Sage North America has hired Ray Barlow, a long-time CCH executive, as VP of accountant solutions. Barlow had lead Intuit's Accountant & Advisor Group starting in September 2013. Barlow's job at Intuit was described as building and leading "a team of Strategic Account Managers, Product Specialists, and Inside Account Managers to provide accountants with the products, programs, and services needed for their success." At Sage, he has responsibility for the accountant business in North America.

Danish Dynamics reseller Columbus has hired industry veteran Ken Eldridge as sales EVP. Eldridge will be based in the company's Norwell, Mass., office and his hiring represents another move by Columbus to turn around its operations in this country. He was EVP and partner at Sopris Systems from January 2013 until taking the new job and was VP of sales and marketing for New York-based Queue Associates from November 2011 to November 2012.

Online financial software vendor Intacct has named its President's Club for 2015. The list includes Radius, the San Jose, Calif.-based vendor's Accountants Program Partner of the Year for the second straight year and accounting firm, Armanino, the VAR Partner of the Year for 2014, also its second consecutive appearance in that role. Other organizations honored for performance were AcctTwo, Arxis Technology, Cargas, CliftonLarsonAllen, Frank, Rimerman + Co., JMT Consulting, Kianoff & Associates, LBMC Technology Solutions, Leap the Pond, Massey Consulting and McGladrey McGladrey.

Infor plans to by GT Nexus, which was described as the world's largest cloud-based global commerce platform, for $675 million. Infor says the target has about 25,000 customers, including six of the top ten logistics service providers and 30 global financial institutions. Infor has acquired many companies over the years—this is the largest deal since it acquired Lawson for about $2 billion in 2011. GT Nexus had revenue of about $133.2 million in revenue for the year ended Dec. 31, 2014 and about $10 million in adjusted EBITDA. Infor expects to save about $8.7 million through cost cutting.