Bill Ingram, chief financial officer of Avalara, has announced he will retire on March 31. Ingram will be succeeded by Ross Tennenbaum, the sales tax company’s EVP of strategic initiatives.

Ingram joined Avalara in December 2015 and led the company through its initial public offering. Tennenbaum arrived in March as it hired three new executives. The others were president and chief operating officer, Amit Mathadras, and chief product officer, Sanjay Parthasarathy. Tennenbaum joined Avalara from Goldman Sachs where he was managing director of software investment banking from September 2014 through his taking the new job. Ingram spent seven years six months at Cricket Wireless where he was EVP and chief of strategy.

Bill.com said this week it will raise a maximum of $183.6 million through an initial public offering. The cloud payments company expects to offer 8,823,529 shares at an estimated price of at $16 to $18 per share.

TThe information was contained in an S-1 filing with the SEC. Proceeds to Bill.com would.be $134.3 million, at $17 per share. That would rise to $155.3 million if the underwriters’ option is exercised for an additional 1,323,529 shares. Bill.com said the proceeds will be used for a wide range of purposes. These include working capital, general corporate purposes and possible acquisition of or investments in technologies, products or other businesses.

The migration from desktop to the cloud took a bite out of results for QAD for its third quarter ended October 31. QAD was in line with other vendors as desktop revenue continued to slip, falling 28.8 percent while cloud subscriptions were up by 14.4 percent.

Net income for the most ended quarter was $125,000, sharply down from nearly $3 million a year earlier. Revenue was $77.8 million, down 2.2 percent from slightly more than $80 million in last year’s corresponding period. In the last two years, license revenue has moved up and down. License revenue fell to $3.3 million down from $4.6 million. Subscription revenue was $27.3 million, up from $23.7 million. But CFO Daniel Lender said during the recent earnings webcast those days are over. “We are not expecting to see seasonably higher license number,” Lender said Executives said the mix of new cloud business remains split about 50-50 between the installed base and new customers with both segments increasing. ”There is a groundswell of momentum in the existing base,” Lender said. Like other vendors, QAD is seeing a decrease in services revenue during the cloud migration. Revenue from that segment was $17.5 million in the recent quarter, down 15.5 percent from $20.7 million.

Intuit’s compensation report for named executives for the year ended July 31 reflected the fact one only of six has been in their current position for a full fiscal year. Three, including CEO Sasan Goodarzi, assumed their current positions on January 1, while two moved into new jobs in August 2018.

Goodarzi, who was promoted from an EVP position, received $17.5 million for fiscal 2019, an increase of 38.4 percent from $12.7 million in 2018. The largest pay elements were stock awards of $11.2 million for the most recently ended year, up 35.7 percent from $8.2 million the prior year and FY 2019 option awards of $4 million, which rose 45.4 percent from $2.7 million.  CFO Michelle Clatterbuck, who took over her position in February 2018, had 2019 compensationof $8.7 million, off 6.4 percent from $9.3 million in fiscal 2018. However, Intuit hiked her base salary 22.7 percent to $700,000 from $570,385 and her 2018 income was affected by a promotion stock grant of slightly less than $2 million. Making the list for the first time was Alex Chriss, the EVP who leads the small business and self-employed group. His annual compensation was $12.2 million. His compensation included $2.1 million from restricted stock unit promotion grant. EVP Greg Johnson, who runs the consumer tax business, had total compensation of $10.3 million. He began that job in August 2018. Former CEO Brad Smith, who became executive chairman of Intuit in January, had $13.7 million in compensation last year, compared to $21.1 million for fiscal 2018. His fiscal 2019 compensation included stock awards of $9.3 million. Of that, $5 million came in restricted stock units, $3 million of that a one-time award in February for his efforts in the CEO transition and his transition to the board position. Chief people and places officers Laura Fennell, who spent 14 years as the software company’s general counsel, was put in her current job in August 2018. Fennell’s 2019 income was $8.5 million, up 14.2 percent from $7.5 million the prior year.

Pelaton, has drawn fire over its ad in which a husband gives his very trim wife one of its exercise bicycle. In a more realistic version, the wife shouts, “You think I’m fat!. You think I need to lose weight?”

… Franklin Mint is hedging its bets on the impeachment process. It has one set of Impeachment Plates. It has another for Still Your President. … Meanwhile, in last week’s forecast, after confusing watchers with the American and European weather models, the National Weather Service rolled out the Trump model which forecast a foot of snow in southern Alabama.  … Not unexpectedly, Black Friday was followed this year by Cyber Monday and Hacker Tuesday. …Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has followed her “Don’t Mess With Me” statement at a press conference with “Go ahead punk. Make my day.”  … Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is being accused of try to buy the Democratic Presidential nomination. Bloomberg said he isn’t trying to buy it, just establish a fair market value. Meanwhile former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has issued a statement. Crack linguistic experts have been called to try to decipher the statement, but are not optimistic. … Former VP Joe Biden challenged a hefty man in Iowa who questioned Biden’s fitness to do pushups and other exercises. That suggests a great way to thin out the rest of the Democratic candidates—a triathlon.  The last person standing (or living) is the nominee. ... Last week the Icon TV network had the following movies in succession: “A Christmas in Royal Fashion”, “A Cinderella Christmas”,  “A Christmas Princess”, “A Prince for Christmas”, and “A Firehouse Christmas” and my favorite “A Dramamine Christmas”, to counteract the effects of the other films. There is also a lesser-known  “Prince Andrew Christmas” in which the brother to the heir apparent of the British throne gives a series of interviews trying to explain his first interview in which he tried to persuade viewers that there was nothing unsavory in his relationship with the late financier and accused trafficker of women. Andrew said they were just recruiting candidates for princesses in upcoming Disney movies.

A large accounting firm, in announcing a new software product, talked about the expertise of its cannabis team. In college, I had a lot of expertise in, oh never mind.

Whatever the sport is, the cannabis team is likely to lose. “Oh, wow, bright lights. Pretty. .... I see a lot of ads for the online dating service Lavalife. The ads are usually on late at night, featuring beautiful women. I can just imagine being on the phone with a bunch of people who have nothing better to do at 2am. The heavy breathing probably sounds like a hurricane  building force.  When I heard country singer Sam Hunt had been arrested on charges of drunken driving I figured it was the first line of a new country song turns out, it actually happened. Police arrested him after a report of a vehicle going the wrong way on a one-way street. “Going the Wrong Way on a One-Way Street” is the obvious name of his next hit.… …  In Frozen 3,  Elsa is advised by scientists there’s no worry about the deep freeze which has gripped her kingdom. Climate warming is quickly breaking up the ice. So she decides exercising her powers to end the winter is not necessary, but reins them in and only uses them as a party trick for creating frozen drinks. … Tesla has come out with a futuristic-looking pickup truck, price starting at $39,000. I’m waiting for the Tesla stock car which will be a sure hit on the NASCAR circuit.

It’s the time of year when we see ads of people buying vehicles for their loved ones. I’m waiting for a realistic ad—“You bought me luxury car without asking what color I liked?” 

 …In a proof of concept Microsoft and Warner Brothers and recorded the 1978 movie “Superman” on a piece of quart glass about the size of a drink coaster. I can envision this wonderful world in which drinking songs and movies are stored on beer mugs. “What’s the words to …? Oh yeah, it’s on the glass.”  … Parker Brothers is considering a new game “Ukrainian Monopoly” given all the political brouhaha surrounding the Kiev-based country. There will be Chance cards such as “Contact indicted, go back three spaces” and “You’re caught bribing officials. Go directly to jail” and "The Russians Take Over Crimea, Tough Luck: … Santa is preparing messages to kids explaining that he is unable to fulfill some wishes as tariffs aimed at Chinese imports have made some gifts too expensive for him to handle. However, because of the current administration’s energy stance, Santa noted there will be plenty of coal for stockings of bad boys and girls. …  Kanye West and wife Kim Kardashian have purchased a property adjacent to a $60 million one they already own. Variety said they spent $2.976 million for the Hidden Hills,  Calif., property that has four bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms, and measures 3,874 square feet.In Hidden Hills, this is considered a teardown.  ... I just realized I didn't get out to purchase my "Happy Impeachment" cards. There's always next year but I bet I'll get cards from a bunch of people I had dropped off my list.

At the Colorado Gaylord Rockies near the Denver Airport, it was so nice to see the snow-capped Rocky Mountains between the morning haze and the afternoon haze. I really wanted to see where the deer and the antelope play.

But I was told it was an away game this week. …. There was an initial effort to have all of the presidential candidates represented by balloons in New York’s Thanksgiving Parade. However, it was decided the world’s helium supply, already strained, would be pushed to the limit….  Prosecutors say former presidential adviser Roger Stone sent a message to radio host Randy Credico in which Stone told Credico to “prepare to die”. Stone insists he was merely playing “Gladiator” and it was just a sloppy rephrasing of “Those who are about to die salute you”. Allegedly, Stone also threatened to harm Credico's small white dog, Bianca. Authorities said it was so extreme Stone pledged “I’ll get you and your little dog too”. … I tried using one of the services designed to protect your reputation. But they returned my online application with “Hopeless” stamped across it electronically. Then someone that initial stole my identity returned it. “Not worth the effort” was the comment left on my computer.  But there was a bright spot. Whoever started a ransomware attack returned all my data and paid me to keep it. “You deserve this mess” was the comment. … Not only has the CEO of McDonald’s stepped down for having an inappropriate relationship with a staffer, but Mayor McCheese had to resign for the same reason. In the meantime, the Hamburglar is awaiting trial on unspecified charges and the Burger King has been disposed by unhappy subjects.

Report: 2018 VAR Stars Building on the Cloud

Overall, the questions of what technology will be used given the accelerating pace of cloud adopting are being answered. The cloud has won it's just a matter of how quickly the rest of the market moves. Download here for your free copy.

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2018 BSI Top 100 VARS

Bob Scott's Insights would like to congratulate all the 2018 BSI Top 100 VARS winners.

This year's selection of Bob Scott's Top 100 VARs comes at a time of dramatic change to the business. Larger firms are becoming larger and all are grappling with the movement of the business from reliance on desktop software to the cloud. Read about the state of the market and the names of the selected resellers.

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The speculation over when the market will move to the cloud is over. Resistance has faded and however many holdouts there are, financial cloud software is mainstream. Read more to learn who is being recognized as a 2017 VAR Star.

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The last year has been one of change—the cloud has moved from being something everyone talked about to something most resellers are doing something about. It is also a market facing rapid automation through related technologies such as artificial intelligence, bots and machine learning. As usual, this year’s Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs provides the names of dealers who are at the top of the mid-market in revenue. But they are a group that is rapidly changing how they operate.

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