http://smbitpros.com a resource for managed service providers and other small business IT professionals Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:39:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en At least for those of us that generally provide support on a flat-fee basis.  I love the iPhone, but supporting it may pose some challenges until Apple releases some more updates. A story to illustrate: One of my best friends just switched from T-Mobile to ATT to get the iPhone.  After waiting ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/24/the-lessons-behind-the-iphone-to-bill-or-not-to-bill-that-is-the-question/ This morning I found an email in my inbox from dell promoting their upcoming show on what is working inside their PartnerDirect Program. I have to admit that I have not put a lot of time into understanding their program or if they are going to launch a master MSP play ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/24/what-is-working-inside-the-dell-partnerdirect-program/ We celebrated our 5  year anniversary in Colorado with a whitewater rafting trip and bbq, and in Boston with a booze cruise through the harbor.  Both were great fun! Another fun event was our Annual Field Partner Summit.  This is the second year we've had this event, and it's been incredibly ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/22/everon-turns-5/ This is interesting stuff.  HaaS has a ton of potential but has been stuck in the mud for a long time because it is too complicated/frustrating to find the right financing partners.  It looks like MSPAlliance has taken a big step in solving this problem by partnering with Varilease to ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/15/mspalliance-announces-leasinghaas-program-for-msps/ A lot of noise has been made recently about the Master MSP model and the number of new entrants in the space.  Bob Vogel from Autotask referred to them in his post here last week, and it isn't hard to find a number of other articles on the subject, including ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/15/working-with-a-master-msp-please-tell-us-about-it/ By Bob Vogel, Chief Marketing Officer, Autotask Corporation During the past three years we have seen a steady proliferation of managed services in this market, and the pace of adoption is accelerating. The growth has been driven by an increase in the number of solution providers getting into the game for ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/11/guest-post-the-coming-commoditization-of-managed-services-by-bob-vogel-of-autotask/ Most managed service providers don't do any marketing. Most have technical backgrounds and marketing and sales just aren't their "thing". Everon has done more marketing than most companies in our space, but we are really just getting started. We will do more marketing in the next six months than ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/10/marketing-is-a-system/ Deskless worker is Microsofts branding for their hosted Exchange and Sharepoint programs in their software + services play. I have written about Microsoft's software + service programs in the past and today everyone out there has written something about todays new anouncement. The best two blogs I have found on the ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/09/microsoft-rolls-out-detials-around-their-deskless-worker-saas-solution/ So simple yet so cool, Google now allows you to list out locations and in their online spreadsheet and a gadget then places them on a map. Now I don't usually get caught up in "cool" technology. I am a big believer in letting the other guy work the bugs out ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/08/google-gadgets-allow-google-maps-to-intigrate-with-google-spreadsheets/ A comment on a previous post asked me to recommend the business books that have had the most influence on Everon. I wouldn't dare pretend to have all of the answers, but I think this list has served me and Everon well as we've tried to build our ... http://smbitpros.com/2008/07/08/the-books-that-have-had-the-most-influence-on-everon/