For the past few years, the mantra in the mid-range has been that Best Software will soon own the market. Acquiring solid and reliable competitors and positioning its lineup well, Best has indeed made strong inroads.But it doesn't own the mid-range, and won't in the near term. This is not due to any failing on Best's part, but rather to the rich offerings and loyal customer bases of its competitors. Of the eight products reviewed in this year's round-up, four are in fact published by Best Software. But the competitors from AccTrak, Cougar Mountain, CYMA and Microsoft are strong in features and well-positioned in their own right.

Firms are faced with opportunities and challenges as they head into the 2005 busy season.

Microsoft Business Solutions is giving its struggling Small Business Manager software a new name, price promotions and increased marketing to give it a better foothold in the market.

Tax and accounting software maker ATX has decided to hire a sales force to serve customers who are buying what it says is an increasingly complex product line.

RIA has added several new features, including enhancements to its financial reporting and management content, and expanded search capabilities in Tax Alerts, to the latest edition of its popular Checkpoint product.

A group of former Intuit employees have launched TaxNet.com, which provides Internet-based filing of income taxes, along with electronic filing.

MICROSOFT UNVEILS SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING: In a push to gain small business clients, Microsoft has released a beta version of its new Office product, code-named Magellan. This would be Microsoft's second edition of its Office suite for small businesses, a market segment on which the company has increasingly focused.

The number of sophisticated businesses - law firms, financial advisors, insurance brokers and so on - with ineffective Web sites seems to be increasing at a geometric rate.

Cross-selling is the Holy Grail of CPA marketing. In its simplest form, cross-selling is the act of uncovering unfulfilled client needs and offering your firm services to fulfill those needs. And while no one would argue the value of serving client needs, it is our experience that cross-selling meets with unnecessary resistance in most firms. In this article, we'll explore some of the reasons for this resistance and share our ideas for developing a cross-selling culture and implementing cross-selling strategies and methodologies in your firm.

Two of the hardest tasks in financial advising and planning are getting clients - and then keeping them. Software can help with the first, but success in getting new clients is largely a matter of marketing expertise.Keeping your clients also is difficult. As their advisor, your clients expect you to be able to help them not only establish their financial goals, but also to achieve them. These goals are not necessarily static - they can be a mix of maximizing capital, maximizing income, offsetting income realization, or any other application of wealth and assets that the client's imagination can come up with. The strategies for accomplishing these goals are what the client is paying you to come up with.

Outsourcing is an emotional topic.

There may be no phrase in the English language more satisfying to say or hear than, "Problem solved!"For accounting and information technology professionals, it embodies a special meaning, in that someone, or something, has enabled their business to sidestep a potential hurdle and continue their strategy of providing client services to reach the ultimate goal of any business - profitability.

HIGH-END AND MID-MARKET ACCOUNTINGACCOUNTMATE 6.5

Contact information for the vendors of the Accounting Today 2005 Top 100 Products and Ones to Watch.AccountantsWorld

Best Software has appointed Ray Jimison as senior vice president and general manager of its Specialized Business Solutions Unit.

Driven by legislative and accounting changes, 2004 saw some of the biggest shifts ever seen in executive compensation, according to human resources services consulting and outsourcing firm Hewitt Associates.

Mphasis, which provides information technology and business process outsourcing through its operations in India, has launched an application service provider model of its Virtual Tax Room, used in outsourcing tax return preparation.

Business and accounting software provider Creative Solutions has released UltraTax 1040, a new offering to its Web Service suite, which enables firms to provide 1040 clients with a secure portal to complete their tax organizers and access an electronic copy of their completed tax returns.

Chief executives of the nation's fastest growing private companies expect a significant increase in productivity over the next 12 months, with most of the credit going to workforce efficiencies and technology improvements, and some attributed to good old-fashioned restraint, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Online application provider NetSuite Inc. has unwrapped NetSuite Advanced Forecasting, a forecasting solution that enables users to triangulate projections using a trio of key performance indicators.