Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to start your day for Friday, August 11, 2017.
Actually, there are 10 timely updates designed for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs), independent software vendors (ISVs), telco master agents and telco agents to sip on. Take a look:
10. Samsung Partner Program: Samsung Electronics America has bolstered its STEP (Samsung Team of Empowered Partners) program. The enhancements cover training and certification; expansion of its Marketing Concierge support; and a new channel program dedicated to accelerating mobile-first strategies, the company says. Also, keep an eye on the Mobility Solution Provider Program... Kevin Gilroy, executive VP and GM, Samsung Electronics America. drives the partner efforts.
9. Windows 10 Pro for Workstations: Microsoft has unveiled Windows 1o Pro for Workstations, a high-end version of the desktop operating system for power users. We'll share more details soon.
8. Google Meeting Canceled: Google has canceled a meeting about company diversity and hiring practices. The reason? Employees who submitted questions for the meeting had their names and questions leaked onto public forums. Google worried that the leak could have triggered an unsafe environment for such a meeting. The search giant has been in crisis mode this week, striving to listen to all views after James Damore posted a 10-page manifesto that questioned Google's hiring practices. Google fired Damore earlier this week because some of his comments allegedly creating a hostile work environment.
7. VoIP Services: Frontier Communications Corp. is promoting its AnyWare VoIP services into the SMB sector. The service provider plans to extend the service to other segments later this year, according to Fierce Telecom.
6. ServiceNow Partner Expansion: Crossfuze, a ServiceNow Gold Partner, has expanded into expansion into the European market by opening offices in London and Ireland. As part of the push, Crossfuze has named Gerry Fitzpatrick as Managing Director of Crossfuze Europe operations and Nick McGillivray as Sales Director Crossfuze Europe.
5. More Storage M&A?: FalconStor, the struggling storage provider, announced a smaller quarterly loss yesterday amid staff cuts. But revenue also plummeted 17 percent to $6.7 million during the quarter ended June 30. New CEO Todd Oseth is working to save the company, which is pursuing a reverse stock split to remain listed on the NASDAQ. Still, we wonder if FalconStor will be the next fire sale in the storage market, where companies like Zetta and Axcient have been sold in recent weeks...
4. Small Business Lending: Big banks are making more loans to small businesses, and loan approval rates have reached a new post-recession high, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index. That's potentially good news for IT service providers that need cash. But does it also suggest we're heading for another credit bubble?
3. M&A - IT Services: The Purple Guys has acquired We Are IT. Both IT service providers are located in the Kansas City area. Financial terms were not disclosed. We'll share more details soon.
2. Professional Services Automation (PSA): Several companies are striving to raise their visibility in the crowded PSA market. Among the recent customer wins or new developments:
- Khamma Group, an IT service provider, has deployed Promys PSA to consolidate managed services contracts, ticketing, CRM, quoting and more.
- Mavenlink says it has been ranked as a Leader in G2 Crowd's Professional Services Automation (PSA) grid.
- And Kimble has announced a "raft of new customers" -- including consulting organizations that have deployed the company's PSA platform.
We'll take a closer look at each of those PSA providers soon... In the meantime, here are 20 PSA software options for VARs and MSPs.
1. Next Week's Conferences: We'll be tracking D&H's Mid-West Summer Technology Show as well as Intel Developer Forum 2017 (IDF17) and The Channel Company's XChange 2017 conference next week. We typically don't invade XChange... But...
