ARTICLES BY MIKE MONOCELLO
Why Jeff Yelton Returned To The Channel
For nearly three years, Jeff Yelton has been out of the POS & data collection industry. Once president of ScanSource’s POS & Barcoding division, Yelton left ScanSource in January of 2012 and has spent the time since as the president of Wired Fox Technologies. About a month ago, Yelton returned to the distribution side of the channel when he joined Ingram Micro as Executive Director and General Manager of the distributor’s...
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Alaska-Based Skurla's POS Solutions To Be Featured In Business Solutions
Solutions-as-a-Service. Mobility. Payment security. Video surveillance. Hosted backup. Ownership Thinking. An upcoming article on Lynn Skurla of Skurla’s POS Solutions out of Anchorage, AK illustrates how being a forward-thinking VAR can lead to great things.
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Top Opportunities In Health IT
In preparation for our SmartVAR Healthcare Summits, I sat down with Health IT Outcomes (HITO) editor in chief Ken Congdon to discuss the most important trends in the industry. On a daily basis at HITO, Congdon interviews healthcare providers (that is, healthcare IT end users) and takes time to understand their challenges and learn what they are doing to address them.
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Rogue Apps: From Customer Headache To Recurring Revenue Boon
I remember the days when IT admins so tightly locked down PC permissions that users couldn't change a printer setting, let alone install their own choice of applications. Of course, just 10 years ago, there weren't a whole lot of small specialized apps and there certainly weren't all the cloud apps we have today. Employees don't think they need permission to work smarter by installing apps like Dropbox on their computer. While...
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Avoid Managed Services Shortcuts, Maximize Efficiency & Profits
I’ve written in the past about the need to be running efficiently to be most effective with the as-a-Service model. During a recent conversation at CompTia ChannelCon, I was reminded how important it is to not just use the right software in your managed services practice, but to have it properly configured.
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Channel Transitions Provides Answers To Your As-A-Service Questions
Our third event on the topic of transitioning from break-fix to the as-a-service model was held on Tuesday July 22 in Boston. Based on feedback from the initial respondents to our post-event survey, Channel Transitions East was a success. After pouring a lot of sweat into the event, I’m relieved. It’s not that I expected failure. We planned and prepared and prepared even more to set ourselves up to succeed. But there are so many...
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ISVs Struggle With EMV
Like VARs, ISVs have the tough task of trying to make sense of the official information (or lack thereof) concerning EMV. However, while VARs can take the (not advisable) wait-and-see approach, ISVs need to ensure they aren’t caught with a solution that lacks EMV capabilities when the time arrives. Additionally, ISVs will have to spend some time and money working on their EMV integrations. If you’re an ISV trying to determine your...
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What Does EMV Mean To VARs?
As a VAR working with merchants and selling any combination of POS hardware, software, and payment processing, you’re in the middle of the EMV topic. If you feel like EMV is currently a point of frustration with the distant hope of turning into something lucrative, you’re not alone.
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Why Now Is The Right Time To Make EMV Sales
About two years ago, I recall a meeting at our offices where one Business Solutions team member was full of conviction that we needed to create an educational guide to EMV. At the time, EMV was just barely on the radar of payments companies after the card brands announced migration plans for the United States. We surveyed our readers (both VARs and software developers) and found that creating an EMV guide at that time would be premature.
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Jump-Start Your As-a-Service Transition
As you might know, we’ve dedicated many pages to educating readers on the value of a managed services model. While the benefits can be great, there also can be some significant hurdles to clear before you sail off into the sunset. Many established MSPs have stories about adopting certain aspects of the model, while ignoring other aspects. This can delay or stifle your success on this model and potentially poison people into thinking that...
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