SAGE SOFTWARE REVEALS AGREEMENT WITH TIMELINE: Global business software provider Sage has acquired non-exclusive rights to data mart patents from Timeline Inc., a Seattle-based business applications developer.The data mart capabilities to retrieve and analyze past data in a more segmented version of a data warehouse will be integrated into Sage's enterprise resource planning, accounting, customer relationship management and business intelligence products.
In addition to the data mart rights, Sage is developing a range of business intelligence products. Product development has begun at Sage to provide advanced analytics within Sage CRM SalesLogix, Sage's mid-market out-of-the-box CRM solution. And Sage Intelligent Reporting, a packaged business intelligence capability for small businesses, has just been released in the United Kingdom.
INTUIT INTRODUCES NEW CREDIT CARD SOFTWARE: Intuit Inc. announced a new simplified credit card processing solution designed for small businesses that don't need a full accounting package.
The new QuickBooks Credit Card Processing Kit, priced at $39.95, delivers breakthrough ease of use for small businesses that handle less than $5,000 in credit card transactions each month.
Intuit said that the offering fills a gap in the marketplace and that small businesses wanting to accept credit card payments previously had to consider solutions that often overserved a business' needs. Those solutions often come with significant set-up costs, minimum monthly fees and a required number of credit card transactions.
The kit includes everything a small business needs to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Diner's Club credit cards. More information is available at www.creditcardprocessingkit.com.
ACCENTURE ACQUIRES SAVISTA TECHNOLOGY: Outsourcing and consulting concern Accenture will acquire the assets of software and services vendor Savista, in a bid to expand its back-office business process outsourcing capabilities.
The acquisition will supplement Accenture's outsourcing capabilities in the human resources, finance and accounting, learning, customer care, and procurement fields. The company typically targets the middle market - organizations with fewer than 12,000 employees. Savista specializes in providing business process outsourcing services for companies in the hospitality and restaurant industries. Its offerings include human resources management, finance and accounting services, and benefits administration.
The acquisition is expected to close early in the spring. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Approximately 400 Savista professionals will join Accenture in the deal, bringing the total number of Accenture professionals performing outsourcing work to more than 18,000.
Savista chief executive Jeff Bizzack will join Accenture and lead the unit responsible for midmarket offerings.
CCH AND RIVET TEAM IN XBRL PACT: Tax software provider CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business, and Rivet Software, a financial management and Extensible Business Reporting Language solutions provider, have teamed in a partnership that would enable CCH customers to receive Rivet's proprietary Dragon Tag and Dragon View XBRL applications.
Terms were not disclosed.
Rivet's Dragon Tag XBRL enabler and Dragon View XBRL viewer applications were designed to shield accounting and finance professionals from the complexity that sometimes accompanies XBRL adoption. Dragon Tag is a Microsoft Word and Excel add-in that enables users to create XBRL documents via "drag and drop."
Dragon View provides XBRL document viewing and reviewing without requiring advanced knowledge of XBRL.
The companies said that the combination of CCH's ProSystem fx application and Rivet's XBRL solutions allows tax professionals to create and review XBRL documents in order to comply with mandates such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II.
