A 35.8-percent increase in operating expenses helped push C3.ai to a 72-percent increase in its loss for the third quarter ended January 31. Backed by Microsoft and Koch Industries, the company is  CEO Thomas Siebel’s venture that is designed to counter Salesforce.com’s dominance in the CRM market.

It was the organization’s first report as a publicly traded company. For the most recently ended quarterly,  C3.ai lost $16.9 million, compared to a loss of $9.8 million a year ago.. Revenue for the period was $49.1 million, compared to $41.3 million in last year’s corresponding quarter. Operating expenses were $55.4 million up, from $40.8 million in last year’s corresponding period. Subscription revenue of $42.7 million rose 23 percent year-over-year from $34.6 million while revenue from professional services fell 4 percent to $6.4 million from $6.7 million. Siebel noted that the company has signed an agreement with Infor to integrate the C3.ai Suite with many of its products and also to market the product under the Infor name. During the recent earnings webcast, CFO David Barter said 24 percent of third quarter revenue was from EMEA and APAC. He also said revenue came from six industry verticals, including the newer verticals of life sciences and financial services. Overall, the vertical represented 24 percent of third-quarter revenue. Life sciences growth was notable as it contributed 7 percent of year-to-date revenue compared to 1 percent a year earlier.

Tax software vendor Vertax has hired Sal Visca as chief technology officer. Visca replaced Jennifer Kurtz, who worked at Vertex for 21 years five months and served as CTO from January 2016 through October 2020.

Kurtz became CTO of Infinite Blue in February Visca was previously CTO at Elastic Path Software from 2011 until last month. Before that he was CTO for SAP’s application and BI platform group from January 2008 through 2010 and was CTO for SAP BusinessObjects from August 2005 through January 2008.

Revenue for Procore Technologies have more than doubled over the last two years. The construction software company disclosed its financial statements in an amendment this week its S-1 form, filed a year ago in preparation of an initial public offering.

The number of shares to be offered have not yet been established. The updated financial statements show the company had $328.6 million in revenue for the year ended December 31. That is 120-percent higher than the slightly less than $149 million for 2018 and 39.3 percent higher than slightly more than $236 million in revenue for 2019. Procore lost $99.2 million last year, 19.3 percent wider than the $83.1 million in red ink the prior year and 75-percent higher than the $56.7 million loss for 2018. Among Procore’s plans are the intention to grow internationally. For 2020, 12.2 percent of revenue came from outside the United States. It has offices in Australia, Canada, England and Mexico. Procore has sales and market operations in Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, but no offices there yet. The company plans to open more offices and hiring sales and customer experience teams, but did not provide specifics. Notably, Procore has dramatically increased R&D spending which more than doubled to $124.7 million for 2020,  compared to slighty less than $56 million for 2018 and up 43.3 percent from slighty more than $87 million in 2019.

Sovos has acquired Fit Sistemas, a company that provides tax reporting capabilities in Brazil. Terms were not disclosed.

Sovos noted that Brazil is one of the most complex tax environments in the worlds with Fit Sistemas serving industries including telecom, retail, agriculture, media and financial services The acquired company’s applications integrate with financial applications that include SAP, NetSuite, Totvs, Sintel, CITEL and IFS and integrate data flow and process validation and also the authorization of outbound and inbound invoices to meet a variety of Brazilian governmental requirements. Sovos noted Brazil  introduced reporting rules for digitizing paper invoices in records in 2008 but has frequently changed rules.

Restaurant chain Arby’s is offering a fish sandwich for a limited time. The only problem is they are so used to drenching food in gravy.

… It used to be the question of whether you had your shots was about your dog. Are we going to get tags to wear? … A friend heard me talking about heavy metal last week. “Oh, who do, you listen to? Zeppelin? Sabbath? Maiden? “No, heavy metal. It’s been lying in front of the garage after we cut apart the old oil furnace.” … I don’t know why people are upset that Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson required the Senate to have the entire 650-page COVID virus relief bill read out loud. After all, March is National Reading Month.  … It looks like the New York Democratic Party will be canceling the fundraiser “Win a Date with Governor Cuomo”. However, the Empire State executive will be honored for putting women in new positions in government. The award will be presented by former president Bill Clinton. … Science fiction fans have an explanation for the destruction of Space X rocket moments after the Elon Musk hardware made a successful landing. Someone who was a fan of the Star Trek series mistakenly installed a Self-Destruct button instead of an off switch in the control system. They got a kick out of hearing the system broadcast "self-destruct will take place in 10 seconds".

My wife reminded me the family pet was scheduled to go to the veterinarian’s for a test. “He has a CAT scan in on Friday,” she said. “No, he doesn’t’,” I replied.

“Yes, he does. I made an appointment himself,” she said. “It’s not a CAT scan. It’s a dog scan,” I smirked. “Arf,” she responded. … The NASA Rover has landed on Mars.  Scientists have are looking for residual traces of water and possible evidence of past life. Perhaps they should sned it to Texas to look for water and heat following this month’s electrical outages. … Have you heard about the new Ted Cruz fun in the sun cruises? Every traveler gets an autographed Chris Christie beach chair when they visit Cancun, Mexico. … In a TV sitcom based on the hit movie “The  Shape of Water”, the concerned parents, Elisa and the Amphibian Man, are called to the principal’s office about why their son is falling his swimming lesson.  … Software vendor Akerna said Cannabis sales for Valentine’s day weekend topped $170 million, with sales trending towards women. I couldn’t find an appropriate Hallmark Card, with the proper sentiment. “Valentine. You fill my head with smoke” or “Valentine. You make me confused and full of laughter.”

Scientists have discovered recently that bees love cannabis and hope hemp could help restore bee populations. The major problem is finding a way to keep the insects from flying around aimlessly after visiting the plants.

… A man was recovering this from a rare face and hand transplant. Unfortunately doctors accidentally reversed the process and now he has to pick up things with his head and blow his hands. … Puxsutawney Phil performed his duties as usual with the groundhog purportedly seeing  shadow. QAnon supporters immediately charged the real Phil died when a snow tunnel collapse and a groundhog body double filled in. Meanwhile,  QAnon member, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene called on the United States to increase the budget for the Space Force to fight the zombies recruited by the Chinese and the Russians.  She also claimed Santa’s elves are really children exploited by Democrats and the Hidden government… This year’s running of the bulls was called off in Pamplona because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  However, there was running replete with virtual gorings. … Many have heard the story that the Protestant Reformation was kicked off when Martin Luther tacked a list of theses to a church door in Germany. It turned out the start of the reformation was actually delayed by two years because every time Luther would nail his list to the door, the janitor took them down, cursing about vandals. There was no progress until a less dedicated janitor forgot to take them down one day and religious history was made. … Space X is taking nominations for people to be sent to Mars. Some of us were wondering if we can nominate people we don’t like and if they have to know about it.

Southwest Airlines will ban emotional support animals in March, joining American, United and Delta. You mean I can’t bring my emotional support bat on the plane anymore?

 How will I cope? ... The House of Representatives Democrat leaders walked the article of impeachment for former President Donald Trump to the Senate. It was historical as the Senators answered the door for the delivery team from “Impeachments to Go.” “You order an impeachment? We have your order with plain and pineapple. That will be $24.75 plus tax.” … There will be a substantial change in cuisine around the White House. We will go from fast food under Trump to prune juice and Geritol under President Biden. And if music reflects a generation, Biden should pick the Rolling Stones as the national band. Instead of “Hail to the Chief”, the new fanfare will be “Mother’s Little Helper”. “What a drag it is getting old.” … The private military group, the Proud Boys, were believed to be important in the January 6 riot at the Capitol. The Proud Boys, weren’t those the kids in Peter Pan who refused to grow up? … With Deutsche Bank reportedly cutting off Trump, we may see him in the JG Wentworth ads. “It’s my money and I need it now,” the former leader speaks into the telephone. … PBS is promoting a show for the 25th anniversary of the dance group Riverdance. Members of the original cast will be feature in ads promoting treatments for bunions. I like to call the attempt to obtain an inoculation for the COVID-19 virus a vaccine scavenger hunt. Actually, given the shortage of serum, it’s very similar to calling a radio station, trying to win tickets to a rock concert. “I’m sorry. You’re the fourth caller. Not a winner.”

 The year 2020 has been Dickensian—the worst of times and best of times. For most of the population, the coronavirus has made this year probably the most awful in memory. But for many mid-market software resellers, the move of companies to the cloud as their workforces went to remote operations, meant 2020 has been a good to great year. The results are not uniform. For VARs in markets such as entertainment and hospitality, it was not great. However, if clients were able to conduct business remote, resellers could service them remotely and despite the difficulties, 2020 was fine. Bob Scott’s VAR Stars for 2020 faced the pandemic and many not only survived, they prospered.

Submissions for the 2020 Bob Scott’s VAR Stars are still open. But you have to act fast. .

The door closes next Wednesday. The selection is based on quality—not revenue. Past honorees have ranged from one-person operations to the largest ERP dealers. Factors that are considered in the selection are growth, development of significant products and services and contributions to the industry. If you are interested in having  your firm considered, please email bob.scott@pmg360.com as soon as possible.

Where are we going in the mid-market? Or in general? The economy started out the year with record employment and has moved to record unemployment with the effects of shutdowns of the Covid-19 virus.  For resellers this year, how they are doing depends on where they are located and in what markets they are involved. Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs for 2020 examines the issues in an era of extreme uncertainty and names 100 firms who are the big players in this market.

A majority companies submitting forms for this year’s Top 100 selection have more than 50 percent of their revenue coming from cloud products. That was 62 percent of the 93 firms that answered the question. (All provided revenue and employees)

 This group includes all submissions, whether the VAR was selected as a member of the Top 100 or not. Nearly 10 percent reported their revenue was 100 percent from the cloud. This is a very rough survey—there is lots of room of interpretation about what cloud means and some firms talked only of new sales. But it gives an indication of how strong the penetration has become. Twenty-nine percent said cloud ERP represent 80 percent or more of the total. Only one firm answered the question with zero percent. There was interpretation required as some gave one percentage for new sales and another for total so some back-of-the envelope averaging was performed.