For its first quarter, Intuit loses money since it is outside of tax season. The question is how much it loses; in this case $84 million for the period ended October 31, compared to $11 million in last year's corresponding period. However, the fact the company is now recognizing all revenue ratably is shoving $400 million into fiscal 2016 and beyond has a role in boosting the red ink. On the top, Intuit reported revenue $672 million, an increase of 8 percent from $622 million a year ago.

Deltek has named Duane Kotsen to the position of SVP of Global Services. The position is a new one for the Reston, Va.-based publisher of project management applications. CEO Mike Corkery said the company has been successful moving upmarket and it expects the addition of Kotsen will assist in that arena and in its increasingly international operations.

SAP is increasingly pitching its often-maligned Business ByDesign cloud application into two-tier installations. The product is aimed at divisions at companies that run the SAP Business Suite at the enterprise level. It's a strategy also being followed by competitor NetSuite which pitches its SaaS application as something that companies with SAP at the core can deploy at divisions. However, SAP argues that It is far easier to integrate two SAP-developed products than one from SAP and one from an outsider.

Intuit has reached an agreement with Revel Systems, which will develop QuickBooks Point of Sale powered by Revel Systems. The application, which will be available next year, is an iPad POS application that works with QuickBooks Online. Intuit has an online wait list for the product. This reminded me that a couple of years ago, I asked an Intuit spokesperson whether traditional desktop hardware/software POS systems--sold by companies such as Intuit--would become obsolete because of the use of mobile devices.