Obsolete and redundant software is a major drain on companies' information technology budgets, according to a survey by Business Performance Management Forum.

Citing slowed growth and slighter profit margins, the personal computer market will consolidate by 2007 according to information technology researcher Gartner Inc. in its Predicts 2005 report. The firm also said that within the next two years, three of the 10 largest PC manufacturers will leave the consumer market. Gartner said that PC revenue growth is expected to average roughly 2 percent a year from 2006 to 2008. Other prognostications in Predicts 2005 paper include IT services and outsourcing organizations continuing in a cost-cutting mode via increased automation and labor substitution, and that real-time, demand-driven supply chain management would become the foundation of users' SCM strategies.

Intuit's QuickBooks financial software has been around for over a decade.

Business management products provider Best Software Inc. named more than 70 companies as winners of its President's Circle for 2004, an annual program that fetes the company's top-producing small business division and mid-market division resellers.

STF LAUNCHES LATEST SUPERFORM PRODUCT: STF Services Corp., a Syracuse, N.Y.-based provider of electronic business forms, unveiled Doing Business Forms, a new product entry in its proprietary SuperForm line that provides businesses and business advisors with a collection of the filings required at the critical points in a company's life cycle.

There are more than 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States, receiving more than $240 billion each year in charitable contributions. They are service organizations and charities whose missions are to meet the social needs of the nation and to improve the quality of life of those they serve.

Joseph A. Schumpeter coined the term "creative destruction" in his book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, published in 1942.

Mid-market accounting software provider Open Systems Inc. has named former MIP executive Linda Shillingburg as director of business development for not-for-profits, effective immediately.

Online application software provider NetSuite Inc., whose offerings include NetSuite Small Business, NetCRM and NetERP, has expanded into Canada, opening a 40,000-square-foot facility in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga.

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

Practice evolution, integration and the Web, client and accountant relationships, and how to use technology as a competitive advantage topped the agenda at Creative Solutions' 24th Annual Conference here.

While many companies are looking to outsourcing to control costs and free up resources, most aren't sending their jobs offshore, according to a report by Enterprise Systems.

In a push to gain small business clients, Microsoft has released a beta version of its new Office product, code-named Magellan.

Does the Certified Information Technology Professional credential appeal to a finite universe, or can it ride the wave of rising client demand in information technology consulting and systems upgrades?

The Department of Justice has charged eight former executives of software maker Peregrine Systems Inc., the company's former outside auditor and two of its outside business partners with conspiracy to commit a multi-billion dollar securities fraud.

FUNDWARE UNVEILS VERSION 7.30: Nonprofit and governmental accounting software maker FundWare has rolled out the latest version of its software - a new general ledger with a three-dimensional account structure.

Accounting software is selling like hotcakes nowadays. With all these sales - each of which represents a company maintaining its own books and records - you might suppose that client write-up is a dying application. While some practices have been hit harder than others by clients pulling write-up work to do in-house, write-up continues to remain a core revenue-producing application in many accounting and bookkeeping practices.

Accountant's Relief Plus

As the season approaches for firm summits (or retreats, if you focus on the past), the following list of topics will or may appear on your agenda. Many firms use these meetings to focus on the results of the current year and plan for the coming year. While this sounds logical, it doesn't always produce strategic results. The tendency generally is to gravitate toward tactical rather than strategic thinking.

Vision HRM Software Inc. completed its purchase of Lakewood-based Serenic Software, a provider of not-for-profit and government software.