At the registration desk for Epicor's Insights conference, someone asked if I wanted to be listed as "executive editor" instead of just editor. I said, no, "executive editor makes it sound like I have people to boss around and the only person I try that with is my wife and that rarely goes well" .... Somebody asked me what I thought of Bernie Sanders, and I replied, "I just love his chicken; especially the extra crispy."

Epicor Software is putting a lot of effort in reaching the lower end of its market. "We have thousands of leads coming in," Craig McCollum, EVP for the Americas, said at the company's Insights conference this week. McCollum said these are largely customers coming off QuickBooks and "these people feel they don't have a place to go." Epicor's approach is to provide self-installable systems and to reach the prospects through telesales.

SAP had single-digit revenue growth for the first quarter ended March 31 in what the company says is usually its weakest quarter. However, profit after tax rose to $641.2 million, up 38 percent over last year in IFRS terms, although an increase of only 9 percent on a non-IFRS basis. License sales were a drag on revenue, increasing only 1 percent to $3.57 billion. The revenue numbers missed SAP'S guidance and the Americas were a big factor in that.

Microsoft this week said that Dynamics revenue for the third quarter ended March 31 was 4-percent higher than in last year's corresponding period. This represents an improvement in fiscal 2016 as for the nine months, Dynamics revenue rose 3 percent and during the week's earnings webcast, CEO Satya Nadella said Dynamics AX revenue grew by double digits. The company does not report dollar totals and you have to speculate on the ERP results.