In today's video blog, I share the key takeways from my recent interview with Jim Steinlage, president of IT solutions provider and MSP Choice Solutions.  Continue Reading..

If you're a VAR focused on retail IT solutions, you should be including IP cameras in your product set. If you're not, you're missing a huge opportunity.  Continue Reading..

In fact, since I don't have a real job, I make it my job in life to figure out really creative ways to steal inventory and even cash right out from under a retailer's nose. I'm pretty good at it -- particularly since I have nothing else to do -- but things have been getting tougher. Many retailers have installed cameras that cover the POS terminals and have loss prevention teams that have figured out all of my tricks.  Continue Reading..

You might recall a previous video blog where I talked about the homemade digital signage I came across in a small privately-owned pizzeria in a nearby college town. At that pizzeria, the owner had mounted a digital photo frame on the wall to create his own digital signage solution. It was about as low tech as you can get when it comes to "high tech" signage. Charming.  Continue Reading..

If there's one message Business Solutions makes more than any other, it has to be this: The big winners in the channel are the companies that figure out how to bundle multiple IT hardware and software products, wrap services around these offerings, and sell total solutions. After my interview with Jim Steinlage, president of Choice Solutions, I realized there is a pretty big clarification and caveat we need to make to this...  Continue Reading..

What are you? A POS dealer? A POS VAR? An integrator? Does it even matter what you call yourself or how the industry refers to itself? This past RSPA RetailNOW will forever remain in my mind as the time when I felt like the industry really understood and embraced that fact that the world of POS is changing, and that things will never be the same.  Continue Reading..

Imagine the significance of offsetting your utility payment, mortgage, an employee's wages, or your child's college tuition. The most successful profitable retail IT VARs are figuring out ways to increase the amount of recurring revenue they earn on a monthly basis to do just that.  Continue Reading..

Choice Solutions was a $21 million general practice networking VAR when we first spoke with their president, Jim Steinlage, back in April 2009. The company was projecting 17% growth at a time when the economy was tanking. Three years later I caught up with Jim Steinlage to see how things turned out and was surprised to hear what he had to say.  Continue Reading..

Over the past few months, I've written quite a bit about the opportunity for POS VARs to sell payment processing services. Assuming you're already on board with this concept, your next step -- and ongoing challenge -- is to stay on top of the latest payments trends. One big trend that should be on your radar is EMV.  Continue Reading..

you're currently selling backup and business continuity solutions, there's a good chance you're offering a disk-based solution that includes a local backup server coupled with a remote backup solution. However, have you considered what you could be missing by not also selling flash-based storage? In a recent article in ComputerWorld, titled, "Flash Storage Can Help Some IT Operations," the author shares the results...  Continue Reading..