The Latest

iLumen, Inc. a provider of financial information monitoring and benchmarking services, has launched Portfolio Connection -- a service for CPA firms and financial institutions who specialize in privately held clients. Portfolio Connection enables users to connect their entire portfolio to the iLumen Financial Information Network -- an online confidential information network for private companies, industry peers, advisors and institutions. "Now they've got a view of their entire business portfolio in one unified central database," said Bob Woosley, chief executive of iLumen. "To bring it all up into an information service that connects to the national network confidentially, so they can now gain a new perspective on their private-business clients by correlating their clients to their industry, credit profile and other third party financial content." Portfolio Connection is currently used by banks and CPA firms to bulk load annual financial data from their existing systems into a single repository. It also allows financial advisors to aggregate and benchmark their own portfolio, correlate it to iLumen's industry benchmarking on a national basis and combine that information with relevant third party services, such as industry content providers and credit information services.

-- James A. Smith, managing director at the CPA firm of Smith, Jackson, Boyer and Bovard, was named chairman of the 27,000-member Texas Society of CPAs. Smith will serve a one-year term. Joining Smith as TSCPA officers are Steven R. Goodman, chairman-elect, Houston; Barbara Bass, secretary, Tyler; Jeff Gregg, treasurer-elect, Seymour; and Rance G. Sweeten, treasurer, McAllen. In addition the following will serve on the TSCPA executive board: Rick Baumeister, Fort Worth; John Broaddus, El Paso; Penny Dear, Austin; Dora J. Dyson, Gatesville; Janet B. Johnson, Houston; B. Jean Lein, Austin; Edward L. Lette, Austin; Jerry L. Love, Abilene; Tracy B. Stewart, College Station; and Fred Timmons, San Antonio.

The end of the Doug Burgum era in accounting software era has come with a jolt, and a probable change of direction. Microsoft reached into the Microsoft Business Division, into which Burgum’s Microsoft Business Solutions has been nested for some time, and pulled out Kirill Tatarinov, corporate VP of Microsoft’s Enterprise Management and Solutions group and the leader of MBS, which markets the Dynamics accounting software and CRM lines. Tartarinov joined Microsoft in 2002, coming from BMC Software, where he was senior vice president and chief technology officer, a background with some relevance. The big guns were rolled out, notably Jeff Raikes, the vice president who is one of the top three executives and responsible for about $15 billion in revenue. There’s not much to be learned in a 15-minute phone conversation with someone at Raikes’ level in a joint call with Tami Reller. But it shows a commitment to MBS, especially at a time when people are leaving, including Reller, a corporate VP over the Dynamics lines and a long-term Burgum team member.. Key people have left MBS in the last two months. Craig McCollum moved to the worldwide small and midmarket solutions and partners group. Lynn Stockstad, VP of strategic marketing, is now in charge of worldwide marketing for the enterprise customer segment marketing. Whatever will happen, it is going to happen under people who have not worked with the channel and who seem to have in common a much stronger technology background. Back in March, in what can only be described as a botched public relations effort, the company slid in Klaus Andersen, a Copenhagen-based VP to the position of VP of sales and operations just as Satya Nadella was being yanked away from his intended role as Burgum’s replacement. At the same time, the channel is changing. Witness the June acquisition of Iteration2, a $27 million reseller. by Hitachi Consulting earlier this month. I once said that Iteration2 made its living poaching off the bottom of the Oracle market and that is an important concept. Coupled with the personnel moves, and the continuing gossip in the market that AX is the product of the future, the element that could tie these things together is that Microsoft will move upstream aggressively to take business away from Tier 1 companies. Look at Tatarinov’s largely enterprise experience. After all, the lower end of the market is being closed off by products like QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions. In the middle of the midmarket, everyone is competing in the same price range. But for Tier 1 customers, AX is a bargain. From a strategic point of view, it makes sense—that’s where the most money is--if Microsoft can steal business away from the likes of Oracle and SAP. As they say, follow the money.

CPA and business advisory firm Maddox Ungar PLLC has merged with Ronald N. Silberstein PLLC of Farmington Hills, Mich. Terms were not disclosed. Going forward, the firm will now operate under the brand Maddox Ungar Silberstein, PLLC. The union brings principal Ronald Silberstein and three staff members to MUS. The consolidated entity will have three principals and 14 staff members. Silberstein specialized in the audits of franchised businesses as well performing SEC work.

Online business management applications provider NetSuite has filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its planned initial public offering. NetSuite said that Credit Suisse Securities will be lead manager of the IPO and WR Hambrecht + Co. as co-manager. The number of shares as well as the price ranges have yet to be determined. Copies of the preliminary prospectus for the offering, when available, may be obtained from Credit Suisse Securities at (800)-221-1037.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has reappointed Daniel Goelzer to a second five-year term at the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. Prior to joining the PCAOB in 2002, Goelzer spent seven years as general counsel at the SEC. He is also a CPA and was an auditor at Touche Ross, the predecessor firm to Deloitte & Touche. SEC chairman Christopher Cox said that Goelzer "brings broad perspective to the board through his substantial experience as a regulator and practitioner. We are fortunate that he is willing to serve the nation, investors, and our markets in this capacity."

I have always found regional accounting firms fascinating. Just take three recent developments regarding the regional firm of Virchow, Krause & Company. One was that Wells Fargo Insurance Services of Minnesota, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company, acquired Virchow, Krause & Company's Twin Cities employee benefits operations, including the head of the employee benefits practice in Minneapolis and his team. It is a good example of how regional firms view these very specialized practice areas. The acquire them and spin them off reminding me of many businesses that view the acquisition and the selling of a portion of their business as a regular means for increasing profitability.

Diversified financial and legal information and services provider Thomson Corp. has agreed to sell its Thomson Prometric unit to ETS, an educational-testing company, for $435 million.<> Prometric, a provider of testing systems, is the facility that administers the computer-based CPA examination. Prometric operates testing centers in 132 countries as well as online. Under the terms of the deal, Thomson will pay $310 million in cash and $125 million in notes. The agreement is expected to close in the third quarter. Recently, Thomson forged a deal to acquire Reuters Group PLC in a union valued at roughly $17 billion and agreed to sell its Thomson Learning unit for $7.75 billion to help fund the Reuters acquisition.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has faulted eight audits performed by global audit firm Grant Thornton, citing departures from generally accepted accounting principals as well as problems with evaluating financing costs and rental income. During the eight-month process, the PCAOB said it conducted the inspection at the firm's national office in Chicago as well as 13 of its field offices. As with all PCAOB inspection reports, the audit clients remained anonymous. However, in a letter to PCAOB director of inspections, George Diacont, Grant Thornton took umbrage to the board's use of descriptions such as "failed to identify" and "failed to perform" appearing in the reports. It also stated that it has enhanced its training programs and developed additional guidance to address problems in previous inspection reports. Meanwhile, a Grant Thornton spokesperson said, "While we disagree with the some of the terminology used by the PCAOB and disagree with some of the conclusions that were reached, we support the PCAOB's mission to better protect investors through the reports. We think it is an excellent time for the PCAOB to develop recommendations culled from three years of major accounting firm inspections to establish the most effective approaches to auditing, with the investor being the ultimate beneficiary." Earlier this year the audit overseer released its inspection reports on Big Four firms Ernst & Young and Deloitte, both of whom were cited for audit deficiencies in eight of their clients' audits. The report can be viewed at: http://www.pcaobus.org/Inspections/Public_Reports/index.aspx.