This week I’ve been at CompTIA’s ChannelCon conference in Chicago. Talking with attendees and listening to speakers, I discovered a theme I’d like to share. At ChannelCon, the organization’s president and CEO Todd Thibodeaux took to the stage Tuesday morning to deliver his state of the industry keynote. During his presentation he shared some keys to success in managed services and one of them was to get your customers on...  Continue Reading..

With much of RetailNOW 2015 still to come, a great deal has already happened at the retail and hospitality IT channel's most important conference.  Continue Reading..

We’ve done plenty of surveys, formal and informal, to know that VARs don’t historically put much emphasis on PCI with customers. It seems like many choose to take the path of “the software I sell is PCI compliant — I think — so me and my customers are good.” That might be true for some, but it’s not true for all. While I can’t stress to you the importance of PCI compliance, I also can’t seem...  Continue Reading..

VARs looking to make the transition to managed services need to overcome some hurdles. We’ve been writing about them for a while now. Cash flow, training, a different sales methodology, selecting the right automation tools, etc. Another hurdle is running an efficient business. With that in mind, here’s a tough pill for many to swallow: Many VARs who have historically been project-/break-fix-based probably have a headcount issue....  Continue Reading..

I recently had a conversation with a retail and restaurant IT reseller. This VAR used to be a salesperson for one of the largest VARs in the United States. He would often have million dollar years as far as sales were concerned. His pay was good, but he wanted more. He left to start his own business.  Continue Reading..

I’ve learned quite a bit from reading business books, but here’s something I realized when my nose wasn’t stuck between pages: Less-known authors with vertical market knowledge can provide VARs just as much value (if not more) than general business best sellers. Recently-published Retail Survival Of The Fittest: 7 Ways To Future-Proof Your Retail Store, is one of those books.  Continue Reading..

Tuesday morning, Datto founder and CEO, Austin McChord, took the stage in New Orleans to kick off the company’s annual partner conference. It didn’t take long before McChord’s presentation moved from a welcome message into all the big announcements that company had to make. MSPs who weren’t in attendance might be scratching their heads over how some of this news applies to them. Here’s why you should care (or...  Continue Reading..

One of the things I enjoy most about our regional Channel Transitions conferences are the conversations with leading MSPs about what they’re doing to be successful and what challenges they’ve overcome. I learn something new with each interaction. At our recent event in Newark, one of our panelists described his organizational chart in a way that was eye-opening for me.  Continue Reading..

I was honored to kick off the ASCII Success Summit today at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago with my hiring best practices presentation titled “Hire Like You Just Beat Cancer.” It’s always great to connect with solution provider executives and try to solve important small business problems.  Continue Reading..