Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Thursday, March 15, 2018.
Actually, there are 10 timely updates designed for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look…
10. Distribution - VoiP: Westcon-Comstor has added Cisco IP phones with Multiplatform Firmware to its ForgeServe device-provisioning and lifecycle management solution, the companies say. The lineup now includes models in the Cisco IP 6800, 7800, and 8800 series. The addition of Cisco IP Phones with Multiplatform Firmware empowers solution providers to deliver automated phone provisioning and brings other management functions to their growing services portfolio, the companies say. Automated phone provisioning, also known as remote customization (RC), helps service providers setup redirection for their Cisco IP Phones, the duo adds.
9. Distribution - Unified Communications: Mitel has expanded its ScanSource partnership to streamline the distribution of its on-site products in the United States and to better equip U.S. partners with the high-value tools, services, and support needed to grow, the companies say. The growing relationship follows Mitel's recent global partner program strategy announcement.
8. Tampa Startups: Keep an eye on the Synapse Innovation Summit, set for March 28-29 in the Tampa area. Roughly 2,000 entrepreneurs, startups and investors are set to attend. Key speakers include IBM Chief Innovation Officer Bernard Meyerson and ConnectWise CEO Arnie Bellini. We'll share more thoughts soon.
7. Patch Management - Slow Down?: Following mass confusion about the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities, 72 percent of organizations planned to slow future software patch rollouts and yet 50 percent of organizations lack a strategy for securing endpoints that are waiting to be patched, leaving companies exposed, according to a Barkly survey. We'll share more details on MSSP Alert, ChannelE2E's sister site, later today. Related: Five patch management tips for MSPs from Datto's Autotask team.
6. M&A - Talent Management: Bullhorn, which offers cloud services for staffing and recruiting organizations has acquired Talent Rover and Jobscience, two providers of recruitment software built on the Salesforce platform.
5. M&A: Park Place Technologies has acquired Origina Technology Services, an Ireland-based hardware maintenance business. Through this acquisition, Park Place Technologies positions itself as the largest third-party maintenance provider (TPM) in Ireland, the company claims. Park Place provides post-warranty hardware maintenance to more than 11,000 customers, including tier-one OEMs, across 30,000 data centers in more than 100 countries.
4. M&A - Data Center Business: Ensono plans to acquire Wipro's hosted data center business and 900 employees for $405 million. We'll share more perspectives soon.
3. Cloud Partner Momentum: Within the IT channel, 66 percent of partners says cloud services have helped their organizations to increase revenue per customer, according to StorageCraft research released today. Also, 63 percent of partners report improved customer retention, and 23 percent have won new customers because of cloud services. In terms of revenue upside, 15 percent of partners leveraged cloud services to increase quarterly revenues between 11 and 19 percent; and 41 percent reported increased quarterly revenues of between 6-10 percent, StorageCraft says.
2. Today: Join us today (Thursday, March 15) for our latest webcast — The MSP to MSSP Roadmap: Potholes, Pitfalls and Profits, hosted by MSSP Alert (ChannelE2E's sister site). VAR and MSP leader Eric Dosal, CEO of Compuquip Cybersecurity, will describe his all-in bet on the security market — and his unvarnished views on managed security services. I’ll provide a reality check for MSPs pushing into security. And we’ll answer your questions throughout the live webcast. I look forward to the discussion with you.
1. Small Business Overconfidence?: Small business owners are showing unprecedented confidence in the economy, according to a record-high optimism index figure from the NFIB Small Business Economic Trends Survey, released earlier this week. It's OK to be optimistic, folks. But I'm hearing from more and more people -- including my accountant -- who think entrepreneurs are getting a bit arrogant and ignoring the economic risks around us. Record deficit spending coupled with relatively low interest rates could be a bad combo...
