The Sage Group has agreed to buy Seattle, Wash.-based Lockstep, whose software is designed a variety of applications, including AP and AR workflows. Terms were not disclosed.

Lockstep is led by CEO Peter Horadan, but its-cofounder, chief solutions officer, Bill Henslee, is probably better known to resellers, having been founder and CEO of Sage reseller e2b Teknologies. The purchase of Lockstep, employees more than 130 individuals, is described as “deepening Sage’s capabilities in the office of the CFO, while its API platform expands the ecosystem by enabling third parties to develop connected services, as Lockstep integrated with more than 40 accounting systems. Besides fielding payments products, Lockstep also markets trade finance and lending applications.

Revenue for SilverSun Technologies, parent of reseller SWK Technologies rose by 4 percent for the second quarter ended June 30. That stemmed from a combination of a 6.9-percent drop in service revenue and a 5.8-percent rise in product revenue, the company reported this week

SilverSun lost $103,046 in the most recently ended period., compared to a net income of $130,289.  It did not cite a specific product line as having an impact on results. SilverSun described the decline in service revenue this way: “These decreases are mainly attributed to lower maintenance revenues and lower consulting revenues, primarily because of project delays and postponements on the part of our customers as a result of challenges within their own businesses, including employee retention and general economic conditions impacting their organizations." Sales and marketing expenses rose the waning of the pandemic led to increased travel to trade shows

The acquisition of Vitalyst boosted the revenue of Alithya for the first quarter ended June 30 by 44.3 percent. That company, purchased early in 2022, helped the Dynamics and Oracle reseller to overall revenue of $126.8 million for the most recently ended period, up 23.3 percent from $102.9 million a year earlier.

Revenue in Canada rose 13.3 percent to $78.2 million from $69 million in last year’s corresponding period. Canadian growth was helped by two long-term contracts that were brought on board with the Spring 2021 purchase of R3D Consulting. Alithya lost $4.2 million in the quarter, more than double slightly more than $2 million for 2021’s corresponding quarter. The company noted a factor in the loss was forgiveness of $5.9 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans, along with an increase in most expense categories. The quarter does not reflect any results of Datum Consulting Group, whose acquisition was completed on July 1. Datum had revenue of about $18 million for the 12 months ended December 31 During the recent earnings webcast, CEO Paul Raymond noted the number employees has reached 3,300, up 400 in the past year.

Insightsoftware this week has acquired Dundas Data Visualization, which is based in Toronto, Ont. Dundas provides what is called a business intelligence, analytics, and data visualization platform.

Terms were not disclosed. Dundas becomes part of the Logi suite of embedded analytics and will be used to enhance those products, providing “a strong extract, transform, and load (ETL) engine and pixel perfect reporting,” the company said. Jim Triandiflou, CEO of Insightsoftware, talked about how his company sees the needs of the market. ““In this day and age, there is no need for software vendors, or companies building internal applications, to lose focus by developing proprietary analytics tools,” he said. “The acquisition of Dundas strengthens our embedded analytics capabilities, making it even easier for software development teams to plug prebuilt reporting and analytics into their software.”

You know it’s been a bad day if you see a sign saying, “If you see anything suspicious report it” and your photograph is posted next to it.

… There’s a new movie in the magic franchise, “Harry Potter and the Orkin Man” in which the Ministry of Magic has to call an exterminator to deal with a nasty outbreak of house elves. After dealing with the nasty little vermin, he caught villain, Peter Pettigrew, in a rat trap. … With the focus on new diseases, scientists have reported the first episode of a disease combining monkey pox, chicken pox, swine flu, avian flu and equine encephalitis. It causes infected individuals to rant at animals of all kinds and is being labeled the “Dr. Doolittle Disease.” … I was relieved to find that the phrases “Manufacturing Execution Systems” is not the dire life-threatening experience I had feared. … Made it to Manhattan for the first time in three years in the middle of humid sweltering day. Of course, there was the smell of something slightly disgusting from the gutter along 42nd Street. On the same street, at Madame Tussaud’s wax figures near the door was melting in the heat. But a second look showed that was a tourist group from the Midwest. The wax figures were fine. The I ran into a guy promoting Hop On, Hop Off. “Buses?" I asked. “No, hookers, he replied.

I spent most of the last week unable to speak with laryngitis.

A surprising number of my acquaintances and friends remarked upon the improvement..  … The crypto market crash has spurred new looks at blockchain technology, which in this context is now being referred to as blockhead technology. Blockhead technology is based on the premise that crypto currency is immune from historical market forces and can serve as a store of value when other markets crash.  … I told a friend that when it comes to deals I always before a win/win outcome. I also like it when I win, win, win. …. The resignation of the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the architect of Brexit who is making is own Bexit, has spurred interest in what his next move might be. There is some talk that he will embark on a new business sponsoring parties during times of distress, such as pandemics. Also, the combative leader is also planning a string of hair salons “Mr. Boris” in honor of his coiffure. It has been report4ed in some places, Liar's Poker has been renamed Boris' poker.

One of the hot trends of the last few years is the Gender Reveal party.  Someone asked my opinion.

“Gender reveal? That’s hardly new. We have had guys running around in raincoats doing that for years. Just not my style.” … Inflation is taking a toll on products of all kinds. The manufacturer of “20 Mule Team Borax” has been forced to reduce the product to 17 mules.  … I have decided that the purpose of blister packs is to make you prove you really want to take the pills you have. …. When they pulled out of the abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Russian soldiers are said to have left behind 100 liters of high-quality vodka. Apparently, they thought it might to prove a practical substitute for fissionable material in powering the plant. … Somebody asked me how much I paid to fill up my gasoline tank the last time. “I think it was three cents a gallon higher when I finished than when I started,” I said. … A local van had large lettering advertising the “Racoon Guy”.  I thought maybe he was a feature in a carnival sideshow. But now, he was just an animal control expert.  Actually, he did have rather short noise and beady eyes. …  The latest in the saurian franchise is Jurassic World Dominion. If there’s a sequel, we’ll probably find the dinosaurs are getting a bit long in the tooth. There are some reports the next victims of tyrannosaur will actually be pureed meat disguised by Halloween costume and makeup specialists so he won’t have to gum his food. That will probably be similar to the next in final editions of Top Gun so that 10 years from now, the currently 59-year-old superstar Tom Cruise, will be carrying a Hurry-cane and have to have a handicapped access ramps for the fighter jet. Of course, he will be probably be assisted by lower-level members of the Church of Scientology.

 What the public didn’t know in the well-publicized verdict in the trial of Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard, there was an initial ballot in which the seven jury members registered their real feelings.

Two were for Depp; two for Heard and three didn’t care anymore. … In the last week, England’s Queen Elizabeth II celebrated 70 years on the throne, her Platinum Jubilee. What can you give the woman who has, well the crown jewels; a few palaces? I thought coupons for trading in Prince Andrew for a new model might be welcome. Or we could buy her a nice set of platinum dinnerware. … A woman recently was the recipient of an ear made by 3D printer. I asked someone if that involved dot matrix or laser? The break-through will revolutionized the childhood game of “I have your nose” to “I made you a new nose.” … Dr. Mahmet Oz was just declared the winner of the highly contested Republican senatorial primary in Pennsylvanian. If Oz is elected, he will likely become a key spokesman for the GOPs plan for healthcare reform. He will a stalwart champion of eye of newt, bleach and exorcism as major tools in the fight against contagious diseases. He will also propose that discounts for healthcare with be available as coupons in packaged meals at Mcdonald’s and other fast food outlets.

index.php/component/rsform/form/31-2022-bob-scott-s-top-100-varsThe last two years have been like nothing else the mid-market has experienced--indeed like nothing most peope alive have experienced. But for the ERP channel, the pandemic produced opporuntity as remote work accelerated the move of businesses to the cloud.

But new opporunties and new problems usually go hand and hand and the demand for web-based financial products has been accompanied by a shortage of the consultants needed to install and implement them. This Special Report "Beyond the Pandemic" discusses these issues, as it announces the 2022 edition of Bob Scott's Top 100 VARs. It tells you where the leaders rank and examines how several of them have addressed the problems and the opportunities.

 Sponsored by:

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