Is your storage room rapidly filling with old computer equipment?

NORRINGTON EXITS INTUIT, SEEKING CEO POST: Lorrie Norrington, who served for three years as executive vice president of software provider Intuit Inc., has resigned from the company, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., to pursue a chief executive post.

The Lacerte family has an unquestionable entrepreneurial tradition that drives them to start successful firms in the accounting industry. But it was technology, not tradition, that brought about the founding of PayCycle in 1999.

Time and billing software provider and Microsoft reseller ProVantage Software Inc. has released ProVantage 7.1, a version whose upgrades include the availability of new imaging functions capable of spanning four accounting modules within the ProVantage application.

Business and financial software conglomerate Best has launched a comprehensive advertising campaign targeting its client base of roughly 2.3 million small and midsized businesses. The effort, which is slated to appear in some 60 business and trade publications throughout the United States and Canada during 2005, represents the largest media buy to date for Best Software. The campaign, which trumpets the tagline "Your Business in Mind," uses a series of images, including a breakfast cereal box that says, "There has to be a better way to check my inventory than getting up every morning at 3:00 a.m." The campaign, developed by the Santa Monica, Calif.-based shop of Colby & Partners, a full-service agency, was designed to support an array of Best-owned products, including its Act!, Peachtree, Timberline, Accpac, SalesLogix and Abra lines. The advertising campaign debuted in the January issues of Inc., Entrepreneur, Fast Company and Accounting Technology, a sister publication of WebCPA. Best Software chief executive Ron Verni said that the impetus behind the campaign was "to tell business owners that Best is there for them, that we truly have their businesses in mind. When it comes to solving business problems, we are small business experts: We've been there." Best Software is the North American operation of European parent The Sage Group plc.

NetSuite has announced a new set of enterprise resource planning features for financial data to enhance regulatory compliance.

For the third consecutive year, information security - the processes and procedures designed to protect information technology systems from internal and external threats - has remained the country's No. 1 technology concern, according to the results of the 2005 Top Technologies Survey of the American Institute of CPAs.

Despite acknowledging the impact of higher producer prices, chief financial officers expect higher capital and technology spending at their companies during the next 12 months, according to a recent survey.

LEXISNEXIS BUYS INTERFACE: Interface Software, which makes the Interaction CRM software line for the professional services market, has been acquired by LexisNexis. Terms were not disclosed.

Intuit Inc., a high-volume provider of business and financial management software, said that its PayCard debit cards will now be accepted at roughly 24 million MasterCard merchant locations worldwide.

Technology researcher Gartner Inc. has agreed to acquire research competitor Meta Group for $162 million in cash. Gartner, which reported $858 million in revenues in fiscal 2003, will pay $10 per share in cash for Meta, which posted revenues of $122 million last year.

In the beginning, there were mainframes - computer behemoths that occupied whole rooms and buildings, churning, blinking, beeping and droning, storing information and eventually producing oversized green-and-white-striped printouts.

Leadership isn't developed in a day. It takes a lifetime.

Kintera Inc., the company that bought Fundware from Intuit, has named Jim Schenck as vice president of accounting and membership to direct the development of the company's accounting solutions.

Best Software named Marc Griffin to the post of senior vice president and general manager for its Nonprofit Solutions arm, filling the void left by the departure of Kent Hollrah in June 2004. In his new role, Griffin will be responsible for the day-to-day planning and operations for the MIP Fund Accounting and MIP Fundraising product lines. He comes aboard at Best following a 20-year career with ADP, where he served in a variety of management posts in that company's Dealer Services Division. He will be based in Austin, Texas

Lorrie Norrington, who served for three years as executive vice president at software provider Intuit Inc., has resigned from the company, which is headquartered here, to pursue a chief executive post. Her resignation was effective Jan. 7. Norrington came aboard at Intuit after heading several divisions at conglomerate GE, with the understanding that she would succeed incumbent chief executive Steve Bennett. Last year, however, Bennett announced his intention to lead the company for an additional five years. According to federal filings, Intuit will pay Norrington some $915,000 as part of a severance package, and a $640,500 performance-based bonus. In a statement, Bennett said, "Lorrie made significant contributions to Intuit in a number of areas over the last three years -- growing our QuickBooks and Quicken businesses, rebuilding our outsourced payroll business, and substantially improving the Intuit-branded small businesses. Her strong leadership skills and business acumen have made a positive, lasting mark upon Intuit. We thank her for a terrific job and wish her well."

Following the recent $10.3 billion takeover of PeopleSoft by Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp. said that it would offer a migration program for users of the PeopleSoft Enterprise, PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne and PeopleSoft World. The migration program provides migration technology, price discounts on Microsoft Business Solutions software and services, and migration guidance. The program, available through June 22, provides customers with a 25 percent license discount, a 25 percent discount on a Microsoft Business Solutions support and enhancement plan for the first year, migration planning guides, and data migration tools. The program is available for all four MBS applications. The company also recommended that PeopleSoft World and PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne customers consider MBS's Axapta, and that PeopleSoft Enterprise customers in the United States and Canada consider MBS Great Plains. "Businesses that use PeopleSoft technology are facing some difficult choices today, and we're committed to providing them with the best options for moving forward," said Doug Burgum, senior vice president at Microsoft. "Today's announcement is evidence of our ongoing commitment to working closely with PeopleSoft customers and partners to help them migrate to Microsoft Business Solutions in a smooth, cost-effective manner, and on a schedule that best accommodates their business needs." The migration program is available now through Microsoft resellers worldwide.

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

New York - 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.Among 364 CEOs at privately held product and service companies with from $5 million to $150 million in revenue, 60 percent expect that their company's productivity will increase, according to the latest PwC Trendsetter Barometer. Among that group, 21 percent say that growth will be "much greater," while an additional 39 percent say "somewhat greater." Thirty-seven percent expect that productivity will stay about the same, and 2 percent say that it will be somewhat lower.

BEST UNVEILS SIMPLY ACCOUNTING 2005: Best Software has released Simply Accounting 2005 Basic, an updated version of its proprietary integrated solution for small businesses.Priced at $49, Simply Accounting 2005 features a clear graphical layout and includes more than 100 starter templates for different business types, 30 days of free telephone support, and an optional payroll tax update service.