Blackbaud has begun closing data centers as it shifts to third-party centers—AWS and Azure. As the company reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, it said the first center closed iuring the quarter.

During the recent earnings webcast, CEO Mike Gianoni said many smaller data centers “will close fairly soon”. Blackbaud has incurred expense as it migrates customers to the third parties, so when the shift is complete that should contribute to the expected savings, according to CFO Tony Boor. In its Form 10-Q, the company noted it has reduced its global real estate footprint by 50 percent since 2819, which drops energy emissions to run office space by 63 percent and employee commute emissions by 75 percent. For the most recently ended quarter, the company reported a loss of $3.4 million, comparison to net income of $6.7 million a year earlier. Second-quarter revenue was $264.9 million, an increase of 15.5 percent from $229.4 million in last year’ corresponding period. The purchase of Everfi contributed to the loss as there was no material revenue contribution during the first half, but the deal boosted income expense as Blackbaud borrowed $250 million under a term loan and assumed two Everfi notes totaling $61.1 million. Interest expense increased to slightly less than $9 million from $5.1 million the prior year.

Procore Technologies is conducting a materials financing program via which it purchases construction materials on behalf of subcontractors. The company this week said the program is designed to alleviate problems faced by subs, who typically must pay suppliers in 30 days but are often themselves paid in 120 days.

“Procore helps to alleviate working capital constraints by purchasing materials directly from suppliers and then selling them to subs on deferred payment terms that are better aligned with their time,’ according to Procore CEO Tooey Courtemanche. Speaking during the week’s earnings webcast for the second quarter ended June 30, he said Procore is in the “very early stages of this program.” The software company charges an origination fee at the beginning of the process and a weekly finance charge, expecting subs will typically pay Procore back in 120 days. Courtemanche stressed Procore obtains lien rights so financing is secured against the property financed. He said through its ownership of lien management software company, Levelset, purchased last year, Procore can use Levelset’s data  to understand the payment history of subs. Courtemanche continued, “We can leverage Levelset's core lien management offering to manage, track and enforce our lien rights of various states and jurisdictions.” Procore never takes possession of the goods being financed. However, executives agreed the financing program has the potential to be very profitable. “We think it has a lot of potential and that it should drive great economics at scale,” said CFO Paul Lyandres.

 Denmark-based Dynamics reseller Columbus has hired Michaël Navon as global SVP of business line strategy and change. He is one of a number of changes in management personnel under CEO Søren Krogh Knudsen, who assumed the top job in June 2021.

His arrival follows the announcement Brian Iversen will join Columbus as CFO in October and the hiring of Claes Reinholdt Kongsdam as market director for Denmark three months ago. In making the announcement, Knudsen said, “I look forward to getting Michaël on board to accelerate one of our strategic Business Lines within digital advisory,” although the press release does not clearly indicate which one. Immediately before coming to Columbus, Novan was EMEA Transformation Lead for Red Hat from May 2021 until taking his new post. Before that,  he worked at Ericsson from September 2013 through  December 2018 and was senior director, program management, in his last position there.

Resellers handling QuickBooks Enterprise, Intuit’s desktop midmarket package, have been given a reprieve from a sudden change in requirements. A group of VARs, frustrated with a decision to immediately eliminate residual payments, won a nine-month extension after writing to Intuit’s board of directors.

Intuit has been asked for comment but had not replied as of publication time. “The rug was being pulled out from under us,” said Mario Nowogrodzki.  Nowogrodzki, owner of Mendelson Consulting, said changes were scheduled for an August 1 effective date with little warning. Resellers, who will continue to receive payments on existing sites, had asked for a two-year extension. Nowogrodzki, owner of the largest QBE VAR, said the change is part of the understandable push to make the cloud based QB Online Advanced but dealers need time to prepare for the change. Moreover, “the product is not ready”, he said Advanced lacks adequate features for inventory features, user-access permissions and database size, among others. Nowogrodzki said QBE has a 20-percent attrition rate, meaning if there is no residual on new sales “in five years or less, it’s all going to be gone.” [Intuit does not admit to the attrition rate] He believes the VAR program is not important to Intuit and from a press point of view, I agree. One sign is that VARs get 40-percent margin and Intuit often has promos offering 50-percent direct to end users. In addition, the last time Intuit acted interested in talking about the program was before the first QuickBooks Connect conference in 2014. That year, Intuit didn’t tell the press that its VARs were meeting in a hotel across from Connect. At the time, an Intuit PR person said there was no advance notice because the company had no VAR news. That story line hasn’t changed in eight years and I made several efforts on finding out the names of annual QB VAR award winners before give up the effort.

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