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You just opened this blog (Thank You!) and about five seconds have past by the time you get HERE.

Please give me 50 more seconds of your time (starting now) and tell me which of the following things we could add - or, are most beneficial to you - at our Business Transformation Center website.

·         Instructional videos

·         Marketing support material

·         Technical information

·         Managed print best practices

·         Something else (Tell me! Tell me!)

Tell me here! (You can see the site here too!)

And if you can spare a bit more time, here's the fine print:

I want 2010 to be the year managed print services really take off for you.

And if you're thinking of adding managed print services, I want the Business Transformation Center to be a destination that really does help you get started, and help grow your business.

Check it out later!

And Happy Holidays!

Community member MarcusIT used the Ask a Blogger a Topic buttons in the SMB Channel Voice group to ask this question: Any last minute tax tips for businesses before 2009 ends?

Here you go, and this is advice my own accountant was not aware of (and it’s a great way to close a last minute sale, or bill a larger tech refresh in this calendar year)

Tell customers about the Depreciation and Section 179 Expense

In 2008, businesses were able to take “bonus” depreciation expense of up to 50% of the cost of newly acquired fixed assets. This provision has been extended for assets placed in service in 2009.

How it works:

Customers make a technology investment in 2009

Calculate its depreciation using the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS) table

Deduct up to $250,000 on 2009 tax

Example: Computers are a 5-Year property based on MACRS

Customer purchases of $20,000 in computer systems can deduct $2,304*

(based on straight line depreciation in year 4)

Here’s a link to the IRS details and forms:

                http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=177054,00.html

Also:

                Don’t forget the special depreciation allowance for certain property.

You may be able to take an additional first year special depreciation allowance for certain qualified property. The allowance is an additional deduction of 50% of the property’s depreciable basis (after any section 179 deduction and before figuring your regular depreciation deduction).

Property that qualifies for this special depreciation allowance includes the following.

Tangible property depreciated under the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS) with a recovery period of 20 years or less

Water utility property

Off-the-shelf computer software

Qualified leasehold improvement property

Here's the info:

                http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=177054,00.html

It's been nearly five years after Carly Fiorina was ousted as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and now her controversial tenure and divisive record as the head of HP will become the centerpiece of her campaign for the U.S. Senate in California. Running as a Republican, she's challenging incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer and she's touting her achievements at HP as evidence that she's ready to be a government leader. A recent statement from her campaign site says it all: "Carly made HP a stronger company."

Is it true? Or is Fiorina spinning things in her favor?

It seems a little unconventional to run a political campaign based on your record as a CEO when the company you worked for fired you and paid you $21 million to leave. But then again, when she was hired by HP in 1999 after a successful run as a group president at Lucent, Fiorina immediately became the most high-profile (not to mention, powerful) female CEO in America. She was the first female head of a Fortune 20 company and a company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. So we are talking about some major -- even historic -- achievements.

But it's hard to overlook her tumultuous tenure as head of HP, from proxy battles and layoffs over the hotly debated Compaq merger, to supporting offshore development and the expansion of the HB-1 visa program. In addition, the disruptive merger caused countless issues for HP channel partners, who were grasping at shrinking margins while trying to fend off IBM, Dell and other competitors. While Fiorina has received much credit for making the bold decision to acquire Compaq and developing a vision for a stronger, more diversified IT company, she was widely criticized for lacking the leadership and management skills to successfully execute that vision. As a result, HP had lost roughly half its stock value when Fiorina was finally forced out. (for additional reading, check out this AP story on Fiorina's campaign)

But Fiorina sees things differently. Her site points out that in 1999, her first year as CEO, HP's net revenue was $42 million. "When she left the company in February 2005," the site states, "HP’s net revenues had more than doubled to $86.7 billion and continued in the years that followed." Her campaign site also credits Fiorina with starting HP's current impressive five-year growth period.

"Despite persistent criticism from the media, rivals and political opponents since she left the company, Carly’s contribution to HP’s current strength is recognized by knowledgeable observers," Fiorina's campaign site states. "Carly Fiorina’s vision and leadership of Hewlett‐Packard (HP) set the company’s trajectory on a long‐term path for growth and global dominance. In an era of quick profits and short‐term strategies, it is important to take a step back and undertake a sober review of historical data. Many of the decisions made by Carly as CEO led directly to HP becoming a market leader with a global reach. Simply put, Carly made tough decisions to reform the company that were criticized at the time, but HP and its shareholders are now reaping the rewards of those decisions."

Perhaps a "sober review of historical data" will indeed put Fiorina's HP record in a new, more positive light. In any event, this senate race will be an interesting one to watch, whether you're a Golden State resident or not.

Face to face marketing works best, but Facebook to Facebook may be the next best thing. Custom systems builders caught in the conundrum of  “I need to spend more money on marketing to grow my business” and “I can afford to spend money on marketing” are turning to social media as a way to speak directly to customers.

Everything Channel research has long shown that fastest growing solution providers are the ones who spend most on marketing, often upwards of 10 percent of their annual revenue. But in this economy tithing on marketing is a tall order. A research number I like better is one showing 83 percent of college students access a social media site daily.

This phenomenon is not lost on custom systems builders. Component shortages with corresponding rising prices are just one of the issues creating both confusion and opportunity in the market. And instantaneous free marketing on social media sites may be the best way to capitalize. One custom systems builder, for example, alerted customers that memory prices had doubled and were likely poised to double again. His Facebook marketing message: Don’t put off new system purchases or memory upgrades. A few days later, when memory prices jumped again, he updated his Facebook customers with the message that DDR2 prices had reached parity with DDR3 memory so opt for DDR3 on your next purchase.

Systems builders now understand that better and faster applies to marketing and not just systems building. Those that don’t take social media marketing seriously risk falling behind.

This week, at XChange Tech Innovator in Las Vegas, we presented the 2009 Tech Innovator Awards. Awards went to those companies that created the most dynamic new opportunities for solution providers, and winners included companies like Fortinet, Xerox and Panasonic, who each snagged "Innovator of the Year" awards. Check out all the winners in our slide show, and look for more details coming soon.

One of the more difficult pieces of the managed services sales cycle is introducing managed services to customers who are not used to looking to you for their managed service needs.  I have had to go through this scenario at two different VARs as we introduced more managed services to our portfolio.  In both situations, the customers were very comfortable purchasing hardware, software and some services, but when it came to the new services (co-lo, managed print, disaster recovery…) the customers thought of someone else and I often did not find out about the project until it was too late. 

From these experiences I have found a few ways to introduce and incorporate these new services with my existing customer base:

-Create a Service-List:  A great way to let your customers know the full spectrum of services you provide is to create a list/brochure/wiki that lists them all out.  Make sure the list includes the services, a brief description and the supported technologies.  While this list won’t do the selling for you, it will give you a great springboard to start further managed service conversations. 

-Lunch and learn overview:  This is one of the most basic and most effective ways to both inform your customer on your services and educate yourself on customer needs that you may not have been aware.  This can be done either in person or remote.  I have found it surprisingly successful to let the IT group open up the invitations.  More times than not, my biggest cheerleaders here have come from non-IT entities (i.e. Purchasing, CFO, Marketing…).

-Re-purpose previous successes: Take a successful engagement from a previous customer and share some of the highlights with your current customer.  This is a personal favorite of mine because I can introduce metrics into the conversation.  Few things speak louder than numbers on a paper, and if you can take some proven savings and show them to a customer, you will definitely gain their attention and usually become a discussion point at their next meeting. 

What other ways have you found to bring new services to your new or existing base?

Our Question of the Week this week dared to ask which one word best describes 2009?

You did not shy away.

The non-scientific straw poll went to the glass-half-full consortium. About 70 percent responded with a positive term.

We had one flip-flopper, two rule-breakers, only one ALL CAP WRITER, and to my surprise, those of you who chose to cast your entry under the anonymous protection of the Business Transformation Site tempered your responses quite prudishly. About as bad as it got in there was a reference to using the toilet.

Some notables: Payback, lame, enlightening, BS, and my favorite one (no, we did not stuff the ballot): Transformation.

The polls are still open. Give us your word, here.

This week’s blog stems from the community poll question that’s been up asking: How do you primarily bill for your services? (which is still up, so cast you vote!)

So far, I‘m surprised that the response that mentions using all three billing options isn't way ahead of the pack.

One of the things that I have learned from my years of experience in IT is that as a Reseller\Service Provider we have to be flexible. All of us may have a preference of how we like to bill, but it all comes down to how the customer’s business handles budgets and financials. The key is to be flexible, because a happy customer means more business for our companies.

Another solution that most resellers\service providers don’t take advantage of is converting customers from break\fix (hourly), to managed services contracts.

When I first started in this business I struggled with how to approach this topic with my customers. How your customer feels about your business relationship is the key to this conversion. Don’t ruin the relationship by nitpicking billing hours, or not making yourself readily available at critical times (It will cost you in the long run).

Go the extra mile, make improvement suggestions, and generate documentation (documentation is huge because there is a lack of this in just about every IT shop). Once the foundation is set, your sales angle should be that managed services contracts will stabilize a customer’s IT budget, and lower overall costs.

Also, building that relationship that I mentioned will ease a lot of the difficulties associated with billing. You are less likely to be questioned about every billable minute if you’re trusted by the customer.

Let’s share some ideas on how to make this process more successful to benefit our community.

Look, I like Luke Wilson. He's a funny guy. I've been a fan ever since he and his brother Owen showed up in Wes Anderson's indie comedy "Bottle Rocket" in 1996. But he's not exactly a commanding pitch man. And that's just one of the problems with AT&T Wireless' new TV spot, which is a rebuttal to Verizon's catchy, compelling and extremely effective "There's a Map For That" advertising campaign.

AT&T suffered a major setback Wednesday in war with Verizon. AT&T sued its rival earlier this month and sought a restraining order against Verizon to force the company to stop running its 3G map ads. But a judge denied AT&T's request and stated that while Verizon's ad camapign might be a clever and a little tricky, the overall claims were true.

That's what Verizon has been saying all along, too. The company filed a legal brief with the court arguing that AT&T wasn't contesting the facts of the ad -- just the presentation -- and the only reason it was suing Verizon was because "the truth hurts."

Ouch. Well, the judge apparently agreed. So AT&T decided to rebound from that major setback by running new prime time TV spots featuring their own side-by-side comparison with Verizon. The ad, featuring Wilson in what looks like a deserted office building, claims that AT&T has the fastest 3G network. The ad also points out that AT&T's service allows you to surf the Web and talk on the phone at the same time (which I've never done, but hey, I might some day). But then the ad begins to reach a little. The next item on the board is most popular smartphones, which goes to AT&T -- come on, that has little to do with the wireless service carrier. Then the next item touts "access to over a 100,000 apps," which again goes in AT&T's favor.

And the last item? Well, that is a name that starts with the letter "V," which of course he awards to Verizon. It's even less funny when you watch it. And that's the problem here. Verizon's ads work because they riff on Apple's familiar and somewhat annoying "There's An App For That" campaign, which promotes the thousands upon thousands of popular yet nich-focused and even frivolous applications for the iPhone. And better yet, Verizon's ads have clearly struck a nerve with AT&T -- and perhaps consumers as well. AT&T's lawsuit and Verizon's subsequent Round 1 victory have only given more weight and publicity to the ads.

And if this is the best response AT&T can muster, then it's in trouble.

We have each heard the battle cry: “Move to managed services!”

But what does it really take? Turning your existing business model upside down and inside out?

I for one am growing tired of all these so-called MSP experts sprouting up with their Universities, books, lectures, etc.

They all just make me wonder: If they are/were so good at being MSPs, then why are they trying to sell books and monthly tuitions to make a buck?

This is the ugly side of the managed service equation. It is difficult enough to incorporate and move to an MSP model - sorting through the plethora of monitoring and management platforms available – and it sometime makes matters worse having to deal with MSP experts who have been there and done that and will give you their secrets for the low, low price of $99…

But wait, there’s more! Order now and receive my Guide to Happy Customers and a free MSP Toolkit. It’s a $350 value!

It takes planning and patience to move into managed services, and here is something the experts may not tell you. Managed services do not have to be all or nothing! You don’t have to move away from your core business, or drop it all, to become an MSP.

We at powersolution.com were engaged in managed services well before they were called managed services. We weren’t the first. Others came before us. But we made a decision to add a recurring revenue component to our business back in 1998, and we utilized the technology available at the time to streamline and transform our services business. It may not have been perfect or pretty, but we got the job done.

We use managed service components to create efficiencies in our business, allowing us to manage our client’s infrastructures more efficiently. This translated into cost savings for us, and our clients.

Bottom line, you don’t need to spend money on Universities and How-To books. There is plenty of quality information available to you at no cost.

Send me any questions you may have.

It’s not every day you hear one like this. Asustek is rumored to be considering purchasing Toshiba's mobile PC business, in a bid to become one of the world’s largest notebook PC makers.

Asustek, or Asus, is the hardware company kicked out off the netbook craze with its Eee PC-line of mini-notebooks. Toshiba is currently the world’s fourth largest mobile PC maker behind HP, Acer and Dell. Asus, as far as I can tell, isn’t actively engaged with the solution provider channel, which could raise some red flags for long time Toshiba partners.

Toshiba, on the other hand, does have a channel program and engages with solution providers. Of course, some partners raised their eyebrows when Toshiba America Information Systems earlier this year decided to “eliminate a layer of management” and part with channel stalwart Jerry Lumpkin.

I’ve reached out to Asus a few times for information on a reseller channel program as well as for information on forth coming projects. The only responses that have come my way have been about specific products. But I was curious about any potential channel program the computer maker might have, so I perused the open and public job reqs the company has posted.

Right now the open positions are focused primarily on sales reps for retail and e-tail channels. There are a few job postings that include the phrase “Develop and execute resellers channel program.” At the very least that looks like Asus might be pointed in the right direction. Unfortunately for some, those positions were all posted in Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t reseller channel development jobs available in the U.S. Instead it just that Asus isn’t looking to fill those positions currently.

But with regard to Toshiba, perhaps Asus would purchase Toshiba America Information Systems and use it as the skeleton of a channel program in this country? Dell had something of a framework of a reseller channel program in place before its 2008 purchase of EqualLogic. But, boy, once it got access to those happy EqualLogic vendors its channel program sure took off, didn’t it?

Maybe Asustek is looking to ape that success.

I had a client back in 1995 who said to me they wanted to pay us a fixed fee each month and for us to handle any technical issues that came from it. At the time I was too scared to take the risk that whatever fee I placed on this service, the client wouldn’t turn around costing me large amounts of money. Oh how I wish that I had the foresight to have made the leap back then to what we now call managed services.

This same customer also offered up the concept of renting the software and hardware from us for a fixed monthly fee, now what we know as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS).

Today, however, our business covers the monthly payroll bill alone with the money we get from managed services. That’s a nice feeling to have really – to know pretty much that everyone will get paid when you start the month. We are also doing more and more with SaaS/HaaS for our clients.

Why do I mention this? It’s simple really. Most SMB solution providers (like me) are technical people that have learned to be business people. They are techo first and foremost, and entrepreneur second.  As such we are often a little more conservative than “true business people” and we fail to take a risk when maybe we should.  I’ve learned over time to think long and hard about where things are going and how I might be able to take advantage of it.  I’m still not sure that I’m taking full advantage of the ideas my team comes up with, but at least I recognize that fact and seek guidance from others when I think I might be onto a winner.

The next time a customer asks you for something out of the ordinary, take a few moments to consider where this might lead to. You never know - you might be a trend-setter yourself and might be on the crest of the wave even before the wave starts to build.

Have you had a great idea, not taken advantage of it and then regretted it later?

I saw what might be my favorite headline of the year earlier this morning. It came from another publication that I won’t name, but it made me laugh when I saw it. The headline read: “Trojans likely to follow Win 7 activation hack.”

I know there’s a little more to it than just viruses to begin attacking Windows 7 environments. But still, the irony of looking at a headline talking about viruses on PCs made me laugh.

For a company that is constantly issuing patches to fix problems, holes and vulnerabilities, noting that Trojans are likely to follow in the wake of the release of the new OS last month is sort of like worrying about whether or not the sun will rise.

I’d be willing to bet none of you reading this blog is going to have this thought occur to them:

“You know, maybe I should buy some antivirus software to protect my customers’ Windows 7 environment.”

At this point, isn’t virus protection for Windows sort of like taking a drink when you’re thirsty: instinct? I should also point out that Windows isn’t the only environment that’s being targeted. Though Apple isn’t talking about it much, viruses targeting the OS X environment -- and more recently some iPhone worms -- have been proliferating.

Still it's important to remember that Windows 7 may be targeted by malicious code.

Direct X 11 is here, so where’s the new graphics hardware from Nvidia? Nowhere to be seen…

When Nvidia first announced its GT300 series of GPUs, the release date was set to 10/2009. Well, October has come and gone, and no next-gen Nvidia cards showed up – although the release of more GT 200 card models is good for the mid-range system builder. There has been little in official word from the graphics giant. However, during a financial conference call with analysts, Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said that the GT300 cards would be delayed until Q1 of the 2011 fiscal year, which for Nvidia is January 26 through April 26 in 2010.

If one is to give Nvidia a little elbow room, the delay means we wouldn’t see new hardware until February, or maybe even March. Going with the latter means the GT300 cards (presumably a GTX 380 and GTX 360) would hit the market roughly six months after AMD’s Direct X 11-capable HD 5000 series cards.

Not only does AMD have four high to mid range models available in the 5800 and 5700 series already, but a dual-GPU 5970 is expected within the next few weeks, and 5600 and 5300 series cards should arrive in the next few months.

While no official reason is being given for the delay, the culprit may be the lack of 40nm chips available for use in the GT300 series. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has yet to reach its full manufacturing capacity when it comes to 40nm processors, and everyone involved is feeling the squeeze.

If the GT300 series doesn’t launch until Q1 2010, Nvidia is in real danger of losing some serious market share to their friends over at ATI.

Did you know 38 percent of U.S. travelers will pay more to travel companies that protect the environment?

Hang on, it gets better. Those travelers who'll pay more for green goods and services will pay up to 10 percent more, says the Travel Industry of America.

Flashback to early 2009. A landscape architect named Nick Overall is honored as the Norwalk Tree Alliance's Tree Advocate of the Year. The appreciative Mr. Overall said news of the award immediately attracted new business from conservation-minded customers.

How do I know all this? I read the new Business Transformation Study on the Business Transformation site right here.

It's my reason for two green blogs in a row. Bookmark it real quick. Check it out later.