Avalara's awards for its 2014 Top Performing Partners show that size has a lot to do with performance. The Top Accounting & Consulting Partner of the sales-and-use tax software company was McGladrey and the Top Marketing and Sales Partner was Tribridge. In last year's Top 100 VARs section, McGladrey was No. 1, taking over the top spot with the disappearance of Tectura from the market, and Tribridge was No. 2, and it seems unlikely that those positions will change for the 2015 selection.

The Brisbane Consulting Group won top honors as AccuFund handed out its 2104 Partner Leadership awards recently. The NonProfit Solution Division of the Buffalo, N.Y.-based company was volume sales leader overall and volume leader in non-profit sector sales and online sales. Brisbane also has a consulting division that offers business consulting, business valuations, forensic accounting, and litigation support. Mountaineer Computer Systems of Lewisburg, West, Va., which had the top spot in 2013, was volume leader in government sales for last year.

The old men of Rock n' Roll, Rolling Stones, are preparing for the Zip Code tour. That will be followed by the Assisted Living Tour. Who knew that a career of chemicals and groupies would prove beneficial to the older active adult lifestyle? Who envisioned that at this point there would be more original Rolling Stones alive than original Beatles? The Stones tour announcement reminds me of a joke by Jay Leno on the tonight show in commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of John Phillip Sousa's band.

Shares of Exact Holding stopped trading on March 31 as its purchase by Apax Partners kicked in. Presumably, we will start seeing some changes under the new owners. The fact Exact is no longer public is something that was obviously going to happen with the purchase. But it emphasizes the role of private equity in this market, shown by the number of news items in this newsletter that involve private equity ownership of business software.