Blackbaud had good results for the first quarter ended March 31. But the discussion on this week's earnings webcast was as much about the investments being in the company as it was about past performance. "We had a solid first quarter," noted CEO Mike Gianoni. Net income for the nonprofit software company rose to $3.8 million in the most recently ended period, up 43 percent from $2.7 million a year ago.

Edgewater Technology, which owns Dynamics reseller Fullscope, rebounded to a profit of $711,000 for the first quarter ended March 31, compared to a loss of $889,000 a year ago. In this week's earnings webcast, CEO Shirley Singleton said the company's bet on "manufacturing coming back to the United States" was one of the factors behind a strong performance. Revenue for the most recently ended period was $27.6 million, up 18 percent, from $23.5 million in last year's corresponding period.

SugarCRM has hired William Hunt as its new chief product officer. Hunt will oversee SugarCRM's product management, development, quality assurance, operations and the professional services organizations from the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Prior to joining the open source software company, Hunt was co-founder and chief technology officer of OptTown, which makes self-provisioning CRM for small and medium-sized businesses.

Blackbaud hasn't been in the midmarket financial space since it canned its Financial Edge channel in 2005, although it has had a small channel remaining for its FundWare nonprofit accounting program. However, the Charleston, S.C.-based nonprofit vendor is back officially this month with the revamped Blackbaud Partner Network. Blackbaud actually had as many as 30 partner categories from its acquisitions. But there was no clear plan, according to Chris Clinton, VP of global channels and the partner ecosystem.