Saturday, February 27, 2021

Harry B Hits the Road: Digital Inclusion Roadshow 2021 Begins NOW

Harry Brelsford passed me this press release over the transom . . .


Digital Inclusion Roadshow 2021 features pop-up computer donation sites to support local nonprofit organizations’ work to end the Digital Divide.



SMBNation, in cooperation with Lenovo, PC Matic and ZPI, kicks off a whirlwind pop-up technology donation event across 5-western U.S. states to support Digituity’s efforts to close the technology gap.


NORTH CONWAY, N.H., February 26, 2020 — Digitunity and SMBNation, in cooperation with technology manufacturer Lenovo, software provider PC Matic and managed service provider Zepol Productions, Inc. (ZPI), launches a whirlwind 5-state Digital Inclusion Road Show that includes technology donation drives to collect working used computers and repurpose them to provide technology access and skills training to people who need it most. 

“At Digitunity, we believe that device ownership is the heart of digital equity and the key to unlocking opportunity, particularly for those most marginalized,” shared Sue Krautbauer Digitunity’s Senior Director of Strategy and Development. “Owning a computer is essential in today’s digital society allowing one to participate in telehealth appointments, find employment, engage in training and more.”

Over 55 million people in the United Statesdo not have a computer at home, and tens of millions of households do not have enough computers to allow for concurrent use by multiple family members. Yet around 56 million new computers are purchased each year. What happened to the computers they replaced?  There are enough computers for everyone in America. "The need to close the digital divide has never been more urgent, and we here at PC Matic proudly support the mission of great organizations like Digitunity" stated Corey Munson, Vice President, PC Matic.

A computer donation drive is a great opportunity for local residents and technology businesses to donate used, working computers to local nonprofit organizations, who then put the donated laptops and desktops to good use supporting their community-based missions. “It’s in our DNA to support causes such as this technology drive. The tour is a natural fit as ZPI is in the technology hardware maintenance business, so we get it.”, said Scott Lopez, CEO, ZPI.

At each stop on the tour, a member of the Digital Opportunity Network, a nationwide Digitunity community of 1400+ member nonprofit organizations will be highlighted and benefit from the technology donations raised during this event.  These worthy organizations’ efforts include distributing computers and internet access, conducting skills training, digital support in their communities. 


Site-Specific Info:

(Check for Updates Here)

Feb 26 - Seattle, WA   => Supporting Interconnection.  https://interconnection.org/

Mar 1 - Boise, ID  => Supporting Computers for Kids.  https://www.cfkid.org/

Mar 2 - Salt Lake City, UT  => Supporting Tech Charities.  https://techcharities.org/

Mar 4 - Albuquerque, NM => Supporting multiple organizations, more info to come.

Mar 10 - Austin, TX => Supporting multiple organizations, more info to come.


“Lenovo’s vision as a company is to provide smarter technology for all" said Libby Richards, community engagement manager at Lenovo. “At Lenovo, we continue to partner with organizations like Digitunity to provide local communities with critical access to technology to help solve problems, create opportunities, and transform the way we all live."

The digital divide has been with us for decades and continues to be a barrier to success for millions in our country. Device ownership is the key that unlocks vast opportunity. The purpose of the Digital Inclusion Road Show is to unite local businesses and nonprofits and, by working together, to get computers to everyone in need in their communities.

To learn more about the Digital Inclusion Road Show or to donate, visit https://pages.donately.com/digitunity/campaign/digital-inclusion-road-show-2021

----------

Digitunity, an initiative of National Cristina Foundation, is leading a national strategy to eliminate the technology gap at scale. We partner, coordinate, educate, ignite and unite people, ideas and solutions so that everyone can participate fully in a digitally-connected world.  Learn more at www.digitunity.org.

SMB Nation is a nationwide community of over 3,000 small and medium business (SMB) technology professionals providing critical information technology services in their local markets. Learn more at www.smbnation.com

###


Tuesday, February 09, 2021

Position Your IT Firm for Growth or Sale – New Class Starts Feb. 16th

Totally Revised for 2021

Position Your IT Firm for Growth or Sale – 5W19

Taught By: Rayanne Buchianico


Five Tuesdays - February 16 - March 16

Register Now - Only $299

All classes start a 9:00 AM Pacific


As your business matures, you want to take control of profits and your financial house. You invested the time to set up your chart of accounts, align income with COGS for easy measuring, and organize your reports and service desk. You have the information you need; this course teaches you how to use it.

This class provides unique content from a unique teacher! Rayanne is a managed service provider from Tampa, FL. She is also an accountant and an Intuit Certified ProAdvisor. In addition to her MSP business, Rayanne helps I.T. consultants to take control of their finances and understand their own business at a deeper level.



Topics for this class include:

  • Create KPIs specific to your company
  • Benchmark against your peers
  • Detailed cash flow management and measure debt against income
  • Measure service-level profits and improve profitability
  • Identify red flags in your business, make changes before they become problems
  • Prepare your company for growth, sale or merger
  • Use margins to price your services for profit
  • Income Tax Planning and Projections
  • Action plans for success

... And More!


Delivered by Rayanne Buchianico, Accounting Professional and QuickBooks Advisor. Rayanne has been an MSP - managed service provider - for many years and advises MSPs on how to get the most out of their QuickBooks and PSA integrations.

Includes five weeks of webinar classes with related handouts, assignments, and "office hours" with the instructor.

This course is intended for business owners and managers. It is particularly useful for the Owner or Operations Manager.

Only $299

:-)


Monday, February 01, 2021

Acronis reports on the "Pulse of the Industry"

Today, Acronis published their Pulse of the Industry report. This is a follow-up to research they reported in 2020. The focus of this report is the future of managed services and where we make money. One un-surprising conclusion is that the move to the cloud is being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.


You can grab the report at: https://www.acronis.com/en-us/resource-center/resource/560/.


Here are a few of my thoughts.

One of the most striking findings is the comparison of actual 2020 sales with projected 2021 (and beyond) sales. The vast majority of respondents reported stable or increasing sales for unified communications, networking, and systems integrations.

Looking ahead, these same respondents project major reductions in traditional onsite maintenance, hardware and software sales, and even remote management. They foresee increases in cloud-based management and managed security services.

One important message in all of this: The source of your revenue is changing - fast.

Here's a personal caveat to all such reports: If you haven't read Flash Foresight by Daniel Burrus, please do so as quickly as possible. Burrus gives great advice about examining future trends. One of him most important points is that we can only find a handful of "future facts" or hard trends. Everything else is a future possibility or soft trend.

From the report:
Click to Enlarge

I reproduced one of the graphics from the report here. I will take the list of current top revenue sources as fact: Network security, endpoint protection, data protection, remote monitoring, and email security. But the projection for the next two years is topped by Cloud/SaaS security and backup. As the report points out, this "top" future revenue source is not even on the respondents' radar right now. 

Let me be clear: That's the direction we're going. But to move from not-on-the-list to top of the list in the next two years seems a bit drastic.

The report does make clear what most of us know and the rest suspect: Onsite hardware and software are disappearing fast. And the Covid pandemic is a great opportunity to talk to your clients about finally making the move. After all, many of them have been working from home while their server sits alone in a closet at the office. They understand that they don't have to be able to walk in the next room and touch the server in order for it to work.

Now, take all that and put in the context of modern ransomware, impending regulation, increased insurance rates, and the never-ending battle over cybersecurity. The result is that 2021 will be a great year for MSPs who are pivoting away from onsite hardware for email and storage. Those trends have been around for more than a dozen years, but they will take a big leap this year.

Please check out the report. I would be happy to discuss your feedback. Drop comments below.

:-)