Our company was one of the first IT service providers in our area to embrace the change from on-prem to cloud hosted email. It gave us a surprising advantage in the local market as prospects were itching to cut expenses and were already familiar with the concept of “the cloud” due to a tremendous amount of marketing around the subject.
There’s a repetitive scene that plays out each month as my team sits down to review and plan our varinsights.com and Channel Executive magazine editorial content. Our modus operandi, in a nutshell, is to feature executives who apply innovative solutions to often complex problems associated with being in the IT services business. With that M.O. in mind, we struggle to strike a balance between our coverage of traditional VARs and that of managed service providers.
The work my friend and colleague Abby Sorensen put into the IT Channel is paying dividends even after she shifted her focus to the greater software business community. Last week at its RetailNOW event, the Retail Solutions Providers Association’s Women-to-Women (W2W) Committee named her its 2018 Leader Of The Year. Committee Chair and business owner Kelli Stewart, owner/operations manager at Advanced Data Systems, bestowed the honors from the mainstage.
At the top of the New Year, ConnectWise and HTG Peer Groups collaboratively announced that the former was acquiring the latter. Among the HTG associate, member, and greater MSP communities, the news incited a lot of speculation about the future of the HTG empire led by Arlin Sorensen and family. This week, the speculation was put to rest. HTG is now IT Nation Evolve, a new brand that reflects the Arnie Bellini-inspired ConnectWise flavor of channel community building.
The technologies VARs sell and the services VARs provide change drastically in short periods of time, and it takes persistence to evolve your business to keep up. That’s why Built To Last is a must-read for VARs.
Men outnumber women in this industry by something on the order of 8 to 2, and the margin is even wider in the c-suite. By and large, we’re the ones approving salaries, greenlighting recruits, and setting the cultural tones of our companies. That requires us to be involved in solving the pay gap, recruiting more women into the field, and most importantly, driving cultures that demand equal respect across gender lines. None of that will happen if we’re not talking about it.
Low-tech security strategies are a vital part of protecting customers from email-borne threats.
For MSPs, the traditional approach to cybersecurity focuses on defense and prevention, but as cybercriminals get bolder and more sophisticated, that’s no longer enough. What’s needed is a proactive security posture that MSPs can enforce with their clients using these nine best practices.
For many resellers, vendor relationships don’t extend much beyond the contract signing and some initial training. That may be fine for some product lines, but if you aren’t fostering a closer working relationship with a vendor, you’re probably leaving money on the table.
Most VARs are aware that cross-selling and upselling can boost their revenue, but not as many put the required effort into executing this type of program.
It may be easier in the short-term for an MSP to standardize on one cloud provider, but a multi-cloud sales strategy is the more lucrative option in the long run.
As cloud storage becomes more affordable, organizations of all sizes are exploring new ways to meet their increased storage demands and streamline operations. This steady decline in cost and improvements in security have made cloud storage a viable alternative to traditional on-premises storage options.
First popularized in terminology several years ago, threat intelligence means many things to many people. This is due, in part, to the wide variety of producers, consumers, formats, intended uses, and quality of this type of data. This wide variety of definitions is exacerbated by the spectrum of qualitative and quantitative data called threat intelligence.
Implementing network, endpoint, and server security while backing up data and keeping network users aware of threats can go a long way toward keeping your company’s data safe.
Taylor Business Group is an executive coaching and peer group firm that focuses on IT Solution Providers and Copier Dealers. Founded in 2001, Taylor has brought efficiencies and higher profits to IT Solution Providers through a focused effort in delivering best practices to the Service Provider and Copier Dealer's service, sales and administrative functions.
Global Technology Systems is the trusted expert in mobile power technology. GTS designs and manufactures high-performance batteries, chargers, and power management technologies for essential mobile devices. Millions of business professionals, public safety, government, and military worldwide rely on GTS to power mission critical communications and mobile computing applications. Founded in 2000, GTS is headquartered in Framingham, MA.
For more than 30 years, APG Cash Drawer has been designing and delivering cash drawers with a variety of size, color, interface, and integration options. An APG cash drawer will provide years of smooth, trouble free service with virtually no downtime, no service required, and no headaches. Our cash drawers are so well constructed and so reliable that our customers install them and forget them - even in the most demanding environments.
CloudBerry Lab™ is a vendor for CloudBerry Backup, a leading cross-platform cloud backup and disaster recovery solution integrated with major public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, and almost every S3-compatible or OpenStack based cloud storage service.
CompTIA is the voice of the world's information technology (IT) industry.
The ASCII Group is a vibrant community of independent MSPs, VARS and solution providers in North America. The organization offers members leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, knowledge sharing among peers, discounts on business services, and more. Founded in 1984 by Alan Weinberger, ASCII is the oldest and largest group of independent IT solution providers, integrators and VARS in the world.
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Our company was one of the first IT service providers in our area to embrace the change from on-prem to cloud hosted email. It gave us a surprising advantage in the local market as prospects were itching to cut expenses and were already familiar with the concept of “the cloud” due to a tremendous amount of marketing around the subject.
Whether you want to start your own business as a managed service provider or you already run a small company providing IT services, you may find yourself at a crossroads trying to identify the best operating model and the steps you need to do immediately to get everything running. The aim of this article is to offer an introduction to two main types of MSP operating models and give you some practical advice on MSP business management.
It is a well-known fact that the cost of acquiring new customers for managed service providers is several times higher than the cost of retaining existing ones. If you keep your clients happy in the long-term, and if you provide them with reliable services and great IT support, there will be no reason for them to leave you, and thus they will continue regular payouts.
Delivering a positive customer support experience is a must for any business looking to keep customers for the long term. For POS ISVs who maintain relationships with multiple hardware vendors, this can get tricky because it requires tight coordination with the partners.
How about a quick show of virtual hands — who loves meetings? Immortalized in countless movies, poorly run meetings are the bane of anyone’s work day. Many meetings — even in small business — are boring, ineffective, and wasteful. The good news is we can fix this, together.
AI and ML are not the same thing. Marketing campaigns and news articles oftentimes confuse people into thinking that they are—and my insistence on clarifying their nuance might be overkill—but I think it’s important to know the difference so you can understand how each can help make cybersecurity stronger.
Exceeding customer and industry expectations, the Series 4000 is the ultimate heavy-duty cash drawer. Unmatched durability along with flexible storage space, and various sizing, color and customized options, these features make the Series 4000 another reason for APG’s reputation as the preferred choice.
Cloud backup service with centralized management and monitoring.
Smarter malware prevention that solves the performance, dwell time visibility and management issues of your endpoint security.
Small in size, the APG Series 100 Cash Drawer does not compromise efficiency. It actually improves upon it because it increases the effectiveness of your workstation.
