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Heartland Technology Solutions Channel IT Summit 2011

Posted Sep 22 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Arlin Sorenesen, Channel IT Summit 2011, Heartland Technology Solutions, HTG Peer Groups with 0 Comments

 

Aaron Booker from Varvid joins Arlin Sorenesen of Heartland Technology Solutions in Harlan, Iowa to talk about HTS‘s Channel IT Summit. Arlin explains he’s seeking a way to deepen the relationship with the Vendors he partners with through the Heartland Technology Group by sharing the experience of what it’s like for VARS to be “in the trenches.” Arlin states “what better way than to invite them to come out here to rural Iowa to experience our business at HTS to share some of the things we’ve learned over the last 25 years.”

Arlin plans to talk about HTG, which has over 260 members that are part of his organization worldwide, and his goal for the summit is for Vendors to get a feel for what it’s like to serve SMB customers out in the real world. Arlin thinks that Vendors will be surprised at how complex the business really is for him and HTG, as they aim to serve a vast array of different kinds of clients. HTG services small micro businesses up to some of the mid-market customers, all of whom have very different needs and these different sized organizations expect very different things. As Arlin says himself “it’s not as simple as it seems on paper and we think we’re going to be able to show this to the Vendors who attend this week.”

The main points that Heartland Technology Solutions‘ Channel IT Summit 2011 promises attendees to come away with are:

• Understanding the roles in a typical VAR company
• Understanding how VAR’s grow and the barriers to growth
• Understanding things you should not do when working with VAR’s
• Understanding how to work effectively with SMB communities
• Understanding some of the frustrations VAR’s experience working with your tools and trying to procure your products and services
• Experience rural Iowa and hear from SMB partners and customers first hand

 

To find out more, visit:

Video SEO is Paramount to E-Commerce Success

Posted Jul 18 2011 by in Online Video, SEO, Sunday Sky with 0 Comments

An e-commerce video solutions provider called Sunday Sky recently released their report titled “The State Of Video In E-Commerce – Q1 2011” which delivers an overview and update for the latest trends in the ways online retailers are using video. The study shows that more and more e-retailers are turning to video for their marketing needs, and online video is on the rise both in terms of production by providers, and views by consumers.

The report focused on online video’s presence in top e-retailers’ websites, video indexing by search engines, SEO impact of using online retail videos and revenue potential of an effective online video strategy, which gives a comprehensive view of the online video world. One of the major findings was that even with the number of retailers who mass-scaled their videos increasing by nearly 50%, an astounding 68% of retailers still have not implemented an online video strategy. This statistic illustrates the online video landscape impeccably as it reinforces a trend we’ve noticed at Varvid, that the companies who “get” video and who’re investing are seeing results at an exponential rate, while those who don’t “get” video are being left in the dust.

Other important data show that the number of people subscribing to online retailer’s YouTube channels increased by more than 20% and most video results for retail-related keywords are continuing to only be posted solely on YouTube. This indicates substantial growth of viewership and engagement, especially in the domain of e-commerce an online advertising. A particularly crucial finding is that certain keyword categories (like “computer gaming”) have a higher presence of video results than others (like “office supplies” or “furniture”) which shows the pragmatism involved in what a video communicates, and the importance of keywords and research.

Video should not be created for the sake of making video; if the time, effort and resources are being allotted for a video project, it’s crucial to decide on how it will function in your overall marketing campaign. Knowing which keywords and topics that are receiving more views should play a major role in the planning and execution of your videos because if you don’t have a strategy for your video work, it’s most likely doomed to slip into the abysmal depths of the internet and find very few views, if any at all.

Varvid Produces Live Webcast from the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2011

Posted Jun 1 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Ingram Micro, Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2011, Travel, Varvid Team with 1 Comment

On June 1st, Varvid shot, produced, and provided live streaming video through our webcasting service offering for the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit 2011 in Phoenix AZ. “The focus of this summit is the monetizing of the cloud,” stated Ingram Micro’s VP of Managed Services Renée Bergeron, who kicked off the events with her Executive Presentation titled Managed Services and Cloud Computing. Joe Paneterri (the VAR Guy and Talkin Cloud) was the emcee.  Great event with nearly 300 resellers and 200 other guests attending the presentation and almost 1,000 Ingram Micro partners and staff from 11 countries who were able to tune in to the opening session via Varvid provided streaming video.  Ingram announced a website for all their cloud partners and vendor parters – http://www.ingrammicrocloud.com – the webcast was embedded in this site.  Your Ingram Micro Login is all you need to access a tremendous amount of information on the cloud, now and in the future.

Ingram Micro announced 8 new cloud service partners: VMware, BMC Software, N-able, Seimens, SherWeb, Symantec, Cisco, & Trend Micro and revealed their plans to serve as the channel’s leader in all things cloud by providing cloud business services, establishing a cloud community, and offering an immense portfolio of cloud services.

Here are some pictures and screenshots from the live webcast that highlight the event:

Aaron Booker at his Webcasting battlestation

Varvid's Webcasting equipment in operation

Guido Jouret of Enterprise Video & Cisco Systems

Joe Panettieri - The VAR Guy, talkincloud.com, and mspmentor.com

A shot of the Cloud Summit 2011 audience with Guido Jouret in the bottom right

The closing slide for the June 1st Cloud Summit 2011

 

 

Equus Launches New Comprehensive Managed Services Solution

Posted May 26 2011 by in Managed Services, Varvid Partners with 0 Comments

At the recent Autotask Community Live! event, Equus Computer Systems officially launched its new Complete Managed Service package. In addition to the staggering lineup of outside vendors contributing to Equus’ offering, Equus is incorporating its own long history as a hardware supplier by including a Hardware-as-a-Service component. This new, totally comprehensive solution makes it possible for channel partners to provide a single monthly price for hardware, software, and services, with zero investment. We at Varvid are proud to say that Equus has chosen to include us, along with Kutenda, as part of their E-Marketing offering.

According to their press release, the Equus Managed Service Solution includes a web-based e-commerce portal that allows partners to custom-configure any and all of the products and services provided by Equus. Not only will all configurations be displayed with the monthly price and suggested retail price, but the portal will also show users their recurring revenue profit, summarizing the profit potential of their entire service offering to their clients.

Other channel heavyweights included in the offering are Level Platforms for Remote Monitoring/Management, Live Virtual Help Desk, Reflexion for Web Security, Exchange Defender for Email, Intronis and Symform for Backup, and an as-yet-unannounced Network Operations Center component.

HTG Peer Groups Announces Hands That Give

Posted May 4 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Arlin Sorenesen, Hands that Give, HTG Peer Groups with 0 Comments

As many of our clients know, Varvid began as a Technology Services firm delivering outsourced IT (aka Managed Services) to firms in Bellingham and the Seattle Region under the name Hardlines Company.  Almost five years ago Hardlines was invited to join the HTG Peer Groups organization which involved meeting with a peer group quarterly to work on our business every quarter for 2 days. Three years ago, my peers suggested we start delivering video for VARs and their vendor partners for the “IT Channel.” So we did. At the time we called ourselves VARvid – we were that focused on IT firms. A year ago I sold Hardlines to focus exlusively on Varvid – but HTG has remained near and dear to my heart and we volunteer our services to the organization several times a year.

This morning HTG announced a wonderful new solution called “Hands That Give” which will allow peers that are having disasters to get help from their peers. It’s a little bit like insurance – with everybody paying in, but more importantly everybody participating has to have an updated Lifeplan and an updated Disaster Recovery Plan – so that the HTG members that come to help have a plan to work with. This will help those in times of emotional or physical turmoil in their lives (and therefore their businesses) or even if the principal passes away. It’s a wonderful thing to bring to the HTG Peer Groups – very forward thinking. This video features Arlin Sorensen, founder of HTG, speaking about Hands That Give.

Where in the World is Varvid?

Posted Apr 28 2011 by in Event Coverage, Varvid Partners, Varvid Team with 0 Comments

For those of you who don’t know, we have a page on our site titled “Where in the World is Varvid” which keeps you all up to date as to where Varvid is traveling. While it might not be as accurate at tracking the Varvid team as the iPhone and iPad appear to be it does display all the events we’re attending, and it’s a great resource to use if you’re interested in an on-site professional video shoot, and want to save money on travel cost.


We’re currently in the midst of an insanely busy couple of weeks. Right now our team is in San Antonio Texas covering the Xerox Fusion Summit April 26th-29th, which is a meeting for the Xerox Channel Partners where Xerox offers opportunities for partners to optimize their sales and revenue. On April 28th, we’ll also be at ASCII’s Success Summit in Washington DC, where Drew Graham will be giving a presentation titled “How to Make Video Impact Your Sales” to all the attendees of this coveted event hosted by the ASCII Group.

On the first of May, the entire Varvid crew will be reunited in Dallas Texas, where they’ll be covering the HTG 2011 Q2 Summit. This year’s event will focus on growing businesses by means of sales and marketing, operations, partnering with vendors, service management, and other areas of interest to HTG members. Special Interest Groups (SIGs) will meet to talk about healthcare, managed services, application development, cloud computing and business-specific topics such as social media, marketing, compensation and hiring. Check out the HTG Peer Group’s Facebook Page, Twitter Page and their LinkedIn Page to keep up to date with next week’s peer group shenanigans.

Death of the Flip, Birth of the New VENUE

Posted Apr 26 2011 by in Cisco, Varvid Team, VENUE Packages with 0 Comments

Earlier this month Cisco announced that they are discontinuing the production of the beloved HD Flip camera. Cisco stated that they’re strategically realigning their business to focus on core products by putting less investment into the consumer market and reinvigorating their network-centric platform strategy. The reception from the online community has been quite diversified, with voices like NASDAQ praising the decision from an investors perspective, while many average consumers feel like they’re being left in the dark.

Here at Varvid, this couldn’t have come at a better time. We’ve already been eying other video products in order to diversify the potential of the VENUE program and to offer an element of versatility to our clients. So, while many are mourning the death of Cisco’s Flip, we’ve been given the opportunity to finally move ahead with our new business model. We’re still working together to put the finishing touches onto the overhaul of the VENUE offering, and we’re excited with what we’ve been coming up with. Until we have the details worked out, we’ll still be supplying new VENUE clients with HD Flips. But stay tuned, because we’ll be making our announcement soon.

Aaron Booker on Comcast Business Class Internet Service

Posted Mar 9 2011 by in Aaron Booker, Testimonial, Video Delivery with 0 Comments

Varvid.com founder Aaron Booker talks about Comcast Business Class Internet. Comcast Business Class Internet offers Varvid the fastest way to upload and download videos for their clients. Varvid uses Comcast’s 50/10 connection which gives us 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload speeds – fast enough to make sure our videos are where they need to be, when they need to be. Comcast Business Class Internet is the most cost effective way for small businesses to get high speed internet.

http://www.business.comcast.com/
Comcast Blog

 

Varvid Staff At MVP Nation 2011 in Full Force!

Posted Mar 4 2011 by in MVP Nation, Varvid Partners, Varvid Team with 3 Comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We just set up our booth here at MVP Nation 2011 in Seattle, and we’re geared up for a long day of video, VARS and Vendors. Check varvid.tv later today for interviews with Harry Brelsford, CEO of SMB Nation, and other members of the SMB Nation crew.

MVP Nation is a new event that connects three important communities in one place at one time, Microsoft MVPs, community members (composed of customers, channel partners, consultants, and members of the public) as well community sponsors.

Drew Graham on Communication Management Tool Constant Contact

Posted Mar 2 2011 by in Small Business, Testamonial, Web/Tech with 0 Comments

Drew Graham, Director of Development at Varvid.com, explains the advantages of using Constant Contact. Constant Contact is an online e-mail marketing service that offers e-mail marketing, event marketing surveys, and full social media integration. Constant Contact analytics let you know who’s actually opening and reading your emails, as well as which links they click on. Drew finds that Constant Contact is very useful for spreading the word on events such as the on-going webinars that Varvid holds and he highly recommends getting the free trial and taking Constant Contact for a spin.

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