The Sage 50 accounting software line and its X3 manufacturing application led revenue growth in North America for the year ended September 30, the Sage Group said this week. Overall, the company had its greatest rate of revenue growth in eight years, CEO Steve Kelly said during this week's earnings webcast. That included 4-percent organic revenue increases reported on this continent. Worldwide, Sage reported net profit of roughly $347.6 million, an increase of 32.6 percent from the prior year and worldwide revenue of about $2.15 billion, an increase of 6.1 percent from fiscal 2014.

The 2015 class of Bob Scott's Insights' VAR Stars will be unveiled on Friday, December 11, in time for Christmas. The 100 resellers selected are chosen based on quality, not revenue, so it represents a wide span of organizations, from those employing one person, to the largest resellers in the Top 100.

Sage Group CEO Steve Kelly said this week that "nearly 40 percent of the top 100" employees in his company are new since he took over his job a year ago. If you have followed the items in the last two newsletters, there has been a flood of new names—almost all unannounced, but you can follow the trail through LinkedIn. During this week's 2015 earnings webcast, Kelly said "a majority are experience new joiners, complimented by a number of internal promotions."

Blackbaud plans to start a Value-added Reseller program in 2016. The information was given at this week's Investors Day. Unfortunately, I missed the webcast and no replay is yet available. The slides associated with the announcement say partners will manage client relationships and every relationship will be supported by a dedicated Blackbaud relationship manager. The nonprofit software company also pointed to success in its Partner program that was started this year.