Managed Services

Three Signs it’s Time to Outsource Your Managed IT

This blog originally appeared on the GreatAmerica Financial Services website. Click here to read about more areas of interest in the office technology space. In my day-to-day at Collabrance, I talk to managed services providers (MSPs) who have decided it may be time to outsource
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ConnectWise, Continuum and Thoma Bravo: Oh, the Possibilities are Becoming Probable

Well, it’s not just office supply and print service resellers who are witnessing changes which pose both opportunities and threats to their status quo. When Sycamore Partners, the private equity firm who owns Staples, bought the office supply wholesaler Essendant, many office
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Path Less Traveled: Finding Success When Venturing into Non-Traditional Products

Anyone in business today is going to keep their eyes and ears open for new opportunity. Finding alternate and authentic paths to new, non-conventional revenue-generating products and services is harder than one might think. Occasionally, I have the pleasure of working with a
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MPS = Most Profitable Service?

In today’s BTA channel, you’d think that everyone would have mastered the MPS sales model by now, and easily built a nice portfolio of managed print renewals. I wish that were true. Launching services (MPS) from a hardware-centric industry is extremely challenging for many
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Journey Toward XaaS Needs to be Traveled Gradually

Yesterday, I heard about a business model, with an amazing growth track, that sells herbs across the United States. They’re not just selling plants—they’re selling an amazing dining-and-food-prep experience by helping clients focus on the things they love to do without worrying
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Expanding Your Offerings Requires a Plan and Restraint

When I was a kid, I had an uncanny ability to visualize how things fit together. I could walk into a room where my younger brother had pulled apart all of his toy cars and trucks, and I could put them back together without ever seeing how he dismantled them. As a young man I rode
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The Take-Away Lessons an MSP Business Can Learn from Greedo’s Demise

A classic and highly debated Star Wars scene where Han Solo shoots Greedo is an unlikely thing an MSP business can actually learn from. In the movie, Greedo is a bounty hunter out to get the head of Solo. Greedo corners Solo in a bar and forces him to take a seat at gunpoint. And
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Profitable MPS Deals Begin with a Well-Planned Strategy

Across any industry, you can find products and services being sold with little to no profit. Does that mean there are no deals that offer a nice profit opportunity? In our industry, if you listen, you can hear dealers every day talk about how hard it is to make a profit selling
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Building Profitable Managed IT Services

Adding products and services to any business doesn’t automatically mean the business will grow or be more profitable. It seems the process used most often is to shove the new products into the sales bag and push the reps out the door. When adding new products, one should always
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Are You a Trendsetter? Driving Success One Trend at a Time

Any fast wind out of the north can propel a new trend. Trends are often created by accident when a business stumbles into a unique way of delivering solutions or recognizes inefficiency and take the time to get a little inventive. Knowing what trend to follow can be a little like
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Adding Managed Services Sales: What Not to Do

Everyone has their own idea on how to successfully transform a sales organization to achieve success. I’ve seen hundreds of attempts at transformation that were not successful, and they all shared one common element: the lack of a plan. Without a strategy, transformation fails.
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From Water Coolers to Cyber Security: Re-Thinking the Future of Your Business

As worldwide competition pushes its way into every industry, your go-to-market strategy must adapt to the future. But how? Most leaders in our industry say that selling managed services is the way to go. Many folks say they are selling managed services, yet they are not. To
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Growing Competencies: Dealers Make Case for Developing Internal Managed Services Platform

A continuous drum that has been beaten in the office technology space is the ongoing movement toward offering managed services as opposed to taking a pure hardware play approach. Yet, even as dealers successfully ramp their capabilities in MPS, managed IT, document services,
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Successful MPS Transformation

Recently, in a workshop at the Las Vegas ITEX trade show, I shared my high-level process to successfully transform a dealership from traditional hardware sales to managed services. I have refined my transformation process over the last 10 years, and for most dealers it takes
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Selling IT Services: Does IT Work?

Selling technology successfully doesn’t happen by accident. There are a lot of philosophies out there on how to get it done. Before designing an effective go-to market strategy, you must consider the type of organization you are, what technological capabilities you possess, and
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