the software development arm of Columbus. At least, that's how the press release from Dynamics Anywhere pictured it. Columbus didn't mention its subsidiary in this deal. Terms were not disclosed. Whatever the case, DA has mobile products for Dynamics AX and NAV. For both the AX Anywhere and NAV Anywhere offerings, modules include sales, logistics and sales.