Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Carolyn April
State of Cybersecurity: Complexity Drives Need for Channel Help
Ask any conscientious IT executive today about cybersecurity and they’ll tell you it is an unrelenting task. To put it mildly, the checklist of daily duties and keep-you-up-at-night items is long and deeply challenging: Data and network protection efforts. Ransomware and business downtime avoidance. Compliance mandates. Employee education. You get the picture. Naturally then, another question to ask that IT executive is, “Do you need help?”.
Business 101: The Boring Stuff that Channel Firms Shouldn’t Ignore
I recently spoke with Bob Coppedge, an MSP owner, CompTIA member and all-around good guy, who joined a recording of the CompTIA Volley podcast that I co-host (his episode airs March 28). On this episode, we talked about one of those reality check topics for many in the channel. The premise was simple: Are you running your business effectively at the most basic levels?
Strategy and Tactics: The Channel Looks Ahead to 2024
Most of 2023 has been a guessing game about the direction of the global economy. Will stubborn inflation and world events spiral us into recession? Or will we luck out with a “soft landing” that saves the day as some in the economics’ chattering class predict? Right now, it’s looking more like the latter. The Fed is signaling that it will reduce interest rates, providing a massive shot of adrenaline to a lackluster stock market and credit seekers of all stripes. Inflation has shown signs of abating.
AI and the IT Channel: Sorting Out the Opportunities
Full disclosure: I was tempted to tap ChatGPT to craft this blog article. I didn’t, as it turns out, but I have little doubt the now-ubiquitous tool would have done a fine job building a narrative around the opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence (AI) holds for today’s IT channel. In perfect grammar, no less. Next time, I’ll give it a whirl. My own ChatGPT usage aside, AI is undeniably becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Buying and Selling: Is Channel M&A That Much of a Thing?
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) among channel companies — solution providers, resellers, IT consultants, telecom agents and more — are continuing at a brisk pace this year after a significant level of deal making in 2022. But is channel consolidation really a thing? How M&A Activity Affects the Channel To give you the short, ambiguous answer, yes and no.
Researching the Channel: A Solid Foundation Eyes Future
By my count I’ve been covering the IT channel in some form or another since 2003. Yes, 20 years. And while I lament the reflection on my own age, I love what two busy decades (and many more years before that) say about the channel’s longevity. It’s been quite a ride. In that time, I’ve witnessed much.
IT Industry Outlook: Channel Business Model Evolution Continues Apace
Welcome to the cusp of 2023. With any luck, this will be the first full year in recent memory when the pandemic is not front and center as a concern, the economy stabilizes, and the general business climate points toward optimism and investment. Happy New Year! We’re all pulling for it. It remains a paradoxical time, however, one in which companies are at once ready to forge ahead with new investments and innovations while remaining mindful to proceed with some caution.
Cybersecurity 2022: Opportunity Knocks for the Channel
Here’s a headline grabber: Global financial damages from cybercrime totaled $6.1 trillion in 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures. Yep, sit with that. Stunningly, this number is expected to grow 15% year-over-year, reaching $10.5 trillion by 2025. Damages range from quantifiable costs like those associated with recovering stolen data or paying out ransomware to the immeasurable impact that a tarnished reputation has on a business when customer trust is lost.
Small businesses embrace technology: 62% of owners say IT is key to growth
Editor’s note: Carolyn April is Senior Director, Industry Analysis at CompTIA, a non-profit trade association, issuing professional certifications for the information technology industry. +++ How’s this for a fun fact? More than 99% of all businesses in the United States are “small” by definition, employing fewer than 500 workers, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. That adds up to a whopping 32.5 million businesses that employ 48% of the country’s workforce as of 2021.
Need Tech? Call Your Accountant
Awash in new players and old, today’s technology marketplace looks both foreign and familiar. There are the usual suspects selling direct or online — major vendors such as Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Apple, Amazon and so on. And there’s the enormous downstream network of tech-focused, third-party service providers, resellers and distributors that push a bulk of sales and tech-related services. But that’s not all.
How Operational Efficiencies Improve Channel Profit
Your sales reps are killing it and revenue is rolling in. Just one problem: Profit margins are not even close to where you expect them to be. Why? Take a look internally. Disappointing results that can’t be blamed on external factors such as poor sales most likely stem from inefficient business and technical processes that can drag down an organization and thwart profitability.
Running a Tight Ship: The Impact of Operational Efficiency on Profits
Your sales reps are killing it and revenue is rolling in. So why are your profit margins not where you expect them to be? Disappointing results that cannot be blamed on disappointing revenue most likely stem from inefficient business and technical processes that can drag down an organization and thwart profitability. It’s a problem that dogs many channel companies today, one that will only grow more pronounced as firms move into new business models.
What’s Driving SaaS Emergence In The Channel
By Carolyn April, Senior Director, Industry Analysis, CompTIA Inside CompTIA’s latest research examining the burgeoning channel ecosystem building around the SaaS community. CompTIA’s recent research study, “Software as a Service: Opportunities & Challenges,” collected data from 400 U.S.-based IT channel firms.
Three Key Things the Channel Needs to Know about New IT Buyers
Who’s buying what you’re selling today? The IT department? The CIO? The small business owner? Any of those three is a good bet. For decades, these job roles have been the prime sales targets for the clear majority of channel firms. And they remain the predominant types of end customer buyers to this day. But in the as-a-service world of cloud, the typical customer is no longer so typical.
3 Key Things the Channel Needs to Know About New IT Buyers
Who’s buying what you’re selling today? The IT department? The CIO? The small business owner? Any of those three is a good bet. For decades, these job roles have been the prime sales targets for the clear majority of channel firms. And they remain the predominant types of end customer buyers to this day. But in the as-a-service world of cloud, the “typical” customer is no longer so typical.
A Senior Ingram Micro Executive's Thoughts on the Channel’s Future
As Senior Vice President of U.S. Go-to-Market for Ingram Micro, Kirk Robinson is responsible for sales, vendor management and marketing. It’s a big role that allows for deep insights into today’s state of the indirect channel. For its part, Ingram has taken a lead role in helping partners transition to cloud and other services, and to manage their upstream relationships with vendors. In the following Q&A, Robinson shares some of his thoughts about the IT industry and where it’s headed.
CompTIA: AWS Managed Services Means MSPs Must Retool or Die
Amazon’s foray into managed services is certainly cause for pause if you are an MSP today. But instead of viewing this development as an immediate competitive threat – it isn’t – consider it the catalyst to retool your business. MSPs today need to think beyond the basics of network monitoring, patch management, backup or provisioning. Amazon may well expand into the SMB market some day with a fully commoditized and attractively priced set of these same basic services.
CompTIA: Study Shows Reality is Pulling the Channel’s Head out of the Cloud
Every once in a while, a reality check hits you. Is my kid really Harvard material? Will I ever fit into my 10-year-old clothes again? Am I honestly cut out to run this bed and breakfast? It’s what we do as human beings -- second-guessing, tinkering, course-correcting. Reflective thinking is also the smart way to operate a business, though not always a pleasant exercise. Just ask practitioners in the IT channel.
Indirectly Speaking: Solution Providers Should Be the General Contractors of IT
A reputable general contractor can be a godsend to a building project. (I know, I know, horror stories abound, but let’s go with positive thinking for a minute here.) The reality is that the typical layperson is ill-equipped to vet and secure the right electrician, dry wall guy, plumber and so forth to build a new home. Enter the general contractor. They are there to cut through the chaos. They navigate. They find the right people for your needs.
Do Your Customers Understand What 'Managed Services' Are?
I’m not a big fan of the term “managed services.” It’s vague and nondescript, unlikely to pique customer curiosity. Bland name though it is, however, managed services remains an attractive business model for channel firms and a valuable IT management option for many customers. The challenge is getting the message out there. CompTIA’s 4th Annual Trends in Managed Services research study takes a look at how end users view managed services today. Do they know what managed services even means?
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Carolyn
Contact Carolyn, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack