Readers may remember GemAccounts, an Australian financial software vendor that was moving into the United States. That was in 2013 and the last time I wrote querying about what has happened with the company that drew a response from Ken Del Gobbo, an industry veteran who had worked at AccountMate and later Acumatica. Del Gobbo was named as president of the cloud-based company's North American operations in October 2013 and said that things were happening, although he was not terribly specific.

After almost 30 years working for reseller organizations, Pat Wade, former president of Equation Technologies, has become principal of Toronto, Ontario-based 180 Systems. According to her LinkedIn page, 180 Systems has "independent ERP consultants that assist organizations in business process improvement, system selection, business case development, project management and ERP expert witness testimony."

Terry Hicks is reportedly leaving Intuit after 15 years with the company. Perhaps more interesting is that Hicks has been VP and GM of QuickBooks Online since August 2013 and it would hard to name a job that has more prominence right now outside of the top executive ranks. Hicks has had some pretty hefty titles since joining the tax and accounting software company in February 2000.

Intuit is taking the name of last fall's QuickBooks Connect conference and applying it to a 15-day mini-conference tour that starts next week. Certification and training will be available in 14 of the 15 towns and there will be presentations by software vendors and well-known industry speakers. The one exception to the general format occurs on January 7 at the Omni Providence Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. ProAdvisor. Certification and testing will not be offered at this event.