Good morning, channel partners. Here are five technology news updates, insights, chatter, and plenty more to sip on for Monday, March 14, 2016.
Actually, there are 13 items for VARs, managed services providers (MSPs), cloud services providers (CSPs) and independent software vendors (ISVs) to sip on.
13. Exit Planning: Frequent ChannelE2E readers know that I highly recommend Walk Away Wealthy, a book about small business exit planning. Next up on my reading list: 100 Words from 100 Advisors, which contains short tips on exit planning for business owners. I plan to give it a read this week.
12. AWS Birthday: Amazon Web Services (AWS) just turned 10 years old. Here are 10 lesses from 10 years of AWS...
11. HIPAA Confuses Congress: When it comes to HIPAA compliance and mobile apps, even Congress is confused about the regulations. A March 9 letter from Congress to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) outlines the concerns and calls for clearer guidelines for HIPAA compliance.
10. Healthcare MSPs -- Five KPIs to Know: If you're an IT service provider moving into the healthcare market, you've got to talk the language of your medical practice customers. Among the KPIs to help them master: Cash receipts, charges, payables, patient appointments and no-shows, according to Libby Hornibrook, a CPA and healthcare practice group leader at DSB-CPA.com.
9. Ford Mobile Startup: Ford Motor Co. is launching a "separate but connected" subsidiary called Smart Mobility LLC. Among the key priorities: Finding a CEO for the Internet of Things (IoT) startup.
8. NetSuite Partner Program: The NetSuite Solution Provider Program has expanded to include EstesGroup, Fieldpoint Service Applications Inc. and OTT. NetSuite launched the program back in 2002, making it one of the first cloud partner programs for the channel.
7. MSP Marketing Services: Ulistic has opened a data center to support clientele in Asia and Australia. The company offers marketing, sales and other business acceleration services to MSPs worldwide.
6. MSP Software Reviews: MSP Comparison was designed to review MSP-oriented software like PSA (professional services automation) and RMM (remote monitoring and management). But it never quite gained a critical mass of reviews. In stark contrast, keep an eye on G2 Crowd -- a more mainstream online review system that's gaining more and more user reviews for various MSP software platforms.
5. MSP Payments Processing: ConnectBooster, a payments processing platform for ConnectWise and Autotask partners, has hired Jason Gibb as product development director. He previously was product manager for Intelligent Insights. ConnectBooster also hired Executive VP of Global Sales and Strategic Growth Rebecca Simons, a well-known ConnectWise veteran, earlier this year. ConnectBooster is an automated payment processing solution for MSPs that bridges the gap between a PSA solution, a customer's bank account, and the MSP's accounting software.
4. From Unicorns to Unicorpse: Many unicorns (startups with valuations of $1 billion or more) won't be able to fund their losses internally for more than a few months, and now have almost no access to external funding, according to a letter from Fairfax Financial Holdings to shareholders. The letter describes those unicorns as the "unicorpse" market...
3. Intel Venture Capital: The chip giant is looking to sell its $1 billion venture capital portfolio, Bloomberg asserts. The big wildcard: Would selling off the VC unit somehow impact Intel's own ability to spot the "next big thing" in mobile, analytics and data center computing? Hmmm...
2. Help Wanted: MSPs, IT service providers and channel-friendly organizations are hiring. Check out the ChannelE2E Job Board for some of the latest positions. Yes, you can submit your company's career opportunities and open positions for free.
1. Top 100 Venture Capitalists: Speaking of VCs, here's a look at the Top 100 Venture Capitalists, based on exits, consistency, recency of performance and plenty more.
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