SugarCRM today demoed its upcoming Sugar 7 product to users, developers and partners which feature – among other things -- on-screen dashboards, social streams, mobility, and increased speed.

SugarCRM is now integrated with ProcessMaker, an open source business process management and workflow suite from Colosa Inc.

Product enhancements, partnerships, and pounding of the proverbial chest were abound over the past week -- all of this just as conference season is about to get into full swing, right after tax season of course.

Accounting services and technology consultancy Armanino has selected to move its small business outsourcing clients from their current accounting platforms to Xero, making them the largest firm thus far to do so.

Cloud accounting software maker Kashoo has released Version 2.1 of its accounting iPad app, which includes, among other things, mobile printing and client-ready invoice templates.

Management consultant and veteran VAR Terry Petrzelka answers some key questions on how today’s VARs differ from even just a few years ago and how they can and need to progress to remain in business.

Avalara has formed a strategic alliance with the BKR International global alliance of 150 accounting and consulting firms which will focus on sharing critical sales and use tax (SUT) and value added tax (VAT) information.

QuickBooks hosting and online accounting solution provider Swizznet is now offering cloud-hosted QuickBooks Point of Sale 2013 for both single and multi-lane environments.

Accounting software maker Cougar Mountain Software has added three new business accounting packages based on their Denali product that are designed to work with various stages of a business’ growth.

The majority of accounting firms have a managing partner in title and responsibility, but often without the authority and power to lead and manage effectively. Accountability and discipline are the keys to improving performance and growing the firm.

After years of languishing as a peripheral accounting service, payroll has become one of the hottest trends adopted by CPA firms.

Recent technology and vendor news

Four firms share how they're managing their customer relationships

A roundup of reseller news from the previous month

Microsoft Dynamics GP partner The Resource Group will launch a series of webcasts beginning April 10, designed to educate companies about the hidden costs of entry-level accounting systems.

Epicor Software Corp. has filed a copyright and intellectual property infringement lawsuit against technology consultant Alternative Technology Solutions, which claims to represent the vendor.

Zoho has released upgrades to its Web and mobile Zoho CRM product which include BCC Dropbox, an automatic BCC feature, and integration of MailMagnet, an email filtering function for mobile devices.

During the recent Microsoft Convergence 2013 user and partner event we caught up with Jim Bowman, president and chief executive of SBS Group and inquired about their status as a top reseller, Master VAR and the state of the reseller partner profession in general.

BlumShapiro has partnered with corporate performance management(CPM) software provider Tagetik to make CPM support services available to their client base across the United States.

This week I've decided to give my take on the mega-con that is Microsoft Convergence 2013 as well as the company's views on being more cloudy and mobile.