This is the third in a series of blog posts meant to apply Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to the IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. The post is meant to delve into Capital Requirements as a factor in creating Barriers to Entry for new firms to join the industry. According to Porter, below is a list of factors determining the Threat of Entry from new providers: Economies of scale Product Differentiation Capital Requirements Switching Costs Access to Distribution Channels Cost Disadvantages Independent of Scale Here is what Michael Porter has to say about Capital...


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This is the second in a series of blog posts meant to apply Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to the IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. The post is meant to delve into Product Differentiation as a factor in creating Barriers to Entry for new firms to join the industry. According to Porter, below is a list of factors contributing to a Threat of Entry: ·           Economies of scale ·           Product Differentiation ·           Capital Requirements ·           Switching Costs ·           Access to Distribution...


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This is the first in a series of blog posts meant to apply Michael Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis to the IT Managed Services Provider (MSP) industry. Porter's five forces analysis is a framework for industry analysis and business strategy development formed by Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School in 1979. It draws upon industrial organization (IO) economics to derive five forces that determine the competitive intensity and therefore attractiveness of a market. Attractiveness in this context refers to the overall industry profitability. An "unattractive" industry is one in which the combination...


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Just because you’re marketing to businesses, doesn’t mean you have to hide your personality. Many solution providers tend to de-emphasize personality. They shy away from using their CEO, president or some other spokesperson in their organization. I’m not sure why perhaps it’s because they believe, incorrectly in my opinion, that it is not professional. However, using personality to help drive the marketing of a business can be highly profitable. In fact, some of the largest tech companies are run by people with over sized personalities and these personalities are used to market the business...


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One of the goals of StreetSmartVAR is to empower solution providers as gatekeepers. As the expert bringing knowledge, advice and offers, you are the ‘owner’ of the relationship with your customers. Don’t underestimate the power in being the gatekeeper! May be it’s because of the recession, I don't know, some solution providers have forgotten how important they are to clients. It’s true that large vendors like IBM or HP have huge sales forces that seem to dominate the enterprise market but for the many small and midsized businesses, solution providers are (more...)


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IT buyers are spending differently now then post recession and, yes it may require better or different sales skills and marketing but the point is people are still buying. So why are so many people worried? I think it has to do with change. We want to believe that if we hold off a little things will go back to the way there were. Some people don’t want to look at their business and see what they can do to change. But that is exactly what you should be doing now. I believe that right now is an opportunity. As our buyer’s behavior has changed so should (more...)


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