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December 15, 2014 by Carolyn April
The education market is a good target for today’s channel, according to CompTIA’s study, “The Changing Classroom: Perspectives from Students and Educators on the Role of Technology.” As educators realize the benefits to student performance, achievement mandates and overall efficiency, IT will continue to increase in importance—and spending.
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October 23, 2014 by Carolyn April
It’s no longer enough to simply build a better mousetrap — to succeed you’ve got to build out the entire business, according to CompTIA’s 4th Annual State of the Channel report. Read how managed services and cloud business models are impacting sales and marketing efforts, plus the nontechnology challenges the channel is facing.
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October 15, 2014 by Brian Sherman
Onboarding a new client is the perfect opportunity to both set and manage expectations while nurturing and developing your professional relationship early on. From a welcome gift to salient points about necessary hardware upgrades, give your new clients what they need to trust you and your services.
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August 5, 2014 by Mary Ellen Grom
In today’s complex business environment, a strategic marketing plan can help you make sense of the chaos — especially when it’s coupled with a strategic business plan.
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August 5, 2014 by Lisa Fasold
The majority of companies grow by referral, but you can’t control your business if you live off referrals, according to Chris Wiser, CEO of TechSquad. During his talk at ChannelCon’s Managed Services Community meeting, he offered a series of quick marketing tips for channel firms.
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July 23, 2014 by Brian Sherman
The portfolio prospects for solution providers have never been brighter, from advanced cloud solutions to the Internet of Things. But with so much effort required to transform an IT business — and the considerable time and fine-tuning it takes to prepare a new VAR offering for a full-scale rollout — providers, vendors and distribution executives should be investing time and attention into their future products and services.
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June 20, 2014 by Emily Matzelle
IT pros from all over the country are preparing for ChannelCon, CompTIA’s annual gathering for industry training, peer-to-peer learning and partner networking. The event’s comprehensive channel training is always a draw, and we’ve spelled it out for you in this A to Z guide to ChannelCon, scheduled for August 4 to 6 in Phoenix.
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February 26, 2014 by Matthew L. Evans
This Black History Month, CompTIA notes the contributions of Aaron Woods, director of U.S. solutions providers, relationship and partners at Xerox and the first African-American member of the CompTIA Board of Directors. Woods is an ardent supporter of TechVoice – CompTIA’s public advocacy grass roots network – and the IT industry. “Being the first of anything usually brings with it some concerns as to how you will be viewed by others,” Woods said. “As it ...
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November 12, 2013 by Brian Sherman
With many managed services providers admitting that their technology skills are far deeper than their business acumen, the processes required to create those critical organizational development plans may be quite unfamiliar. The talents essential to build and sustain these IT companies can be quite diverse, so MSPs either have to undergo training to acquire those capabilities or hire new employees with those specific proficiencies. Regardless of the method they adopt, those consistent investment ...
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September 10, 2013 by Brian Sherman
No college can properly prepare a future entrepreneur with everything he or she needs to build a successful services business in the highly competitive IT industry. That’s not a knock on the post-secondary educational system, but an acknowledgment that all the knowledge and competencies required to grow a viable solution provider practice won’t be obtained from a university education. Consider how most VARs and MSPs grow their operations. They typically follow a business development ...
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August 13, 2013 by Emily Matzelle
What if protecting your business’s confidential data and information was as easy as hiring a bodyguard? Who would you hire? What questions would you ask your candidates to be sure that this person has your company’s best interests at heart and the ethical values to back them up? Safeguarding private information is a matter that cannot be taken lightly in this digital age. That’s why CompTIA created the CompTIA Security Trustmark to help businesses identify solution providers th ...
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February 24, 2012 by Brian Sherman
What a wild 10 years it’s been in the IT channel. Earlier this week I attended one of the Level Platforms’ Road Shows in Columbus, Ohio, and, while listening to a number of MSP presentations and vendor presentations, I had a flashback to my first discussion on managed services. It was almost a decade ago when I sat down with Level’s CEO Peter Sandiford for a Business Solutions magazine interview at a Gartner ChannelVision event. Over the next two hours, he laid out the client and provider need f ...
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December 9, 2011 by Brian Sherman
Among the top “buzz” words in the IT community are “cloud” and “SMB,” which is seen as no coincidence by those in the IT channel. These two terms are closely tied and both highlight key areas of opportunity for solution providers. Time has demonstrated how cloud benefits extend to businesses of every size, in every industry, but the model has been especially beneficial to small and mid-sized companies.SMB organizations often find themselves battling much larger competitors, businesses that typic ...
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September 2, 2011 by Brian Sherman
The West Coast generally gets all the attention when it comes to earthquakes, which seem to be a part of everyday life for those in California, Oregon and Washington (not to mention Alaska and Hawaii). The Gulf Coast, on the other hand, seems to be a magnet for hurricanes and tropical depressions. So it came as quite a surprise to those in the North East who got hit with both last week. A rare 5.9 earthquake struck Mineral, Va., on Tuesday, which rattled nerves and lit up Facebook with “what was ...
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April 7, 2011 by Brian Sherman
While the United States government is faced with a potential shut down this week, when a new budget in eventually passed, small businesses can profit from knowing how to navigate their way through the red tape. That task sounds daunting, but a basic understanding of the shortcuts will allow VARs and MSPs to cultivate business from a number of agencies in the federal government. Our Small Business Owners Community members were given an educational primer on how to accomplish that in their CompTIA ...
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March 7, 2011 by MJ Shoer
We have the privilege of working in one of the best industries in the world. The IT channel is dynamic and it’s always changing. Most of us who run a VAR, solution provider, managed service provider—or whatever label you want to use—company are typically not born business people.Most of us are technology-oriented, whether through formal training or experience, typically getting into the business from the IT side. Over the years, we force ourselves to learn what we need to know in order to succes ...
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July 14, 2010 by Dan Liutikas
Is your technology business the best kept secret in town? You have great staff, faithful customers, operations second to none, but what’s keeping it from growing? Quite simply — leads. You know many businesses are an ideal fit to utilize your products and services, but how do you find them? Without good leads, your sales team will be less effective and your company’s revenue will likely remain flat. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Lead generation is not a black art and does not need to be ...
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June 24, 2010 by Dan Liutikas
Most Solution Providers go into business because they love technology. The problem is, running a technology business is often more about managing the business than managing the technology. Human resources is a perfect illustration of this point. The average entrepreneurial solution provider doesn’t have a lot of experience in creating a job description; but you can’t get too far along in your business before you need to put one together. Once your staff is on board, they will likely have what se ...
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March 31, 2010 by Paul Bittorf
In many ways I’m a very logical and practical guy. I try to plan my day in a logical and practical order. It doesn’t always work out that way of course, but that’s OK - life is chaotic. I still try. I like to do things that make sense and that, for the most part, have some intrinsic value. When I was providing IT services to customers, it made a lot of sense (to me at least) to first sit down with my potential customers (sometimes for days) and figure out what they needed before I ever tried to ...
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March 23, 2010 by Brian Sherman
I’ve been involved in many discussions on IT security applications over the years, but today’s conference call with the IT Security Special Interest Group truly hit home on the business issues many channel providers face. Many VARs and MSPs offer security applications to their clients, but could use help developing this expertise and in transitioning from a reactive focus on security to a proactive approach.
During the call, Fernando Quintero, VP of Channel Operations for McA ...
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March 3, 2010 by Paul Bittorf
As I see it, one of the most essential ingredients of a successful managed services operation is the services level agreement (SLA). In fact, it’s so crucial that it’s part of our standard definition for managed services that I mentioned in my last blog post. CompTIA Managed Services Definition:The ongoing management, monitoring, and maintenance of networks, software, hardware, and related IT services by an external organization. Managed services are often marked by detailed service level agree ...
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