The howling sound is probably a number of Sage resellers reacting to increases in tier levels of software products. The move was about as popular as Bill Cosby showing up at a Playboy Bunny reunion as the threshold for the top tier, the purchases of Mid-Market financial applications needed to qualify for the Diamond Tier, rose by 48 percent. The amount is now $400,000 for that level, $200,000 for Platinum and $100,000 for Gold.

Fred Studer, general manager for Microsoft Dynamics, has reportedly joined NetSuite as its chief marketing officer. No announcement has been made and Studer's LinkedIn page still shows him in the job he with started with Microsoft in May 2011. He had been with that company since September 2007. However, I don't see any reason to doubt the source of this news although I have an inquiry sent to NetSuite.

Acumatica has created a cloud platform division. And the company once again reached into the Microsoft ranks for leadership, hiring Ajoy Krishnamoorthy as its general manager in October. Krishnamoorthy's LinkedIn page noted he is "Responsible for driving cloud platform effort; Managing and growing solution/ISV partner ecosystem." He was most recently Microsoft's director of OEM segment marketing from April 2013 through October and had been with that company since July 2005.

Sage's new chief executive Steve Kelly scored strong marks as a salesman during the earnings webcast for fiscal 2014, far more dynamic than his predecessors. But then, Guy Berruyer, was fairly laid back, and long-time chief exec Paul Walker was, well, an accountant. And for those in the channel who feel they have been here before, Kelly's declaration that "the strategy is paying off" was ho-hum. "I saw him on CNBC.