Posts Tagged ‘profitability’

The storage appliance vendor says the number of registered partners in its worldwide channel network surged in 2011. Drawing new partners in is a combination of product features and channel programs that made sales easier and more profitable. It shows that technology and channel programs cannot stand independently.

Managed services was supposed to provide persistent and consistent high margins to offset the declining profitability of conventional hardware and software. Poor practices have created a climate of “artificial commodization,” in which service providers are contributing to the expedited demise of managed services profitability. 2112’s new report provides the prescription for countering this trend.

Managed service providers and the vendors that support them are seeing explosive growth opportunities over the next few years as more businesses look to outsource more IT functions. The problem is customers are pushing back on pricing, defying classic supply-side economics. Here’s why.

Conflicting surveys by CompTIA and the Cloud Convergence Council find wide ranges of cloud value and revenue performance among solution providers. The reality is that the cloud is transforming the way the channel delivers IT services, but it’s not the revenue gold mine producing vast fortunes at wildly accelerated rates.

Calling it the company’s biggest investment ever in partner profitability, McAfee announces an increase in margins for approved deal registered sales, giving security solution providers up to 25 percent of the sale.

Managed service advocates tout their model as being more profitable than conventional break/fix VARs. A new report by The 2112 Group and Corelytics finds that users of remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools are more profitable than their non-user counterparts. And the RMM benefits aren’t exclusive to managed service providers.

Cloud computing promises solution providers predictable and profitable recurring revenue. True financial return only comes when customers are engaged and expanding their service utilization – and the measurement for that is ‘average revenue per user.’

The ties in social media are too weak and superficial to contribute much to everyday business, at least right now. So, stop worrying about Twitter and Facebook.

Cisco executive and channel leadership put on the hard sell to partners of the vendor’s legacy of leadership and ability to stay ahead of change. The tone and message are ones of defense against the rising tide of competitive and technology challenges.

Large IT vendors, particularly software houses, are looking at managed services as the conduit to sustained revenue and profitability. But they’re not finding the riches they expected in what is – at least to them – a fractured marketplace that doesn’t live up to expectations. That’s a disconnect that could hurt the MSP segment.