The Business Solutions Network

By now, you’ve probably heard about the credit card data breach that occurred at Target and other retail chains over the holidays. While Target hasn’t released all the details of what happened, malware was supposedly involved and many believe the culprit was a nasty bit of software known as BlackPOS. Some are also speculating that malware similar to BlackPOS, called Reedum, was to blame. Regardless of the questions being...  Continue Reading..

NRF wrapped up the other day in NYC’s Jacob Javits Convention Center. I’m sure every exhibitor on the floor could tell you how or why they have some new innovation that will reshape the industry. Most are just buying into their own marketing hype and are self-delusional. I was on the lookout for the information and news that would matter most to retail VARs. Following are some of my notes from the show.   Continue Reading..

I was glancing over my notes from IT Nation and came across some gems concerning hiring a salesperson. During his presentation entitled "How to Hire, Fire, Compensate & Ensure Success of a Sales Professional," Alex Rogers, CEO of CharTec, shared his 7 must-haves before you hire a salesperson. I couldn't find these anywhere online so I thought I'd share them here.  Continue Reading..

As we wrap up our February issue, which includes a feature article on a NYC-based VAR doing quite well selling Harbortouch, I thought about how many resellers we've spoken with in the past couple years who've embraced the Harbortouch model of "free" POS. The booing still exists, primarily from companies in the channel that made their livings off of high margin sales, but I hear a lot more cheering than anything else nowadays.  Continue Reading..

If you're a retail IT VAR interested in adding recurring revenue sources to your line card, listen up. In the world of managed services, one of the leading, most profitable offerings is backup and recovery, or BDR (backup and disaster recovery), or business continuity. While speaking with some BDR experts for an upcoming magazine article, editor Jay McCall added in some questions about BDR opportunities in the retail vertical. Their...  Continue Reading..

Next week is the NRF BIG Show, the biggest retail technology show of the year. While I’m not looking forward to the frigid temperatures and windy streets of NYC, I am looking forward to seeing the next step in the evolution of retail IT. This event is really a mixed bag for me. There’s so much to see and, unfortunately, not all of the solutions on display will be sold through the reseller channel. I’m on the...  Continue Reading..

By far, the biggest objection I hear to converting from break-fix to the As-a-Service model is the change in cash flow. Experts and MSPs who've already made the transition have very clear advice: make the transition in stages and as your company can accomodate.  Continue Reading..

You should have found in your mailbox this week the January 2014 issue of Business Solutions magazine, which contains the results of our annual Best Channel Vendors survey. This is the sixth year we've run this survey which gives us a lot of data to analyze. One fun thing I did last year with the winner's list was to apply conditional color formatting to the scores to create a heat map. I did it again for this...  Continue Reading..