Articles by Matt Pillar

  1. Is Apple Ready For The Channel? 2/15/2018

    Seven historically valid reasons for VARs and MSPs to ignore Apple, and seven counterpoints on why that might be a mistake today.

  2. Inside The ConnectWise/HTG Acquisition 1/5/2018

    The pundits and prognosticators, myself included, have been predicting robust channel M&A activity in 2018. That activity got off to an exciting and immediate start with acquisition of HTG Peer Groups by ConnectWise, announced Jan. 5.

  3. Why ITS Was A Great Acquisition For ATS 12/28/2017

    Last fall, David Corey, VP of IT Services at Advanced Technology Services, Inc. (ATS), wrote a Channel Executive guest editorial for us. In the column, he proffered a few digital transformation fundamentals for MSPs and IT service providers in general. These words, in particular, offered a bit of foreshadowing in light of recent news from ATS.

  4. Rising Rates Of Fatal IT Myopia In The Channel 10/19/2017

    VARs and MSPs represent the channel’s eyes on the ground. There’s a weighty responsibility there that makes nearsightedness a very dangerous thing for the channel. Our VARs and MSPs need clarity of their customers’ vision, and the rest of the channel needs to stand ready to help that vision become the customer’s reality.

  5. MSP Management: Big Expectations, Big Rewards 8/14/2017

    During a recent chat with ex-marine and current president of MSP Carolinas IT Mark Cavaliero, I made the mistake of asking him what keeps him up at night. “Nothing,” he said. “We’re running smoothly and I sleep great at night.”

  6. Cloud Services Isn't Ready For Primetime 8/11/2017

    And other misinformation observed by a managed services pioneer.

    Jason Shirdon is VP of operations at Ease Technologies, a 53-employee managed services company in Baltimore. He’s been there since 1999, having joined the company when it was just seven years old and back when managed services wasn’t even a concept. Shirdon is in part responsible for the fact that managed services is far more than a concept today. Some five years before Karl Palachuk and company began advocating for the managed services business model in 2005, Shirdon was implementing it among Ease Technologies clientele. He and his colleagues at Ease just didn’t know what to call it back then.

  7. Big Changes to BSM 6/1/2017

    This is the last issue of Business Solutions magazine you’ll receive.

  8. An Introduction To MSPinsights

    It’s a good time to be an MSP.  Multiple reports from channel organizations are touting healthy EBITDA and growing MRR. Still, the times are changing. Looming giants like Microsoft threaten the storage and networking markets with new software-defined technologies. Competition is creeping in from unforeseen places, from small-time resellers to big-time global services companies.