CompTIA Blog

 The Final Day at MSP University Bootcamp As the MSP University Bootcamp (part of this week's CompTIA Breakaway event) in San Antonio came to a close, healthcare IT took center stage between an interactive panel of practice and technology experts, and a presentation from HP. Complementing both of those sessions was a presentation on developing a motivating sales compensation plans that will help you meet and exceed your business goals. Chris Mertens, Vice President of HP PSG US Healthca ...

Gary Fish founded his company, FishNet Security, 1996 as an integrator of hardware and software security products. In 14 years, he grew the company from $0 to more than $300 million in annual revenue, 400 employees, and more than 25,000 active and inactive customers.  Today, he’s one of the most sought after and influential security solution providers in the industry.In many conversations I have with Fish about his company’s success, he’ll say that growth is not an option – it’s an imperative. W ...

Between managed IT services and the ever-changing needs of business customers, a switch to consultative sales is increasingly important for today’s solution providers. In a highly interactive discussion during CompTIA Breakaway, a packed room of solution providers quizzed the expert panel on transitioning to the new sales philosophy.Joining session moderator Tricia Wurts, President of Wurts & Associates, Inc. were well-known and respected industry veterans: Bob Penland, CTO of TruMethods, LL ...

Increased interest in cloud computing creates more opportunity for solution providers and vendors to be partners, a panel of vendor executives said at CompTIA Breakaway on Wednesday.Executives on the “power panel” from Microsoft, Google, Intel and Cisco spoke to attendees about partnering opportunities, markets poised for growth, and business strategy.Microsoft is seeing a number of businesses looking into IT solutions that weren’t economically feasible for them with an on-premise model but is w ...

Terry Erdle, CompTIA senior vice president, skills certification, and our partners got together for their own Texas hootenanny at Breakaway to touch on some of the new things to expect in the world of CompTIA certification.With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, there are still more than 300,000 IT jobs to be filled in the U.S. Forecasts for IT job growth through 2018 approach 20 percent, with areas such as security, cloud computing, healthcare IT and green IT seeing even faster growth as ...

You voted and the winners of this year’s Best of Breakaway Awards are: Best Product – Software: ConnectWise Best Product – Hardware: CharTec Best Partner Program: Reflexion Networks Inc. Best Channel Strategy: Autotask Best New Product: ClearCenter Best of Show: ConnectWiseFrom our recruitment contest which encouraged partners and vendors to bring the most attendees to Breakaway, MSP University joined the Winner’s Circle.From our PitchIT video contest in which attendees and vendors submitted thr ...

Partnering with other services providers can be a very beneficial process for all companies involved, if mutual projects are properly designed and executed. Collaboration requires not only a commitment from both partners, but the processes and support in place to ensure the relationship (and task) is a success.In today’s opening presentation at the MSP University Bootcamp, Shari Marion-Hoff outlined key statistics and best practices for successful collaborative projects. According to the CEO of ...

Solution providers can capitalize on the green IT market by making a solid economic case to potential clients, touting an increase in brand value and bundling green options with other offerings.That was some of the sales advice given to CompTIA Breakaway attendees by a panel of experts today.“Green IT has to be transformational at some point,” said Jay McBain, Lenovo’s director of small and medium business for the Americas. “But pair it with something today that is transformational – cloud, mana ...

The conventional view that rewards and punishments are the only ways to motivate workers is an overly simplistic – and sometimes flat-out wrong – approach for managers to adopt, keynote speaker Daniel Pink said to CompTIA Breakaway attendees on Tuesday.Pink, author of The New York Times bestseller Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, said that a “carrot and stick” approach oversimplifies people who do work that requires them to be creative and cerebral.“Management is a technology ...

What do the Cheshire Cat, Sun Tzu (author of The Art of War) and Humpty Dumpty have in common?  Each one had advice for resellers seeking to stand out in today’s crowded IT field.  Their words of wisdom were delivered by Bill Brandt, managing partner, SWOT Management Group, and Bob Dirkes, director of account services and media coach at Tech Image, during a breakout session at CompTIA’s Breakaway Wednesday morning in San Antonio.  The presentation – “Differentiating Your Elevator Sales Pitch: Ma ...

With incentives up to $44,000 for physicians that implement EMR (electronic medical records) in a “meaningful way,” the Federal stimulus program has created quite a buzz in the IT channel since its passage. The ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), which provides additional Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for physicians that implement the records technology in their practice, creates new opportunities to solution providers to discuss business process improvement. ...

A look at the week of August 9, 2010, in public advocacy for the IT channel This week, the FCC asked for public comments on its plan assume a larger role in the cybersecurity arena in an effort to protect our nation’s broadband infrastructure. Health-insurers, meanwhile, are diversifying their offerings and entering the healthcare IT arena. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to fund Web services.  NFIB found that economic optimism has declined. FCC Moves to Forge a Role in C ...

Overheard at the Education to Careers (E2C) Summit today at CompTIA Breakaway in the San Antonio Hill Country…Alan Rowland, CompTIA’s business development manager for education, spied Danny Perry in the audience and asked him to come to the front of the room.  Perry’s organization – Tech Corps Texas – is helping “students to complete their education and to compete in the global workforce.”  The program aims to reach middle and high schoolers with structured IT learning programs at an early age.  ...

For Ian Pennell, one of the highest compliments a solution provider can receive from a small business client is, “I don’t know how you did it, but everything… just works.”“That’s like the Holy Grail,” he said. “In the end, the small business just wants it to work.”Pennell, senior vice president of Cisco’s small business technology group, talked to CompTIA Breakaway attendees about how to sell IT solutions to small businesses in a keynote speech on Tuesday.An increasing number of small business o ...

CompTIA will invest nearly $1 million over the next three years in new educational programs for the IT channel, CompTIA President and CEO Todd Thibodeaux said today.“I want to see every CompTIA member as ‘best in class’, ” Thibodeaux said at the CompTIA Breakaway 2010 opening keynote session.CompTIA is looking to aggregate valuable content and knowledge from fields including healthcare IT, sales and marketing, financial management, and cloud computing. The not-for-profit association is looking t ...