This was not the easiest year to collect information for an award, especially with one that asks about revenue and staff size. Even though the VAR Stars award is not based on volume, but on quality, some people aren't thrilled to provide this information in the best of times.

CDC Software, based in Shanghai, China, and Atlanta, has acquired Activplant, a Canadian-based company that provides manufacturing business intelligence applications.

AccountMate's New Client promotion, detailed in a newsletter to its channel this week, underscores the importance of vendors getting their software into the hands of new customers. It's always difficult for source-code companies whose VARs can make a living as essentially consultants to the installed base to keep up the rate of new customer acquisition.

Revenue from Kintera products, the online vendor purchased by Blackbaud in July 2008, continues to support Blackbaud's revenue in the nine months ended September 30, according to the company’s form 10-Q.