About the Managed Services Virtual Tradeshow:
Are You Ready for the Next Phase of IT Services?
March 20, 2007

Managed services are undergoing a sea change. Industry awareness has greatly increased, and a new emphasis on security, mobile technology, and data storage and recovery is fueling demand. Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are subscribing to managed services in increasing numbers as they discover that they can cut their costs and improve overall efficiency.

Meanwhile, the services are easier to deliver than ever before. Vendors have turned their focus to managed services and have created a new generation of tools specifically geared for delivering managed services. For many VARs, integrators and distributors, the steady revenue stream from managed services has proved to be a financial windfall, while the constant contact has helped them build stronger, closer relationships with their customers.

But for both businesses and solutions providers, managed services present new challenges. Businesses must identify the IT functions that are the best candidates for outsourcing and learn to work effectively with an external service provider. Solution providers must select the platform and tools best suited to the business sector they are targeting and integrate the new revenue model with their existing business.

Also, while SMBs present a new opportunity for solution providers, formidable challenges exist, such as evaluating and deploying the managed services tools best suited for your company, restructuring your revenue model so your investment in managed services is covered by your initial and ongoing costs, and increased competition for managed services both inside and outside the channel.

During this live, interactive, one-day virtual event, we'll explore ways that both managed service providers and consumers can make the transition to this new IT model.

Businesses will learn:

• How to evaluate IT functions and processes and find opportunities for efficiency
• What questions to ask a solution provider and how to evaluate the responses
• What steps to take to integrate managed services into a broader IT strategy

Solution providers will learn:

• How to build a richer relationship with clients through managed services
• How their peers have successfully migrated to managed services
• How to avoid managed services pitfalls and to develop best practices

If you are unable to attend on March 20, register anyway for an instant notification of when the show is available for archive participation! You'll be able to access the entire Virtual Tradeshow and all it has to offer, on-demand, for six months following the live event date. Don't miss out!