Daniel Margolis Posts

As anyone who has ever launched a product knows, the hardest variable to contend with is whether or not anyone will buy it. You can make the best widget in the world, but you can’t read people’s minds to learn if it’s something they actually need and will part with cash to acquire. Without sales, any company will tank fast. This is where market research comes in, and likely copious amounts of it. But it can be difficult for a small- to medium-sized business to muster the resour ...

CompTIA hosted students from Leyden High School District 212 this week, giving them guided access to the association’s headquarters in Downers Grove, IL.

Day two of CompTIA ChannelCon 2013, the premier education and partnering event for the IT channel, which wrapped up this week at the Peabody Orlando, featured a panel discussion titled “Best Practices in Selling Telecom.” This was moderated by Khali Henderson, editor-in-chief at Channel Partners, and drew insights from panelists Ken Bisnoff, senior vice president of strategic opportunities at TelePacific Communications, Paul Cronin, senior vice president at Atrion Networking, Jeffrey ...

The centerpiece of the CompTIA Mobility Community Meeting on day one of ChannelCon was billed as the “Rumble in the Mobile Jungle” and it was as combative as that sounds. With Ryan Morris, principal consultant at MMP Inc. serving as referee, Michael Toto, director of strategic global alliances and alternate channels at Verizon, Kyp Walls, director of product management at Panasonic, and Scott Barlow, vice president of worldwide sales at Reflexion Networks, sq ...

During the second of three General Sessions held at CompTIA’s Annual Member Meeting, happening this week at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers, the audience got a “Gut Check” in the form of a panel moderated by Carolyn April, director of industry analysis at CompTIA. The panel was comprised of Scott Barlow, vice president of sales and marketing at Reflexion Networks; Eric Long, CEO of Information Technology Solutions; Quy Nguyen, CEO of Allyance Communications; and Angela Trillhaase, a busi ...

CompTIA’s Partner, Telecom and Vendor Advisory Councils held a joint meeting yesterday morning at the association’s Annual Member Meeting, happening this week at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. The meeting featured a presentation by Bharath Natarajan, director of product marketing, TDCloud and software services at Tech Data Corporation, on “the Role of Distribution in a Cloud-Centric World.”To set the tone for his remarks, Natarajan began with a series of slides sourced from other autho ...

CompTIA’s Cloud/SaaS Community met today at the association’s Annual Member Meeting, and one of the biggest topics discussed was the forthcoming Cloud Trustmark+.According to the briefing provided in the meeting, the target of this Trustmark is public SaaS solution vendors with cloud go-to-market. The channel value proposition here is to protect resellers and their customers by ensuring cloud vendors meet a certain level of technical performance. The projected scope of the Trustmark, so far, is ...

CompTIA’s Telecom Advisory Council met for the first time today at the association’s Annual Member Meeting, happening this week at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. The meeting saw the new council in the initial stages of defining its goals; CompTIA director of communities Kate Hunt said a key goal of the meeting was to find one issue the TAC wanted to start collaborating on.During the open discussion that followed, TAC vice chair Mike Saxby, principal at Allied Tech Solutions, said he se ...

John Tippett, chief operating officer of EDTS, which provides managed IT and security services to clients in the southeast U.S., can’t imagine his company not earning CompTIA’s MSP Partners Trustmark. “How could a company like ours that says that we’re here and we participate and follow industry standards not pay attention to something like this?” he asked. Tippett was involved in the development of the MSP Partners Trustmark – a business credential designed ...

CompTIA Communities are the foundation of the association’s initiatives, programs, education and research. These member-driven groups collaborate to advance specific technologies, vertical markets or business segments that are vital to the IT industry. CompTIA Community members include IT professionals, vendors, distributors and thought leaders who work together on the issues and programs that will shape the future of the IT industry.In this podcast interview, Jim Hamilton, vice president, membe ...