There are reports that Fred Studer, who joined NetSuite as chief marketing officer almost a year ago, is no longer with the company. The same reports also state that two other marketing people are gone. Studer came to NetSuite from Microsoft in December. He joined that company in September 2007 and became general manager of the Dynamics operation in May 2011.

This year there are new twists on M&A as globalization makes a big impact, at least in the Dynamics AX market. That was recently shown by Sonata Software's purchase of Peachtree Corners, Ga.-based I.B.I.S., led by Andy Vabulas. Sonata is based in India. More recently, Ameri Holdings launched a hostile bid for Edgewater Technology and while its operating business, Ameri100, is headquartered in Princeton, N.J., most company executives are of Indian origin.

Because of the impact of travel coming back from the magical state of Florida, Random Thoughts is on break this week. That has more to do with the lack of working wi-fi at places than travel. You know Florida; a word from a native language meaning hot and over-priced. Besides paying homage to the mouse takes precedence over normal day-to-day activity and the weather simply saps the heat of unwary northerners. The good thing was the kids on the Disney Express back to Newark were too worn out to be a pain.

Sage has launched its Sage 100c and 300c lines that are designed to transition its customers to the cloud, although it appears more aimed at moving them to subscription pricing.  "We know not everyone is ready to go to the cloud, but some are," says Diane Haines, director of strategic marketing for Sage North America. While there has been some uproar over fees for converting from 100 and 300, Haines says that applies only to those who want to upgrade to the newer products, but has no impact on those who will stay on the 2016 versions of Sage 100 and 300 at the same support levels.