Government MSP Featured Editorial

1. MSP Owners: If You Were Hit By A Bus, Would Your Business Survive? 5/31/2018

   The difference between being the owner of a business or being self employed is at the end of the day when you consider exiting or selling your business, how does the business transition without you? As you grow your IT business, the way you make operational decisions to increase the equity of your business is very important. It will determine if you have established your MSP as a lifestyle business or a scalable enterprise.

2. TSP Sales Growth Starts With Ownership 3/23/2018

   Douglass Miller is the CEO of Straightedge Technologies. Like many MSPs, he was frustrated with his sales results. He had very few net new clients and sales to existing clients was uneven. In two-three years, he has doubled the size of his MSP; attracting one net new MRR client a month and growing his sales to existing clients by 3-4X. What changed? Douglass did.

3. 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.

4. MSPs Helping Prepare For NIST 800-171 Compliance Now 11/14/2017

   The deadline for meeting NIST 800-171 compliance is December 31, 2017. Perhaps you are already on your journey, perhaps you are just starting; regardless, compliance must be met by the end of the year. What does this mean for you? The biggest takeaway is this: you have a limited amount of time to make significant progress to ensure your customer’s compliance. This will likely take a focused team of individuals, and possibly a partner with NIST 800-171 experience. Showing appreciable progress by customers towards compliance will help to assuage the regulators.

5. How Expertise And Trust Help Drive Sales For VARs And MSPs 8/15/2017

   Selling professional services is tricky business. There is nothing tangible in the conversation. No product to pick up, turn over, and closely examine for quality and functionality. What clients are buying is you and your expertise. 

6. The EU GDPR Is Coming - 3 Things MSPs Need Consider…Yesterday! 7/27/2017

   The European Union’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is one of the most sweeping global IT regulations in history, set to impose penalties for non-compliance beginning May 25, 2018. Designed to protect European consumers from breaches of their personal identifying data (PID), it regulates how, and for how long, this data can be stored on an IT network.

7. Looking To Sell Your MSP Practice - Better Consider These Issues Now 7/26/2017

   The managed services market got its start as early as the 1990s as the recurring revenue business model sparked a new era of change in the technology industry. As managed service providers (MSPs) emerged, the market for their offerings grew, and it is expected to reach $193 billion by 2019, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 12.5%, according to Markets and Markets.

8. VARs And MSPs – Are You Penny Wise And Pound Foolish With This Revenue Stream? 7/12/2017

   One of the notable highlights of Admiral Nelson’s win at Trafalgar is that he believed his better trained forces would be superior in a battle against overwhelming opposing odds, and he was correct. The more educated the workforce, the greater the productivity: we all know this, or we should.

9. How Offering Compliance-as-a-Service Can Help MSPs Shine 7/12/2017

   Businesses turning to MSPs have no shortage of options in the marketplace, making the solution provider’s ability to distinguish itself crucial to its long-term viability. In my opinion, perhaps the surest path to differentiating a managed service is providing expertise that goes beyond simply delivering technology, and gets to really helping clients navigate the real-world complexities that govern how technology must be applied.

10. Resellers Of ERP Solutions Need This Fencing Skill – Think Two Moves Ahead Or Lose 7/6/2017

    ARRRGH! No, this is not me living my fantasy as a swashbuckler, though as a fencing instructor (a healthy and fun diversion of mine), it would not be too far from reality.  Rather, it is an expression of angst when I hear Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems reduced to being called “accounting” or “financial” systems. I let the rather defamatory term slide when it comes from the chief financial officer or vice president of finance at a client of mine: hey, I am pretty picky about most things but even I have my limitations. But I cringe when I hear it from the reseller, because I know that this is a reseller with a myopic focus.