Brian Sherman Posts

What’s keeping women from entering the IT field and — more importantly — what can we do to change the trend? “First off, we need to change their perception of what a career in IT and the IT channel really means,” said Mary Ellen Grom, ‎vice president of U.S. marketing for SYNNEX Corporation and an executive council member of CompTIA’s Advancing Women in IT Community (AWIT). “We need to discuss how they can take their passion and education and find the right application for it in the industry.”

Most people have little concern with new location devices and cameras used to track data, but what happens when private companies not only access the data, but sell it to others? Channel companies offering surveillance and public safety need to be open and honest about what their systems can and can’t do, and start considering a variety of ethical issues.

Cyberattacks are a good way to spook your customers, but sensationalizing security concerns will only reap short-term benefits. Successful solution providers will instead offer real world examples of existing threats without overhyping a customer’s potential exposure, and use tools like CompTIA’s IT Security Assessment Wizard to create a comprehensive outline of a customer’s true needs.

How customers utilize your products or services is crucial to your success, and user experience was a prevailing topic with several speakers and in many round table discussions at the recent ITSS Community meeting in Philadelphia. Experts offered firsthand accounts of how some rather large organizations are adopting and implementing the latest technologies, and each presenter addressed a number of the concerns and problems their management and tech teams experienced along the way.

Ed-tech opportunities are approaching $7 billion annually and reaching into almost every community — it’s a market that’s quickly becoming a viable for virtually every solution provider. The ITSS Community heard great detail on the matter from New York’s Department of Education CIO at their recent meeting in Philadelphia. There, Hal Friedlander elaborated on the challenges of widespread tech adoption in schools, and the tricky road to implementation.

With so many new IT services companies “born in the cloud,” will IT distributors be able to provide enough value to recruit those providers to their partner programs? Yes, in fact, and some providers and vendors believe their position has never been stronger. While many industry experts suggested in the past that the cloud and managed would be the death knell for distributors, most VADs are reporting record sales and partnership numbers.

The IT industry’s over HP’s announcement that the company will split in two, and Brian Sherman breaks it down in this week’s ChannelTrends.

There’s no better place to see collaboration in action than a gathering of solution providers, vendors, agents and other channel professionals. The combined sessions of the CompTIA Advisory Councils was a perfect example of teamwork as providers, master agents and a variety of vendors all shared their points of view and worked through various concerns. “Everyone was on the same page in the discussions instead of coming up with separate ideas and trying to reconcile them later,” said Joe Infante, president of Dynamic Strategies. “It forced us to validate the discussions.”

Small business owners used to buy and install adequate AV software packages themselves without major technical issues, but the threats and the complexity of the protection schemes have risen beyond their capabilities. IT security is no longer just an annual install or occasional update — it’s an ongoing responsibility.

Solution providers must adapt their portfolios and capabilities to sync with changes in the industry, from transformations in cloud, managed services and mobility to new demand for app development. CompTIA’s combined Advisory Councils met in Florida recently to discuss ramping up programs and tools that will help you successfully cross that chasm.