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Coretelligent’s CEO interviewed by CRN

Platform MSP Coretelligent Buys Pennsylvania Firm In Mid-Atlantic Play

‘We certainly had to work hard. There’s no shortage of competition in the MSP space, but between our leadership team and our terrific investors, we succeeded. And we approached the acquisition like we always do by being open and honest and talking through the positives of a potential acquisition, and also some of the risk areas,’ says Kevin Routhier, Coretelligent founder, president, and CEO.

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This quarter we discuss the one key concern MSPs face in 2016 with our panel of solution providers

Welcome to this quarter’s Channelnomics Advisory Panel.

Each quarter we pose a pressing channel question to our panel – made up of solution providers only – and get their take on what’s going on in the channel. We will collate all the comments and deliver to you the most pressing concerns your peers have highlighted for that quarter in the chosen subject area.
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This quarter’s focus for the Channelnomics Advisory Panel, in conjunction with the lead up to our MSP conference in April in NYC, is the key concerns that MSPs face in 2016.

With the channel moving more and more towards managed services offerings, increased competition is an obvious concern for MSPs. In today’s services-led channel, a key concern is the notion that any IT player can set themselves up as an MSP, irrepective of the specific services they offer. On top of this, for established MSPs, seeing VAR peers moving over to MSP territory is worrying, as is vendor movement in the services space.

Read the full article on Channelnomics

The Elite

The 2016 MSP 500 list recognizes those companies in North America whose approach to delivering managed services is one innovative step ahead. The Elite 150 are large data-center-focused companies with a mix of on-premise and off-premise services.

View the full slideshow at CRN.com

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that more than 200 million devices (PCs, phones and tablets) were now running Windows 10. Many of those 200 million devices belong to business users, who upgraded to Windows 10 (in many cases for free). And while Microsoft’s latest operating system touts many benefits for small business users, such as improved security, Windows 10 may not be right – or right for right now – for every small business. So before you consider upgrading or rolling out Windows 10 to your small business, here are some things you should know.

1. Windows 10 may not be compatible with some legacy software and equipment, including some servers. “Verify compatibility before upgrading and installing Windows 10,” says Mike Joseph, engineer, Coretelligent, an IT support and private cloud service provider serving SMBs. “Small businesses should first verify that their mission-critical software applications, especially backup software, antivirus and any industry-specific applications, and devices like printers and other peripherals, are compatible with Windows 10. The last thing they want to happen is to upgrade, then uncover compatibility issues that could have been avoided.”

Read the full article on the CIO

Our Q3 profilee Chris Messer tells us what he thinks of the channel

Welcome to our Q3 Channelnomics Advisory Panel member profile!

This quarter we talk to Chris Messer, SVP of technology at Needham, MA solution provider Coretelligent.
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Chris, thank you for agreeing to be our Advisory Panel profilee this quarter. Hopefully you won’t be fazed by the questions we have for you….

What are your key challenges at the moment?

Our key challenges right now definitely revolve around our continued growth. Balancing how we operationalize that business, specifically with an eye towards staffing – finding the right technical talent to work in the consulting space is always a tall order.

For us, being able to pivot and do that quickly on the fly as new business comes in so that we can stay ahead of the staffing curve, I’d say, is one of our biggest challenges.

Personally for me, an eye towards growing and expanding our private cloud-hosting operation, which is getting to be a real cornerstone of our business model at this point. Keeping up to speed with expanding our compute, storage and networking resources to cope with the increased customer demand on the platform.

Read the entire Q&A on Channelnomics

This quarter we discuss mobility with our panel of solution providers

Welcome to this quarter’s Channelnomics Advisory Panel.

Each quarter we pose a pressing channel question to our panel – made up of solution providers only – and get their take on what’s going on in the channel. We will collate all the comments and deliver to you the most pressing concerns your peers have highlighted for that quarter in the chosen subject area.
Related articles

Each quarter we will also profile one panel member (Coretelligent’s Chris Messer) so that you can get to know your peers that sit on the panel. You will find the interview directly after this piece on the site, so be sure to check it out!

This quarter’s focus for the Channelnomics Advisory Panel, in conjunction with our Fortnight Focus, is mobility, which is becoming more and more important as each day passes. Like it or not, the world has gone mobile and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Organizations large and small need to accept that they have to embrace mobility, be it for their workers, work processes, sales or strategies.

Read the full article on Channelnomics

Helping Youth Through Technology

Technology may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay, a nonprofit organization dedicated to matching area children with adult volunteer mentors. But after Needham-based Coretelligent conducted an extensive survey of BBBSMB’s technological infrastructure, the nonprofit implemented significant improvements, making them better able to support both their daily operations as well as position themselves for projected growth. For their role in making instrumental changes to the area’s youth, Coretelligent has been named a 2015 Corporate Citizenship Partner of the Year.

Kevin Routhier, Coretelligent founder and CEO, was initially introduced to the organization by a colleague, and took an immediate liking to BBBSMB’s mission of ensuring that every child have the support of a caring adult. “It’s a great way to give back to the community,” he said.

His involvement with the organization quickly went from donor, to assisting with events, to his current seat on the board of directors. Also a member of their technology task force, his focus is on making sure the organization is using the technology available to power their business.

“About 18 months ago, a group of Coretelligent’s senior engineers spent a few days evaluating Big Brother/Big Sister’s infrastructure,” said Routhier. This included analysis of their architecture, security, handling and managing of data, and a continuity plan in case of data interruption. The resulting executive summary advised the nonprofit on best practices and areas on which to budget for improvement.

A second, similar initiative took place several months later, this time focusing on ways to help the organization modernize their volunteer match platform. A priority was to create an efficient and sustainable way to keep track of the vast amount of data that BBBS accumulates.

“We have a staff of about 70, and we support 2,100 big brother/big sister matches,” explained Wendy Foster, BBBSMB president and CEO. “Within each match is at least three people: a child, a volunteer and a parent or guardian, amounting to 6,300 people. On top of that, we get countless inquiries.”

But the nature of their business — supporting youth and preparing them for success — means there’s really no limit to the assistance they can offer.

“We’re intent on expanding our service beyond the 2,100 matches,” added Foster.

Coretelligent was able to recommend upgrades to help improve the yields for volunteer and youth recruitment, support existing matches, and anticipate growth.

Other IT changes helped to assist workers in operating remotely. “This is also a great help; being able to take advantage of talent wherever they may live,” Foster said.

Foster says that Routhier has been instrumental. “It’s like having an in-house chief technology officer, without the price tag. Kevin’s deep knowledge of our IT infrastructure has enabled us to transform the way we work, and envision and plan for needed enhancements.”

To encourage clients to donate to BBBSMB, Routhier created the Coretelligent Match Program, offering in-kind matching of monetary donations made to the nonprofit.

“We’ll match any client’s monetary donation with free IT services. So if a client donates $10,000, we’ll provide that amount in free services. It’s a win-win.”

Read the article on the Boston Business Journal

Disasters will strike. Many data loss incidents are a result of human error or completely preventable but the simple truth is that some catastrophes simply can’t be avoided. Whether or not your business survives a catastrophic data loss and emerges on the other side to continue doing business or not may very well come down to how well you’ve backed up crucial data and prepared for such an event. A new white paper from Coretelligent (a sponsor of the TechSpective website) spells out the essentials of effective backup and disaster recovery to help you get it right.

A study by AXA–a global insurance group–found that 80 percent of businesses that suffer a major disaster go out of business within 18 months. According to the Journal of Accountancy, though, more than 60 percent of US small businesses don’t have a formal business continuity or disaster recovery plan in place. That doesn’t seem to bode well for small and medium businesses.

The Coretelligent white paper explains, “Despite the increasing occurrence of high profile natural disasters, data breaches and other incidents that spotlight the need for backup and disaster recovery (BDR) planning, an alarming number of organizations continue to put this critical activity on the backburner of corporate imperatives, notwithstanding the knowledge that a disastrous data outage could threaten their very existence.”

Read the entire article on TechSpective.net

There are two persistent truths about data. First, it’s a matter of “when” not “if” you will experience some sort of catastrophic data loss. Second, lack of preparation virtually guarantees that a catastrophic data loss will occur when you least expect it. Coretelligent wants to help small and medium businesses protect data with CoreBDR.

“Data loss is a prevailing threat that many of today’s small and medium-sized business aren’t well prepared for. It’s common to associate data loss with a natural disaster, however, the more likely threats are viruses or malware, hardware failure or even the accidental deletion of a file,” said Kevin Routhier, Coretelligent founder and CEO.

Read the entire article on TechSpective.net

The Boston Business Journal announced today the selections for this year’s Partners of the Year, honoring the connections between businesses and nonprofits in the region.

The winners will be recognized at the BBJ’s 10th annual Corporate Citizenship Summit, which will be held Sept. 17 at the Westin Waterfront. The Corporate Citizenship Summit will recognize Massachusetts’ most philanthropic companies, and will feature top-level speakers on key issues for business and philanthropy.

This year’s Partners of the Year are:

  • Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay with Coretelligent
  • Birthday Wishes with WinterWyman
  • Cardinal Cushing Centers with Rockland Trust
  • Citizen Schools with Fidelity
  • College Bound Dorchester with Deloitte
  • First Literacy with Eaton Vance Investment Managers

Read the full article on the Boston Business Journal