Brian Sherman Posts

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 ...

One of the best ways to meet new channel partners and create beneficial business relationships has always been through the face-to-face connections at industry events. Regardless of your place in the IT channel ecosystem, connecting one-on-one with other industry contributors helps you better understand the issues others are facing and discuss ways to take advantage of the latest opportunities. In addition to these strategy sessions, events typically provide educational and/or training sessions ...

Whether you’re listening intently to the federal debt ceiling and budget discussions or not keeping up at all with the debate, what happens in Washington, D.C., over the next week could have a major impact on the channel. If no deal is reached by August 2nd (coincidentally, day two of CompTIA Breakaway, the other big event in the nation’s capital), experts say the federal government will be forced to default on some of its loans or at least reduce payments significantly to some companies or indi ...

After investing the time and energy to achieve your CompTIA certification goals, would you sit back and wait for new clients to knock on your door? Of course not! Most solution providers want to leverage their new skills and use this recognition to improve their revenue and industry standing— but what’s the best way to accomplish that objective?One proven method is to take an additional step and get your CompTIA Authorized Service Center (ASC) credential, which will not only validate your organi ...

Despite our transition to a credit and electronic payment-based economy, when determining the strength of your business, cash is still king. The effective management of money, particularly the amount of currency you have on hand at critical points in time, is essential to all organizations and their growth plans. Without the proper amount of cash available, it can get dicey when trying to meet your payroll and current expense obligations in a busy month when you have a significant increase in ma ...

Earlier this week, health insurer WellPoint, Inc. agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit in which the company was accused of failure to properly notify officials that a security breach occurred. According to the Indiana Attorney General’s office (which filed the suit), social security numbers, financial information and health records for as many as 32,051 people were potentially accessible through an unsecured website over a five month period starting in late 2009. As specified in India ...

Earlier this week, health insurer WellPoint, Inc. agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit in which the company was accused of failure to properly notify officials that a security breach occurred. According to the Indiana Attorney General's office (which filed the suit), social security numbers, financial information and health records for as many as 32,051 people were potentially accessible through an unsecured website over a five month period starting in late 2009. As specified in Indiana's ...

As we head into a long weekend and celebrate the 235th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it’s a great time to reflect on what may be a pivotal point in the “cloud revolution”. The news coming out of Redmond this week wasn’t quite what many channel experts predicted, and has many VARs reevaluating the status of their vendor relationships—or at least the portfolio they wish to represent. Of course I’m referring to the much discussed announcement by Microsoft CEO Steve ...