Unanet, which makes project management software, has presented awards to its channel for 2021, largely to firms in the government contractor market. 

 The Reseller Partner of the Year award went to CAVU Advisors of Columbia, Md., which provides accounting and outsourced services to the government contractors. The GovCon Partner of the year, KGRF Group, based in Bethesda, Md., also provides outsourced services in that market. It was the Sales Excellence Partner of the Year for 2020. The Architecture and Engineering Partner of the Year, Outsourced Accounting Services, also won that honor the prior year. Based in Port Charlotte ,Fla., OAS carries Deltek’s Vantagepoint, Vision and Ajera lines. WhiteGlove Accounting, winner offers outsourced services to small- and midsize government contractors. It is based in Ashburn, Va.

RSM US has been named Top Cloud Volume Partner 2021 by Solver. The analytical software service company also gave the Solver Customer Excellence Award 2021 to Sarah Zigler, a director with the accounting and consulting firm.,

Zigler  received the award for “delivering outstanding Service and Solution levels to clients” for her work with the Solver Cloud Suite, the company said. Two other accounting firms snared awards with Armanino cited as Breakout Partner of the Year for 2021 while Charles Allen of BKD Technologies was honored as Solver Evangelist of the Year 2021. Solver’s announcement said Allen “is one of the top LinkedIn and Twitter promoters for the Solver brand.” Also among the honorees was Dynamics VAR Velosio as Top Solver New Technology Partner 2021.

 Robert Sinfield has been put in charge of Sage’s manufacturing, distribution and supply chain management lines globally, including X3 and Intacct.

While an Intacct spokeperson  said SCM has been part of X-3's message, Sinfield's title lists X-3 first and then Intacct products. Sinfield moved into the new job in January, although he only posted the change to his LinkedIn profile this week. He has taken over as global head of product for X-3 and Intacct Manufacturing,  One reseller suggested Sage might be considering using the recently acquired BrightPearl as a base for Intacct SCM. Sinfield, who has been in leadership roles with Sage X-3 since September 2020, joined Sage in December 2017 after 10 years with Epicor. Distribution and Supply Chain Management. X-3 is Sage’s high-end product for the process manufacturing market.  Intacct Manufacturing was introduced this year in the United Kingdom and will be officially launched in this country, although resellers are already reported to be examining there. The section of the Sage website featuring supply chain management lists only Sage 300 and X-3.Reportedly, Intacct Manufacturing was originally designed for X-3 and does not have the same code base as  the original Intacct.

 Columbus’ long-troubled operations in the United States reported a 5-percent increase in revenue for the year ended March 31. The much smaller operation—whose Dynamics small business lines were sold to Enavate last year—eked out a 1-percent increase for the year ended December 31.

“We started to see stabilization of our U.S. business,” Columbus CEO Søren Krogh Knudsen. The U.S. had services revenue of roughly $2.8 million , a 7-percent increase. The Denmark-based company reported first-quarter revenue of roughly $55.6 million, a 7-percent increase over last year’s corresponding period. Cloud ERP revenue dropped  5 percent year-over-year to about $25.4 million. Product revenue reached approximately $6.9 million, up 10.6 percent from last year’s corresponding period.  Sweden, the largest market for Columbus, saw revenue hit about   Norway was the fastest-growing market, producing revenue of approximately $9.9 million, rising 13.2 percent.

I just filled up my car’s gasoline tank. I not only had to pay an arm and a leg for it, I had to have a co-signer for the loan I needed to finish the purchase.

… There are many television advertisements of guaranteed life insurance. I told a friend I’ve always had guaranteed life insurance. “How is that possible?” he asked. “They guarantee they will cash my check.” … Given the collapse of the value of crypto currency, I found Starbucks would not accept a bitcoin for a cappuccino. … Daniel Craig, the latest actor to play the movie role of James Bond, is playing the title role in Shakespeare’s play, MacBeth.” In the classic witches’ scene  of “Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble …” MacBeth asked for eye of newt stirred but not shaken. In a twist on the ending in which MacDuff kills MacBeth, who is now king of Scotland, MacBeth defeats MacDuff’s army, which is camouflaged with tree branches from Birnam Wood, by the use of technology enhanced swords developed by his special assistant, MacQ. MacDuff’s name has represented difficulty for many young Shakespeare readers who think the character is a crime dog. ... Someone I know gets very upset at the discussion of Purdue Pharma and all the legal action taken against the company for its promotion of opioid subscriptions. "I don't understand. Those people produce great chicken," he says.

We just purchased an electric car.  But I think the builders got carried away with some of the technology.

The GPS not only showed the routes he needed  but warned “Don’t track mud on my nice clean floor.”… Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says employees call him the Eye of Sauron, after the evil lord in the “Lord of the Rings.” Does that mean Elon Musk is the villainous “Gollum”.  No wonder some standing near him, when it became clear Musk’s bid for “Twitter” was successful, heard him whispering, “My precious; my precious.”  ….  The old saying is that the pessimist sees the glass as half full and the optimist sees it as half empty. I say the true pessimist says there is no glass.  … The most publicized celebrity trial in years is going on so long, it’s believed there will be a new network—the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp network. … Tennis great Boris Becker has been sentenced to prison for hiding assets from a bankruptcy process in 2017.  It is believed he will spend time developing his backhand and his skill at Wordle.

Health officials are reporting that at the swine flu has combined with the bird flu to generate the dreaded flying pig flu.

… Watching the Oscars and noticing female wearing attire, I quickly realized that the supply chain problems have impacted the delivery of bras. It reminded me of when actor Kevin Sorbo was playing the role of Hercules in the TV series of that name it was sometimes referred to by his friends as “Hercules in the Land of Cleavage”. … Taking advantage of the famous Will Smith slap of Chris Rock, Hasbro will produce the Will Smith-branded “Whack a Rock game”, emulating the well-known Whack-a-Mole” in which players try to bash figures with Chris Rock’s face when they emerge from holes in the game board.  … Republican Madison Cawthorn angered colleagues by claiming Republican congresspeople invited him to orgies. I think they missed the point—he is only trying to make the Grand Old Party into “The Fun Party”.   … Russia has been saying it hasn’t retreated from the Kiev area. Leaders have explained that the military is simply advancing in a different direction. … Gamified courses have started emerging in the tax and accounting market. For instance, Surgent has released “Surgent Auditors” and “Max the Tax”. Another vendor, reportedly is previously a CPE-eligible course, “Max the Knife”, about a tax preparer who begins murdering clients who don’t fill out tax organizers.

Maury Povich is retiring from TV after 31 years of hosting variously named versions of the  “Maury” show, including using DNA results to reveal which men were fathers to various children since 1998.

A successor is being proposed which combines the format of the old “Newly Wed” game with Maury in a “New Parents” show in which contestants bet on their children’s real paternity. Povich will be present in short snippets in which his voice declares “You are the father” or “You are not the father”. … The medical TV drama “Grey’s Anatomy” returning for its 19^th season this fall, will explore new themes as members female staff start having hot flashes and undergoing face lifts. …, In a boost for conspiracy theorists, religious cult, Scientology, will member with political movement QAnon. The resulting organization, QAnology, will reveal that the United States will be run by the late L. Ron Hubbard, who founded scientology, and the late John F. Kennedy Jr. QAnon says believes the son of President John Kennedy is still alive and it will be revealed that Hubbard was cryogenically frozen and will be revived to carry out his destiny. They will also claim the 2020 presidential election was just a series of TikTok videos and that George W. Bush is still presideent… There are widespread reports of the bird flu in the United States among commercial chicken operations. Fearful of an animal-human crossover, doctors are warning people to be on the lookout for a desire to cluck or the urge to lay an egg. … Ukrainian forces claim to have killed another Russian general, this time one of the top commanders. If this keeps up, the Russians are going to have trouble getting its generals insured.

Top 100 VARS Survivor? Given the pandemic over the last two year and the swift move to remote work and the cloud, it may have felt that way. But the top firms have done more than just survive--they have prospered.

We'll look at the trends impacting the market in a period that has been one of the most unusual events in the lives of most people--well, most of the earth's population. There's war in the Ukraine a virus outbreak exploding in China. So is the next year more likely to resemble thelast two years, or maybe there will be some return to the way life looked befoe March 2020

As we try to gain a handle on the market direction, the call for entries for Bob Scott's Top 100 VARs is open for the 2022 selection. So to receive a form for submission so you can be a part of this year's story, email to request a form and return it to  bob.scott@pmg360.com 

The title of this special report "Reselling the Era of COVID" sounds even more relevant with the recent outbreak of the Omicron variant. But one thing is for sure, the move to the cloud was accelerated by the pandemic in a way no one could have anticipated.

It has not beneftied everyone in the midmarket who sells ERP software. But a large number of resellers and software publishers have benefited, even as they work around issued such as remote work. So within that framework, we are pleased to announce the 100 resellers who have been chosen as VAR Stars for 2021 and share some of their experiences of the last year.

Just what kind of year has it been for the mid-market reselling community? It depends.

For some, it was very tough, but for others, it was the best year in their history as demand for cloud products drove business. If you were in segments such as hospitality and restaurants, it was very hard, if you were in ecommerce, things have never been better. Overall, it was a year of great change with the accelerated shift to the cloud from on-premise applications and the forced move to remote work which is producnglasting changes.

So click the button below to find out who made Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs for 2021 and many of their thoughts about the last year and the future

It has been a year like no other for ERP mid-market software VARs. But one thing has stayed the same–it is time to ready your submission for Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs for 2021--and this week is your last chance to do sol.

The IRS just gave you extra time to submit your individual tax returns, so use the opportunity to be considered. Each year, we rank the biggest financial software VARs in the mid-market and  use the occasion to learn more about how the market has worked in the last year and talk about directions it is likely to take in the near future. To be a player, please ask for a submission form  and return your information as soon as possibleto bob.scott@pmg360.com