P.E.B.K.A.C. If you're not familiar with this acronym, it refers to the part of the network that network engineers say is the hardest for them to manage: the user. Also known as "The Part Existing Between the Keyboard And the Chair." The user is considered hardest to manage because they're human. Unlike digital devices, they don't respond the same way to the same instruction given repeatedly. They have good and bad moods. They become distracted. They make mistakes. They are, simply, unpredictable. That's tough to manage.
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Posted by Howard M. Cohen on April 27, 20230 comments
Smart MSPs no longer focus on promoting the sale of any specific product. In fact, some have abandoned product sales altogether, preferring to partner with someone to procure and provide products when needed. What they really need to do, however, is change the way they look at new product introductions.
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Posted by Howard M. Cohen on April 17, 20230 comments
Let's read some tea leaves together, shall we? We're seeing sizable force reductions at many of our favorite partners' companies. We didn't really expect them, but still we don't really find ourselves surprised.
We also see very talented people in our channel suddenly seeking new opportunities. Some are high-ranking executives, but many are simply superb engineers and technologists. And some of those executives are superstar heroes of the channel. We wonder why anyone would ever let them leave.
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Posted by Howard M. Cohen on February 21, 20230 comments
My blog often talks about potential future evolutions available to MSPs in which the first letter changes from "M" to "C" as in cloud, or to "D" as in data. I've long predicted that each of our quality MSPs will eventually focus and specialize to continue growing their success. This time, however, I'd like to examine a change in the relationship that top MSPs enjoy with their clients that doesn't change the acronym in any way.
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Posted by Howard M. Cohen on January 18, 20230 comments
Back in the day, when I was still writing "The Changing Channel," I was asked every year to take a look into the coming year and write about the kinds of changes and planning that partners should be considering.
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Posted by Howard M. Cohen on December 19, 20220 comments
Are you still selling IT products? I don't mean pulling them through in your projects; I mean actively promoting certain products to your customers. If so, you may already be finding yourself in the minority.
Many MSPs have stopped actively promoting and selling products because they simply cannot make much money doing so. In fact, given the credit they may have to carry and the cost of operations to bring those products in and out, they may even lose money. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on October 14, 20220 comments
The latest changes to the relationship between Microsoft channel partners and Microsoft itself have drawn many reactions from the partners. Some have called it "a scary time to be a Microsoft channel partner." Some claim Microsoft is taking advantage of market conditions to "hit partners when they're down." Others are running petitions to get Microsoft to reverse these decisions. None of this is new.
In 2000, Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Partner Program (MSPP), which was widely greeted as something long-needed. Naturally, it had the same challenges as any new program, but everyone negotiated and broadly agreed to move forward together happily. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on March 29, 20220 comments
What do you love better than when a plan comes together? When two plans come together, together.
We've been reviewing the RCP 350 list of the top U.S. Microsoft partners over the past several months, and we've also been focusing on what ISVs, CSPs and other partners are doing to help their customers be better prepared for a hybrid future in which some people continue to work from home, some work in the office, and some go back and forth. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on February 03, 20220 comments
The "New Year predictions" article has always been my favorite to write because it's totally forward-looking and filled with enthusiasm for the future. Traditionally, on RCP, it has been titled "Marching Orders." I'm glad we're changing it this year because I have always felt the old title reflected a very Microsoft-like attitude toward partners, basically telling them what they need to be doing at any time.
The most successful partners have traditionally ignored that attitude and determined their own futures. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on December 29, 20210 comments
In 1998, the emergence of desktop publishing, digital printing and the Internet created an unprecedented opportunity for authors: self-publishing. Author Solutions was at the forefront of this pivotal change in the publishing industry and continues to be a global leader in self-publishing. Its imprints have helped more than 225,000 authors realize their dreams of publishing and have brought more than 310,000 new titles to market.
Thanks to Its Partner, It Was Ready When COVID Hit
When COVID-19 hit and everyone was sent to work from home, Author Solutions was able to move all of its domestic U.S. employees home and have them fully operational very quickly. CIO Joe Steinbach credits that to important work Author Solutions had already done with its partner, Advantage Communications Group. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on November 15, 20210 comments
In their next round of decisions, your customers are going to determine who gets to continue working from home, who returns to the office, and who gets to switch back and forth. No matter what they decide, you need to be ready to help them achieve their goals.
This presents a whole new potential path of evolution for MSPs, one that wasn't really anticipated when we first launched this blog, but now may become the preferred go-to model for many. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on October 01, 20210 comments
"Agile" is a poor little word. We've batted it around mercilessly these past several years. It's good to see it coming into its own now that we realize how agile methodology delivers more agility.
Those who've been around long enough will remember the early days of Cisco and its few competitors. You needed to run software to manage these new-fangled routers, but then you kind of became a sysadmin so it was cool. Then the genius idea came: Put that programming into firmware built right into the box. Much more efficient and tighter management, right? Yeah, no so much. More
Posted by Howard M. Cohen on September 08, 20210 comments