The alliance between Salesforce and Sage turned into something specific this week with the announcement of Sage Life. With FAQ list sent to the channel, Sage spent a lot of time talking about what the product is not—it won't displace Sage 300, X3 or CRM, or anything else. What it did not talk about is the products whose target market seriously overlap Life—Sage 50, the Old Peachtree and Sage 100—as the product is said to be for companies with 10 to 200 employees. Asked the impact on Sage 50 more than once, Doug LaBahn, newly minted as a global VP of product marketing for Sage Life, did a tap dance that could have qualified for "Dancing with the Stars."

France-based ProdWare has reported revenue of about $48 million for the first quarter ended March 31, even with last year. However, the company said organic revenue rose by 4.7 percent. I should say apparently as Prodware continued its practice this week or releasing results in French, not English. When you select English, the earnings press release that is posted on the French version, disappears. The English versions tend to appear days later. It looks like SaaS subscription revenue hit roughly $3.6 million, about 7.5 percent of the total.

The top line at Epicor Software went sideways as the company's ERP business remains sluggish. At the same time, the company had a significant organization. On the money side, the company cut its loss to $3.5 million for the second quarter ended March 31, down from a loss $4.7 million a year earlier. But revenue of $241.8 million was virtually unchanged from $242.8 million in last year's corresponding period. ERP revenue fell to $145.7 million in the most recently ended period, a decrease of 2.8 percent from just under $150 million.

Exact Macola outlined important enhancements to version 10.2 and laid out a product road map this week at its Evolve user conference. All of this is a bit revolutionary—when Macola v. 10 debuted last year it was the first major release in 10 years, according to managing director Alison Forsythe. Suffice it to say that without a major release, no product road map was needed. Dan Griffin, director of product management, laid out the priorities in the new version, including Web Services. Griffin said Order Entry and accounts payable have been established as Web Services.