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Should You Launch A Corporate Blog?

Should You Launch A Corporate Blog?

Many managed service providers are launching corporate blogs to get their message out to the masses and build stronger user communities. Do corporate blogs really deliver results? Absolutely — if you get up to speed fast. But if you don’t master the art of blogging, you’ll fall on your face in a very public way. […]

Hot Career Path: VP of Managed Services

Hot Career Path: VP of Managed Services

Hot markets often lead to hot job titles. Editors who leap from print to online want to become chief content officers or chief bloggers. In the channel, the hottest title right now seems to be VP of managed services — someone who is responsible for driving an organization’s go-to-market strategy in the managed service provider […]

Software as a Service: An Economic Life Raft?

Software as a Service: An Economic Life Raft?

Can software as a service (SaaS) and managed services keep you afloat during a sinking economy? That continues to be the buzz on Wall Street and across the blogosphere. I’m not predicting a recession — I’ve always been a glass-half-full type of guy — and I also don’t want to hype SaaS and managed services […]

Small Business IT: Boom or Bust in 2008?

Small Business IT: Boom or Bust in 2008?

The VAR Guy hates the “R” word. Everybody seems to be talking about an imminent “recession.” A Harvard economist insists there’s more than 50 percent chance of the US heading into a recession. Hmmm. Will IT sales hold up in the small business space? Here are two quick perspectives from thought leaders at Cisco Systems […]

MSP Doubles Revenue Three Consecutive Years

MSP Doubles Revenue Three Consecutive Years

Some managed service providers make bold statements about their momentum. But Positive Networks of Kansas is one of the few privately held MSPs actually willing to talk dollars and cents. The company, which focuses on managed security services, says its revenue has nearly doubled for the third consecutive year. But that’s not all.

Stay In Front of Your Customers

Stay In Front of Your Customers

If you take managed services to the extreme, you can wind up locked away in your data center — remotely managing and monitoring customer networks without ever seeing the light of day. Fact is, customers still want to see you from time to time. And without quality face time, you risk losing your business relationships. […]

Seven Steps to Selling Managed Print Services

Seven Steps to Selling Managed Print Services

Want to generate recurring revenue from multifunction printers (MFPs)? Steve Spector, a business advisor at Xerox, offered a few recommendations to VARs attending a managed services luncheon in Boston today. According to Spector, here are seven questions VARs need to ask customers in order to turn an MSP sales lead into a buying customer.

Cisco Miami: Top 10 Reasons Solutions Providers Don’t Invest In Marketing

Cisco Miami: Top 10 Reasons Solutions Providers Don’t Invest In Marketing

The VAR Guy just caught up with Larry Kesslin, president of 4 Profit, a consulting firm that serves solutions providers. Kesslin is hosting a marketing workshop here at the Cisco Velocity forum in Miami. And he served up a rather interesting list: The Top 10 Reasons Solutions Providers Don’t Invest In Marketing. Here’s a look […]

Cisco Miami: Why Partners Need to Become Publishers

Cisco Miami: Why Partners Need to Become Publishers

David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, just shared a rather interesting point with VARs here at Cisco’s Velocity meeting. Scott insists that all VARs need to become publishers. Here’s why. No, your company doesn’t need dozens of blogs that are updated multiple times per day. But you do need […]

Cisco Miami: Examples of Successful Web 2.0 Marketing

Cisco Miami: Examples of Successful Web 2.0 Marketing

The VAR Guy is hanging out at Cisco’s Velocity partner forum in Miami today, hearing about effective Web 2.0 marketing strategies that partners can potentially embrace. Here are five examples mentioned during the event so far. 1. Think Like Judson: Cynthia Gordon, VP of new media marketing at Universal Studios Orlando, describes how a YouTube […]

Cisco Partners Ready to Master Marketing

Cisco Partners Ready to Master Marketing

The VAR Guy is turning into a snowbird. The native New Yorker spent last week in sunny Orlando, riding some of the world’s best roller coasters. Next week, we hear, he plans to return to Florida — this time for a major Cisco Systems channel event that will boast several surprising twists. The event won’t […]

Marketing 101: How to Brand Yourself As An MSP

What if you launched a new product or service and never bothered to tell anyone? VARs and solutions providers make that mistake over and over again, because they don’t know how to shape their marketing messages, nor are they sure how to get the word out about a new product or service. Some VARs, however, […]

10 Key Trends At OnForce

10 Key Trends At OnForce

So, you’re a VAR looking for new customer and project engagements. With that goal in mind, roughly 10,000 VARs now use an online marketplace from OnForce to win on-site IT service contracts. What’s next from OnForce? The VAR Guy toured the company’s new headquarters near Boston, and met with CEO Peter Cannone and Senior VP […]

Chilly Winter for Cognizant, Outsourcing?

Chilly Winter for Cognizant, Outsourcing?

The VAR Guy caught a chill last evening during a road trip from New York to Boston. But he wasn’t the only person suffering from shrinkage. Seems like Wall Street has turned from hot to cold on tech outsourcing companies like Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro. What the heck happened? All it took was one chilly […]

Seven Trends at CompTIA’s SMB Summit

Seven Trends at CompTIA’s SMB Summit

I have spent the past two days at CompTIA’s SMB Summit in Bonita Springs, Florida. Many of the discussions here involved managed services. Here are seven key themes at the event as they relate to running your business.

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Upcoming Events

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Channel Partners Conference & Expo

May 1, 2023 - May 4, 2023

Channel Partners Europe

June 13, 2023 - June 14, 2023

Channel Futures Leadership Summit

October 30, 2023 - November 2, 2023

Galleries

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7 Channel People Making Waves This Week at Pax8, Canalys, Microsoft, Splunk, More

February 3, 2023

Post-TBI Acquisition, Partners Weigh the Future of AppDirect, TSDs

February 3, 2023

Juniper Networks Shows ‘Swagger’ with Ambitious Growth Strategy

February 3, 2023

Industry Perspectives

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The Software Patching Problem – Solved

February 3, 2023

How to Break Through the Growth Ceiling

February 1, 2023

5 Things to Look for in a UC Partner

January 31, 2023

Webinars

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Next-Generation MSP Platform: The Building Blocks for Your Business

February 15, 2023

How To Boost Your Business With White-Label UCaaS

February 28, 2023

Security Secrets of the MSP 501: How to Be a Cyber Leader in 2023

December 15, 2022

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White Papers

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6 UCaaS Reseller Challenges and How Real World Businesses Solved Them

February 1, 2023

Frost Radar: North American UCaaS Market, 2022

February 1, 2023

The Complete Guide to White-Label UCaaS for Reseller Success

February 1, 2023

Twitter

Channel people making waves include: @RobTRae, @vasujakkal, @ReneeIMCloud, @garylsteele dlvr.it/ShvjQ3 https://t.co/yz09flzXvV

February 3, 2023

The slowdown in #publiccloud spending is real and it’s arrived at #AWSCloud and #GoogleCloud.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 3, 2023

#ZTW23: @ThreatLocker Gold Partners announced, deep dive into the dark web. dlvr.it/ShvFGF https://t.co/k68BfzLToq

February 3, 2023

Channel Partner Success Story: Forerunner Technologies - Learn how @NEC UNIVERGE BLUE Cloud Solutions enabled… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 3, 2023

Partners and suppliers weighed in on the AppDirect-TBI acquisition and its implications for the channel.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 3, 2023

Read about @coxbusiness' acquisition of @Logicworks. dlvr.it/Shty4t https://t.co/3MaKai6SVr

February 3, 2023

Where in the world are the top MSPs?? Take a look at the infographic breakdown of 2022 #MSP501 winners by region >>… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 3, 2023

.@SovosCompliance offers tips for how and when to revamp #partnerplans. dlvr.it/ShtDgv https://t.co/vPzajXnjee

February 3, 2023