Brian Sherman Posts

Legal professionals are among the earliest tech adopters, at least pertaining to the toys they love to buy (whether they need them or not). From iPads to the latest mobile smart phone devices, many lawyers enjoy being on the “cutting edge” in all aspects of their lives. With an estimated 1.2 million licensed attorneys in the U.S. according to the American Bar Association—almost 75 percent of them in a private practice—it’s a market that solution providers need to be actively involved in. With un ...

IT security is one of the most important services solution providers can offer to their clients. Each business struggles with data and network protection concerns. It’s so critical, professionals with this expertise have a greater value and the opportunity to become one of their clients most trusted business partners. While many solution providers have the capability of providing security services, it’s not always easy to communicate the benefits to prospective and current customers.That’s one b ...

What will a solution provider business model look like in the next three to five years? That’s the question a panel of industry professionals addressed during an interactive discussion on Day Two of Breakaway. Moderated by Ryan Morris, principal consultant at Morris Management Consultants, the group took on a number of topics relating to the increasing solution needs of clients, the advancements in technology and the ever-increasing demands on IT business owners.Session panelists included: Rob B ...

The evolution of technology and shift to new channel business models are affecting not only the solution provider landscape, but the way vendors do business with their partners. It’s not that they necessary want to, but manufacturers and distributors have to adapt to the move to managed services, the cloud and other recurring revenue offerings. This transition brings new challenges to the vendor community, including the management of declining margins, development of fair sales incentive program ...

One of the most important things channel vendors can do to increase partner satisfaction is to improve their communication skills. That may be as simple as listening to the issues they face in their daily business operations, everything from employee problems to a critical system alert at one of their major clients’ sites. The bottom line is they have a lot on their minds and vendor representatives need to understand the way their partners work, as well as how they work.A majority of solution pr ...

Positive trends seem to be a rarity in the business community this year, but according to the latest CompTIA research, the growth in cloud services is bucking the norm. Not only are solution providers overwhelmingly adopting virtualization in their sales portfolios, they are “eating their own dog food” and using it internally to help their own businesses.As discussed at Breakaway at a press briefing, CompTIA research shows that in 2011 more than 41% of VARs/MSPs both sell and use cloud solutions ...

With so many negative business trends in the news these days, one of the rare exceptions seems to be the continuing opportunities in healthcare IT, particularly with the push to adopt electronic medical records (EMR). A significant number of hospitals, clinics and physicians’ offices are making the transition to the new technologies, leading to refresh and system upgrade opportunities for solution providers. While many are focused on the healthcare IT business model’s revenue poten ...

A frequent catchphrase many business coaches use is that “you’ve got to work smarter, not necessarily harder, to be successful.” Anyone who has been part of the IT channel for any length of time knows how true that can be. Automation is a critical component of most solution providers, from global MSPs to a local one-man (or woman) shop.Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of meeting a number of small IT service company owners who have leveraged their strategic business partners, professional s ...

One of the best ways to meet new channel partners and create beneficial business relationships has always been through the face-to-face connections at industry events. Regardless of your place in the IT channel ecosystem, connecting one-on-one with other industry contributors helps you better understand the issues others are facing and discuss ways to take advantage of the latest opportunities. In addition to these strategy sessions, events typically provide educational and/or training sessions ...

Whether you’re listening intently to the federal debt ceiling and budget discussions or not keeping up at all with the debate, what happens in Washington, D.C., over the next week could have a major impact on the channel. If no deal is reached by August 2nd (coincidentally, day two of CompTIA Breakaway, the other big event in the nation’s capital), experts say the federal government will be forced to default on some of its loans or at least reduce payments significantly to some companies or indi ...