Dan Berthiaume

Weather Crises Equal (Sensitive) Opportunity for MSPs

• July 7, 2011

It’s not a matter of popular imagination, or increased news coverage. Climate scientists have confirmed that severe weather, such as tornadoes and floods, is on the rise both in the US and around the world. Everyone has surely seen footage of the devastating tornadoes and floods that have wreaked havoc in the Midwest in the […]

SOHO Customers: A Real Opportunity for Managed Services?

• July 5, 2011

We all know the benefits of telecommuting. A range of factors — mobile computing, broadband access, corporate downsizing — has fueled the market for home-based corporate offices and home-based businesses. Now here’s the riddle for managed services providers: Are SOHO customers and home-based executives worth your time and effort to engage? Or are they high-maintenance, low-margin audiences whom you should avoid?

Before you answer the riddle consider some of these variables:

SMBs Need Web Analytics Help

• July 5, 2011

Web analytics remains big business in the US. The San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal recently quoted a Forrester Research analyst as saying web analytics generates $500 billion to $600 billion worth of annual revenue in the US and is growing at double-digit rates. While Forrester does not break down how much of that growth is […]

Small Business Lending: Will MSPs Embrace P2P Loans?

• June 27, 2011

Roughly 50 banks have failed so far in 2011, according to FDIC. The lending and financing markets remain tight. And small business loans are difficult to secure… leaving some MSPs searching for alternative funding options. One potential solution: So-called peer-to-peer loans. According to recent articles by Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, the connective power […]

Cloud-based Data Storage: The Government vs. MSPs?

• June 24, 2011

As if hackers and cloud outages didn’t offer enough headaches for MSPs and their SMB clients, there is another potential liability that has been brought to light by a column in the Huffington Post. That liability is known as the government. Apparently there is currently no coherent, national standard regarding how much access the government […]

Service Desk: It’s Ease of Use, Stupid

• June 22, 2011

Sometimes MSPs get so caught up in trying to offer their clients all the latest and greatest bells and whistles in the IT services they provide, they lose sight of the main reason most companies seek assistance from MSPs in the first place. MSPs make life easier, especially for SMBs with limited implementation and training […]

Beating the Big Boxes at SMB Tech Support

• June 22, 2011

Any survey conducted by a retailer needs to be taken with one or several grains of salt, but results of a new survey on the technology needs of small businesses is are still worth checking out by any MSPs whose clientele includes SMBs. According to the newest edition of the Office Depot Small Business Index, […]

Workers Ready to Leave Their Jobs

• June 21, 2011

Recently, I posted an entry about how stagnant unemployment figures could actually beneficial for MSPs, as companies who are not hiring new employees are more likely to need outside assistance. According to the Boston Globe, there is a counterintuitive trend going on in this mediocre job environment where as many as two in three US […]

SMB Hosted BI Market on Way to $500M

• June 21, 2011

The market for hosted business intelligence (BI) technology among small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs) in the US is expected to reach $500 million by 2015, according to a recent AMI-Partners study. This reflects an anticipated 25% growth in spending by SMBs on BI software included as part of an SaaS bundle. We’re not aware of too many […]

SMBs Increase Their Social Media Marketing Budgets; Did You?

• June 15, 2011

According to AMI Partners, U.S. SMBs with fewer than 100 employees are expected to spend $36 billion on marketing in 2012, up 4 percent from 2011. Now here’s the big question: Are managed services providers (MSPs) also increasing their marketing dollars? And if so, where should MSPs focus their marketing efforts? Here are some educated […]

The Economy vs. MSPs: Is There A Disconnect?

• June 15, 2011

Picture this: At the recent TruMethods Schnizzfest conference, managed services providers like masterIT said annual revenues were growing roughly 30 percent. And at the recent Ingram Micro Cloud Summit, scores of MSPs expressed optimism about their growth prospects. Meanwhile, U.S. financial markets have declined for six consecutive weeks. And there are growing fears on Wall […]

Flat Employment Gives Rise to MSP Prospects

• June 13, 2011

The Bureau of Labor Statistics last week released the May unemployment figures, and they were pretty mediocre. Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (a net total of 54,000 jobs added) in May, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 9.1%. Private sector employment continued to trend up (83,000 net jobs added), although by a much […]

Can Small MSPs Keep Up With Rising Health Care Costs?

• June 9, 2011

In addition to serving SMBs, many MSPs are small businesses themselves. As a result, small MSPs and small business customers sometimes face similar challenges. Chief among them: Keeping up with health care costs. The Los Angeles Times cites a recent McKinsey Quarterly report, which predicts close to a third of US employers will definitely or […]

SMB Technology Spending Continues to Rebound

• June 8, 2011

Since the official “end” of the recession in 2009 (which appears to have primarily ended for the economists tracking it), statistics from IDC show that SMBs have increased their IT spending more rapidly than expected. Sure, access to credit is still limited. And some SMBs are still reluctant to hire new employees. But slow hiring […]

Survey Says SMB Customers Want On-Premises Storage Help

• June 7, 2011

There is some good news for any MSPs out there wondering if the SMB market offers growth opportunity. According to a recent survey of more than 250 international small business and IT executives from data storage technology provider Drobo, the answer is a resounding yes, especially where on-premises storage is concerned. In a general sign […]