When trying to save your struggling business success comes from love, not blame.
The Wall Street Journal’s homepage on January 17 featured a headline that included the words “IT Firm.” VARs and MSPs take note: a fellow solutions provider is caught up in a nasty, politically-charged debate being litigated on a national scale. Obviously, your clients are not paying you in large sums of cash handed over in plastic Wal-Mart bags. This story is preposterous in so many ways, and it’s far outside the realm of what’s normal for how VARs and MSPs operate. As absurd as the entire situation might be, this story does raise a few legitimate questions about IT service provider business models that are worth rehashing.
In a sweeping interview for Channel Executive Magazine, seasoned IT executive and SRC Technologies President and CEO BJ Havlik shared the wisdom behind his new-solution onboarding philosophy. In doing so, he zeroed in directly on the relatively new client IT security training opportunity.
I just returned from the Ingram Micro ONE event in Washington, DC and here’s what I liked most about it. If I’ve heard one vendor or distributor exec implore a crowd of their VAR and MSP customers to do something innovative, something non-traditional, with their clients, I’ve heard a million.
If Geek Squad is a nursery school for MSPs, its founder Robert Stephens, is the headmaster. I sat down with Stephens in Phoenix last week at the SolarWinds Empower user conference. Among many interesting points in our conversation were exchanges about IT services marketing and pricing.
In February 2017, CIO Solutions lost a big account. So big, in fact, that it accounted for 40 percent of the MSP’s revenue. This isn’t a mom and pop shop IT Services provider we’re talking about – the account’s revenue brought in millions of dollars annually. Fast forward to September 2018, and CIO Solutions is gracing the cover of Channel Executive magazine. The company not only rebounded – it completed a successful acquisition and is in a strong position for future growth. We couldn’t fit this side story in the magazine, so instead we’re sharing the lessons learned from loss of a large customer in a web-exclusive feature.
Over the last few years, we have seen a remarkable transformation take place in the enterprise communications arena, as businesses have migrated away from traditional phone systems in favor of IP-based communications. Today, the golden standard is unified communications (UC), a technology that combines multiple systems like voice, video, fax, presence, and instant messaging into a centralized, cohesive platform.
Most technology professionals don’t usually jump for joy when they hear procurement. In reality, it’s a task most struggle with. When the products you use can’t define a solid and efficient procurement process, it can heavily impact your bottom line—and your sanity.
Patch management is one of the biggest concerns of IT service providers and their clients. As more vulnerabilities are discovered, patch management begins to feel like a full-time job—especially in larger environments. Developing a patch management strategy can make the practice of updating your clients’ machines a whole lot easier.
To ensure business and service profitability, it’s important to have a strong sales strategy in place, as well as an established way to create healthy margins. If you’re considering adding a cloud solutions offering to your existing services, or already offer cloud services and want to increase profitability, here are a few tips for cloud service providers (CSPs) to find success.
As a managed service provider (MSP), you want to provide proactive, comprehensive client endpoint management. But with limited resources, that can be nearly impossible. Constantly monitoring each server, laptop, tablet, and other wireless devices may take more resources than your team has available—holding you back from delivering the exceptional service you know you’re capable of.
Your client’s online presence matters — and it matters in a big way. Resellers can help clients grow their businesses and simultaneously deepen their relationships by guiding them in the use of digital tools and explaining why they matter.
Datto surveyed more than 2,400 managed service providers (MSPs) around the world about ransomware and published the key takeaways in this report. Download the report today to unlock new trends and statistics on the biggest threat facing the Channel, and what your peers are doing to prepare.
As a managed service provider, being able to proactively address issues as they emerge, rather than after they happen, is essential to deliver exceptional service. Investing in remote monitoring and management (RMM) software is the best way to address this need. In this eBook, industry leading MSPs are offering up their best advice for fellow IT pros who are evaluating RMM software.
CloudBerry Lab™ is a vendor for CloudBerry Backup, a leading cross-platform cloud backup and disaster recovery solution integrated with major public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, and almost every S3-compatible or OpenStack based cloud storage service.
The ASCII Group is a vibrant community of independent MSPs, VARS and solution providers in North America. The organization offers members leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, knowledge sharing among peers, discounts on business services, and more. Founded in 1984 by Alan Weinberger, ASCII is the oldest and largest group of independent IT solution providers, integrators and VARS in the world.
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.
HTG is an international consulting, coaching and peer group organization that cultivates success by igniting personal, leadership, business and legacy transformation. Members navigate their journey with world-class HTG consultants and facilitators who value sharing wisdom, providing accountability and building meaningful relationships, Igniting Transformation™ every step of the way. HTG invites you to explore the program that suits you best, and apply today to begin experiencing The HTG Way.
As the world’s leading provider of IT solutions delivered by Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Datto believes there is no limit to what small and medium businesses can achieve with the right technology. Datto offers business continuity and disaster recovery, networking, business management, and file backup and sync solutions, and has created a one-of-a-kind ecosystem of partners that provide Datto solutions to half a million businesses across more than 130 countries. Since its founding in 2007, Datto has earned hundreds of awards for its rapid growth, product excellence, superior technical support, and for fostering an outstanding workplace. With global headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut, Datto has international offices in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Canada, Australia, China, and Singapore.
CompTIA is the voice of the world's information technology (IT) industry.
You know developing a documentation rhythm will benefit you, but with so much to document, where do you start? We get it. You’re swamped with information and data, and it’s all important for different reasons. That’s why we’ve developed 6 steps to get you started, and mastering, your documentation.
Does documentation ever seem like a daunting task that’s missing a clear starting point? We get it. With so much crucial information to document, it can be difficult to nail down how to do it. However, the key to mastering your documentation is to first master the use of documentation templates. Not only is a documentation template going to increase company-wide consistency and save you a ton of time, but it’s going to help you get started.
To survive in today’s competitive market, resellers must become intimately familiar with all facets of the integrated space and the entire business ecosystem or find themselves quickly becoming obsolete.
At some point, as business owners, we must assess the size and scope of intangible value such as brand, reputation, goodwill, and intellectual assets. These items can comprise upwards of 70 percent of the overall value of our businesses.
The onboarding process is your new client’s first true exposure to your firm’s support process. If done successfully, it cements a productive and profitable relationship. If done poorly, it makes your firm look disorganized and unprepared.
