SMB Nation Blog

By Ari Rabban, Co-Founder and CEO, Phone.com

If your company is like most SMBs, you’re either considering hosted IT and communications services, or you’re already using them. As more SMBs and large enterprises migrate to hosted solutions, the selection of cloud-based offerings and providers will continue to skyrocket as they try to capitalize on that expanding opportunity.

But the broader and deeper that selection becomes, the more challenging it is for SMBs to wade though their options. Here are seven things to help guide your decision...

ThinkGrid, a cloud enablement platform vendor for the channel, has launched ThinkGrid Ceano, which is designed to provide channel partners with a comprehensive range of on-demand IT Services for their SMB customers which they can order, sell, configure and manage through an online portal. ThinkGrid Ceano also gives SMB customers access to the latest applications and infrastructure offerings from vendors such as Microsoft and VMware. 

PASSPORTAL today announced the results of their comprehensive MSP Password Security Study and released a major update to its password management solution designed for MSPs.

Dell today released the results of its first gender-focused, global entrepreneurship index based on the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index (GEDI) at its Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network annual event. According to Dell, the Gender-GEDI is the only global index to measure high-potential female entrepreneurship based on individual aspirations, business environments and entrepreneurial ecosystems. High-potential women entrepreneurs are defined as “innovative, market expanding and export oriented.”

At the Autotask Community Live event this week, eFolder and Mezeo announced a partnership to bring cloud file sync services to MSPs throughout North America. The combined solution will be sold and supported by eFolder and will offer MSPs, solution providers, and VARs a business-class, secure, and channel-ready cloud file sync service that meets the needs of the small and medium business market. Generally available to eFolder partners in calendar Q3, the eFolder Cloud File Sync service will be sold on a simple, per-user per-month basis and allow partners to make attractive monthly recurring revenue and profit margins.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. As you probably saw in last week’s edition of “5 Blogs We Missed Last Week,” I was on vacation, but I am back, well-rested, and ready to “rock and roll.” Before you know it, SMB Nation will be gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio!

Speaking of live events, our own Harrybbb is in Scottsdale, AZ, for the first part of this week at the Autotask Community Live event. If you are attending, or in the area, stop by for a quick meet and greet with Harry!

To help address the speed at which technology is constantly changing in our industry, Cbeyond released its top five tips to help businesses with this challenge. The guidelines, part of Cbeyond’s "Technology Ally" best practices series, are designed to help SMBs sustain existing technology infrastructure while realizing the full potential of their IT investments.

Are you interested in how much money your peers are making each year? How about looking to compare notes with others who are “in your league” but maybe on a different pay scale? Well then you will definitely want to participate in our Annual Salary Survey, which we are conducting again for the seventh time this year.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. This week’s installment comes to you a day late(r) than usual, and that is due to the Memorial Day holiday, which was celebrated yesterday in the U.S.

SMB Nation’s offices were closed in honor of this holiday, which salutes our veterans. I am always grateful for our Armed Forces, especially since it runs in my family—both my grandfather and my father served honorably in the U.S. Army—grandpa served during WWII, and dad was in Special Forces during the Vietnam War.

VMware today revealed in a report conducted by Spiceworks that for a second year in a row, VMware Horizon View is the desktop virtualization solution deployed by SMBs. In addition, the study showed that VDI adoption trends among SMBs have remained steady during the last year, with end-user security and compliance continuing to be the biggest challenges for IT.

Earlier this week, we broke the news that N-able announced its intent to be acquired by SolarWinds for $120 million in cool cash by the end of the month. The news item also noted that N-able’s CEO, Gavin Garbutt, will be retiring, and JP Jauvin, the company’s GM will take the reins once Garbutt hangs his hat for the last time at N-able’s Ottawa, Canada, headquarters.

Microsoft today drew our attention to a blog post highlighting its US Partners of the Year, who will be recognized and awarded for their accomplishments in July at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston. 

BrightGauge Software said that it has released BrightGauge 3.0, the company’s latest update to its web-based business analytics and customer-reporting platform for MSPs. The new release provides enhanced customization of data metrics and more robust reporting features that now enable MSPs to measure and visualize their own business performance across their entire client base.

In response to the tornadoes earlier this week in Oklahoma and Texas, StorageCraft has pledged to provide relief by offering a free three-day version of its BDR software products, StorageCraft ShadowProtect IT Edition. The company is providing a free download to businesses and non-profit organizations in the regions that were affected by the storms.

D&H Distributing has introduced its “Get Authorized” program for resellers, which is designed to reduce the time and labor of the vendor authorization process, of which resellers must go through to buy products that are subject to MAP (minimum advertised pricing), UPP (unilateral pricing policy) and similar authorization restrictions.

At this point, about 18 months later, you would have been living in a cave if you are involved in the SMB channel and had not heard that Zenith Infotech’s managed services business unit was spun off as a separate entity known as Continuum. Based in Boston, the company, in which VC firm Summit Partners has made a sizable investment, Continuum (formerly known as Zenith RMM), operates as a strong U.S.-based company that is continually focused on its MSPs and helping them to better their lives—both professionally and personally.

We heard just now from our good PR friend Marie Rourke and Co. of WhiteFox Communications that SolarWinds, a provider of IT management software has agreed to acquire N-able for $120 million cash. The acquisition is a quick one in that is set to close by the end of this month.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. It has been a bit of taking a breather here for us, since we wrapped up our Spring Conference and SMB 150 Awards Gala just over a week ago. But the quiet before the storm hasn’t lasted for long…before you know it, we will be gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio!

Please take some time to peruse a few snippets of information that we didn’t get a chance to bring you last week….let us also know if there was something we might have missed, which is not mentioned in this entry…because as you know…we love news!

Having just come out of its Accelerate partner conference a few weeks ago, where it launched several new products, (click here to see product reviews by our own contributing writer Jay Weiss) Lenovo is on the move again, today unveiling its LenovoEMC portfolio of Network Attached Storage products.

Last week we blogged that Microsoft is making changes to its Windows 8 OS, reportedly naming it Microsoft Blue. Today, we heard that the company has now renamed this initiative Windows 8.1.  

Many of us remember when Intel launched its Intel Hybrid Cloud device and the Intel AppUp Small Business Software Service with much fanfare just about two years ago, with tons of promise. It was ahead of its time pioneering the “devices and services” paradigm so popular today. It was the “third-way” in the polarizing argument(s) asserted by on-premises extremists and Cloudies. Many MSPs that I know had signed up for the service, and had high hopes for what it could do for both themselves and their SMB end users. Intel even went ahead and put together a launch platform held at SMB Nation’s Fall Conference in 2011 to target its sweet spot of SMB MSPs who largely attend our events…from what I understand, they came in droves to check out this new game-changing cloud product.

(Pictured at right): Karl Palachuk, Founder and CEO, Small Biz Thoughts / Great Little Book Publishing Co., Inc., said he doesn't feel there is a correlation between the end of SBS and the end of the Intel server.

At the start of its BlackBerry World event this week in Orlando, FL, BlackBerry introduced its new Q5 smartphone that is part of the new BlackBerry 10 family. The BlackBerry Q5 smartphone features a QWERTY keyboard with discrete keys in a new design that aims to provide a fast, effortless experience for users on the go.

This past weekend, I tuned into 60 Minutes, as I do most Sunday evenings, to wind down, and I came across an interview that one of their correspondents did with a former U.S. Marine who is now an SMB. The clip, titled, “Succeeding as Civilians,” featured a veteran, who had been injured during combat, and got his start as a small business owner through a program designed to help disabled and wounded veterans literally get back on their feet and get into business.

It made me think, while watching this 60 Minutes clip, on how I have recently spoken to many IT members in our community who are former military. One such conversation I had recently was with Joseph Bettencourt, Founder and CEO of Portland Computerworks. While Bettencourt was thankfully, not wounded during his military tour, he took the experience he picked up during his time at tech school in the U.S. Air Force, for Computer Information Systems. He told me that he was one of four chosen out of more than 300 students for a special assignment working at a Computer Forensics Laboratory near the NSA. By the time Bettencourt finished his military experience, he picked up various Computer Certifications from the Department of Defense Computer Training Institute as well as computer training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA.

(Pictured at right): Joseph Bettencourt, Founder and CEO, Portland Computerworks

Ooma said today that its small business phone system, Ooma Office, is now available for purchase at Staples stores nationwide and at Ooma.com. According to the company, Oooma Office is the first product developed by Ooma to address the needs of small businesses. Ooma Office delivers the advanced features and service quality that come with a big business phone service at a price point that is more affordable than other solutions.  

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. It has been a bit of taking a breather here for us, since we wrapped up our Spring Conference and SMB 150 Awards Gala just over a week ago. But the quiet before the storm won’t last long…before you know it, we will be gearing up for our annual fall event to be held Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas at the Rio!

Desktone said today that it has extended its cloud-hosted desktop platform with a new on-premises, cloud-managed virtual desktop solution. The new offering resides at the customer site and is managed remotely by a Cloud Provider, giving enterprises and SMBs the flexibility to choose the cloud model that best suits their business: public, private, or hybrid. 

Jeff Leventhal, CEO of Work Market, reached out to us today to let us know about the company’s most recent round of funding. This time it’s a $10 million Series Scale financing. The round was led by new investor SoftBank Capital with participation from existing investors Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. Jordan Levy, General Partner with SoftBank Capital NY, will join the Work Market Board of Directors as an observer.

Digium has announced the general availability of the Digium Phone App Engine and Phone API Information Center for its IP phones. The Digium IP phones include an applications engine that uses a free and open API.  The JavaScript API allows developers to easily create custom phone apps that extend the power of Asterisk, an open source IP telephony software, and Switchvox, Digium’s Unified Communications solution, to the Digium IP phones.  These applications go far beyond simple XML pages and integrate custom business processes directly on the phone display.

ShoreTel confirmed this morning that Peter Blackmore, the company’s president and CEO, has informed the company of his intention to retire as soon as a successor is announced.

Technology author Karl Palachuk encourages Managed Service Providers to reboot their business for the current economy – and his guest keynote speaker Creative Strategist John Armato challenges the IT community to think INSIDE the box to do it. With that being said, Palachuk has invited Armato to address the community during his SMB Onlinie Conference that will run 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM Pacific on June 25-27, 2013.

ShoreTel earlier this week announced a business-grade docking station that transforms iPhones and iPads into desk phones when paired with ShoreTel Mobility, fusing the convenience of mobile devices with the power of a business communications system.

D&H Distributing reported today that is has experienced more than 8% growth for the 2013 Fiscal Year (ending April 30, 2013), fueled by sales of mobility products.  This figure is more than three times the organic growth rate achieved by IT distribution in general over the past year.  Tablet sales at D&H have tripled year-over-year, driven by strong showings from Android models in the seven- and 10-inch formats.  This year’s overall growth figure adds to D&H’s tally of more than 380 consecutive profitable quarters.

For those of you who didn’t make it to the SMB Nation Spring Conference, we discussed how embracing the cloud could compare to “eating your broccoli:” You know it’s good for you, and you will, at some point, have to try it out.

Since launching Windows 8 this past fall, Microsoft has experienced its brunt of comments, complaints, successes and opinions regarding this new operating system. Now, as a result of the backlash and noisemaking, the tech giant has listened to the market, and is reportedly making changes to the OS, calling it Microsoft Blue. According to various news reports, such as posted on ZDNET yesterday, Blue will be designed to address user complaints regarding the OS.

Owning a business is stressful, but running a business from home brings additional challenges, according to a new survey by Wakefield Research for cloud provider Carbonite. The study found that while home-based small business owners are concerned about data loss and struggle to find a proper work/life balance, a majority (79 percent) aren’t taking full advantage of cloud-based business tools.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We are coming down from our very busy Spring Conference and SMB 150 Awards Gala, which took place this past weekend. Now is the time for a bit of a “breather” until we start gearing up for our annual Fall Conference, which will be held again in Vegas, October 10-12, 2013.

HP today announced new products, technology and tools designed to help SMBs improve productivity and increase their connectivity.

SMB Nation announced today that it has promoted two longtime team members to elevated roles within the company. As noted during Chairman and Founder Harry Brelsford’s keynote speech this morning at the 2013 Spring Conference, SMB Nation has promoted Senior Manager Jennifer Hallmark to the role of President, and Chris Bangs, Director of Business Development & Strategic Relationships, to the role of VP of Sales & Marketing.

Seiko Instruments USA Inc. (SII) Thermal Printer Division today announced the availability of its new Smart Label Printer 600 Series (SLP 600). The new desktop label printer lineup offers three cost-effective models, ideal for professional services firms, healthcare applications, small businesses, and home office users. SLP 600 printers are more convenient and versatile than traditional sheet-fed label printing solutions. The new printers allow customers to rapidly customize individual labels, print out whole mailing databases, and easily interchange among address labels, file folder labels, shipping labels, multipurpose labels, and others.

StorageCraft Cloud Services, which allows companies to use offsite backup of servers for complete system and data disaster recovery, will now be offered to VARs who are Lifeboat and SYNNEX partners. Now, through these new partnerships, these VARs will be able to offer their end users, through StorageCraft Cloud Services, anytime, anywhere access to data and instant system failover in the cloud. The platform also provides users with options that range from instant virtualization to simple archiving, allowing organizations to meet business continuity requirements and the ability to always stay in control of offsite systems and data.

GFI Software today introduced a new, interactive, social community that provides a forum for MSPs to obtain crowdsourced scripts that solve IT problems. The interactive FixIT Scripts platform unites the MSP community by connecting those looking to source a script with those who can provide scripts that solve a specific IT problem. GFI MAX RemoteManagement gives managed service providers the capability to implement automated and customized scripts – FixIT Scripts extends this by giving MSPs the ability to choose from a much wider range of scripts, enabling them to more easily meet the needs of their customers. 

Cbeyond said that it has expanded its service portfolio to now include TotalAssist Services, a strategic set of services designed to alleviate the burden of IT management for customers. With the launch of TotalAssist, Cbeyond says that it is now the only services provider positioned to completely support and guarantee quality of service for the entire SMB IT user experience from a user's desktop through a private, secure network right to an enterprise-class cloud data center.

When Mike Foreman was chosen to lead the small business group at AVG Technologies, he was quick to tap into his own experience as a small business owner, having managed and sold two IT businesses before joining AVG. As a former reseller, he was also determined to create products and programs that work for both the partners and SMB customers.

GFI Software today announced that it has added patch management capabilities to cloud-based platform for the delivery of services via a newly-enhanced, web-based user interface. By adding patch management to the platform, SMBs will now be able to automate the process of patching all of their machines, thus keeping their systems up-to-date and using the latest versions of the software they work with.

We heard this week from our good friend and community member Nancy Williams, that she has accepted a new gig as an account manager with eFolder, a provider of remote and local data backup, email security and email archiving services.

Pictured at right: Nancy Williams accepts her SMB 150 Award at last year's gala. Williams is a recipient of the award once again this year, which will be distributed during next week's spring conference.

BlackBerry recently announced that it has revamped its BlackBerry Partner Support Service (BPSS) program to ensure its partners are able to continually and effectively collaborate with BlackBerry to provide end users with high-level customer support.

NEC Corporation of America (NEC) said today that it has joined with DaaS provider Desktone to deliver cloud-hosted virtual desktops. By leveraging the Desktone Platform, NEC can now deliver cost-effective, full-featured Windows desktops to any device, thus meeting enterprises' demands for BYOD and distributed and remote workforce support. 

AlgoSec recently announced the results of “The State of Network Security 2013: Attitudes and Opinions,” a survey of 179 information security and network operations professionals conducted during the RSA Conference in February 2013. Results from the survey reveal insider threats are the greatest concern and that permitting employees to connect their own devices to the network increases the risk of security breaches.

This morning, Soluto, known as a provider of consumer PC management solutions, has moved today toward the SMB community as well by now offerin its “Soluto for Business”, a service designed specifically for small businesses IT and IT service providers, allowing them to manage and support PCs over the web, more cost-effectively and easily than ever before.

ManageEngine today launched the immediate beta availability of the MSP edition of its privileged password management software Password Manager Pro. 

Last October, Softbank, the Japanese wireless company, made an offer to acquire Sprint Nextel. Now there are others that are willing to get a spot on Sprint’s dance card, one of them being DISH Networks, which has now jumped in to acquire the wireless giant.  And it gets even better…in order to get this deal done, Sprint Nextel is trying to acquire Clearwire to get their spectrum. In addition, Verizon Wireless has also entered the foray, and is bidding on the Cleariwire spectrum as well. 

IBM said that it has acquired UrbanCode Inc., a provider of automated software delivery to help businesses quickly release and update mobile, social, big data, cloud applications. 

Cbeyond yesterday revealed its top five tips to help SMBs save resources dedicated to managing and maintaining cloud servers before, during or post cloud implementation. The guidelines, part of Cbeyond's "Technology Ally" best practices series, are designed to help SMBs realize the full potential of their IT investments and better serve customers.

We heard today that a trio of successful IT business owners are joining together in a new effort to help IT companies improve their businesses and achieve greater operational effectiveness. Now known as Bering McKinley, the company is a new venture founded by Josh Peterson, Adam Bielanski and Rory Reed. Many of our readers and our community know Peterson from when he was with Taylor Business Group and then FusionTek; he has offered consulting services to the IT community for nearly a decade and is known for assisting IT companies that are struggling with limited growth, underperforming sales and subpar customer service.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We have been pretty busy around here at SMB Nation in gearing up for our SMB 150 Awards Gala Dinner, and our Spring Conference, which will be held in less than two weeks, from May 3-5, 2013, at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. For more information, and to register, go to: http://spring.smbnation.com/.

Independent field service technician provider FieldSolutions has entered into an agreement with New York City-based Work Market to provide FieldSolutions’ clients with an even broader range of skill capabilities that can be accessed directly and seamlessly from the FieldSolutions management system, and supported by FieldSolutions’ technology field service operations support services and enterprise analytics tools.

Enhancements to cloud-enabled Microsoft Office 365 offered by Sprint will make it even easier for SMBs to collaborate and communicate from virtually anywhere they are, whether in the office or on the go.

Concur yesterday introduced the Concur App Center—a marketplace for Concur clients and their employees, at Fusion, its client and partner conference. The new App Center will help businesses and their travelers discover applications that deliver significant value to the enterprise as well as to their business travelers. Through the Concur App Center, web and mobile software developers can list applications (apps) that are integrated using Concur’s open platform.

StorageCraft said it has released its StorageCraft ShadowProtect Granular Recovery for Exchange 7. Available to worldwide MSPs and VARs, ShadowProtect Granular Recovery for Exchange 7, which is the latest addition to the StorageCraft Recover-Ability solution, simplifies management and recovery of Microsoft Exchange Servers.

Dell yesterday launched the Latitude 3330 laptop, designed to help educators teach tomorrow’s leaders while providing value to school districts. The new laptop offers computing features required to maximize learning productivity, compatibility with Dell’s existing solutions and services for education and support for personalized learning opportunities in the classroom. 

D&H Distributing said today that in honor of Earthy Day next week, its “Go Green” ecological programs and policies are still reaping results, including new internal projects that aid in conservation.  The company has sold nearly ten million units of green-certified products per year, aggregated across the three years that D&H has been tallying numbers for these products, amounting to 28,449,298 green items sold since 2010.  The distributor’s inventory of merchandise that qualifies as “green” has also increased steadily over the years.

Ping Identity said today that PingOne, its cloud-based identity as a service, is now available in the new Concur App Center from Concur. Unveiled today at Fusion 2013, the new app center will help businesses and travelers discover applications that deliver significant value to the enterprise and to the business traveler.

Whenever I hear the term “Spring Fever,” I think back to my days as an elementary school student at the local Catholic school in my town. I remember my Second Grade teacher, appropriately named Mrs. Swords (if you looked in her direction she would stare back at you with these piercing eyes that were actually like swords), would call out all the lazy kids in the class hollering out: “What have you got Spring Fever or something??!!”

A couple of weeks ago, I decided that it was time for a new smartphone and to also make the switch from my current carrier to another, which I feel, in my opinion, has been more reliable in my geographical area. I was a loyal supporter of this carrier for almost 10 years; it took me through various phones, including the first, which was a flip phone that had the “old school” keypad for texting, instead of the “QWERTY” style that we have become so accustomed to. These phones (and this carrier to boot) were utilized by me for various conversations, text messages, and even, as I moved into the smartphone realm, a way for me to get online and also connect via social media.

Last week I had the pleasure of participating as a panelist for Jabra’s webinar titled, “Voice in the Cloud: How SaaS Platforms are Changing How SMBs Talk, Collaborate and Work.” I was invited to participate by Urban Gillis, Jabra’s Sales VP, who wanted to focus the webinar on how voice or “UCaaS” (Unified Communications as a Service) is making its way into our industry.

Continuum, and Growth Achievement Partners (GAP), a major provider of sales and operational consulting in the office technology marketplace, announced their strategic alliance to establish a new Managed Services Business Model specifically for office technology dealerships. The model provides a blueprint for a seamless transition into this adjacent opportunity, so dealers can capitalize on lucrative trends toward off-site management, HaaS (hardware as a service) and cloud-based offerings. This transition will help deliver recurring revenues and customer growth to dealers through an expanded solutions and network services offering, resulting in accelerated financial performance.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We have been pretty busy around here at SMB Nation in gearing up for our SMB 150 Awards Gala Dinner, and our Spring Conference, which will be held May 3-5, 2013, at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. For more information, and to register, go to: http://spring.smbnation.com/.

Kaspersky Lab, today announced it has added a new division known as the State, Local and EDucation (SLED) team. Following 25 percent growth in its public sector business in 2012, Kaspersky Lab launched this new team to meet the growing demand and help public sector organizations meet their growing IT and security challenges. 

The Evolution of an Executive who has Successfully Weathered the IT Storm

If you met Rob Cheng, Founder and CEO of PC Pitstop on the street one afternoon, you would probably expect him to say that he has every kind of the latest techno gadget in his home, car, and while he’s on the move. However, Cheng, who divides his time between his homes in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, usually doesn’t even carry a cell phone with him when leaving the house, and when he does, it’s usually one of those “flip” style phones. Totally unassuming that he is, you’d never guess that Cheng founded PC Pitstop more than 10 years ago, with the basis of diagnosing common computer problems.

In response to yesterday’s report by various analysts that Microsoft Windows 8 has not been able to curb declining PC sales, the tech giant said it will offer SMBs (up to 249 users) a 15% discount on the combined price of Windows 8 Pro and Office 2013 upgrades if they buy before the end of June 2013. 

Earlier today we posted a report by analyst firm IDC stating that PC sales experienced the steepest declines in the last quarter. IDC stated that shipments fell 14 percent—the sharpest drop since they began tracking this data almost 20 years ago; even more, the analyst firm added that this is the fourth straight quarter of decline.

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), down -13.9% compared to the same quarter in 2012 and worse than the forecast decline of -7.7%, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The extent of the year-on-year contraction marked the worst quarter since IDC began tracking the PC market quarterly in 1994. The results also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment declines.

ABC Services, Inc. (ABC), a cloud-based solutions provider specializing in server and network solutions for IBM Power and other platforms, announced that it has merged with long-time partner, Progressive Technology Group, Inc. (PTG), an IBM Advanced Business Partner offering hardware, software and services. Both companies have been strong IBM Business Partners and working closely together to serve their clients for almost two decades.

In response to high partner demand for a complete lead generation solution, Continuum introduced today Marketing Advantage, a fully integrated, turnkey marketing program. Developed using input from hundreds of MSPs and research into how and why SMBs buy IT services, the program goes beyond traditional approaches to offer a highly systematic process that addresses the unique marketing requirements of MSPs. Designed as a set-and-forget system, Marketing Advantage requires minimal investment in time and resources with everything implemented and completely customized to the MSP’s brand identity. 

Schneider Electric today introduced StruxureWare for Data Centers v2.0, an integrated suite of Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) software engineered to manage data centers across multiple domains, providing businesses with actionable intelligence for an ideal balance of high availability and peak efficiency throughout the entire data center lifecycle.

Kaseya said today that it is providing an extensive set of new SaaS IT tools. Free versions and subscription license offerings are available, depending on user needs. The company will now offer a complete multi-tenant SaaS systems management solution meeting the needs of modern IT organizations, as well as provide a free and subscription license IT tools to address specific IT pain points. These pain point driven tools can be as simple as a patch status audit or security audit to a complete patch management solution.

Kaseya said today that it is providing an extensive set of new SaaS IT tools. Free versions and subscription license offerings are available, depending on user needs. The company will now offer a complete multi-tenant SaaS systems management solution meeting the needs of modern IT organizations, as well as provide a free and subscription license IT tools to address specific IT pain points. These pain point driven tools can be as simple as a patch status audit or security audit to a complete patch management solution.

Kaseya said today that it is providing an extensive set of new SaaS IT tools. Free versions and subscription license offerings are available, depending on user needs. The company will now offer a complete multi-tenant SaaS systems management solution meeting the needs of modern IT organizations, as well as provide a free and subscription license IT tools to address specific IT pain points. These pain point driven tools can be as simple as a patch status audit or security audit to a complete patch management solution.

Kaseya said today that it is providing an extensive set of new SaaS IT tools. Free versions and subscription license offerings are available, depending on user needs. The company will now offer a complete multi-tenant SaaS systems management solution meeting the needs of modern IT organizations, as well as provide a free and subscription license IT tools to address specific IT pain points. These pain point driven tools can be as simple as a patch status audit or security audit to a complete patch management solution.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We have been pretty busy around here at SMB Nation in gearing up for our SMB 150 Awards Gala Dinner, and our Spring Conference, which will be held May 3-5, 2013, at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. For more information, and to register, go to: http://spring.smbnation.com/.

Based in Texas, CMIT Solutions announced Continuum as the exclusive managed services software and services provider for its more than 135 franchises nationwide. The arrangement enables CMIT franchisees to more efficiently and cost-effectively deliver comprehensive IT management, protection and support services that meet all the technology needs of their small-to-mid-sized business (SMB) customers. IT service providers who adopt Continuum’s fully integrated platform can achieve unprecedented gross margins in their managed services business, which is not possible using alternative software-only solutions.

Earlier this week, we reported that Intronis completed its search for a new CEO. Most of you in our community know that the BDR provider’s previous CEO, Kent Plunkett departed last fall. Since then, Jay Bolgatz, Intronis’ VP of Engineering had been filling in as interim CEO while a search committee sought out a new leader.

It was reported this morning by various news outlets that Ray Lane, HP’s Chairman of the Board, has resigned his post, effective immediately. His replacement, for time being, is Ralph Whitworth, until a permanent Chairman can be found.

Rackspace announced this morning that it has been selected by Buffalo, a provider of networking and storage solutions for the home and small business environments, to provide the open cloud infrastructure that will power its new product, BuffaloLink. This product will give Buffalo customers easy access to terabytes of content, using the cloud to access their data at their home or office from anywhere. 

D&H Distributing has added new resources and capabilities to its Partner Services marketing program, as the offering hits the one-year milestone.  Partner Services offers resellers an expanding library of customizable brochure templates and an array of vendor materials that VARs can use to promote their own services. 

According to a press release issued today by tech analyst Jeff Kagan, Windows XP users are still hanging on to old times. “With all the talk about Windows Vista, 7 and 8, the truth is roughly one-third of all users may still be on XP and staying put,” Kagan says.

It was announced this morning that Best Buy and target have reportedly ended their test partnership, which placed Best Buy’s Geek Squad staff at 29 Target stores in Denver and Minneapolis, as reported by the Minneapolis Star. 

Avangate yesterday announced the results and availability of a commissioned Technology Adoption Profile (TAP) conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Avangate. The research highlights the increasing role resellers will play, with 66% of surveyed companies indicating that channel partners are strategically important to growing revenues from their SaaS products.

Dell today announced Dell Precision Performance Optimizer (DPPO), reportedly the industry’s first software that automatically configures Dell Precision workstation settings to maximize performance of engineering, design and digital content creation applications. DPPO is preloaded with profiles for popular applications such as Autodesk Maya, PTC Creo and Dassault SolidWorks and once activated automatically adjusts system settings to optimize performance. Additional features include proactive system maintenance and tracking and reporting of system utilization – helping Dell Precision customers enhance and speed up their design and render times. 

We heard this morning from Intronis that the company has completed its search for a new CEO, and has formally announced that it has hired Rick Faulk as CEO and board member, effective immediately.

Here we go again! As I do each week, I am really enjoying bringing our readers a quick round-up of the blog coverage I didn’t manage to get to during the week prior. We have been pretty busy around here at SMB Nation in gearing up for our SMB 150 Awards Gala Dinner, and our Spring Conference, which will be held May 3-5, 2013, at the Microsoft Redmond Campus. For more information, and to register, go to: http://spring.smbnation.com/.

Carbonite said earlier today that Database Backup is now available for its online backup reseller partners to offer to their small business clients. Through the Carbonite Database Backup solution, resellers can now deliver a comprehensive cloud backup solution and ensure their clients can rest easy knowing their backup is protected offsite – securely, automatically and affordably.

Just a few days after releasing the availability of its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 device here in the U.S., BlackBerry President and CEO Thorsten Heins said today that his company has returned to profitability.
Heins made the announcment this morning on the company’s year-end results call for the quarter that ended March 2. In the face of numerous challenges, BlackBerry has gone from a significant operating loss in the first quarter of the year to an operating profit in the fourth quarter. According to the smartphone maker, it has an exciting new mobile computing platform, is profitable and has a healthy balance sheet.

Zoho is now offering the latest round of upgrades to Zoho CRM, the company’s online CRM. The new features start with BCC Dropbox, which lets users BCC customer emails to CRM in order to associate those emails to the related customer records inside Zoho CRM. Integration with Zoho LiveDesk brings customer support and customer information together. Custom Related Lists brings customer information from multiple sources, including third-party applications, into Zoho CRM, making it the central place to aggregate all your customer information. MailMagnet for Mobile brings the power of MailMagnet — email filtering based on active deals in CRM — to Zoho CRM iPhone, iPad and Android mobile apps.

Citrix today announced availability of its CloudPortal Business Manager 2.0, a cloud services delivery platform that enables enterprises and service providers to unify the commerce, user management, provisioning and operational aspects of a cloud into a single cloud interface for delivering anything as a service (XaaS).

Logicalis has identified a thorny problem facing IT pros today: CIOs, strapped with budgetary constraints, have adopted a “don’t fix it unless it’s broken” approach to storage. The problem with that approach, according to Logicalis storage experts, is that storage is the heart of IT; continuing to rely on storage solutions with a basic architecture developed two decades ago won’t give forward-thinking businesses the advanced data archival and retrieving capabilities that new business pressures are demanding of them.

Broadvox has published a new guide, “Hosted VoIP Purchase Decision Guide: Seven Key Considerations When Selecting a Hosted VoIP Provider,” which identifies and explains important issues that all businesses should consider before selecting a Hosted Voice provider. 

Microsoft late yesterday announced that Judson Althoff , who most recently served as an executive at Oracle, has been tapped for the role of president, North America Sales & Marketing, and corporate vice president. Althoff will manage a team of sales, marketing and services professionals across the U.S. and Canada, within a division that was a significant contributor to Microsoft's $73 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2013. 

D&H Distributing will offer a free webcast for its reseller customers throughout North America, this Thursday, March 28, at 2 pm EST. Titled, “D-Link IP Camera Solutions: Profit from Adding IP Surveillance to Every Sale.”  The broadcast is free for D&H customers, who can register for and view the event at dandh.com (in the U.S.), or on dandh.ca (for Canadian customers).  This is the first D&H webcast to be offered simultaneously to U.S. and Canadian customers.

Alert Logic released today the findings from the latest Alert Logic State of Cloud Security Report. The report highlights that Web application attacks are the most significant security threat for IT infrastructures.