Tech Briefs: June 16 - July 6, 2003

PKF TEXAS SIGNS WITH BLACKBAUD: Houston-based accounting firm PKF Texas has signed on as a reseller for nonprofit industry software developer Blackbaud, with exclusive rights to handle the vendor’s Financial Edge fund accounting solution in the Houston market area.

Blackbaud will be handled by PKF’s technology consulting group, which also handles Microsoft Business Solutions’ Navision commercial market accounting /enterprise software.

Separately, the accounting firm’s entrepreneurial advisory services group handles Web-hosted business applications from Intacct Corp.

RESELLER ALTARA IN EIGHT-CITY RETAIL SEMINAR SWING: Microsoft Business Solutions reseller Altara is on an eight-city junket this month to personally meet with retail store executives to tout Microsoft’s point- of-sale software solutions and its ability to implement them.

The cities are in market areas that are now served by Altara: California, New Jersey and metropolitan New York. The meetings are being held at retail locations, such as the Woodbridge Center Mall, in Woodbridge, N.J., and at Microsoft offices in San Francisco, New York and other cities.

The trek was scheduled to begin June 3 in Teaneck, N.J., and conclude June 17 at the Southland Mall, in Hayward, Calif. Altara, which also resells for Best Software, said that it designed the seminar series to show retailers how using Microsoft systems could help them overcome the challenges facing them in their industry, and to give them some face time with Altara consultants.

Altara’s operations include offices in Sacramento, Calif., and Cedar Knolls, N.J.

BEST ADDS PROJECT ACCOUNTING TO FAS: Best Software has enhanced the capabilities of its FAS fixed-asset computation software with the release of a new project accounting version.

Best said that the new FAS Construction in Progress Accounting module allows companies to better control their capital budgets and streamline asset accounting processes by “recording and tracking details about fixed assets before they are placed into service.”

Said FAS general manager Chris Donie, “Many of our current customers identified the need for a better construction-in-progress solution. We’re excited to offer companies an alternative to spreadsheets and home-grown systems.”

For further information, call (800) 368-2405 or e-mail vasales@bestsoftware.com.

HYPERION PLANS TO ADD XBRL: Hyperion, a leading developer of business performance management software, has plans to add XBRL capabilities in some of its upcoming products.

A Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company with more than 6,000 customers worldwide, Hyperion said that its development plans are driven by XBRL’s potential to satisfy the market’s demand for more current financial information and concerns about being in compliance with new federal reporting standards. “Compliance is the watchword for our customers,” said chief technical officer John Kopcke.

XBRL is the financial reporting version of Extensible Markup Language or XML, a format in which items in electronic files are tagged for instantaneous recognition by applications and retrieval by users. XBRL International, a consortium of about 200 businesses and other organizations brought together by the American Institute of CPAs, has been developing it since 1998.

MICROSOFT CUSTOMIZES MSN FOR MAC USERS: Microsoft has released its first Internet subscription service built specifically for users of the Macintosh operating system - MSN for Mac OS X.

MSN is Microsoft’s Web service, with 300 million unique business and consumer users worldwide. Special features in the new Macintosh offering include a junk e-mail filter with multiple layers of filtering and free, round-the-clock Mac-specific support services.

-- Compiled by John M. Covaleski

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