Xero has integrated its low-cost accounting software with Microsoft Power BI. The New Zealand-based cloud software vendor says the link will provide its users with an easier way to access and analyze information from Xero and other  packages. Available next month, the link to the analytics means users can create data visualizations of the most commonly tracked 25 small business metrics, including cash position, revenue versus  expenses, profit/loss trend, debtor days and return on investment.

A version of Sage Live for the Apple iOS platform has been announced by Sage and Apple. And outside of the lot of nice quotes, the press release about this topic was lacking in a lot of detail. The more interesting statement is Sage Live will be sold through the Apple ecosystem. VARS are already wondering if there is any money they can make with Live. If Sage begins broadening distribution a lot, it is hard to see what future resellers might have. One of the real questions to be answered is the overall Sage product strategy.

FinancialForce.com has decided to drop the .com from its name. Headline writers should rejoice as the company opted for the simpler form. The company, owned by Salesforce and Unit4, also named Joe Fuca as president of worldwide field operations. Fuca will lead and expand the global sales organization and its services arm, Customers for Life. Fuca was most recently VP of worldwide sales for DocuSign. He also held senior executive for McAfee (now Intel Security), MarketLive, PeopleSoft and Evolve.

The growth of the American dollar took a bite out of the bottom line for Qlik Technology for the year ended December 31. The business analytics software vendor reported a net loss of $30.5 million, an increase 48 percent from red ink of $24.6 million in 2014. Qlik's revenue for last year was $612.7 million, up 10 percent from $556.8 million the prior year. But currency changes added $6.9 million in red ink to operating losses, a 250.1-percent rise from slightly less than $2 million in currency losses in 2014.