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Sage is putting new life into the Business Partner Alliance Program, which is designed to promote programs that bring accountants and value-added resellers together. It's a program that has been dormant for a few years. "We haven’t been actively pursuing new connections between the VAR and the CPAs," said Jennifer Warawa, the senior director for partner programs for Sage North America.

Product names such as Peachtree, Timberline, Accpac and MAS will be history in the next two years, under a plan announced this morning at Summit, the combined user and reseller conference of Sage North America. The plan, detailed by Pascal Houillon, the company's CEO, is merely the latest plan announced by the company, which is headquartered in England. But it is by far the most radical step yet formulated.

With fees from sales of franchises up sharply and costs down, JTH Holding, the parent of franchisor Liberty Tax Service, reported a 47.4-percent rise in net income on a 12.7-percent increase in revenue for the year ended April 30. That contrasted with the results of rivals, a 2.5-percent decrease at H&R Block, and Chapter 11 bankruptcy at Jackson Hewitt.

Cougar Mountain Software, which is trying to revitalize its reseller program, is also actively mulling the creation of an accountants' program. It is something the Boise, Idaho-based vendor has never done, even though Cougar considers its application extremely suitable for accountants, according to Mike Anderson, chief marketing officer.