Brian Sherman Posts

Just a few short years ago when I was chief editor at a channel publication, almost every conversation included numerous references to the amount of margin a product or service could drive. It didn’t matter if I was interviewing a solution provider, vendor or distributor; that one word typically dominated the conversations. Margin was frequently part of the headline and featured in many manufacturers’ promotional information—it was truly the “buzz” word of the day.Has the transition of the chann ...

It seems many tech-minded people are either tired of working for “THE MAN” or their employers are making that choice for them. Self-employment in the IT channel is on the rise, according to the latest news, with one-man (or woman) shops and other small solution provider businesses flourishing across the nation.Some of this change may be inspired by previous employers, as the business owners’ companies look to offload or outsource their IT departments. Rather than introduce a new solution provide ...

The West Coast generally gets all the attention when it comes to earthquakes, which seem to be a part of everyday life for those in California, Oregon and Washington (not to mention Alaska and Hawaii). The Gulf Coast, on the other hand, seems to be a magnet for hurricanes and tropical depressions. So it came as quite a surprise to those in the North East who got hit with both last week. A rare 5.9 earthquake struck Mineral, Va., on Tuesday, which rattled nerves and lit up Facebook with “what was ...

Every year the NFL and NHL refit their players with some of their historic uniforms, paying homage to the great teams of the past—while raking in some extra cash by selling this limited-edition gear to their fans. They’ve learned that people relish the past and the organizations can still generate significant income by providing that link. While the correlation between that situation and what’s happening in the IT vendor community may not be exact, this week’s news seems vaguely familiar.  Of co ...

With a variety of football training camps opening up, ranging from peewee league to the NFL, I thought it appropriate to use a couple of sports analogies in this post. When the games get into full swing, inevitably teams get into pressure situations on the field. Typically, it’s a tie game with just one score separating the winner and loser—and time ticking away. The coach often calls a play where the receivers “go deep” to get the ball across the goal line. Rather th ...

Legal professionals are among the earliest tech adopters, at least pertaining to the toys they love to buy (whether they need them or not). From iPads to the latest mobile smart phone devices, many lawyers enjoy being on the “cutting edge” in all aspects of their lives. With an estimated 1.2 million licensed attorneys in the U.S. according to the American Bar Association—almost 75 percent of them in a private practice—it’s a market that solution providers need to be actively involved in. With un ...

What will a solution provider business model look like in the next three to five years? That’s the question a panel of industry professionals addressed during an interactive discussion on Day Two of Breakaway. Moderated by Ryan Morris, principal consultant at Morris Management Consultants, the group took on a number of topics relating to the increasing solution needs of clients, the advancements in technology and the ever-increasing demands on IT business owners.Session panelists included: Rob B ...

One of the most important things channel vendors can do to increase partner satisfaction is to improve their communication skills. That may be as simple as listening to the issues they face in their daily business operations, everything from employee problems to a critical system alert at one of their major clients’ sites. The bottom line is they have a lot on their minds and vendor representatives need to understand the way their partners work, as well as how they work.A majority of solution pr ...

Positive trends seem to be a rarity in the business community this year, but according to the latest CompTIA research, the growth in cloud services is bucking the norm. Not only are solution providers overwhelmingly adopting virtualization in their sales portfolios, they are “eating their own dog food” and using it internally to help their own businesses.As discussed at Breakaway at a press briefing, CompTIA research shows that in 2011 more than 41% of VARs/MSPs both sell and use cloud solutions ...

With so many negative business trends in the news these days, one of the rare exceptions seems to be the continuing opportunities in healthcare IT, particularly with the push to adopt electronic medical records (EMR). A significant number of hospitals, clinics and physicians’ offices are making the transition to the new technologies, leading to refresh and system upgrade opportunities for solution providers. While many are focused on the healthcare IT business model’s revenue poten ...