In last month's issue of Business Solutions magazine, I talked with Charles Johnson, CEO of $5.5 million network security consultant and VAR EDTS. (See 4 Secrets Of A  Trusted Network Security Advisor) His company experienced 45% revenue growth in 2011, and it's projecting 15% growth this year. One of the secrets Johnson shared with me was that he's learned to take a more consultative approach to...  Continue Reading..

Having interviewed a number of POS (point of sale) VARs, software developers, and payment processing companies, I'm confident in stating that POS VARs are in a great position to secure merchant processing business from their customers. In fact, I covered just that topic in a recent blog post, "Are POS VARs Missing Out On Payment Processing Revenue?"  Continue Reading..

I've been hearing a lot about VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) lately. ABI Research predicts this technology is going to grow from $500 million in 2009 to $5 billion by 2016. For the March issue of Business Solutions magazine, I interviewed MSP (managed services provider) RMC ProIT, a division of Ray Morgan Company. This company is projecting 100% growth this year, and it's attributing much of its growth to VDI...  Continue Reading..

Once a week I like to take an hour or so to randomly call readers of Business Solutions magazine. I do this for a few reasons. First, it helps me stay in touch with what’s going on in the industry. Frankly, since I’m doing no technology selling or installing myself, if I don’t talk to readers or attend shows and conferences, my articles will miss the mark. Second, having these conversations gives me ideas for...  Continue Reading..

Back in our July 2010 issue, I interviewed brothers Howard and David McCarthy of Dumac Business Systems in an article entitled "A New Twist On POS." In the article, the brothers spoke about how they're leveraging two of the RSPA's (Retail Solutions Providers Association) member benefits to reduce expenses and increase sales. (If you've ever wondered if the membership fees of the RSPA are worth it, read...  Continue Reading..

I’ve been writing a lot lately about BDR (backup and disaster recovery), and I’ve even been trying to keep my eye on where storage is trending. Based on some of my recent interviews with solid state vendors Nimbus Data Systems and WhipTail, it looks like the future of storage is heading toward solid state. (Coming soon, I’ll be interviewing Violin Memory, another solid state storage vendor to get their...  Continue Reading..

Every month, the editors of all of Jameson Publishing's (Business Solution's parent company) magazines and web portals get together and review the feature articles of each pub. In these meetings, we disscect articles, critique the writing, word choices, headlines, optical elements, and many other things in an attempt to make the following month's articles even better for our readers.  Continue Reading..

If you don't know, we work pretty far in advance on our print publication, Business Solutions magazine. In fact, next week we begin the layout (meaning, all the articles will be written and edited, and photos are collected) and send the digital files to our printer.  Continue Reading..

I recently returned from the Motorola Solutions Partner Expo in Las Vegas. According to Motorola, there were 3,000 partners at the show, which spanned three days and included a variety of general sessions speakers, breakout education sessions, and a solutions showcase. Right from the start, it was clear this event was going to be different than those in the past as the conference kicked off in an exciting way, with a high-octane rock video...  Continue Reading..

If you would have asked me three months ago how many of the Business Solutions magazine POS readers sell payment processing services to their merchant customers, I would have guessed that the majority did. However, today, after the Business Solutions team recently completed phase one of a reader outreach campaign to better understand the challenges VARs face, I feel differently. Based on these recent reader calls, I'm shocked at how...  Continue Reading..