Content, 5 things

5 Channel Partner Updates: Monday 16 July 2018

Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Monday, July 16, 2018.

Actually, there are six 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:

6. Apple Setbacks: Apple has three pivotal executives in India in recent weeks as it struggles to boost iPhone sales in the world’s fastest-growing major smartphone market, Bloomberg says.

5. Earnings: This week's anticipated quarterly earnings announcements include Netflix (today), IBM (Wednesday) and Microsoft (Thursday), among others. We'll take a close look at cloud revenues at IBM and Microsoft, along with security revenues at IBM.

4. MSP Trends: The four most challenging aspects of running an MSP business include finding new clients (50.6%), finding good staff (37.1%), choosing the best solutions to offer (32.6%) and determining the best pricing strategy (27%), according to a CloudBerry Lab survey of MSPs.

3. M&A - Healthcare IT Services: Software company Mediware has acquired Fazzi Associates, an IT consulting and application coding firm that provides consulting and other services to the home care and hospice industry, Home Healthcare News reports.

2. M&A Due Diligence & Fraud: French technology consultancy Altran Technologies has discovered a case of forged purchase orders within its recently acquired U.S. design and engineering services firm Aricent, Reuters says. The forgery "relates to one individual, in his relation with one client" for an amount of $10 million, Altran said, adding that an investigation into Aricent's internal control procedures has been launched.

1. Live Blog - Microsoft Partner Conference: Microsoft Inspire, the former Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, is under way in Las Vegas. Track all Microsoft Inspire 2018 conference news and analysis here.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.