Articles By Jim Roddy

  1. MSP Questions For Quantifying Objectives And Risks 5/29/2014

    During StorageCraft’s keynote presentation May 29 at the ASCII Success Summit in Columbus, OH, Mark Crall, senior channel account manager, presented an interesting — and very specific — line of questioning for MSPs. Asking these questions will help solutions providers quantify their customers’ objectives and risks in regards to data recovery and help MSPs sell Recovery-as-a-Service (RaaS) and Offsite Backup-as-a-Service (OBaaS).

  2. From ASCII Columbus: MSP Marketing Golden Nuggets 5/29/2014

    Helping solutions providers create and execute an effective marketing plan was the focus of Herman Pool’s May 28 seminar at the ASCII Success Summit in Columbus, OH. I detailed his Super Easy Marketing Plan Template in this BSMinfo.com article, but I also wanted to share with you other golden nuggets of Pool’s marketing wisdom.

  3. From ASCII Columbus: Creating An Effective Marketing Plan 5/29/2014

    You’re a total solutions provider? Good for you. Your customers are thrilled with your products and services? Good again. So why are you struggling to grow? Probably because you’re great at IT and a novice at marketing.

  4. 7 Great Quotes From The Smart VAR Healthcare Summit 5/8/2014

    An avalanche of valuable information was shared all day at the Smart VAR Healthcare Summit, powered by ScanSource and Business Solutions, on May 6 at the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, NJ. One of the highlights of the afternoon session was a four-person, healthcare end user panel titled, “Take The Guesswork Out Of Healthcare IT: Learn What Healthcare Providers Need From VARs,” moderated by BSM Editor-In-Chief Mike Monocello.

  5. Book Review: The Trusted Advisor 4/7/2014

    Our industry — both reseller and vendor executives — would benefit if we all followed the principles outlined in The Trusted Advisor  by David Maister, Charles Green, and Robert Galford. Successful channel companies try to help their clients; mediocre companies are just pushing products.

  6. Are Retail VARs Missing The Customer Experience Bandwagon? 1/21/2014

    BSM's Jim Roddy reports two trends from  Retail’s BIG Show, hosted by the NRF in New York City last week: one, the top issue retailers care about today is enhancing the customer experience, and two, channel executives told me they believe more  than 90 percent of retail resellers aren’t helping their clients enhance the customer experience.

  7. Recommended VAR Reading: The Challenger Sale 11/18/2013

    I read The Challenger Sale about a year ago and have been testing its principles and techniques whenever I can. I think the business-to-business sales methods taught in this book are the real deal and could have a significant impact on VAR organizations as they strive to be trusted advisors.

  8. Business Solutions Exclusive: ScanSource's Dixon Talks Everything Channel 10/18/2013

    One of the chief lessons I’ve learned from smart channel executives the past 15 years is this: sometimes you need to stop working on the day-to-day of your business and get educated on the most important trends that could affect your business.

  9. Challenges Still Exist For As-a-Service Adoption 10/15/2013

    During Monday night’s Welcome Reception/Solutions Expo at the 2013 ScanSource Partner Conference, I had a conversation with a solutions provider and a vendor executive about financing the as-a-Service model. The VAR said selling Software-as-a-Service is a no-brainer, but hardware is a completely different story because financing that part of the deal still hasn’t taken shape. The VAR was hopeful because he felt distributors are positioned to partner with a third party to finance Hardware-as-a-Service. The vendor concurred, adding: “We [vendors] are not bankers.”

  10. First Thoughts From (And On The Way To) ScanSource's Partner Conference 10/15/2013

    The obvious benefits of channel conferences are the networking, education, and new product information. Another more subtle upside is you’re typically trapped on a plane for hours, affording the opportunity to read and reflect without the typical business interruptions.