Brian Sherman Posts

With many managed services providers admitting that their technology skills are far deeper than their business acumen, the processes required to create those critical organizational development plans may be quite unfamiliar. The talents essential to build and sustain these IT companies can be quite diverse, so MSPs either have to undergo training to acquire those capabilities or hire new employees with those specific proficiencies. Regardless of the method they adopt, those consistent investment ...

Building a successful IT services business isn’t easy. But perhaps it shouldn’t be or everyone would be doing it should it, further commoditizing the market and reducing revenue opportunities. Some of the most skilled technology professionals have seen the organizations they worked so hard to get off the ground fail after just a few months (or, if they’re lucky, a few years). The root cause for those misfortunes is rarely traced back to a lack of IT capabilities, but more often ...

Time and personnel limitations frequently dictate a company’s priorities. That creates a challenge for any solution provider attempting to grow a successful IT services organization. Those shortages not only impede a company’s operations and make it more difficult to focus on their customers’ needs, but they also hinder the strategies and goals outlined in their long-term business plan. With IT channel organizations, that struggle is repeated all too often, which may help expl ...

When virtually everyone claims to sell and support similar services in specific industries, how can businesses set themselves apart from the crowd? Differentiation can be difficult, often requiring significant investments to tailor product offerings and ramp up successful marketing campaigns. That can be a risky venture for any small business, especially where commoditization is already negatively affecting profit margins. While the low price method is one way to differentiate a company’s ...

Just as it is in the rest of society, the IT channel has its own bell curve representing a breadth of personalities and business innovations. At one end are the early adopters; those who jump at every opportunity to experiment with the latest technologies and processes in their businesses, to help their customers, or both. Whether their interest for innovation comes from client necessity or their own curiosity, their cutting edge capabilities become a factor of differentiation that gives them a ...

IT services was a much different animal just a decade ago. The traditional break/fix model was predominant, with typical providers spending a vast majority of their time travelling between customer sites making repairs and performing regular maintenance and downloading software updates. Most issues weren’t even reported until system performance was severely affected or it went completely offline and someone decided to make a call. Those delays often lead to significant lapses in productivi ...

It’s been a big month for the smartphone market, between the introduction of the latest iPhones, the acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft and the news that RIM is officially for sale. While this news may only affect most solution providers tangentially, it may help boost the growth of the complementary mobile technologies they promote and support. Of course, as more and more businesses leverage the benefits of smartphones and other portable, Internet-enabled devices, the opportunities for ski ...

No college can properly prepare a future entrepreneur with everything he or she needs to build a successful services business in the highly competitive IT industry. That’s not a knock on the post-secondary educational system, but an acknowledgment that all the knowledge and competencies required to grow a viable solution provider practice won’t be obtained from a university education. Consider how most VARs and MSPs grow their operations. They typically follow a business development ...

With last week’s news of Steve Ballmer’s retirement within the next twelve months, his company’s stock rose 7 percent and analysts waxed poetic about the positive effects his departure would have on the organization. Even without a new CEO in place, several channel experts have already suggested that the management change would result in a philosophical shift at Microsoft that would reenergize its partner programs and rebuild reseller confidence. Though there was no hard eviden ...

This is the time of year in which many NFL teams wrap up their training camps and head to their home fields to prepare for the first actual games of the year. Prior to and throughout the pre-season, each player was tasked with learning the latest schemes for their respective positions from their team’s playbook. These are the game plans designed to maximize scoring opportunities when the offense or special team has the ball and minimize the opponents’ yardage when they have control. ...