At the same time, Intuit’s announcement that it will recognize desktop product revenue over time—and push $400 million in revenue out of fiscal 2104 into future years—illustrates that there are business issues for vendors in moving to the cloud. It adds up to a perfect fog—how these companies, other than Intuit, are going to get where they want to go is very unclear. One answer has been the cleansing scalpel of private equity, buying the NFP business and Act and SalesLogix from Sage for example. I’ve publicly advocated Microsoft selling the Dynamics business. And the move to keep certifications for AX and CRM raised a new possibility—Microsoft could keep those products and sell the rest. (And no, I don’t have inside information). Sage could sunset or sell new products. Infor, which just purchased SalesLogix, just keeps on buying. As the eight ball said, “Answer unclear. Check back later.” Except, Intuit is ahead of the pack in adjusting to the new world.
VAR MISERY AND A PERFECT FOG Featured
Microsoft has probably taken the lead in having the unhappiest VARs. That’s because Sage resellers are more resigned to fate. But with the decision to drop many of the certification requirements to carry Dynamics GP, NAV and SL, Microsoft illustrated problems faced by companies like Microsoft, Sage and Infor. All were built from aggregating unrelated products. All face the need to deal with aging technology and move to the cloud. Infor is different in that it has to pay off $5.3 billion in debt. But all have squeezed the channel to get more income.
