The latest version of Dynamics CRM will be introduced by Microsoft in the fall. The product will be available online as Dynamics CRM Online Fall '13 and on-premises as Dynamics CRM 2013, The company says the new release will deliver more personal experiences to sales, marketing and customer care professionals. The system connects to MarketingPilot, Microsoft’s marketing automation product, and enables businesses to manage products, budgets and resources and executes and monitors marketing.

Xero has hired Jeremy Wood to the position of head of global marketing. Wood will have responsibility for marketing for the company’s New Zealand headquarters and for all of its in-country marketing teams. Wood was employed by Google starting in 2005 and was most recently that company’s head of SMB co-marketing for the Americas.

Open Systems is offering a promotional program to offer purchasers low-cost lease payments. End user buyers must sign with Open Systems Financial Services by July 31 to qualify for a $50-per-month rate that is good until next year for financing purchases of Traverse or Open Systems Accounting Software. The leasing services were launched by Open Systems earlier this year and are also available to finance third-party expenses such as hardware, training, implementation, and services. After this year, payments are stepped up to the full level. 

The announcement last week that Oracle and NetSuite would jointly sell HCM and ERP to the midmarket derailed the inclusion of another item in the newsletter of June 28. But perhaps that plan suggests Oracle is moving to meet the problems that Wall Street says the software company is having with the cloud. And that came in the form of published reports that the company missed its financial estimates for two consecutive quarters because customers were shifting spending to web-based tools from competitors.