Carolyn April Posts

CompTIA research finds professional services firms getting into the tech-influencer game.

Your sales reps are killing it and revenue is rolling in. So why are your profit margins not where you expect them to be? The answer might be a lack of operational efficiency.

SaaS has become a standard for MSPs. Channel firms that don’t offer these solutions and all their related support services risk losing customers and revenue streams to the competition or even to their clients’ in-house tech teams.

Who’s buying what you’re selling today? The IT department? The CIO? The small business owner? Find out here.

When it comes to cloud solutions, many SMB clients provision on their own, which is one of the benefits suppliers often extol. Of course, when things go wrong,they have no idea whom to call to fix it, nor the time or patience for finding out. But channel firms are perfectly positioned to take on this role.

CompTIA's Senior Director of Industry Research, Carolyn April, caught up with several prominent industry executives to discuss some of the challenges and the opportunities ahead. What predictions did they make? Can channel professionals expect a rosy future?

Ingram Micro's Senior Vice President of U.S. Go-to-Market Kirk Robinson has some unique insights into the IT channel. In a Q&A session with CompTIA's Carolyn April, he shared some of his thoughts about the indirect market...and where it’s headed.

Should Amazon’s foray into managed services be a major concern to MSPs? In some regards, yes, but only if providers fail to adapt and double down on their customer focus. Rather than viewing Amazon’s move as an immediate competitive threat, MSPs should consider it a catalyst for retooling their own businesses.

CompTIA’s 6th Annual State of the Channel study found that while 4 in 10 solution providers describe themselves as “very satisfied” with their vendors in the last year – a percentage on par with 2015 – the firms that had some level of dissatisfaction more than doubled. Relationships are not just harder to maintain, they're undergoing dynamic changes.

Is it time for a cloud reality check in the channel? Have you considered if this technology model is having a positive or negative impact on your business? According to the CompTIA 6th Annual State of the Channel study, there are no black or white answers. In fact, the latest research actually exposes more confusion than conclusion.