Abby Sorensen

ARTICLES BY ABBY SORENSEN

• What VARs & MSPs Can Learn From The Trump Campaign's IT Provider

  1/22/2019

  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.

• Retail Resellers: Build Your Business Around Hardware, Not On It

  11/1/2018

  Instead of lamenting over shrinking hardware margins, Technology Recovery Group (TRG) continues to diversify with unique offerings that keep its tier-one retail clients coming back for more.

• How An MSP Survived The Loss Of A Huge Account

  9/19/2018

  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.

• Let's Talk About The Channel's Lack Of Diversity

  7/3/2018

  The lack of women and minorities in the channel is such a complex problem. We can’t keep forgetting about diversifying the channel – it has to be an ongoing conversation about how our industry can find better ways to recruit talented women and minorities and help them advance to leadership positions.

• VARs & MSPs: Just Say 'No' To Bad Customers

  4/5/2018

  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.

• Why A POS Solutions Provider Is Building A $10 Million Office

  2/8/2018

  Why is a scrappy, bootstrapped IT services company splurging on zip lines and basketball courts for its new 34,000 sqaure foot office building? After all, BNG Holdings didn’t earn a 133 percent three-year growth rate and a spot on the Inc. 5000 list by spending frivolously. Brady Nash and the co-founders of BNG Holdings started dreaming of building a Google-like work environment in Fargo, ND while they were still 18 and 19-year-old college kids selling telecom and cable services for a multi-level marketing company. Fast forward a little more than 10 years later, and the technology company sees real estate as just one more way BNG is diversifying its portfolio.

• VAR & MSP SaaS Adoption Trends

  11/29/2017

  SaaSMAX and CompTIA recently teamed up on a webinar to share findings from CompTIA’s state of the SaaS channel report. Carolyn April, Senior Director of Industry Analysis at CompTIA, and Clinton Gatewood, VP of Partner and Reseller Development at SaaSMAX, presented data that any VAR or MSP either currently selling, or considering selling, SaaS products should pay attention to. 

• A Startup Mentality For A 20+ Year Old Solutions Provider?

  7/31/2017

  Darek Hahn, president and CEO of Dynamic Strategies Inc. (DSI), details the challenges of his company's shift in customer focus, sales strategy, and corporate culture. 

• Inside A 50+ Employee MSP's Employee Review Process

  7/31/2017

  Russ Levanway, CEO of California-based MSP TekTegrity, recently let me pick his brain about how and why the company acquired four MSPs in the five-year period between 2010 to 2015. Like many solutions providers looking for ways to grow, TekTegrity used these acquisitions to expand its regional footprint and establish itself in new verticals. In the process, Levanway had to integrate differing cultures and a rapidly expanding headcount.

• 3 Presentations You Missed At Channel Transitions Boston

  9/16/2016

  The Channel Transitions VAR/MSP Executive Conference, powered by Business Solutions, September 14 at the DoubleTree Boston North Shore, featured presentations from leading channel experts.