A jury in Franklin County, Ala., has awarded a Ross Systems client $61 million in damages based on alleged fraud related to the sale and implementation of a beta Ross ERP system in early 2005. The jury awarded Sunshine Mills $16 million in compensatory damages and $45 million in punitive damages. Ross denies the allegations and plans to appeal the verdict. Ross said Sunshine used the product for several years before filing suit and continues to use the software, while purchasing additional services from Ross, which is a subsidiary of CDC Software. Ross Systems president Sherri Rodriguez termed the outcome a “unfair judgment.”

December should be one of the biggest sales months in the year as companies flush out budgets.But it doesn’t look like 2010 is going to fit that pattern. And interviews with a handful of high-quality resellers produce a mixture of views on the mid-market business.One says sales are dragging, possibly as businesses wait for Congressional action on taxes. Another says leads are great, although sales aren’t up to the same level.  Read more...

Exact CEO Martijn Janmaat said last week that the company was adjusting strategy, not adopting a new strategy. But in wide ranging meeting with analysts Janmaat, who became CEO on August 23, gave a frank analysis of his company’s many shortcomings and ways to fix them, much of this stemming from a study by the Boston Consulting Group.

While we are waiting for the wonderful world of SaaS to emerge in the financial software world, there’s going to be a period in which hybrid business environments dominate. That’s not an earthshaking conclusion. But the fact that vendors are increasingly describing that world shows a growing consensus about the short-term product path. At Barclays Capital Global Technology Conference this week, Epicor’s CFO Michael Pietrini told investors that the adoption rate of SaaS remains slow in the ERP industry. Read more...