Remote work will remain a fact of life for American business, according to a Survey by OperationsInc, a human resource consulting firm. Sixty percent of respondents with no remote program in place before the COVID-19 are rethinking their practices.

Only 18 percent, said they will scrap such programs once the crisis ends. The survey of 12 questions, collected from August 11 through August 18, had 300 participants representing a variety of organizations across the country. The survey found 43 percent of those survey had not remote work program in place before the pandemic and only 7 percent offered the arrangements for their entire workforce. School scheduling has been a major factor in remote work plans. Sixty-five person of employers surveyed said they will offer flexibility for employees with school scheduling challenges while 18 percent were unsure of how they will manage the issues. Thirteen percent will work with employees on a case-by-cases basis and encourage them to do whatever possible to report back to the office with only 4 percent saying they will require employees to manage childcare issues and report back to the office as usual. OperationsInc found percent of businesses have complaints about employee or visitor behavior that an employer has deemed risky or outside of compliance standards set by the employer. The sponsor said this represents a high percentage since few of those surveyed have a full team in their offices. Sixty-percent of employers have guidelines for employees returning from a COVID-19 “hotspot”.

Unit4 has sold its Benelux software business to Netherlands-based Exact. No terms were disclosed for the sale of Unit4 Bedrijfssoftware.

Unit4 Bedrijfssoftware was created last year via the merger of five lines of Unit4 business. Unit4 CEO Mike Ettling said interestingly,” Our strategy, communicated in 2018, to integrate the SME and accountancy activities in the Benelux into Unit4 Bedrijfssoftware has proven to be very successful. Unit4 Bedrijfssoftware has grown rapidly and has regained its position in the Benelux market.” I suppose it would have been sold one way or another but the best way was fixing the unit.

France-based reseller Prodware has decided to concentrate its business in Europe and the United Kingdom. The Sage and Dynamics reseller said this week it has reached agreement to sell Proware Israel to its country manager, Yossi Haimov and an investment fund, Babylon.

Prodware noted it sold its Tunisian operations “a couple of months ago” to the Prodware business managers there. Prodware’s announcement describe its overall action as “staying the course pursuing its 2016-2021 development strategy, reinforcing and consolidating its market position as leading business partner in Europe for mid-market companies and subsidiaries of large groups supporting their digital transformation.” It also said it planned to bolster its nearshore facilities in Eastern Europe in order to support its “Group production capability of certain service offerings”. The  Research and Development Center of Prodware Israel an 365x Scaler are not part of the sale. Deputy CEO Stéphane Conrard said the moves are a response to the COVID-19 crisis. “Our short-term strategy is to consolidate and secure our market footprint in geographies with significant growth potential where we feel we have the competitive edge and resources to achieve our revenue and profit margin objectives as per our development strategy,” he said in the prepared statement.

Acumatica has scheduled its annual summit from January to May. The event is still planned for the Wynn Las Vegas but now from May 16 through 21.

Registration has opened, CEO Jon Roskill said during the week’s virtual event for the roll out of Acumatica 2020 Release 2. “We have been working with the Wynn hotel to make sure all the safety measures are in place,” Roskill said during the webcast. The company has its major sponsors already on board—AWS as Official Cloud Sponsor, Adobe as Official Document Cloud Sponsor and payments company Paya as Premier Sponsor. Construction software vendor Procore is the Impact Sponsor, whatever that is, but I would assume attracted by the Acumatica Construction Edition. Altogether, I counted 92 sponsors and exhibitors.

The Big Ten’s decision to play football after initially postponing the season proves that the quickest cure for the coronavirus is lots of cash and TV coverage. Well, that’s what it seems like.

  …When I heard a team had been eliminated from the NBA playoffs, I was trying to remember which NBA season this is.  Is it the end of the 2019/20 season or the beginning of the 2020/21 season if they work it right, they can have “All Playoffs All the Time” . That would be a lot more interesting that the regular season gains. … The long-running TV show “Keeping Up with the Kardashian” is being replaced by the hopefully very short-lived “Getting Rid of the Kardashians”. …   Meanwhile, Kanye West explained his bathing of the Grammy was simply because he thought it had been stung by a jelly fish and he was administering first aid. … “Dancing with the Stars” star Aaron Carter has begun making content from an adult site. His planned “XXX-ing with the Stars” is a sure fire hit. ... President Trump was confused by the report of the discovery of phosgene gas on Venus, which indicates the possibility of alien microbial life on the planet. Trump vowed aliens would not take any more American jobs. .. Another scientific report found peas can be made into plastic. I think my friend’s mother used to cook with those. … At the end of every journey is the gift shop. … . 

Rules of mail: If it’ says it’s important, it’s obviously not.… For several days, the local convenience store has been selling Reese’s Pumpkins, its pumpkin-shaped chocolate and peanut butter candy, and Kit Kats with bats on the wrapper.

Halloween already? I didn’t even get my Labor Day cards this year. …  People are so sensitive about coming face-to-face because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that may actually work in favor of people who want to go trick-or-treating. “Honey, there are children at the door. I don’t want to open it.” “Oh, don’t worry. They all have masks.” … I was planning on organizing people to combat voter apathy. But I decided I didn’t care enough to do anything. … David Arquette and Courtney Cox, who met and divorced during the Scream movies, are talking about partnering again on “Scream 5”. In one plot under consideration, a relentless killer attacks people who write sequels to horror and slasher movies. The couple tracks down the killer but because of their age are unable to keep up with him in afoot chase and are left panting and with severe muscle strains.  Another scenario has the killer so afraid of catching the COVID-19 virrus, he stops killing because he is afraid of personal contact.… Listening to a local game I heard, “Well, it looks like the COVID-19 tests results are in and this game is being called.”

Life as we know it isn’t. … There’s a new drink for the people who are truly paranoid about the corona-virus.

It’s a combination of bleach, Lysol and the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine. It’s called a “Screwball”. … Speaking of screwballs, the political group, QnAnon, which thinks everybody is conspiring, needs to have a plank in its platform calling for free lithium for all its members. … if we can just encourage the COVID-19 virus to attack killer hornets and Canada Geese, things would be a lot better…. Scientists have created artificial skin with the ability to feel. That’s better than my first wife. … A fight that broke out following a prank by an 11-year old involved 100 people, some wielding broomsticks and bottles, at the Cambria Hotel & Suites near Disneyland. Neither Mickey nor Minnie were injured but some of the Seven Dwarves had to be treated for minor injuries after they ganged up on Chip and Dale and Huey, Dewey and Louie. … The most terrifying thing in baseball, outside of having a player scratch and then offer to shake hands, is a spitball. Speaking of baseball, with a couple of teams, particularly the Marlins, experiencing virus outbreaks because players partied, you’d think with the amount of money the MLB has they could hire better hall monitors.  … The American Heart Association is warning about possible cardiovascular dangers to people who smoke marijuana. Apparently, you can have a heart attack and just not care. 

A friend of our daughter’s acquired a barely used 52-inch TV for us, our first wide-screen. I think it’s bigger than my first car.

… Professional ladies in Hamburg have been demanding that brothels reopen. Now there’s an issue to grapple with. They are fine with masks but still trying to figure out social distancing. I wonder if any of their cohorts in the United States were able to secure Paycheck Protection Loans. … Seventy-nine year- old Dr. Anthony Fauci may have set a record for a wide, first pitch for opening day between the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees. Critics immediately said the error proved the inaccuracy of this statements about the COVID-19 virus. Nationals and Yankees? It’s been a while. What sport do they play, again? Cameras during pitchers’ duels this year will be set to detect signs of movement on the field. …. During a coronavirus briefing, President Donald Trump gave well wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell, the indicted associate of the late Jeffrey Epstein, accused of helping the latter in his abuses. I was wondering of sending her a card: “Thinking you on your recent indictment”. Her legal troubles appeared to have spoiled the chances for Ghislaine to be among 2020’s most popular names for female babies. … I am becoming suspicious the Russians are trying to interfere with local elections—some of the literature I’m getting has a Moscow mailing address. … Back-to-school specials are taking a new look this year with a supplies of masks, hand sanitizers and sympathy cards being packaged along with the usual notebooks and pens and pencils.

Where are we going in the mid-market? Or in general? The economy started out the year with record employment and has moved to record unemployment with the effects of shutdowns of the Covid-19 virus.  For resellers this year, how they are doing depends on where they are located and in what markets they are involved. Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs for 2020 examines the issues in an era of extreme uncertainty and names 100 firms who are the big players in this market.

A majority companies submitting forms for this year’s Top 100 selection have more than 50 percent of their revenue coming from cloud products. That was 62 percent of the 93 firms that answered the question. (All provided revenue and employees)

 This group includes all submissions, whether the VAR was selected as a member of the Top 100 or not. Nearly 10 percent reported their revenue was 100 percent from the cloud. This is a very rough survey—there is lots of room of interpretation about what cloud means and some firms talked only of new sales. But it gives an indication of how strong the penetration has become. Twenty-nine percent said cloud ERP represent 80 percent or more of the total. Only one firm answered the question with zero percent. There was interpretation required as some gave one percentage for new sales and another for total so some back-of-the envelope averaging was performed. 

There is a boom in the mid-market financial software reselling business. One industry observer said the move from desktop to cloud computing has created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This year’s Bob Scott’s VAR Stars firms are participating in that opportunity Along with honoring the firms chosen, this year’s special VAR Star report looks at a market that is providing tons of opportunity to the business people with the talent and will to take advantage of it.

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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