Opportunity Knocks: How to Improve Your Services Portfolio

You remember all of those 1970s commercials for furniture retailers? The announcer always said, “How do we make our money?” Then he shouted the answer: “Volume!”

In some ways, system builders and VARs run their businesses the same way. By focusing on standard break-fix and warranty work—replacing the failed hard drive or fried motherboard—there isn’t much wiggle room because to remain competitive, prices must stay low, and that means making money by servicing more customers more...