Survey finds MSPs “cautiously optimistic” as recurring revenues grow
Recurring revenues increased sharply for MSPs during Q2 of 2021, according to a new study released last month by Channel Futures. The second quarterly benchmark survey collected insights from 200 MSPs and MSSPs, in order to get a pulse on...
The PT BUZZ Podcast: Tips for ransomware protection
PT Services is excited to kick off a new podcast series called the PT Buzz. Over the next few months, we’ll be checking in with different subject matter experts from Barracuda MSP, as we take a deeper dive into issues...
MSPs must focus where IT labor skills shortage is greatest
One of the business adages that remains tried and true in any era is that identifying a customer pain point and solving it for them is a sure-fire path to success. In the case of IT organizations, a survey of...
MSPs can offer hosted managed desktops to customers
In my most recent post, I looked at why the use of hosted managed desktops makes sense to an organisation at a high level. In this post, I’ll drill down further as to why MSPs should be looking into offering...
Sales & Marketing
Podcasting for MSPs: It’s about the audience and guest
After recently sitting down as a guest on the SmarterMSP podcast, I got to thinking about how podcasting, and the revolution that is currently taking place all around us, is truly one of the most exciting marketing opportunities I’ve seen...
3 MSP marketing ideas for National IT Professionals Day
Thanks to social media and marketing, there’s a holiday every day of the year. These social media or marketing holidays are a great way to engage with your audience through MSP marketing, build brand awareness, offer sales or specials, and...
How to effectively nurture prospects in your MSP sales pipeline
Sales efforts focused solely on finding prospects that are ready to engage right now, are missing out on the majority of viable prospects in your MSP sales pipeline or addressable market. Think about the last time you had a need...
Security
Tech Time Warp: Swen worm poses as security patch
The hits for network admins kept coming in late summer/early fall 2003. Just weeks after the Blaster-Welchia-SoBig.F triple punch, the Swen worm wriggled its way onto at least 1.5 million computers. Like so many other pieces of malware, Swen exploited...
Cybersecurity implications of PIPL
Idyllic fields of corn and soybeans spread out in all directions from a small midwestern manufacturing campus. Tucked within a town of around 20,000 people, the facility seems worlds away. But a recent data breach on the company’s servers illustrates...
MSPs need to keep an eye on “soft targets”
I talk to MSP owners weekly about cybersecurity trends in the industry and which trends are the most troubling. By far, what I hear about most in 2021 is ransomware. And the statistics bear out the fear of ransomware hitting...
Better Business
MSPs can help customers reduce data storage costs
Even though the cost of storing a terabyte of data has dropped dramatically over the last several years, the total volume of data being stored has resulted in a marked increase in the percentage of the IT budget being allocated...
MSPs must address their IT talent management
The single biggest gating factor when it comes to enabling managed service providers (MSPs) to expand their business is almost always the available technology expertise they can hire. MSPs are locked in a perennial war for IT talent not only...
Identifying an MSP’s most important KPIs
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are critical for managed services providers (MSPs) looking to leverage data-driven decisions to enhance their operations and offerings. They help a business accurately measure and track key metrics that then enable them to make more informed...
Tech Insight
MSPs should expect remote work to be here to stay
A survey of 402 executives and technology professionals in the U.S. conducted by Dimensional Research on behalf of ManageEngine, a unit of ZoHo that provides an IT operations platform, suggests managed service providers (MSPs) will be supporting large numbers of...
Tech Time Warp: The first FORTRAN program runs
Although FORTRAN was not commercially released until 1957, the date September 20, 1954, is also significant in the history of the groundbreaking computer language. That’s when the first FORTRAN program successfully ran while in development at IBM. John Backus worked...
Pioneers in Tech: Luis von Ahn turns everyone into a crowdsourcer
Depending on your point of view, a CAPTCHA or a reCAPTCHA is either an annoyance (who can read those fuzzy letters, anyway?) or a boon to security, preventing fake account creation, spam commenting, fraudulent transactions, and more. But did you...