The Information Technology Alliance has formed the CIO Academy. ITA is an association whose members including technology professionals, consultants and product/service providers such as resellers. The Academy, which will meet twice a year during ITA meetings, will host industry experts to have in-depth presentations on issues of concern to CIOs and those with similar roles who work in the 30 largest CPA firms outside of the Big Four.

In his first earnings webcast, Sage's new chief executive Steve Kelly, declared that the strategy set by his predecessor, Guy Berruyer, is working. While discussing results for the year ended, September 30, Kelly also said the company needs to accelerate execution and  that means the company needs to increase the "pace of execution" and his comments about elements that will be continued include "product rationalization and shift in investment towards investment in growth."

Intuit has been on a roll all through 2014 and the company's board of directors thought CEO Brad Smith deserved credit (well, over-achieved on goals set for him). That's the main way to read the compensation report that shows Smith received $16.5 million in total pay for the year ended July 31, up 33 percent from $12.5 million in fiscal 2013. The total was pushed up by option awards, which more than doubled to $3.5 million for the recently ended year, up from $1.6 million.

Xero, which has been shoring up its North American leadership, has hired three new leaders. The moves follow the September departure of Peter Karpas as CEO of the cloud software company's North American operations after seven months. In a prepared statement CEO Rod Drury said, "We're thrilled at the growth we're achieving in our initial three markets and are now focused on execution in the important U.S. market and are making good progress on building our leadership team there."