CompTIA Blog

ChannelCon 2013 started with 850-plus business owners, executives and thought-leaders – including more than 130 vendor and distributor companies taking part in the Technology Vendor Fair – and concluded with three companies coming out on top as the Best of ChannelCon award winners. StorageCraft Technology Corporation, a provider of backup, disaster recovery, system migration, data protection and cloud services solutions, took home the Best Software award. Lenovo, the world’s l ...

Twelve first-year day students in the enhanced Information & Communication Technology (ICT) program at Kingston, Jamaica-based Vector Technology Institute recently passed their CompTIA A+ exams. With CompTIA certification as well as an academic degree, the students will be ready to prove to potential employers that they have the knowledge and hands-on experience to successfully fulfill their IT job responsibilities.

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 ...

In an era where smartphones and tablets are the go-to device for accessing the web, many businesses have not yet tapped into the full potential of these technological resources. This year, more people will use mobile technologies to get on the Internet than traditional laptops and PCs. While many IT companies developed websites and invest in a number of online promotional tools, more often than not, they have not optimized these pages to improve user experience for mobile users. Broken forms an ...

How do experienced service providers, those who have built a solid and professional business, take their organization to the next level? After investing many years improving operations with a continual focus on improvement, it may seem like a difficult task. But for those listening closely to the needs of their clients, attaining that objective can be a lot easier.  After all, very few service organizations can succeed long term without making evolutionary process improvements, helping the ...

Expertise and specialization will separate successful solution providers from those that struggle, according to a ChannelCon Power Panel of channel executives from four leading IT vendors. “What I see now are partners with deep expertise doing very, very well,” said Greg Davis, vice president and general manager of global commercial channels at Dell. “Make an investment in your people to build your expertise.” “The most successful partners have developed a point of ...

The Advancing Women in IT Community celebrated its first official dinner at a CompTIA event, finally moving out of the early morning breakfast slot for meetings, as it has grown steadily each year since its founding. The group is focused on three main initiatives: Evangelism: Create a cadre of IT professionals who are willing to go out into the community to communicate the scope and availability of career opportunities in IT. Career resource platform: Provide an online resource center for anyon ...

Consultation and creative problem solving are important keys to success in the marketplace for cloud-based solutions. That message was delivered Tuesday by top executives from three leading IT distributors who participated in a Power Panel Discussion at CompTIA ChannelCon 2013. The market for cloud solutions is big and getting bigger, the panelists agreed. Jason Bystrak, director of cloud services at Ingram Micro, cited data that shows 70 percent of new customers were driven to a purchase decisi ...

Ideas stolen from other industries helped grow the Geek Squad from a one-man operation with a bicycle, phone and $200 into an IT repair service behemoth with 25,000 employees and thousands of iconic black-and-white Geekmobiles, the company’s founder proudly admitted Tuesday. “Every problem you face in your business has been solved,” said Robert Stephens, Geek Squad founder and former CTO of Best Buy. Stephens delivered a keynote speech at CompTIA ChannelCon 2013, the premier ed ...

Emerging technology trends are causing disruption in all areas of IT, including channel firms. Vendors, resellers and managed service providers (MSPs) are adjusting their offerings to provide the products and services that are in demand as businesses adjust the way they procure and use technology. For MSPs, four of the top issues impacting their business are mobility, Big Data, security and communications. In CompTIA’s Director of Technology Analysis and Market Research Seth Robinson&rsquo ...

ChannelCon 2013 attendees were urged by CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux to embrace the future and all the opportunities it will offer, but also ask themselves tough and thoughtful questions about their business. During his keynote speech Tuesday, Thibodeaux used clips from several Hollywood blockbuster movies – A Few Good Men, Jaws, Dead Poets Society and Rudy – to illustrate his challenges to the business owners and executives in attendance. Can you handle the truth about ...

Laura Steward Atchison, CEO, Wisdom Learned LLC, gave ChannelCon attendees a tutorial on how to ask the right questions that will give you the answers you need to take your business and life where you want to be – faster.

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 ...

You don’t know what you don’t know. That’s one of the scariest elements of business. You know your business and do a great job at it, but how do you prep for what you don’t know? And, even scarier, can you prove in court that you do a great job and are prepped for the unknown? Mike Semel, president of Semel Consulting, addressed one of those big unknowns for managed services and managed print providers in presenting on “New HIPAA Changes and How They Affect Your MPS ...

Unrealistic expectations about what cloud computing can deliver often derail relationships between technology vendors and their channel partners, as well as between partners and their customers. The CompTIA Cloud / SaaS community debated how to overcome those obstacles during its meeting Monday at ChannelCon 2013, the premier education and training event for the IT channel. Attendees agreed that setting realistic expectations that are understood and agreed to by both parties – whether vend ...