Organizations of all sizes are using Microsoft Office 365 (Office 365) to power their websites. It’s such a hot topic that Microsoft just did a webinar about it.

 Those who are in the IT Industry know we are currently in the busy season for tradeshows and conferences. Last week it was Channel Partners Evolution and this week, I’m at The Channel Company XChange 2016. As I attend these events I meet a lot of people who are part of these group’s IT communities. So, what is a community? Communities can come in many different forms. You have your neighborhood communities, social communities and business communities like the local Chamber of Commerce and professional associations. Community has many different definitions, but my favorite states that a community offers “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals.”

We all know it’s important to get new sales resources up to speed quickly once hired by a managed service provider (MSP), but there is an opportunity to recognize the unique roles that all departments play throughout the customer journey. The ability to connect each and every new team member within an organization to the role it plays in the market can provide immeasurable differentiation.

You may have noticed a tremendous amount of disruption in the Microsoft Office 365 space recently.  There are many ways to purchase Microsoft Office 365 (Open program, Advisor, and now CSP) and no real direction on the best partner and program to choose. But who can help you maximize your profit and margin?  Directing your customers to purchase direct through the Advisor program is not the preferred method for a per user/per month billing option, as you earn less money and have no control over the billing. If you’re an MSP selling in this space, you should be working with a Tier 2 Microsoft CSP Partner. Here are the top five things to look for from your Tier 2 Microsoft CSP distribution partner:

It seems like everyone is offering cloud services of every flavor these days, with new players joining the market every day. Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen cloud-based storage, email migration; remote monitoring, online productivity, and cloud security take center stage. Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are trusted with securing organizations’ networks. However, many do not fully understand their own customers' priorities when it comes to security.

It’s Security Week at Tech Data. Throughout the week please look for a post related to security trends, concerns and programs to help you ensure your customers are secure.

What is UCaaS?

  Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) takes the traditional Unified Communication (UC) model of offering communication and collaboration services and applications, and delivers these tools as a hosted service managed and supported through a reseller partner or MSP. According to Gartner in their 2015 Magic Quadrant report, there are six main communication functions under the UCaaS umbrella – voice and telephony, conferencing, messaging (email, voice mail), instant messaging, clients (desktops, think clients), and communications-enabled applications. You can download the full report here.

In the often confusing world of software licensing, it can be hard to figure out which licensing model is best for your business and, more importantly, how to make it profitable.  What you really need is a roadmap to figure out how to get there and a tour guide or two who can help along the way.

All IT service providers are in the game to make the most profit on all purchases for obvious reasons—to keep the lights on and cash flowing. There are three ways a partner can leverage savings when ordering IT products: distribution, partner programs, and vendor incentives.

I had the privilege of attending HTG Peer Group’s first quarter meeting for 2016. During the meeting, I had a chance to meet with all the “important” people, including the CEO and Owner, the head of vendor sponsorships, and the President. Throughout my tour, the HTG group stood out as a family, a close-knit community of MSP partners (including the vendor reps). If it truly does “take a village to raise a child,” then why wouldn’t the same apply to a MSP, VAR, or any business? There are many peer groups, networking organizations, and associations for professionals in the IT channel. Here are a few reasons why you should consider joining one to help you reach your goals and objectives: