ECM Executive Commentary
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Tech Advancements: The Biggest Threat — And The Biggest Opportunity — To The BTA Dealer Channel
3/17/2015
Technological advancements are ever changing and they continue to shape the channel as we know it. Convergence between the BTA dealer and IT VAR channels is rapidly taking place and end users are finding it more efficient and less expensive to work with a single technology provider that has everything under one roof instead of working with a number of different vendors.
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Ask Coach: What Sharing A Bathroom With 4 Women Taught Me About Family Strategic Planning
3/16/2015
Q: How do I do strategic planning with my family? Coach: Have you ever shared one bathroom with four women? I have. It makes for an interesting study in human relations and tests communication and mutual respect like no other situation I know.
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5 Reasons Why Rebranding Is Necessary
3/9/2015
In every company there comes the day when the shiny luster has worn off its branding and a company starts to wonder if the brand is doing more harm than good. Even industry giants rethink their brand: Pepsi has rebranded 11 times, Apple has done it three, and Starbucks, four.
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Keys To Managing Customer Relationships
3/6/2015
The keys to managing customer relationships are the same as managing any personal relationship. It boils down to listening, being a good partner, having good rapport, building trust, being transparent, having integrity, and being there when someone needs you. A good customer-IT solutions provider relationship is like a successful marriage.
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5 Reasons Your IT Clients Should Adopt A Business Rules Management System
3/4/2015
Today’s enterprise is working harder than ever for increased effectiveness and agility in business operations. The management of business decisions is a critical means to achieving these goals, and operations and IT teams should be able to quickly modify the business rules that affect decisions.
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Not All Of Your IT Clients Want The Cloud
3/4/2015
Cloud computing is the hot thing in IT and your clients might be hearing it’s inevitable. Marketers will try to convince your clients that their data should be in the cloud, sooner or later. Maybe. Maybe not.
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Ask Coach: How Do I Develop A True Leadership Team? Part 2
3/3/2015
Q: How do I develop a true leadership team? Coach: In our previous discussion on leadership teams, we examined how a diverse team enhances your ability to come up with innovative ideas or to solve complex problems. Just to recap, issues generally have three dimensions: tactical (task), relational (people) and systemic (big picture).
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The Transition From Entrepreneur To Leader
3/3/2015
Without a doubt the biggest challenges most small businesses face revolve around people.
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Selling To The Millennial Customer
2/27/2015
Many of us have owned our businesses for numerous years and come from the Boomer Generation. Boomers are frugal for the most part, and were raised with dial telephones, three-channel television, and in a single-income family. We saved our leftovers, ate everything on our plates, and the stores were closed on Sundays. We grew up with a mindset of budgets, and when we got out of college it was the ‘70s. We listened to vinyl records, FM radio, and drove an American-made car.
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Solutions Providers: Whatever You Do, Don’t Do This
2/27/2015
The “this” that I’m talking about is the practice that I’ve seen MSPs (managed services providers) and IT consultants repeat many times. Tragically, each repetition costs the MSP and/or IT consultant a ton of cash. The behavior that I’m talking about is the result of success that the MSP has had. Ironically, the more successful small MSPs are, the more rapidly they want to grow, hire more engineers, and enjoy more recurring revenue.