Avalara started its Crush conference this week in Austin, Texas, on a surprising note. Patrick Falle, a founding investor, read a Safe Harbor statement. For those not familiar with the concept, these are read by publicly held companies that state essentially, events may change and the things they are saying today may become outdated.

 Eide Bailly Technology Consulting has been named as NetSuite's Americas Solution Provider Partner of the Year for 2017. This is the first time the Fargo N.D.-based organization has ranked so high in the cloud company's channel. The ERP practice at the accounting firm's unit is led by Stuart Tholen.

United Airlines has been emailing fliers in the wake of having a passenger dragged for his seat. The company will offer up to $10,000 for someone bumped for a seat. People hope for no repeat of the physical abuse. I don't know; for $10,000, I am willing to get roughed up a bit, just leave the teeth alone.

Columbus turned in 12.7-percent revenue growth for the first quarter ended March 31. And its North American revenue was up by 14.8 percent despite the fact chargeable hours for its SMB business in United States declined to 55 percent from 58 percent in last year's corresponding period.