It's been years since I've attended Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference. And after looking at the course agenda, the company has not come up with reasons to lure me back when the conference is held in Washington D.C. in mid-July There are 58 courses listed online So there's a partner day for the Dynamics crew. But as one top VAR said it's "So thin I am not attending! Don't hold your breath for content on partner day!"

Retail specialist K3 turned sales of Dynamics AX and Sage X3 into a rebound in business for the first half ended December 31. These results for the United Kingdom-based company resemble those of Copenhagen, Denmark-based Columbus for 2014. Both are producing growth on the specialized end of their business; both are benefiting from sales of their products built on Dynamics AX.

Accel-KKR, which has done some significant investing in the ERP space, has completed fundraising for Accel‐KKR Structured Capital Partners II with $325 million in committed capital. There's a good reason that people in the financial software space should care. It was an Accel-KKR fund that acquired Sage Nonprofit Solutions to form Abila and made an investment in Swiftpage to fuel its acquisition of Act and SalesLogix.

NetSuite has been busy recruiting for channel members in the Pacific basin. In the last week, the cloud software company said it had signed two consulting firms in the Philippines, three on the Asian continent and one in Australia. The Philippine additions were Asper Solutions in Mandaluyong City, and CloudQwest in Makati City, both headquartered in the greater Manila area.