Epicor Software has outlined plans to spin off its Retail Solutions business into a separate company. The unit will be temporarily known as SpinCo until the transaction is complete. Retail Solutions had $36.8 million in revenue for the second quarter ended March 31, an increase of 14.3 percent from $32.2 million in last year's corresponding period. For the quarter, Retail Solutions had the best revenue performance of Epicor's three business units. The new company will be headed by Noel Goggin, who is currently EVP and general manager of the group.

Exact Macola has hired Gayle Prokop as director of alliances and channel development. Prokop is responsible for the company's Unity Partner Program, which was launched in January. For Macola, this is a big deal as the program was stagnant for the last several years before the prior management was run out of town. Prokop was previously VCE national business leader of Cisco Solutions Group for Avnet Technology Solutions from July 2011.

Sage's operations in the United States performed well in the half ended March 31. But the organic revenue growth in this country was driven largely by price increases and upgrading customers to higher-level support plans. In this week's earnings webcast, CFO Stephen Hare noted that in the U.S., "SMB growth is too reliant on price and upsell." Organic growth was 4 percent here but X3 revenue in the U.S. rose by more than 30 percent. Overall, after-tax profit dropped by 8.6 percent to about $210 million.

NetSuite has launched a program to support those resellers who want to move into microvertical markets. Called the Vertical Velocity Program, it provides sales and marketing collateral and leads in the space VARs have chosen.