Chief data officer Tony Stewart is taking over leadership of Xero's small business products. The change was made as Xero announced Duncan Ritchie chief product and platform officer, his taking a sabbatical starting this month. Ritchie, who joined the New Zealand-based cloud company six years ago, will evaluate new roles within Xero later this year. The company said Ritchie led the recently completed platform migration to Amazon Web Services.

The Internet of Things has gotten hot, judging from the number of demonstrations and sessions at recent conferences, including Epicor's Insights and SAP's Sapphire. At the latter conference, a demonstration was made using a power drill to make a hole in a piece of concrete.

Eighteen months ago, Sage opened its first Customer Business Center in Atlanta. It also opened a center in Dublin, Ireland. When the centers were first announced, the company said more would open "to revolutionize the way it supports customers around the world."