Cybersecurity threat advisory: Lockbit ransomware on the rise
Global consulting firm Accenture was recently hit by a ransomware attack that was allegedly carried by the ransomware group, LockBit. In response, SKOUT Managed XDR (now a Barracuda offering) has updated their threat intelligence to include key indicators of compromised...
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...
Cybersecurity dangers when a business closes
Most MSPs are banking on their clients staying in business and hoping for a long, fruitful partnership based on delivered value and shared needs. But businesses do fail, and lurking within the ruins of a wrecked business are cybersecurity dangers...
Tech Time Warp: eBay Inc. gets its start
What are your Labor Day weekend plans? Chances are they won’t prove as lucrative as those of Pierre Omidyar back in 1995, who spent his three-day weekend launching a website called AuctionWeb from his San Jose home. We now know...
Sales & Marketing
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...
Using MSP marketing to remain front of mind with customers
Previously, I wrote on SmarterMSP about removing serious mistakes from your MSP marketing activities that prevent them from being their most effective. In this post, I want to warn service providers of ways that their MSP marketing can fail to...
How to write a sales email to prepare prospects to talk
Despite a wave of technology-driven sales tactics, email still remains an effective marketing tool in terms of return on investment (ROI) for small to medium-sized MSPs. Even though any MSP can say they know How to Write a Sales Email,...
Security
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...
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...
The cybersecurity dangers of isolation
One of the biggest cybersecurity dangers of the past year hasn’t been necessarily lurking in a bad attachment. It’s another type of attachment that is causing problems: the lack of attachment. “Before the pandemic, I’d have lunch once a month...
Better Business
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...
IT leaders start to move past COVID-19 era
As organizations of all sizes continue to wait and see how the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic might evolve, a survey of 400 IT leaders at organizations with more than 500 employees suggests IT leaders, in terms of setting...
Tech Insight
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...
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...
Unified IT service delivery: Future proofing with automation
COVID-19 has forced all industries to rethink how they work. Now that remote and hybrid work are the new norm, enterprises are concerned about running into technical issues that could hamper productivity. Customers expect MSPs to maintain a unified IT...