The Business Solutions Network

I just returned from ESX Nashville, a convention dedicated to video surveillance and access control technologies. Over the course of two days, I had many conversations with experts in the security field, giving me the opportunity to validate some of the information we hear from readers every week. After putting together all this information, I've arrived at 7 common mistakes many of today's IT integrators are making.  Continue Reading..

The December 2010 issue of Business Solutions featured a solutions provider whose story brought together a few things we and our editors and readers hold dear.  Continue Reading..

I’ll tell you right now, this isn’t an article about loss prevention (LP). Sure, one of the most obvious ways of using IP cameras is for LP, but if that’s the angle you’re going to take in selling these solutions to your retail customers, you’re probably not going to have much success. Leading security integrators will tell you that to win big, you need to show a strong ROI. That’s true for any...  Continue Reading..

For the past 5 years or so, around this time of year, I send out an email to our POS readers regarding the importance of attending RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association) RetailNOW, a convention and expo aimed at IT solutions providers serving the retail and hospitality markets. I do so again this year, but with the highest level of urgency and conviction.  Continue Reading..

A few weeks ago, I wrote The Lazy VAR's Guide To Recurring Revenue. The contents of the article, at this point, have become the table of contents for a much larger project we're working on which will educate VARs on all the different ways they can be earning recurring revenue.  Continue Reading..

We haven't covered kiosks as much as we've covered other technologies in the magazine over the years. If I had to guess, I'd say that many VARs are put off by the enclosure portion of the solution. As you might know, there's way more to doing kiosk enclosures than people would expect. In 2009, I spoke with Chris Gilder, CEO of Merdian Kiosks, a company that specializes in kiosks (if the name didn't give that away),...  Continue Reading..

A friend of mine outside the world of resellers and IT reads this blog on a daily basis just because he wants to be a supportive friend and help boost my Google Analytics ego. Since its launch, we've posted 80 articles here on various topics. Of course, certain themes have presented themselves which even my friend the outsider has caught onto. Just the other day he asked me about the POS industry and what was happening.  Continue Reading..

Some of you may recall RSPA RetailNOW a few years ago (2009) when United Bank Card (UBC), now Harbortouch, made its grand appearance at the show. Jared Isaacman, the company's CEO, received boos from some of the dealers in the crowd as he tried to make an announcement that included the concept of free POS (point of sale) hardware and software.  Continue Reading..

If you've been following this blog or reading our monthly magazine, you know that we've been writing regularly about the opportunity for our integrator audience to sell IP video solutions. At this point, we've used survey data, analyst commentary, comments from experts, anecdotes from readers who've successfully made the jump, and so on.  Continue Reading..

Since Sunday evening, I've been in Orlando, FL for Autotask Community Live! If you aren't familiar with Autotask, the company manufacturers software designed to (according to its website) organize, automate, and optimize your IT business so you can spend less time managing it and more time growing it. This is my first time attending the event and I'm pretty impressed for a number of reasons.  Continue Reading..