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Stabilize Your Business With Good Hiring, Teambuilding
Date: July 15, 2010
In this Business Solutions Lunch & Learn Webinar, editor Gennifer Biggs will continue to tackle advice about growing your business in 2010. With the help of MSP guest Wesley Gipe, voodoo guru and fearless leader at Agil IT, I'll revisit the topic of hiring and teambuilding. Wes and I discuss how he evaluates potential employees, and how he works to continuously engage and educate his staff. The bottom line - you can't land and keep new customers without the right team.

How Virtualization and the Cloud Impact Your Business
Date: June 10, 2010
Both virtualization and cloud computing have moved off the horizon and into the daily lives of MSPs. Now is the time to prepare to move your customers through the process of virtualizing their environment and moving all or some of that network into the cloud. During this webinar, Editor Gennifer Biggs and Business Solutions President Jim Roddy will talk about how virtualization and cloud computing will impact your IT business, and some adjustments you may have to make. We also welcome special MSP guest Rich Anderson, CEO, Next Level Cafe. Anderson tackled a new pricing model to accommodate these technologies.

Growth May Mean Partners, Not Products
Date: May 13, 2010
While some VARs and MSPs expand and grow by tackling new products, adjacent technologies, or even new verticals, you should consider a new option: outsourcing. From distributors to vendors, the practice of networking to expand the geographic footprint of your business has grown increasingly popular. Editor Gennifer Biggs and Business Solutions President Jim Roddy offer advice on how to find partners (vendors, distributors, peer networking and industry groups) and how partnering can help your IT business grow. We'll also hear from guest MSP Scott Harvey, CEO of RTP South.

How Can Hardware Help Your Managed Services Offering Grow?
If you missed Business Solutions Managed Services Editor Gennifer Biggs talking live with Intel's channel managers Brian Jarvis and Jason Saganski on June 29, you can still listen to their advice on how Intel hardware offerings can help you launch or grow your managed services practice. Simply visit http://video.webcasts.com/events/pmny001/viewer/index.jsp?eventid=35179 to watch the webinar on-demand.

Some of the points covered during this webinar include the continuing potential that managed services brings to your IT business, and an overview of the various Intel Vpro products that are built to support and enhance your efforts to offer profitable managed services.

Green Computing Can Bring In More Green
Date: April 8, 2010
So, just as your customers are pulling out their hair over taxes, consider this month a perfect time to show them how environmentally friendly computing can help save them money, perhaps even earn them rebates. You can't overlook the potential value of green computing – from laptops made with recycled plastic to power savings from proper UPS deployments to storage footprint reductions leveraged from virtualization, deduplication, and offsite archiving solutions. Editor Gennifer Biggs and guest Chris Harty, SYNNEX green program director, will share advice to help you meet the needs of eco-conscious customers, and potentially serve as a differentiator during sales calls.

Easy Money: Products With Big Margins, Easy Management
Date: March 11, 2010
If you are a VAR or MSP looking to expand your line card to deepen your relationship with your customers, some new hosted or managed solutions can bring in extra revenue with almost no labor output on your part. Editor Gennifer Biggs talk about products such as managed print, hosted email and security solutions, and, of course, hosted BDR. All these solutions allow you to offer more value without adding more staff or incurring training and certification costs. You will also hear sales advice from MSP Mike Mazan, President and CEO, SolutionWorx.

Arm Yourself For The Mobile Revolution
Date: Feb. 11, 2010
With the workforce going, in some places, utterly mobile, VARs and MSPs need to have the products to handle the ever-growing demands for security, access control, wireless control, desktop virtualization and more. These are not your parents' technology tools, and you need to add the right equipment and expertise the meet the needs of those customers with mobile workers. Editor Gennifer Biggs and Business Solutions President Jim Roddy will have advice on what products you need to have on your list, and questions to ask about those products with heavy play in the mobile world. We'll also chat with Chris Rue, who runs Black Warrior Tech, about the impact of mobility solutions on his IT business.

Products To Leverage For Your Own Economic Recovery
Date: January 14, 2010
During this webinar, Editor Gennifer Biggs and Business Solutions President Jim Roddy will tackle the preparation needed to evolve out of the recent recession a stronger IT organization. Since many VARs and MSPs have turned their attention to preparing for the economic recovery, we've got some tips about finding special licensing and/or products geared toward helping you get a foot in the door with potential customers now so you are in a better position to sell when the recessionary spending freeze is lifted. We'll also hear from special VAR guest Dean Wescott, CMO, Kincaid Network Solutions.

Where Do MSPs and VARs Fit into Cloud Computing?
During this webinar, Editor Gennifer Biggs and Business Solutions President Jim Roddy will discuss what "the cloud" is, how it might impact your IT business, and ways you can start preparing to build revenue around cloud offerings.

• First, we'll tackle exactly what cloud computing is (it is not nearly as confusing as it sounds).
• Second, we'll discuss ways the move toward cloud computing may impact your IT company and the way it provides services ranging from security to email to storage.

Lastly, we'll talk about ways you can prepare your company to remain profitable as cloud computing starts to change your business, and hear from guest Byron Attridge of master MSP ClubDrive, which has built and is selling its own private cloud offering.

Cloud Computing: What Every VAR and MSP Needs To Know
Date: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Jameson Publishing President Jim Roddy and Managed Services Editor Gennifer Biggs will discuss what "the cloud" is, how it might impact your IT business, and ways you can start preparing to build revenue around cloud offerings. First, we'll tackle exactly what cloud computing is (it is not nearly as confusing as it sounds). Second, we'll discuss ways the move toward cloud computing may impact your IT company and the way it provides services ranging from security to email to storage. We'll hear from guest Byron Attridge, EVP at ClubDrive, a virtualization and cloud solutions provider, about the ways VARs can sell those technologies. Lastly, we'll talk about ways you can prepare your company to remain profitable as cloud computing starts to change your business.

3 Hot Verticals for VARs and MSPs
Date: Thursday, November 19, 2009
Managed Services Editor Gennifer Biggs and special guest cohost Erin Harris, associate editor of Integrated Solutions magazine, will explore the potential growth markets of education, healthcare, and retail. We will share stories of success from VARs and MSPs working in those three hot verticals. We will discuss key value propositions for those looking to jump into one of those growing vertical spaces, many of which are being pushed to complete IT projects by mandates and/or funding from the federal government and others. We will welcome our special guest, Leo Bletnitsky, president of Las Vegas Med IT, who will share his insider tips on succeeding in the healthcare vertical.

How VARs and MSPs Can Grow with Web 2.0 Marketing
Date: Thursday, October 22, 2009
Jameson Publishing President Jim Roddy and Managed Services Editor Gennifer Biggs will offer suggestions for VARs and MSPs interested in fueling growth of their IT organization via Web 2.0 marketing. We'll start by defining Web 2.0, which encompasses everything from social media (Facebook) to blogs (Twitter and beyond) to visual content (YouTube) — and the marketing opportunity each provide.We'll talk about how to use Web 2.0 to enhance your traditional marketing efforts and to engage both existing and new customers. We'll share tips on using social media that we've heard from VARs and that we've tested in our own business. Plus, our guest VAR — Bruce Naylor, President of FrugalBrothers Software and author of FrugalTech — will explain how he utilizes free Web 2.0 opportunities to grow his security business.

Building the Right Team: Advice for VARs and MSPs
Date: Thursday, September 17, 2009
Jameson Publishing President Jim Roddy and Managed Services Editor Gennifer Biggs will offer advice on ways you can build the right team – and the appropriate "corporate culture" — to help support growth of your IT organization. Listen to specific advice for building a positive corporate culture shared by MSPs during a recent industry event, as well as hearing what we've heard during 100s of interviews with VARs and MSPs. Get 10 time-tested best practices for concrete actions you can take to create the right atmosphere for success in your channel company. Plus, tips on how to improve your hiring and training practices from our guest MSP, Wesley Gipe, CEO, Agil IT.

How VARs and MSPs can Make Money with SaaS
Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009
Jameson Publishing President Jim Roddy and Managed Services Editor Gennifer Biggs will address the burgeoning popularity of Software as a Service (SaaS) in this webinar, including what is behind its growth, where it fits within a MSP's line card, and how to make money selling SaaS. Editor Gennifer Biggs will also talk about advice for MSPs, pulling from what she heard while facilitating on panel on this topic at CompTIA Breakaway. Also joining us will be call-in guest BJ Farmer, an MSP who has been working with SaaS successfully for some time.

Time Management For VARs and MSPs
Date: Thursday, July 16, 2009
Jameson Publishing President Jim Roddy and Managed Services Editor Gennifer Biggs will discuss principles and actions that will help you efficiently manage your schedule, your business, and every project in between. We'll discuss details about a time management system that has been refined over the past 29 years by Jameson Publishing, publisher of Business Solutions magazine, and you'll hear advice from our guest, time management guru Jim Estill.