All technologies experience occasional problems, but your preparation and choice of the right VoIP service provider will pay consistent dividends by reducing down time and business interruption.
Gavriella Schuster, VP commercial partnership at Microsoft helped kick off Ingram’s Cloud Summit X in San Diego this week in front of more than 1,500 attendees with an abbreviated history of the IT channel and the rapid change it’s seeing of late. She focused those comments in the context of the cloud’s impact on a channel that’s looked pretty static for the past 40 years.
Arnie Bellini is stepping down from the role he forged back in 1988, when he transitioned ConnectWise—then a managed services practice—into a business management platform for tech service providers. Under Bellini’s guidance as CEO and in the 31 years since, ConnectWise grew into an IT channel powerhouse that serves more than 25,000 partners in 65+ countries.
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.
Despite the rise of managed service providers (MSPs), many IT companies still operate on a break/fix model. But the proactive managed services model is far easier and more cost-effective—and helps you provide a much stronger level of service to your clients. If you’re still providing services on a break/fix basis, a remote monitoring and management (RMM) tool can help you make the transition to managed services.
When you evaluate the health and success of your business, there are several KPIs to measure. Are you tracking your tech utilization? Are you evaluating your overhead costs? Are you leveraging automation as much as possible?
In the prehistoric age of computers, when they took up entire rooms in tall buildings, remote support was just a twinkle in the eyes of early engineers. Fast-forward several decades to the 1980s and the advent of the World Wide Web and voila! Remotely servicing machines was no longer a wishful thought, but an actual possibility.
Not all customers are created equal. And as a managed service provider (MSP), it’s important to determine which of your customers are best for business. We’re here to walk you through identifying these customers, what they mean to your success, and how the ‘not-so-great’ customers can cost you in lost revenue.
Pricing is everything to your business. But figuring out what to charge for your services can be tricky. Charge too much and businesses won’t want to work with you. Charge too little, and you won’t be able to cover your costs. Finding that right price will help you sell your services better, bring in more profit, and give your customers the value they expect. So, what do you need to know to ensure your price is right?
Looking for a new solution that will help your small business clients protect their data and boost your revenue at the same time? Consider Microsoft 365 for Business.
Ransomware remains a massive threat to small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs). From Q2 2016 - Q2 2018, 79% of MSPs report ransomware attacks against customers. In the first 6 months of 2018 alone, 55% report ransomware attacks against clients. 92% of MSPs predict the number of ransomware attacks will continue at current, or worse, rates.
When a system goes down, getting that system back up and running quickly is the goal of every managed service provider (MSP). All too often however, a backup will fail, causing the MSP to lose confidence in the backup and recovery process. Lack of consistency in backup performance means MSPs have to do more work to keep customers in operation. MSPs need to know that their backups are in good standing so they can be the hero for their customers.
Shif4 Payments is a leading national provider of touch-screen point of sale (POS) systems and payment processing services. As pioneers of the "as a service" model, Shif4 Payments offers an unprecedented "free" POS program that allows the company's sales partners to offer a full-featured POS system with no up-front costs.
Taylor Business Group is an executive coaching and peer group firm that focuses on IT Solution Providers and Copier Dealers. Founded in 2001, Taylor has brought efficiencies and higher profits to IT Solution Providers through a focused effort in delivering best practices to the Service Provider and Copier Dealer's service, sales and administrative functions.
CompTIA is the voice of the world's information technology (IT) industry.
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.
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.
Avast Business provides easy-to-manage, enterprise-grade security and network management solutions for SMBs and IT service providers. Backed by the largest, most globally dispersed threat detection network, the Avast Business security portfolio makes securing, managing, and monitoring complex, ever-changing IT environments easy and affordable.
All technologies experience occasional problems, but your preparation and choice of the right VoIP service provider will pay consistent dividends by reducing down time and business interruption.
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.
