Today's video blog is about breaking out of the VoIP conundrum: If you currently sell VoIP, you're probably struggling with thinning profit margins.  Continue Reading..

Today, something a little different. I want to let you know/remind you that the RSPA (Retail Solutions Providers Association, the POS industry's only association) is collecting data from POS dealers to create a report of key performance indicators you can use to make better business decisions.  Continue Reading..

In many cases, it's a combination of many different things that contribute to a company's success and pinpointing what's leading to success is difficult.  Continue Reading..

An occasional topic amongst editors at Jameson Publishing, the parent company of Business Solutions, is getting “too close” to a topic. More specifically, we ask — due to our perspective, number of people we interview, the successful nature of the people we interview, the amount of knowledge we have, etc. — if maybe we’re missing the mark in our articles by assuming our audience knows the same things we know.  Continue Reading..

When I posed the question about selling VoIP to some VARs at a recent conference I attended, one reseller described selling this technology as a 'race to the bottom,' referring to cutthroat margins. As a result, many VoIP resellers are abandoning telephony in pursuit of more prosperous IT solutions such as BDR (backup and disaster recovery) and virtualization services.  Continue Reading..

I’ve been talking with some value-added distributors recently and asking them about the services they offer that are the most overlooked by their VARs.  Continue Reading..

Just yesterday I received an email from a reader who questioned an opinion article from Matt Pillar, the editor in chief of Integrated Solutions for Retailers (ISMR). While ISMR is an end-user/retailer-focused publication, Pillar has recently been talking with VARs and integrators and doing some writing for Business Solutions.  Continue Reading..

When we last spoke with IT Authorities, which describes itself as a pure managed services provider, it had already grown by 377% during the previous three years. Like you, we’re always curious to find out how sustainable that kind of growth is, and what are some things the really successful solutions and services providers are doing that you may not be doing — but could be. I caught up with Jason Caras, co-CEO of IT...  Continue Reading..

Just last week I wrote a blog post on our June issue, which highlighted all the great video surveillance content in the issue you should receive any day now. At the end of that post, I revealed some data from a recent survey we conducted. The gist? Forty-six percent of our audience (more than 18,000 readers) expects to add IP cameras/video surveillance solutions to their line cards within the next 18 months.  Continue Reading..

I've covered digital signage for a number of years, but never had much conviction that it was something POS (point of sale) VARs should be adding to their line cards. Until now. I've been reading success stories involving digital signage, seeing innovative new solutions pop up at industry events, and hearing about real implementations from readers.  Continue Reading..