New Zealand is mentioned on this site more than normal. And it's not that we have New Zealand readers in numbers, but the action there is part of the worldwide battle in small business cloud accounting software. Australia-based MYOB recently acquired Information Management Services, which is based in Hawkes Bay on the North Island, the third New Zealand payroll company acquired by the accounting software vendor in slightly more than a year.

Yacov Wrocherinsky, who for years ran a top CRM reselling business, has started Orion Global Solutions, whose goal is to help business chose cloud-based CRM packages. Orion's website went live this week and Wrocherinsky posted an article on LinkedIn that the company focuses on Salesforce and "implements and supports customized, cloud-based CRM solutions for businesses in the real estate, financial services/private equity, and CPG Industries."

Cloud software vendor Xero has raised prices for its web-based accounting software in New Zealand. The company announced the plan on its blog recently, saying the new rates will go into effect on December 1. However, there are no plans for price increases elsewhere. In answer to a query, CEO Rod Drury pointed to the blog as providing the best information about the change. "In the last eight years, Xero has made massive improvements and added many features, yet we've only increased our prices by $1 per month," the blog stated.

FinancialForce.com has introduced tests of two applications that are powered by the Salesforce Wave Analytics Platform. The new products are the FinancialForce Accounting Wave App and the FinancialForce Supply Chain Wave App. The packages deliver what the company called "at-a-glance insights across the entire sales, supply chain and finance functions, including ordering, billing, delivery performance and payment history ..."