Just as we thought all the Microsoft channel veterans were clearing out of Sage, the company has announced it has rehired Jodi Uecker-Rust. Uecker-Rust is returning on June 8 as interim president of Sage North America. That follows the recent departure of Pascal Houillon as CEO of Sage Americas. With her and Sage CEO Stephen Kelly in place, we have the potential of a Summit keynote in which we don't have people tittering over the word "focus".

Cloud accounting software vendor Xero introduced a business performance dashboard and integration with the Apple iOS at Xerocon now underway in Denver, Colo. The dashboard provides eight core performance metrics and more than 20 in Australia and New Zealand. It enables users to click on a graph to determine how metrics were calculated and the source of information. Xero says the dashboard can also take advantage of big data and more tools will be delivered.

NetSuite has hired Burt Graeme as channel sales director for Asia Pacific and Japan. Based in Sydney, Australia, Graeme  is responsible for growing the channel staff in that part of the globe. He also manages NetSuite's partners in three sub-regions: Australia/New Zealand, Asia and Japan. Graeme was previously BMC Software's country manager for Australia and New Zealand for enterprise solutions from October 2013 through December 2014.