Community Brands has cancelled its program with resellers of its MIP nonprofit accounting effective December. The notice to surprised VARs this week, who were left puzzled.

The company said it still wants partners “and it is our intention to have a new program going into 2022.”  The letter was written by Bethany Little, managing director, education and nonprofit brands who also said the company is “looking at opportunities to heavily incent behaviors that will promote our new Cloud offering particularly given our upcoming Q1 release of both our payroll and HR modules.” Community Brands, which acquired MIP with the purchase of the former Abila in April 2017, concentrates on sales of applications to association and fund-raising.  Although MIP is part of its nonprofit segment, the company has had no separate press announcements about the line in the last two years, although it did say MIP powered its end-to-end association software suite that was introduced in April 2018. Little’s letter called the decision “a part of a larger transformation as we accelerate our MIP Cloud roadmap and a requirement to have a close relationship with our customers going forward.” The statement that Community Brands needs to cancel the program to have a closer relationship with customers seems a bit odd and the company did not respond to a request for comment.  

The IFS Cloud Sustainability Hub has been introduced by IFS as part of a broad release for IFS Cloud. Integrated inside Microsoft Teams, the hub is design to college data to demonstrate compliance and improved performance against environmental standards.

 Also updated in the latest release, IFS Cloud for HCM and Talent Management can be used with basic or out of the box functionality for recruitment, onboarding, and development of employees. In addition, new APIs connect factory machinery with iFS Cloud and Intelligent Asset Monitoring and Maintenance functionality utilize machine learning to improve predicative maintenance capabilities and efficiency. The new Advanced Analytics feature tt is accessible through the user-customizable lobbies and the platform’s user experience has been updated. Other added capabilities are the Update Studio, which enables in control of the update and cadence of functionality, The Dispatch Console, a part of IFS Cloud for Service Management, now has four personas of dispatchers, ranging from those that rely on a mostly automated process to those that will complete a whole process start to finish manually. 

Syspro has created an Americas region as the South Africa-based parent continues with broad changes to its structure world-wide. The changes started in 2019 when it acquired Syspro USA, which had been distributor for the manufacturing software company since March 1987.

The parent also named Syspro Canada CEO Brian Rainboth to head the new region. The company had picked Rob Stummer, as CEO of Syspro Asia Pacific in August 2019 and Mark Wilson as CEO of Syspro EMEA in January 2020. That’s nice, but what I hear from the VAR channel is what it really needs is an updated product, but I digress. After purchasing the U.S. operations, it hired Geoff Garrett as CEO of Syspro USA in April 2019 but he was gone two years later. Scott Hebert was named interim CEO in May this year and received the permanent title in. August. The announcement said Hebert will work with Rainboth and the company will also name a new leader in Canada. Before joining Syspro, Rainboth was chief revenue officer as Paywith for eight months and as CEO there for another eight months. Prior to that he was with ACL (now Galvanize) from April 2014 through August 2018 and was director of strategic partners in his last year there.

 Oracle NetSuite this week spelled out a strategy for realizing significant growth through small business customers. Jason Maynard, SVP of global field operations, noted the NetSuite goal of doubling business every three years

“We are going to double it with small business,” he said during this week’s SuiteWorld conference. However, the lower revenue levels will have an impact on company performance “We are going to grow logos, faster than we grow revenue,” Maynard says. Nevertheless, in terms of the cost of customer acquisition, “We can acquire these customers efficiently,” he says. With parent Oracle marketing its Fusion ERP, it seems likely there is some dividing line for the two product lines that makes it reaching smaller business a more important part of the NetSuite strategy. However, Maynard said the company continues to sell to both mid-market and large businesses.NetSuite is reaching the market both through the channel and direct sales. And as the company spewed out a long list of new products, it is also addressing the segment through different editions of these product. “We have tried to create purpose-built editions based on complexity of these businesses,” he said. Maynard thought the new SuiteBanking product would be of special interest because of its ability to simplify AR and AP automation for SMBs. Overall, NetSuite’s message was the rate of growth under its Oracle ownership. “At today’s size, the company is growing fast than it did when it was acquired and was making more money,” Maynard says.

 This Halloween, the scariest people will be the ones that come to the door without and masks.

… It is well known that the first telephone call by Alexander Graham Bell was to his assistant, Watson. The message was “Watson, come here, I need you.” What is not so widely known was the first call Bell received was “We have been trying to reach you about your car’s warranty. … TV actor William Shatner who played Star Trek’s James Kirk has just finished a flight into space on Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket.  Kirk was confused during the flight and kept saying, “Warp speed, Mr. Sulu” and asking Scotty to beam up the landing party. Later, was heard mentioning something about tribbles. ... The recent outage of Facebook was so bad people who remember it were searching for My Space. ,,, I understand Gartner has created a fifth quadrant for companies it can’t place in the other four. It’s called, “The Quadrant of Shame” and places people on the x and y axes based on criteria such as “Still hanging around”, “Leader in outdated technology” and “No apparent strategy”.  … On a game show I watched recently a contestant told the host she had five beautiful children. “You have five children?” he asked. “No, five beautiful ones,” she replied. “The other two are ugly as sin.”

My friend Jerry, a retired consultant, recently gave me insight into one of the secrets to successful consulting: “My plan for this year is to learn from the mistakes made by the people I give advice to.”

The TV show “La Brea”, in which a giant sinkhole reveals a hidden world under Los Angeles, debuted last month. They had to junk the original concept in which the sinkhole led to horrible area with terrible air, never-ending fires and pervasive smoke and then it was pointed out that’s a good deal of California. … Intuit recently had a QuickBooks Roundtable which included an appearance by rapper, PitBull. It turns out that QuickBooks support personnel will now be required to answer calls with rap … The book “Angels and Demons” by author Dan Brown included the story of a secret society, the Illuminati, which plotted against the Catholic church. In a new book called “The DaVince Roll”, the author of “The DaVinci Code” writes about warring secret societies, the Unde-rrati and Over-rati which fight a centuries long battle over the right way to hang toilet paper.  … Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is back on TV with a reboot of “You Bet Your Life” the classic show of the 1950s hosted by comic, Groucho Marx. Then new version features contestants who refuse to take the COVID-19 Vaccine who say “I’d rather die” than take the shot. The audience then places bets on their longevity. Leno is probably took the job to help pay the insurance on all his cars.

There’s a new frankness in how DNA findings are communicated to subscribers—things like are you susceptible to certain diseases, likely to go bald, or sleep deeply.

Mine included a conclusion that “You’re dumber than you look.” …Just found Biscotti in the local 7-11, the same kind that is served as a snack on some domestic air flights. It’s not funny, but people deserve to know one of the few good things about modern flying is having an impact on society. … When someone says a person has served as a global head of some company’s operations, I always wonder if that’s like the Big Giant Head of the TV sitcom “Third Rock from the Sun”. … Singer Nicki Minaj caused an international uproar in relating a second-hand story that taking the COVID-19 vaccine had caused unusual organ growth in a male in Trinidad. Trinidad spent much of the day tracking down the story before reporting much time had been wasted before declaring the claim unfounded. I don’t know. That could be new way of promoting tourism on the island nation. After all, the official tourism slogan of Trinidad and Tobago is “Go Beyond Ordinary”. … Finally saw a realistic disclaimer for a TV movie. It says “Inspired by real events. They don’t have the slightest resemblance to this film, but they were inspired by them. … I am trying to develop a new feature for use when I trigger those “How can I help you” messages on a website. It immediately responds, “Leave Me Alone”.

It’s almost Labor Day and can Christmas displays be far behind. Join the competition to see who can get the most disgusted by the earliest the displays go up.

…. Speaking of holidays, the Halloween candy displays went up a couple of weeks ago. I propose making it a federal crime to flavor any additional items with pumpkin spice. … Resigned New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Florida Representative Matt Gaetz are the leading contenders for this year’s Eliot Spitzer prize. Spitzer is the former New York governor who resigned in 2008 for his habit of employing professional woman—well, professional at $1,000 per hour. Gaetz is considered a shoo-in the award in the juvenile division. Cuomo was a hands-on governor, which many people can testify to, most of them women. Cuomo was initially considered a candidate for the Bill Cosby Repeat Offender Award but was ruled out because of his abysmal completed pass percentage. ... It seems to me that Star Fleet command should request refunds on starship shields. They just don’t hold up. It always seems when the artillery starts up on Star Trek episodes that after the first strike we hear, “Shields are down to 70 percent. 50 percent, 30 percent”. ”Damn it, Scotty, can you adjust this thing?” “Sorry captain, performance went downhill after the warranty ran out." About five strikes and they are done for. … … One of the local supermarkets is big enough that instead of having simply numbered aisles, they also have them designated as west and east. I was asking for the location of something, and the service desk said, “That’s at the end of 9W. Make sure you don’t go to 10W”. “Why not?” I asked. “That’s where planes land in the late afternoon.”  ... The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is in our town, Parsippany, N.J. this weekend. I guess that's like one time I was in our building in Manhattan and saw the Publisher's Clearing House Prize Patrol. It's nice to know these aren't just legends.

Submissions for the 2021 Bob Scott’s VAR Stars are still open. And if you are reading this, you are probably still in business despite everything that's been thrown at you the last two years

The selection will be accompanied by a special report discussing just what mid-market financial software resellers have. been experiencing and where they think lthe market is heading. 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

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

 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.