Blackbaud has declared a sweeping new approach to how its software applications relate to the market and each other. The Charleston, S.C.-based nonprofit software vendor is implementing an open development platform, along with rolling out a consistent user interface across its applications. "Blackbaud solutions were once closed and difficult to integrate with," CEO Mike Gianoni said during this week's first-quarter earnings webcast.

Sonata Software, an IT company based in Bangalore, India, will purchase I.B.I.S., which has been a top award winner in the Microsoft Dynamics realm. Perhaps we should also pay attention to the international trend—earlier this year, Denmark-based Columbus purchased Interdyn BMI. The press release announcing the deal highlighted the VAR's Advanced Supply Chain Software, based on Dynamics AX and CRM.

Intuit CEO Brad Smith is scheduled to become chairman of the software company in January. The company this week announced the move after Bill Campbell, chairman of the board of directors since August 1998, said he would retire that month. Campbell also served as president and CEO from April 1994 to July 1998 and as acting CEO from September 1999 through January 2000. I don't know what this means for the running of the company.