Recent Articles
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9 Steps to Better Business Automation
For a long time, IT solution providers talked but did not walk for themselves. They automated the businesses of their clients, but neglected their own businesses, often keeping track of billable time and trouble tickets on loose pieces of paper and awkwardly constructed spreadsheets. These bad habits started to change a few years ago when…
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Managed Services Success Still a Big Challenge
As the managed services market matures, some solution providers still struggle with how to transform their business to a fixed-fee model. Managed services experts and solution providers say the primary problem is cultural, rather than technical. It’s about people and old habits that die hard. It’s about sales representatives trying to protect their turf and…
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Coming Soon: Managed Services for iPhones
In just 18 months since its debut, the Apple iPhone commands the third largest market share for smartphones in the North American market. In 2008, the number of iPhone users soared more than 325 percent, and an increasing number of people are turning in their BlackBerry and Symbian-based devices in favor of Steve Jobs’ handheld…
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Survey: MSP Market Expected to Get Crowded in 2009
Managed service providers may be the only folks in IT who believe 2009 will bring more economic joy than sorrow. But it also will bring more competition. So says a managed services survey conducted by IT industry association CompTIA being released this month. The study looked at 200 MSPs in the United States and Canada,…
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Ingram Micro, Heartland Technology Group Partner on Channel Peer Groups
Ingram Micro has teamed with Heartland Technology Group (HTG) to offer HTG’s proven peer groups to the distributor’s SMB Alliance (SMBA) partners, helping solution providers run smarter operations and overcome common business challenges. The peer groups were the brainchild of Arlin Sorenson, HTG’s CEO and founder. In 2001, Sorenson’s company was struggling to overcome customers’…
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New SAAS Provider StrataScale Redefines ‘On Demand’
Software on demand already has changed the way applications are sold and consumed, and now a new player is tweaking the model a little further. The newcomer, StrataScale, is adding flexibility and speed to deployments and updates with its server management tool, IronScale, which administrators can control through a secure Web portal. StrataScale, a subsidiary…