Community Content

Background
As we all know, Skype for Business is the communication service integrated into Office 365.  Large enterprise and small businesses alike have already deployed, or are evaluating possible deployment of, Office 365.  Microsoft reports that over 70 million seats have been sold.  Yet, a vast majority of these customers also pay for additional services, such as GoToMeeting, WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc.  If the user (i.e., YOUR customer) understood the full capability of the Skype for Business service that they have access to (at no additional cost!), they could cancel their other services, saving them $600 or more annually… PER PERSON!

By Mary McCoy, Content Marketing Manager of Continuum Managed Services

By now, most MSPs recognize that offering backup is table stakes. Your clients can receive this service from any number of your competitors. In order to stand out and increase monthly recurring revenue (MRR), focus on the disaster recovery (DR) aspect of backup and disaster recovery (BDR). Offer your clients DR testing!

To fully capitalize on the advantages of DR testing, keep the following four best practices in mind when adding this service to your IT portfolio. 


SMB Nation Webinar Thursday, November 16th, 2016 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PST

Presented by: Harry Brelsford CEO at SMB Nation, and Mathieu Leblanc of SherWeb's 

Have you ever wondered why some channel partners are more successful than others? It takes more than just a good strategy. During this session, we'll share some real life stories about how our partners have built a successful business in the cloud. Find out how you can use your cloud provider's services to raise your game!

Ben Austin, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Continuum Managed Services

Are you looking to capture additional monthly recurring revenue (MRR) by selling your backup and disaster recovery (BDR) solution to more clients? If so, you have to understand the overall sales process and particularly, the Discovery phase, which is meant to help you identify the best candidates for your BDR solution.

To identify those small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with the highest probability of adopting your solution, begin by getting to know them. Uncover their needs by asking the following 10 questions.

By Pete Engler

There is no denying the emerging prevalence of cloud services within the technology industry. No longer are we solely relying on premises-based technologies to keep our day-to-day business activities going, but are, instead, deploying cloud technologies and accessing them from remote locations. While it seems that everyone is jumping on the new cloud services trend, it leaves many people wondering how it is affecting the traditional business channels, specifically its impact on distributors.

SMB Nation Webinar Thursday, November 10th, 2016 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PST

Presented by: Harry Brelsford CEO at SMB Nation, and Steve DaglessTransVault Director of Product Management

Organizations maintaining an archive today have an additional challenge when moving to Office 365.

YOU’RE INVITED TO THE CHANNELPRO SMB FORUM LIVE EVENTS! Give us one day and we'll send you home with all the expert sales, marketing, product, and operations advice you need to grow your I.T. revenue and boost your bottom line. 

Who should attend:

I.T. Resellers, MSPs, solution providers, and consultants looking for concrete, practical advice on building a healthier bottom line.

Event Location:

Boston November 3rd

SMB Nation Webinar Thursday, October 13th, 2016 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PST

Presented by: Harry Brelsford CEO at SMB Nation, and Chris Sterbenc Channel Chief, SVP of Sales at Infrascale

According to a recent study, 91% of responding MSPs say their customers have recently been victimized by ransomware and 40% experienced six or more

Atera, developer of the cloud-based IT automation platform that combines Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM software), Professional Services Automation (PSA), and remote access into one powerful solution, today announced that it has partnered with Webroot ,the market leader in next-generation endpoint security and cloud-based collective threat intelligence. The partnership will offer managed service providers (MSPs) a seamless integration of Atera’s MSP software solution and Webroot’s next-generation endpoint security powered by cloud-based collective threat intelligence. 

“With the increased threat of ransomware attacks,

Our own Grant Thompson, Chief Storytelling Officer on the Tour de Cloud roadshow and Solutions Architect at MG Technology Group, is at Microsoft Ignite this week. On Monday morning, Microsoft announced a new partnership with Adobe.

Azure is now the preferred cloud platform for Adobe cloud services and Adobe is now the preferred provider of cloud based creativity tools.

The significance of this relates to Dynamics 365 (CRM). As Microsoft Azure grows and expands capabilities - including analytics, it is set to be one of the most powerful sales, marketing and business tools available. Adobe has the leading suite of creative tools.

This partnership will create a platform for data-driven sales and marketing capabilities.

"The two companies are collaborating on data integrations to ensure customers can easily work across Adobe Marketing Cloud and Dynamics 365 business applications, leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and advance analytics. Customers will be able to use these integrations across Adobe and Microsoft solutions. The underlying data models will be extensible to enterprise customers, as well as third-party developers and partners, which will foster innovation and development across a shared ecosystem."

Once again I see the cloud bringing two tier enterprise solutions to the SMB affordably. Dynamics integrates with Office 365 and also has the ability to easily integrate with social media, email and other marketing channels.

IMPORTANT: If you are attending Ignite in Atlanta, Grant is hosting a community roundtable at 4pm Eastern on September 28th in room C206. Meet him outside. This is your chance to offer community feedback that will be communicated to Microsoft via the back channel - where stuff really gets done! 

 Be sure to attend the Tour de Cloud workshops being delivered across the USA this fall. Grant is the lead instructor. More details at www.tourdecloud.com - editor 

SQLSoft3, SMB Nation, and Microsoft, have turned October and November into SQLSoft3’s Microsoft Azure Extravaganza with FREE Azure Webinars, deals on Guaranteed-to-Run Azure classes, and Azure certification assistance with discounted Microsoft Certification Exam Vouchers.

The biggest challenge that people have, besides pronouncing the word "Azure" correctly, is finding a way to get a leg up

SMB Nation Webinar Thursday, September 29th, 2016 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM PST

Presented by: Harry Brelsford CEO at SMB Nation, and Anthony Graziano at SherWeb

Microsoft recently announced important changes to the Online Services Advisor (OSA) program.