Charles Weaver's blog

Now that I have your attention, as well as the attention of your firewall, I will tell you all about this potentially lucrative new area of managed IT services. Actually, I’m not sure how lucrative it really is but it is fascinating from a theoretical perspective.

In response to the FL (and other states) sales tax issue, the MSPAlliance (in conjunction with a national accounting firm with deep familiarity of the managed services profession) will be offering members free consultation on tax issues facing managed service providers.

Last week in Dallas Texas approximately 20 executives from MSPs all over the country gathered to discuss Merger and Acquisition (M&A) trends and issues facing their industry. The workshop covered a wide variety of issues, all M&A related, from deal structure to valuation models currently in use.

Most importantly, feedback on the workshop from the MSPs has been outstanding.

I thought I'd start a blog just for the great comments we receive from members. These two just came in during the last week. We will be adding to this blog from time to time so keep sending in your comments, especially if you've received a value out of your affiliation with the MSPAlliance. We certainly appreciate all of you! 

We had a great meeting yesterday with a CEO of a up and coming unified communications platform company and have some thoughts to share. I say up and coming but they are really an established company with offices in multiple countries and a solid global footprint of resellers and end-users. 

UPDATE! We are hearing from MSPs all across the Country that are facing the same tax issue. Please read Celia's blog updating you on the steps we've taken to help MSPs with this issue: http://www.mspalliance.com/blogs/urgent-tax-issue-facing-florida-msps#comment-396 

I have been talking to some MSPs (one as recently as today who will remain anonymous) who have been trying a new model in managed services that I hope will continue to gain acceptance. I am talking about how to sell managed services.

2010 is going to be a great year for Managed Service Providers, but don’t think that means it’s going to be easy. There are challenges ahead and even the smallest to the largest MSPs need to be prepared. In order to thrive in 2010, every MSP must have a...

Business Plan.

It’s that time again to take stock in the year we leave behind and look forward to the year ahead of us. While 2009 will go down as a very tough year for a lot of MSPs, there are some important signs appearing even now about what 2010 will look like.