The fact that SAP enhanced Business ByDesign probably won't quiet those who say the product is dead. But it certainly has a lot of new features for a product whose future has been questioned. The additions include in-memory capabilities, meaning availability on the SAP Hana Platform. The company also announced what it called enhanced pricing flexibility that include expanded competitive pricing mechanisms.

Gary Artis, CEO of Interdyn Artis Consulting, is retiring from day-to-day operations at his Charlotte, N.C.-based reselling firm.  His wife, Linda, is also stepping down from the firm, where she has worked as solutions manager since 1993. Artis says he will remain as chairman on the company's board of directors and will also be involved with the Interdyn consortium, many of whose members made their marks as Dynamics resellers. Saying it is a good time to pull back, Artis noted "We are celebrating our 25th year in business in 2014."

SilverSun Technologies, parent of Sage reseller SWK Technologies, has been tooting the horn of its only money-generating operation. This week, SilverSun said that SWK has sold 60 new licenses for its Mapacdoc EDI packages so far this year, already ahead of the number sold in 2013. The parent says in the past three weeks SWK has sold five new licenses valued at more than $170,000. This is the second press release this month about significant sales at SWK. The prior one said SWK had a sale of Sage ERP X3  valued at more than $1.1 million for software and services. Considering that on December 31 last year, the parent had just over $4,000 in cash – and there was a lot of speculation based on that – and a deal to merge with ISM and then one to buy Vicor Business Services both fell apart,  you'd have to say the year has been pretty remarkable for SWK CEO Jeff Roth and his staff. Mapadoc, which integrates with Sage 100, 500 and X3, is designed to reduce document mapping time during the EDI process.

Australian vendor Gem Accounts, which recently entered the American market, has launched two new versions of its accounting software. These include what is described as a full-featured free version "for the micro and small business sector." Gem says it had previously targeted only larger enterprises that had outgrown other cloud-based systems. Besides the Free version, Gem Accounts also offers SME and Midmarket-Enterprises versions.