NetSuite has released the names of the winners of its Hairball Awards, which were honored at its conference last week. But the awards say as much about the SaaS vendor's no-holds barred marketing as it does about the honorees. Each award description listed the products that NetSuite replaced at the end-user company, which contrasts with yesterday's earnings conference calls by the CEOs of Deltek and Blackbaud. Read more...

Rock N Rave, a party sponsored by a group of Microsoft ISVs, has become an important event at Convergence. The prelims at Opera Atlanta were two young lovelies in fishnet stocks and black corsets, the team attire for all female dancers, doing a fire-eating act. After the pole dancer and two similarly dressed companions performed later I mused, “This just says ‘good partner relations’ to me.” Read more...

Cougar Mountain Software has introduced Denali 2.8, a version of its newest product line that can convert CMS Professional data. Data from any Windows Version of CMS can be converted, as can data from the DOS 15.0 version. The system has a 64-bit compatibility and can also run on a 32-bit system. Denali 2.8 provides what was called improved integration with CMS Professional Payroll. Users can import AP, bank reconciliation and GL data into Denali after posting transactions and exporting payroll data. Read more...

How SAP's management change impacts the mid-market is unclear. But I'm certain it will after CEO Leo Apotheker resigned this week and the German software giant returned to dual CEO system. American Bill McDermott heads the field organization while Jim Hagemann Snabe runs product development.

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