PaperSave and Paramount WorkPlace have merged to form PairSoft. The merger was accompanied by what was described as a strategic investment of undisclosed size from Turn/River Capital. 

PaperSave markets document and contract management, and workflow and Accounts Payable products  while Paramount WorkPlace publishes requisition and procurement products and expense and supplier management software.  PaperSave’s assets were owned by WhiteOwl, a consulting and reselling firm that developed the products and sold them to PairSoft. The company’s applications integrate with the Dynamics, Blackbaud, Oracle, Acumatica and Sage ERP lines

A collation of health and technology companies are working to develop a digital passport for COVID-19 vaccines. The group which includes Microsoft, Salesforce.com and Oracle, are part of the Vaccine Credential Initiative that also includes MITRE, Mayo Clinic, Evernorth, The Commons Project Foundation and CARIN Alliance.

The group believes a universally recognized digital record of vaccination is urgently needed. The coalition seeks to develop an encrypted copy of the inoculation credentials and store it in a digital wallet, such as those provided by Apple or Google. Alternatively, users could print a paper copy of the credentials that contain a QR code. That will follow the recently disclosed key design elements of the IATA Travel Pass from the Air Transport Association that helps travelers manage travel in line with government requirements for COVID-19 testing or vaccine information. 

Xentral, which makes ERP systems for SMBs, has raised $20 million in Series A funding. Based in Augsburg, Germany, the company will use the funding to expand in Europe initially and later in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Xentral says current ERP systems are often too complex, too expensive and inflexible for smaller businesses and will also invest in product development, recruiting. The round was led by Sequoia Capital with participation from Visionaries Club. Sequoia’s Luciana Lixandru. The software vendor’s applications include order and warehouse management, packaging, fulfillment, accounting and sourcing. Xentral says it offers ERP for eCommerce, FBA merchants, retail, wholesale,  produecrs and manufacturers, service providers and fulfillment service providers

HSO, which acquired AKA Consulting in August, has boosted its operations with the acquisition of SAGlobal and its 360 Solutions Group. The operations will do business as HSO ProServ, a unit of HSO US, with more an 300 employees here.

  The last numbers available for AKA were $36 million and 130 employees. Applying the same revenue per employee to the 300 employees in the United States would put operations here at $108 million for the Dynamics 365 reseller.. HSO has more than 1m200 employees worldwide. HSO ProServ is headed by Whit McIsaac, president and CEO. He was CEO of  the Americas for SA Global. Other resellers of comparable size that are purely Microsoft houses are Alithya with about $189 million in revenue and 2000 professional employees for 2019. The website currently shows 1,500 professionals in Canada, 450 in the United States and 125 in Europe. Columbus, based in Denmark, had roughly $289 million in revenue and 3,000 employees for 2019. ProServ’s products include practice management suites built on Dynamics 365. These are accounting360 for accounting firms and consulting360 for consulting firms. There is also aec360 for architectural, engineering and construction firms and legal 360 for law firms.

A  friend learned that a shortage of chips is threatening automobile production. He said he was very surprised and commented, “Couldn’t they just switch to trail mix?”

… A previously unseen episode of the “Ghost Whisperer” had a surprising when, in the climactic scene, the deceased person de jour is ready to make the move to the next life. Someone yells, “Hey, can someone turn off that white light?” …  I think there’s a future in movies for Jacob Chansley, alias Jake Angell, who was seen in the Capitol building last week with his horns in fur attire. He would be perfect for a remake of “The Island of Dr. Moreau”. He wouldn't need that match make up to morph into an animal/human mutant.  The rest of that crowd is slated for the latest installment of “Dumb and Dumberer”.  … Some Congress people thought there were tours of the Capitol building scouting the building before the riot. Police should have gotten suspicious when they saw a couple of buses labeled “Tours by QAnon” touring the city. … Has anyone noticed that as new Star Trek episodes emerge, the Klingons kept getting uglier?  In the original series, they only varied from humans by their hairdo. In the “Next Generation” part of the franchise, they evolved to have, in the words of a friend, “A butt in them idle of their faces.” In the first season “Star Trek Discovery”,  they looked like metallic iguanas, although in season two they reverted to the NG look. If it keeps going they will just be slime on rocks in the next series. … Denmark TV has trod new ground with a children’s show about John. Dillermand, who has a giant male part. He would have made an interesting addition to “Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.”  Mr. Rogers, in his gentle voice, says, “I have a friend with a large. ….Can you say, “XXXX”? Might not make it on American public TV 

The DNA testing service 23andMe has updated the results of the ancestry composition for those of us who have tested. All my wife was interested in how much my Neanderthal DNA has changed.

“It must have gone up,” she said. … I don’t know if there has been an update but pre-Christmas. Cannabis sales were expected to hit $400 million. That probably explains why it was essential to leave lots of cookies for Santa during the holiday visit. This year, the delivery of gifts was delayed since so many homes were requiring Santa and the reindeer to have temperature checks.…… I have always wanted to put “Do not Exit signs” on all of the exits on a traffic circle and see how long people will go around before ignoring them. … A friend asked me if I h ad ever read El Cid?  I told him, no, but I had read material by El Max and El Bernie. … President Trump’s neighbors in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, got together and bought him a book for Christmas. It was Tom Wolfe’s “You Can’t Go Home Again”. … Someone asked what I thought about the meteor shower over the holidays. I said, “Personally, I prefer soap and water.”

Cannabis sales hits an estimated $238 million for Thanksgiving, one of the biggest sales periods for the drugs. Use of cannabis, of course, can make users slow moving and drowsy—somewhat hard to distinguish from what happens to people after a normal meal of turkey.

The widespread use of cannabis in stuffing may explain a reported drop of fights with crazy uncles. “Biden? Trump? Wow, look at the pretty lights. Do you have any Mallomars and chips? …  News Flash: The amphibious creature from the hit movie of 2916  “The Shape of Water”, died after being caught in a fishing net and could not be freed…. The Six Million Dollar Man has been fully depreciated and taken out of service. He is being replaced by the Six Hundred Thousand Man, manufactured in the Far East.… Roofs around the area are starting to bear signs “Santa must wear a mask.” Also it turns out on the retelling of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer that while the North Pole workforce has been little affected by COVID-19 the reindeer herd has been savaged by hoof-and-mouth disease. … Parents in the New York metropolitan area recently breathed a sigh of relief with the cancellation of SantaCon set for December 14, the rowdy pub crawl of people in Santa costumes, because of the pandemic.  It’s difficult to explain to your children why there are so many Santa throwing up in the street. Cancellation also means authorities won’t have to respond to numerous complaints about elf-tossing contests. SantaCon is reportedly a charitable fundraising, although the main beneficiaries, Budweiser and Coors, usually aren’t thought of as organizations needing charity.

New of the future: 2050—The estate for the late former president Donald Trump filed its latest appeal to overturn results in the state of Pennsylvania that favored the late President Joe. Biden.

…  Gov. Rick DeSantis has confounded medical experts by forbidding cities in Florida from adopting rules requiring the wear of masks. I think it’s simple—he believes that having people with tan lines on their face would be bad for Florida’s image. … A sure bet for a hot gift for Christmas is the new Barbie Quarantine House. It comes with a supply of masks and Ken is suffering from a worrisome coughs and is waiting for tests results.… Instead of Baby New Year 2021 crawling in after Old Man 2020 limps, it looks more likely the Old Man will exit on a ventilator and will need assistance.  … Fantasy football has evolved with the times. Now players are not only traded, but can be sidelined in quarantine after testing positive for the coronavirus. … There is nothing like college football math. There are 10 teams in the Big 12 and 14 teams in the Big 10.

 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.

Submissions for the 2020 Bob Scott’s VAR Stars are still open. But you have to act fast. .

The door closes next Wednesday. 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 as soon as possible.

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.