Avalara has entered the property tax compliance business with the acquisition of CrowdReason.The sales-and-use tax company also purchased a valuation advisory services business from CorrelationAdvisors as part of the deal.

Terms were not disclosed. Sixteen indviduals have joined Avalara as a result of the purchase of the two businesses The acquired operation’s capabilities includes document management because most tax jurisdictions rely on paper communications, such as the transmission of return forms, notices and tax bills. CrowdReason’s property-tax database includes content from than 20,000 property tax assessors and collectors, including due dates, depreciation tables and mailing addresses. It also offers what Avalara termed “a simplified and more efficient process to manage ongoing property tax return requirements.” It’s Avalara’s second deal this month as earlier it purchased Track1099, which manages, files and delivers forms such as 1099s and W-9s.

 Jessica Gadbois, who has been a fixture at Acumatica product announcements, has taken a job with Synergy Resources. She has become the Acumatica Practice Director at Synergy, a reseller that emploes about 100 individuals.

With offices in New York, N.Y., and Toronto, Que.-Synergy carries Acumatica, along with Infor Cloud Suite Industrial and Infor Visual ERP. Gadbois served as Acumatica’s director of partner enablement for the last year. She was a manager of partner enablement and solution consultant at Acumatica from June 2016 through  Prior to that, she spent two years at NetSuite.

An increasing number of middle-market executives are familiar with environmental, social and governance) issues and have adopted formal ESG plans. This was the finding of the recently released RSM US Middle Market Business Index ESG Special Report.

RSM US found in the third quarter 69 percent of middle market execute es responding to the survey were very or somewhat familiar with using ESG Criteria to evaluate performance. That is a 30-percentage-point increase from 39 percent the fourth quarter of 2019. They are also taking action as 66 percent of those who are aware of those issues have formal plans regarding commitments. The leading cause included in formal plans are environmental issues with 32 percent indicated these were in the plan. The larger the company the more likely it is to have an ESG plan. Forty-eight percent of respondents said their organizations are working to reduce net carbon emissions to zero or have already done so. The figure was 68 percent of companies with $50 million to $1 billion in annual revenue and 23 percent for smaller companies. Twenty percent said climate change presents significant opportunities over the next three years, 28 percent said it presents significant challenges and 27 percent said it offers both.

Akerna, which is out to consolidate the cannabis software business, has acquired 365 Cannabis for $17 million. Akerna has also raised $20 million this month through the sale of convertible debentures to its existing institutional investors.

365 Cannabis is built on Microsoft's Dynamics 365 Business Central. Akerna termed the acquired product the “most robust cannabis-compliant Microsoft ERP on the market” and that it would offer “the broadest portfolio of technology solutions provider for cannabis operators.” Akerna had $7.8 million in revenue for the six months ended December 31. The company made that report to the SEC as it changed its reporting period from a June 30 fiscal year end to a calendar year. It had $8,9 million in revenue for the six months ended June 30. Akerna owns several cannabis companies, including Viridian Sciences, Leaf Data Systems and Trellis.

 This Halloween, the scariest people will be the ones that come to the door without and masks.

… It is well known that the first telephone call by Alexander Graham Bell was to his assistant, Watson. The message was “Watson, come here, I need you.” What is not so widely known was the first call Bell received was “We have been trying to reach you about your car’s warranty. … TV actor William Shatner who played Star Trek’s James Kirk has just finished a flight into space on Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket.  Kirk was confused during the flight and kept saying, “Warp speed, Mr. Sulu” and asking Scotty to beam up the landing party. Later, was heard mentioning something about tribbles. ... The recent outage of Facebook was so bad people who remember it were searching for My Space. ,,, I understand Gartner has created a fifth quadrant for companies it can’t place in the other four. It’s called, “The Quadrant of Shame” and places people on the x and y axes based on criteria such as “Still hanging around”, “Leader in outdated technology” and “No apparent strategy”.  … On a game show I watched recently a contestant told the host she had five beautiful children. “You have five children?” he asked. “No, five beautiful ones,” she replied. “The other two are ugly as sin.”

My friend Jerry, a retired consultant, recently gave me insight into one of the secrets to successful consulting: “My plan for this year is to learn from the mistakes made by the people I give advice to.”

The TV show “La Brea”, in which a giant sinkhole reveals a hidden world under Los Angeles, debuted last month. They had to junk the original concept in which the sinkhole led to horrible area with terrible air, never-ending fires and pervasive smoke and then it was pointed out that’s a good deal of California. … Intuit recently had a QuickBooks Roundtable which included an appearance by rapper, PitBull. It turns out that QuickBooks support personnel will now be required to answer calls with rap … The book “Angels and Demons” by author Dan Brown included the story of a secret society, the Illuminati, which plotted against the Catholic church. In a new book called “The DaVince Roll”, the author of “The DaVinci Code” writes about warring secret societies, the Unde-rrati and Over-rati which fight a centuries long battle over the right way to hang toilet paper.  … Former “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno is back on TV with a reboot of “You Bet Your Life” the classic show of the 1950s hosted by comic, Groucho Marx. Then new version features contestants who refuse to take the COVID-19 Vaccine who say “I’d rather die” than take the shot. The audience then places bets on their longevity. Leno is probably took the job to help pay the insurance on all his cars.

There’s a new frankness in how DNA findings are communicated to subscribers—things like are you susceptible to certain diseases, likely to go bald, or sleep deeply.

Mine included a conclusion that “You’re dumber than you look.” …Just found Biscotti in the local 7-11, the same kind that is served as a snack on some domestic air flights. It’s not funny, but people deserve to know one of the few good things about modern flying is having an impact on society. … When someone says a person has served as a global head of some company’s operations, I always wonder if that’s like the Big Giant Head of the TV sitcom “Third Rock from the Sun”. … Singer Nicki Minaj caused an international uproar in relating a second-hand story that taking the COVID-19 vaccine had caused unusual organ growth in a male in Trinidad. Trinidad spent much of the day tracking down the story before reporting much time had been wasted before declaring the claim unfounded. I don’t know. That could be new way of promoting tourism on the island nation. After all, the official tourism slogan of Trinidad and Tobago is “Go Beyond Ordinary”. … Finally saw a realistic disclaimer for a TV movie. It says “Inspired by real events. They don’t have the slightest resemblance to this film, but they were inspired by them. … I am trying to develop a new feature for use when I trigger those “How can I help you” messages on a website. It immediately responds, “Leave Me Alone”.

It’s almost Labor Day and can Christmas displays be far behind. Join the competition to see who can get the most disgusted by the earliest the displays go up.

…. Speaking of holidays, the Halloween candy displays went up a couple of weeks ago. I propose making it a federal crime to flavor any additional items with pumpkin spice. … Resigned New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Florida Representative Matt Gaetz are the leading contenders for this year’s Eliot Spitzer prize. Spitzer is the former New York governor who resigned in 2008 for his habit of employing professional woman—well, professional at $1,000 per hour. Gaetz is considered a shoo-in the award in the juvenile division. Cuomo was a hands-on governor, which many people can testify to, most of them women. Cuomo was initially considered a candidate for the Bill Cosby Repeat Offender Award but was ruled out because of his abysmal completed pass percentage. ... It seems to me that Star Fleet command should request refunds on starship shields. They just don’t hold up. It always seems when the artillery starts up on Star Trek episodes that after the first strike we hear, “Shields are down to 70 percent. 50 percent, 30 percent”. ”Damn it, Scotty, can you adjust this thing?” “Sorry captain, performance went downhill after the warranty ran out." About five strikes and they are done for. … … One of the local supermarkets is big enough that instead of having simply numbered aisles, they also have them designated as west and east. I was asking for the location of something, and the service desk said, “That’s at the end of 9W. Make sure you don’t go to 10W”. “Why not?” I asked. “That’s where planes land in the late afternoon.”  ... The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is in our town, Parsippany, N.J. this weekend. I guess that's like one time I was in our building in Manhattan and saw the Publisher's Clearing House Prize Patrol. It's nice to know these aren't just legends.

Submissions for the 2021 Bob Scott’s VAR Stars are still open. And if you are reading this, you are probably still in business despite everything that's been thrown at you the last two years

The selection will be accompanied by a special report discussing just what mid-market financial software resellers have. been experiencing and where they think lthe market is heading. The selection is based on quality—not revenue. Past honorees have ranged from one-person operations to the largest ERP dealers. Factors that are considered in the selection are growth, development of significant products and services and contributions to the industry. If you are interested in having  your firm considered, please email bob.scott@pmg360.com by October 21.

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

It has been a year like no other for ERP mid-market software VARs. But one thing has stayed the same–it is time to ready your submission for Bob Scott’s Top 100 VARs for 2021--and this week is your last chance to do sol.

The IRS just gave you extra time to submit your individual tax returns, so use the opportunity to be considered. Each year, we rank the biggest financial software VARs in the mid-market and  use the occasion to learn more about how the market has worked in the last year and talk about directions it is likely to take in the near future. To be a player, please ask for a submission form  and return your information as soon as possibleto bob.scott@pmg360.com

 The year 2020 has been Dickensian—the worst of times and best of times. For most of the population, the coronavirus has made this year probably the most awful in memory. But for many mid-market software resellers, the move of companies to the cloud as their workforces went to remote operations, meant 2020 has been a good to great year. The results are not uniform. For VARs in markets such as entertainment and hospitality, it was not great. However, if clients were able to conduct business remote, resellers could service them remotely and despite the difficulties, 2020 was fine. Bob Scott’s VAR Stars for 2020 faced the pandemic and many not only survived, they prospered.