Sage North America and NetSuite partner DSD Business Systems has appointed its chief financial officer Kayley Bell to the newly created position of chief operating officer.

IMGCAP(1)]Reseller partners are buying while cloud accounting is flying with a veteran tax and accounting executive trying to take a long-standing player in that space to the next level. All of these topped the news in our world this week and I’d like to share my views on them with you.

These days whatever is on the market to help practitioners and consultants work better with PDFs while on the go will at least get a look – or a download -- and iAnnotate PDF is garnering serious attention from those looking to read and make their own notes on their PDF files.

Swiftpage, the new owner of ACT!, has released version 16 of the long-time contact management product with multiple, user-requested enhancements and a promise to roll out new updates several times a year.

Computer system developer System76 Inc. has launched BeansBooks, a new cloud accounting platform designed for small businesses which focuses on clean interfaces, practical processes and concise reports.

Top Sage North America partner Net@Work has expanded its nonprofit accounting software business through the purchase of Blytheco’s Abila practice.

ADP has added new features to its ADP Workforce New software to help midsize employers comply with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

Open source ERP product maker xTuple has released version 4.1 of its flagship product, which now integrates an open source business intelligence suite with a mobile Web client.

Top NetSuite partner ERP Guru has merged in EnabledSuccess Inc, another leading NetSuite VAR with offices in Canada and the U.S.

Cloud-based business analytics tool maker Adaptive Planning announced the release of its Fall 2013 product, which includes, among other things, new unified financial and operational analytics features.

I am choosing this week to focus on yet another warrior in the growing cloud accounting battle that you may or may not have heard of, but after attending its first U.S. partner conference I have a better sense of who Xero is and what challenges they have in the U.S. market.

Microsoft is preparing to roll out NAV 2013 R2, a new version of its Dynamics NAV ERP software that includes a key feature for cloud-based deployments as well as tighter integration with Office.

Cougar Mountain Software has released CMS Professional 2014, the latest version of its business and nonprofit accounting software which includes several new reporting, inventory, accounts receivable, and receipt printing features.

Executives at online accounting product maker Xero acknowledged that they still have a lot of awareness work to do in the U.S. market and are hoping new and enhanced product offerings will help grow its partner base – who are primarily accounting firms -- as well as customers.

ERP and CRM product maker Open Systems Inc. has formed a new partnership with Argus Hosting, a provider of online hosting and cloud services for ERP users.

Grant Thornton has acquired the Oracle consulting business of MarketSphere, a Kansas City, Mo.-based business consulting firm, which expands Grant Thornton’s Technology Solutions practice.

A roundup of technology news from the previous month

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A roundup of reseller-related news from the previous month