Although there’s only one official announcement of a reselling operation interested in setting up franchising, there are reports circulating that up to three might be in the works with Microsoft’s blessing. The only announced plan is by Interdyn, which is putting together a plan. But one reseller is betting on Tribridge, which just raised several millions for expansion. Read more...

This is one of those items that doesn’t have immediate implications for the mid-market, but may well down the line. The company has anted up $350 million for SAP Ventures Fund 1 to be invested in software and software-enabled service companies. Although SAP has been doing this kind of thing for several years, it said the new fund structure would allow it to move more quickly. Read more...

Instead of holding its annual Synergy reseller conference in the fall in the San Francisco area, AccountMate is opting for a series of one-day sessions in three different metropolitan areas. A recent company newsletter told resellers it planned on round-table events near airports in San Francisco, Chicago and Newark, N.J. The company plans to hold a traditional conference in 2012 and then alternate with the one-day sessions thereafter. I get to go to Newark instead of San Francisco this year? Oh, joy.

While Microsoft has been loudly promoting “to the cloud” in its television advertisement, I am sure there are people like me who keep thinking “but they don’t have anything in the ERP world.” Well, now the vendor, which I think is accurately described as having poo-poohed SaaS, is trumpeting loudly with yesterday’s introduction of CRM Online. Read more...