Jana Reinke, who started with Great Plains Software in 1989, has joined Epicor as director of product/service management.  She took the new position in June. Reinke had an unbroken career with Great Plains and then with Microsoft after it purchased the former company in 2001. She had two long-term jobs with Microsoft, first as director of customer services product management from April 2001 through June 2007 and then as director, of sales operations from July 2007 through June 2014.

Bob Scott's Insights Newsletter will not be published next Friday, July 1. Enjoy the Fourth of July weekend. Publication will resume on Friday, July 8. During that period, news will continue to be posted to this website. The newsletter is published 48 times a year and I get time off for good behavior the other Fridays.

Infor said its channel had strong growth in the year end May 31 2016. The software vendor made that statement this week in a webcast about financial results for the fiscal year CEO Charles Phillips said the channel had 14-percent revenue growth and that during the year, Infor also consolidated its regional channel operations in one global organization led by SVP Jeff Abbott. As a result, "We are attracting a lot more partners," Phillips said.

The Rand Group, a Dynamics reseller based in Houston, Texas, has named Joe Eldridge as its first chief technology officer. Rand said Eldridge will have a heavy focus on developing "a deeper level of Professional Services." The company also said that the increasing number of cloud opportunities and changes to the Microsoft channel program means Eldridge will "work closely with the development teams to deliver a noticeably improved set of competencies and a superior balance of skills."