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4 Ways to Master Technical Management & Maintenance in the Cloud

By Jennifer Bodell posted 13 hours ago
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Gartner   expects cloud migration to affect $1 trillion in IT spending by the end of 2020 , making cloud computing one of the most disruptive technologies today, promising lucrative opportunities for those ready to meet this demand. But finding success selling cloud services requires more than a solid   pricing strategy . Without a user-friendly and efficient way to manage the technical side of things, your practice could end up costing you more than it's worth. Profitable technical management entails snappy provisioning and maintenance. For example,   each of the following tasks should take less than 5 minutes   : You should be able to add ...
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6 Steps to Setting Smarter Sales Goals

By Pete Busam posted 19 hours ago
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If a few of your employees aren’t hitting their sales goals, it’s likely that their techniques are the problem. But if most of your salespeople aren’t hitting their goals – it’s the system that needs improving. It’s not enough to just hope to “do better.” Goal setting needs to be well-thought-out, specific, and tangible so the whole team can work towards them together. A   Harvard University study   found that setting specific goals increases motivation, and students who stuck to a goal-oriented plan performed 30% better than those who didn’t. Read More
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Bundled Services Made MSPeasy: What's in a Bundle?

By Anna Bernath posted 2 days ago
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Bundled services can be whatever you want it to be. For example, the industry an MSP targets - such as Finance or Legal - could dictate the services within their bundle. Or an MSP could bundle services based on related IT functions, such as storage, backup, and disaster recovery. An MSP focused on smaller businesses or startups might include the installation, monitoring, and management of all technology in their bundled offerings. One popular approach for successful MSPs today: offering various tiers of service. For example, an MSP might offer Gold, Silver, and Bronze tiers designed to meet a variety of customers’ budgets and technology needs. Bundling continues ...
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Why You Need to Attend a Datto Roadshow

By Anna Bernath posted 2 days ago
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If you haven't attended a Datto roadshow yet, there's still plenty of time. Learn from some Datto partners why these are must-see events for anyone in the managed services space
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Pricing Strategies Used by Top MSPs

By Jennifer Bodell posted 2 days ago
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Businesses live and die by the bottom line, especially in the services space. While there's certainly no shortage of cloud vendors, distributors, and managed service providers (MSPs), not everyone is thriving. In fact,   Gary Pica   discovered that   the average MSP makes less than a 10% profit margin per contract . If you find yourself in that group, you're not alone. In fact,   CompTIA's 6   th   Annual State of the Channel   report revealed that roughly   30% of IT channel members cite the shift to the cloud as a primary reason they're pessimistic about the future of the channel . Interestingly enough, in the same study,   39% of respondents ...
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How to Craft a Go-to-Market Strategy with Cloud Services

By Jennifer Bodell posted 2 days ago
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Gartner   expects the public cloud market to grow 55% between 2017 and 2020 . That increase represents an additional $136.5B in public cloud services opportunities. Clever managed service providers (MSPs) are gearing up for this growth opportunity. In fact,   CompTIA   found that 74% of channel companies are already offering software as a service (SaaS) . What's even more surprising is that customers, not the channel, are driving this growth. Organizations both large and small want to gain the scalability, reliability, speed, and security that cloud services can now deliver. Knowing this, MSPs can look for common organizational inefficiencies ...
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4 Things That Make Billing for Cloud Services a Breeze

By Jennifer Bodell posted 2 days ago
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Billing   for cloud services is one of the biggest pain points managed service providers (MSPs) face. How you tabulate costs—e.g. flat rate, by a user, or device—is just one small part of the equation. In previous posts, we covered   pricing   and   technical management   best practices surrounding the delivery of cloud services. Today, we'll focus on financial management capabilities that can help you gain and maintain double-digit profitability in the cloud. Here are the top 4 financial management features that fuel a more profitable and efficient experience in the cloud: 1. Flexibility When selecting a new vendor, distributor, or financial ...
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September FLASH Sales Contest

By Ben Chaney posted 4 days ago
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Transition into Fall and into success with the Intel® and HTG Transition to Success Program. In September , you could win a Kodak Mini Mobile Photo Printer just by submitting your sales of Intel, Dell EMC , HP or Lenovo Systems and Servers, powered by 7th Generation Intel® Core™ and Xeon® processors!   As an HTG Peer Group Member, you have exclusive access to all the benefits and rewards of the Transition to Success Program. EVERY sales submission is an opportunity to win a World Class Driving Experience Trip to Las Vegas . Plus, you can earn valuable prizes each month!   How to Participate:   Register or log in at HTGRefresh.com ...
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General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Are you Prepared?

By Marlene Kouba posted 6 days ago
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The Countdown to GDPR The EU adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in April, 2016, and put us all on a clock to comply before it becomes effective on May 25, 2018. What’s more, this Regulation mandates sweeping changes to better safeguard the personal data of EU citizens that will drive organizations around the globe to begin compliance initiatives that will take many months, or even years to complete. Therefore, it's hard to believe that companies would delay. Yet, the results of a global survey conducted by the market research firm Vanson Bourne show that 37% of global organizations are ...
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Case Study: HTG22's Hilltop Consultants

By Jennifer Bodell posted 11 days ago
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Case Study: Hilltop Consultants Pax8 makes integration easy for the HTG community! “Utilizing Pax8’s ability to fully integrate with the ConnectWise platform, Hilltop Consultants are cashing in." Case Study: Hilltop Consultants  CaseStudy-Hilltop_Consultants.pdf ConnectWise  Data Sheet ConnectWise Overview Video Learn More https://goo.gl/31bb
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August FLASH Sales Submissions To Win A Nintendo Switch Ending Soon!

By Ben Chaney posted 20 days ago
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HTG Transition to Success FLASH contest! Submit your sales of Intel, Dell EMC, HP or Lenovo Systems and Servers, powered by 7th Generation Intel® Core™ and Xeon® processors, before end of day August 31, and you could win a Nintendo Switch! Submit no
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Our Security, Delivered Your Way: Four part MSSP Webinar series hosted by WatchGuard Technologies.

By Marlene Kouba posted 28 days ago
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Understand the managed security service provider (MSSP) business model, including industry trends, obstacles, and solutions through this four part webinar series hosted by WatchGuard Technologies. In the first webinar of this informative series on September 13, join WatchGuard and The Channel Company as they take an in-depth look at market trends and opportunities for value added resellers (VARs) transitioning to managed security service providers (MSSPs).   Register Here:  https://secure.watchguard.com/SecurityServicesWebinarSeries.ht
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Cold Calling is Not DEAD

By Kendra Lee posted 08-17-2017
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The hot topic in sales recently is that cold calling is DEAD. The lead generation landscape has changed. Publish good campaign content and people will flock to you. Engage on social media to begin prospecting conversations. Don’t bother with calling. Nobody picks up their phone anyway. But I disagree – emphatically. Cold calling is not DEAD. What’s dead is how you approach it. It’s time to rethink cold calling because no matter what other lead generation strategies you use (and we use 14 different activities in campaigns we run for clients), you have to pick up the phone at some point and call prospects. Because prospects won’t call you until they’re ...
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What to Do When Your Staff Go on Vacation

By Joshua Oakes posted 08-16-2017
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Can you believe it? It’s already August. If you’re in the northern hemisphere, that probably means that a good number of employees will be going on vacation soon. Suddenly, those clear sunny skies seem a lot more like gloomy days on the horizon. We get it – it can be difficult managing staff and vacation time. But, relax. Employees on vacation can be a positive thing. (Afterall,   four out of five people   say they feel better equipped to handle work challenges after they take time off.) So, to help you not feel overwhelmed this summer, here’s how you can handle this: Plan for capacity If you can, plan ahead what your staffing schedule will look ...
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How to Know if You’re Selling High Enough in the Organization

By Kendra Lee posted 08-08-2017
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Every successful salesperson knows that you’re supposed to sell to the decision maker. It’s one of the primary qualification questions in requirements gathering right out of the gate: who will be making the decision? The contacts you’re speaking with are quick to affirm that they are indeed the decision maker. They ask key questions. They even share their version of the strategic need for your solution. But still your gut tells you, this isn’t the right person. When you’re selling a solution that will impact how a company fundamentally does business, it’s critical that you’re talking high enough in the organization for the value of your solution and ...
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Top 5 Ways to Protect Against Ransomware

By Carla Fedrigo posted 08-02-2017
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You’ve seen the headlines — when it comes to ransomware strains like Locky, Wannacry, and Petya, we’re all at risk. What’s more, with the growing ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) trend, cybercrime is now at an all-time high and accessible to nearly anyone. Since the introduction of RaaS, negotiating with hackers is now a business in and of itself. We see websites offering up the latest advice to hackers, ransomware customer service lines, and FAQ available to help victims make Bitcoin payments. So, why do organizations pay the ransom anyway? Well, in many cases, an organization’s systems were never backed up properly, or the backups were too old. In others, ...
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Breaking Down the NSS Labs NGFW 2017 Report

By Marlene Kouba posted 07-31-2017
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Breaking Down the NSS Labs NGFW 2017 Report June 6, 2017   By   Brendan Patterson How do you know that vendor claims about an appliance are justified? When selecting new network security equipment, independent third party research is a valuable resource. One of the best known organizations in the industry, NSS Labs, released their annual Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) test results today.   The WatchGuard Firebox M4600 was “Recommended”    In the 2017 Security Value Map™   ( SVM ). The Firebox scored above average in both security effectiveness and Total Cost of Ownership. This is a widely anticipated report each year since ...
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I Hear HTG is in a Peer Group. What's Up with That?

By Scott Scrogin posted 07-27-2017
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Question: Where does HTG go to build relationships and discover new ideas about peer groups? Answer: A peer group with smart peers. In 2011 HTG joined the Council of Masterminds, a peer group which meets twice a year. The other member companies serve CPAs , eye doctors , construction contractors , remodelers , dentists , and automotive service centers . We’ve developed into a strong group of executives, leaders, and friends. We’re looking for new members if you know of other Mastermind groups. The members generally offer peer groups and consulting, engage SMEs and content providers, utilize facilitators as key delivery points, and serve ...
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The Number One Way You Sabotage Cold Calling

By Kendra Lee posted 07-24-2017
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Cold calling. The sheer mention of the phrase sends shivers down the spines of many salespeople. They hate it. They do everything they can to avoid it. And yet, when the sales funnel is dry, it’s the fastest way to find new prospects. In our experience, a half-day of cold calling will yield an average of 1-2 appointments. A full day of cold call blitzing (non-stop calling) will yield an average of 3-5 appointments. We see this with all the clients we work with whether they’re calling marketing qualified campaign leads or cold calling a list. (The difference is in the warmth of the contact and how far along they may be in their buy cycle, but that’s for ...
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8 Takeaways and 4 Resources from Microsoft Inspire

By Scott Scrogin posted 07-20-2017
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The conference in Washington D. C. last week was my third Microsoft Inspire (formerly Worldwide Partner Conference). It truly was inspiring to engage with so many talented people and advanced technologies. Here are some things I learned; follow the links to the resources if interested. 1. You meet partners well outside the SMB MSP space Roughly 70% of 10,000 partner attendees are from outside the U.S. Of the U.S. partners, roughly half are not MSPs. The good news is the solution, size, and geo diversity opens your eyes to new opportunities, while still offering an MSP audience roughly the size of IT Nation. 2. Microsoft made three key sales program ...
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