Hiring is a forward-facing activity, not backward-facing. Job descriptions tend to be like the kitchen junk drawer — they accumulate all the activities, gaps, tasks, and responsibilities that currently don’t have a home in an organization or that need a responsible owner.
I spent a few days in Dallas last week with my friends at HTG. I try to attend as many of the group’s quarterly meetings as I can, because there’s no better place to become immersed in the MSP community. Honest and transparent conversations with the leaders of operationally mature—and actively maturing—managed services businesses are what direct our MSP Insights and Channel Executive editorial content.
There’s been no shortage of press about the IT labor situation in India. In case you haven’t been following, here’s a quick summation. The country’s outsourced IT shops are like our brick-and-mortar stores. There are too many of them. They’re occupied by too many employees for the times. They both face threats posed by automation and Amazon, respectively, nemeses whose names are nearly synonymous.
As VAR and MSP sales and marketing organizations catch the buyer persona buzz, are client personas and user experiences being overlooked?
The PCI Security Standards Council’s announcement of plans to strategically drive its QIR (Qualified Integrators and Resellers) program deeper into the SMB retail market is by most counts a positive thing for the industry. For the greater good of data security, it’s hard to muster a qualm about moves like these. It’s a little easier to be annoyed by these changes if you’ve been going out of your way to differentiate your business via a payment security consultancy.
When James Laszko founded Mythos Technology in 2010 he likely didn’t expect he’d be able to afford to fire the lowest performing 20 percent of his customers in 2018. But that’s exactly what he has set out to do this year. You can read more about his customer rightsizing initiative in the May 2018 issue of Channel Executive magazine. In the meantime, there is another side to the Mythos story: how to find the customers who are the right fit so they won’t end up on the chopping block a few years down the road.
It may be easier in the short-term for an MSP to standardize on one cloud provider, but a multi-cloud sales strategy is the more lucrative option in the long run.
Doug Grimm sat down with MSPinsights and VARinsights to talk about the biggest tech opportunity for MSPs and VARs.
Jim Hocking sat down with MSPinsights to talk about MSP pricing and the most common mistake he sees MSPs make when it comes to pricing their services.
Dreading your company’s annual kick-off because you can’t really show how your channel is performing – and suffering from a lack of ideas on how to truly accelerate your indirect revenue? You’re not alone. These are common symptoms of having selected the wrong channel management solution.
When IT service providers become MSPs, the transition isn’t always easy. It requires a fundamental change in the way business is done. What you sell—and what you shouldn’t sell—needs to be clearly considered if success is part of your plan.
Every MSP should be looking for additional services that are easy to setup, simple to manage, achieve predictable results, and generate consistent revenue. Backup-as-a-Service is one of the logical “next steps” for every MSP that is already responsible for the care of their customer’s most critical systems. Some simply haven’t made the jump yet (e.g. the customer is still managing their own backups), while others just haven’t moved their management of backups to a recurring service model.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing resources, networking facilities, and multi-user applications reduce the amount of financial and business resources spent maintaining your business IT infrastructure. Off-site cloud storage further protects your data against disaster. This whitepaper reviews best practices for backup and disaster recovery on the AWS Cloud.
Through the digital transformation of businesses – moving from bricks and mortal, 9-to-5 businesses to ones that are available anytime, anywhere – has required a shift in the way organizations protect their data. Traditional backup storage models of on-premises tape and disk have given way to both cloud and hybrid-cloud backup storage, providing greater availability and accessibility of secure, protected data.
SolarWinds® MSP delivers comprehensive, scalable IT service management solutions to empower MSPs of every size and scale worldwide to create highly efficient and profitable businesses that drive a measurable competitive advantage.
VIPRE is the highest-rated, award-winning internet security product for channel partners and businesses worldwide. It consistently earns 100% block rates and zero false positives from AV-Comparatives, the world’s most widely-trusted independent antivirus testing authority.
SherWeb has been helping businesses around the world work smarter in the cloud since 1998. Our cloud solutions help companies be more agile in today’s competitive market and trim IT costs.
CompTIA is the voice of the world's information technology (IT) industry.
Datto protects business data and provides secure connectivity for tens of thousands of the world's fastest growing companies. Datto's Total Data Protection solutions deliver uninterrupted access to business data on site, in transit and in the cloud. Thousands of IT service providers globally rely on Datto's combination of pioneering technology and dedicated services to ensure businesses are always on, no matter what. Datto is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut and has offices in Rochester, Boston, Portland, Toronto, London, Singapore and Sydney. Learn more at www.datto.com.
Webroot delivers intelligent cybersecurity for endpoint, mobile and web to channel partners, consumers, businesses, and enterprises worldwide. Powered by its BrightCloud® collective threat intelligence network, Webroot protects the internet of everything. Our cloud-based threat detection, high performance, lightweight agents, and single, web-based point of control have changed the way businesses think about protecting mobile devices, PCs and servers. Named a ‘Visionary’ in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms, Webroot’s smarter approach to security is why companies including Cisco, F5 Networks, GateProtect, HP, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks, Proofpoint, RSA and others choose our solutions for advanced threat protection for their security products and services.
As a business owner, being able to envision your company’s big picture is crucial. But, realistically, how much time during your hectic day do you truly have to dedicate to understanding every detail that impacts this picture? If your answer is along the lines of, “not much” or “I wish I had more time” – you are not alone. Thankfully, ConnectWise Sell™ has a solution.
Businesses of all sizes meet on common ground when visibility and accountability are in question. In fact, the larger the company, the more detrimental a lack of visibility can be.
If you’re a VAR, system integrator, or solution provider in the technology space struggling with quoting a large variety of products and services, you’re not alone. Quoting projects for your clients means navigating a lot of complex variables and that often includes conquering a beast of a spreadsheet lurking in your sales quoting process. Complicated costing formulas, manual upkeep, and a lack of standardization on output for clients, makes spreadsheet quoting a nuisance to your business.
No matter where you are on your business journey, your business is maturing every day. The path to success for you and your business isn’t about shortcuts and cheat codes. Instead, it’s a succession of non-negotiable disciplines that will help you grow your time, team, family, independence, and success.
Technology Teams are made up of a lot more than just the service technicians working with your customers. Every Technology Team is made up of a combination of people that account for every step of the Customer Journey. Sales, finance, even marketing…they’re all a part of your Technology Teams and enable you to reach your clients, making their jobs and lives a little easier and helping you stay ahead of technology.
