Intuit to buy PayCycle

Intuit has agreed to buy PayCycle for about $170 million, gaining an Internet-based service that small companies can use to handle payroll, says Bloomberg.

The deal, due to close by September, will reduce net income in the current period by about 2 cents a share, California-based Intuit said in a statement.

It doesn't expect a material impact in the fiscal year ending July 2010.

Xhead = HR transformation to save £185m

An HR transformation programme at Birmingham City Council is expected to save the local authority £185 million, reports People Management.

More than £100 million will be spent on the three-year “excellence in people management” programme, including £45 million for a new IT system, but the overall payback will be far greater, Bill Fletcher told PM.

Direct savings from the programme, which began last year, would total £185 million but the knock-on financial benefits would “be far in excess of this”, he said.

Global software firm Sage plans to increase its presence in the Indian market and aims to triple its customer base to over 3 000 in the next two years, states The Hindu.

Sage India, a subsidiary of UK-based Sage Group, expects to significantly enhance its reach in the country.

"We may see our customer base increasing to over 3 000 customers in the next two years from the current about 1 000 customers," Sage India MD Thomas Abraham told PTI.