Recent News & Press Coverage
Stay informed with official news and updates from The ASCII Group. This section features company announcements, strategic initiatives, and industry coverage that reflect our continued commitment to the MSP community and the broader IT channel.
The ASCII Group Appoints Ted Roller as Chief Community Officer
Washington, D.C.– January 14, 2026 – The ASCII Group, North America’s original and vendor-neutral community for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), is pleased to announce the appointment of Ted Roller as Chief Community Officer, a newly created executive role focused on strengthening member engagement and expanding ASCII’s community across the United States and Canada.
In this role, Roller will lead initiatives designed to deepen member connection and engagement, working closely with MSPs to help shape the future of the ASCII community. His focus will be on ensuring ASCII continues to reflect the real-world needs of MSP business owners and remains a trusted resource for peer insight and collaboration.
Roller brings more than 25 years of experience in the IT channel, with a career spanning MSP ownership and senior channel leadership roles. Earlier in his career, he owned and operated an MSP that was recognized locally as one of the Fast 50 fastest-growing companies, providing firsthand experience with the operational and strategic realities MSPs face.
He has since held senior channel leadership positions at LogMeIn, Intronis, Mailprotector, CloudRadial, Zomentum, and FlexPoint, where he helped build partner programs, strengthen community engagement, and support growth through indirect sales models. In addition, Roller has contributed to industry education as faculty for CompTIA and has been recognized by organizations including MSPmentor, The Channel Company, and SMB Nation.
“Ted’s background as both an MSP owner and a channel executive makes him uniquely qualified to lead our community efforts,” said Jerry Koutavas, CEO of The ASCII Group. “His role will be instrumental in strengthening member engagement and expanding ASCII’s reach as we continue to support MSPs across North America.”
“ASCII has always represented something different in this industry,” said Roller. “It is a community built on trust, openness, and shared experience. I’m honored to join the team and look forward to helping shape the next chapter of member engagement and community leadership.”
About The ASCII Group, Inc.
The ASCII Group is the premier community of North American MSPs, MSSPs and Solution Providers. The Group has members located throughout the U.S. and Canada, and membership encompasses everyone from credentialed MSPs serving the SMB community to multi-location solution providers with a national and international reach. Founded in 1984, ASCII provides services to members including leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, marketing assistance, extensive peer interaction and more. ASCII works with a vibrant ecosystem of leading and major technology vendors that complement the ASCII community and support the mission of helping MSPs to grow their businesses. For more information, please visit www.ascii.com.
Press Contact
Jessica Turner
Senior Digital Engagement Manager
Tel: 800-394-2724
Email: jturner@ascii.com
Web: www.ascii.com
The ASCII Group Announces Best of Show Award Winners from Boston 2017 IT SMB Success Summit
The ASCII Group, a membership-based community of independent MSPs, VARs and solution providers, is pleased to announce the ‘Best of Show’ award winners from its 2017 IT SMB Success Summit in Boston, Massachusetts. The awards are voted on by the attending solution providers, and honor the industry sponsors in multiple Best of Show categories.
Pre-Day Awards
Best Education- Vertical Axion
Best Technical Demo- CNET
Best IT Workshop- Webroot
Main Day Awards
Best Rapid Pitch- Duo Security
Best Keynote Presentation- Datto
Best Partner Incentive- Pax8
Best Market Opportunity- Data Deposit Box
Best Productivity Solution- IT Glue
Best Revenue Generator- Datto
Best Channel Programs- Cytracom
Top Distributor- Pax8
Best Partner Involvement- Datto/ Pax8/ SherWeb
Best of Show – Datto
ASCII Group Members in the News (Industry Articles) April & May 2017
Business Solutions Magazine
How to Sell Managed Services to Small Businesses
by Matt Forman, Owner, The Local Circuit and member of The ASCII Group since 2014.
Managed Services Trends for 2017
by Andrew Harrover, CEO, Matrix Computing and member of The ASCII Group since 2012.
How to Add Security to Your Offering by Scott Spatz, VP of Sales Administration, Cooperative Systems and member of The ASCII Group Since 2012.
How Your Role as MSP Changes When Clients Transition to the Cloud by Madinah S. Ali, President & CEO, Safe PC Solutions and member of The ASCII Group since 2015.
TechTarget | Search ITChannel
How to Protect Your Clients from Ransomware Infections
by Scott Beck, President, BeckTek and member of The ASCII Group since 2016.
Four Tips for Selling to the Manufacturing Vertical by Mike Bloomfield, President, Tekie Geek and member of The ASCII Group since 2016.
TechDecisions
How Top Influences Use Technology to Manage Email Inboxes by David Molnar, CEO, Dave’s Computers and member of The ASCII Group since 2014.
How to Choose the Right MSP Provider for Your Business by Mike Bloomfield, President, Tekie Geek and member of The ASCII Group since 2016.
The ASCII Group Announces Best of Show Award Winners from Orange County 2017 IT SMB Success Summit
The ASCII Group, a membership-based community of independent MSPs, VARs and solution providers, is pleased to announce the ‘Best of Show’ award winners from its 2017 IT SMB Success Summit in Orange County, California. The awards are voted on by the attending solution providers, and honor the industry sponsors in multiple Best of Show categories.
Pre-Day Awards
Best Education – Vertical Axion
Best Technical Demo – CNET
Best IT Workshop – Naverisk
Main Day Awards
Best Rapid Pitch – iRemoteReset
Best Keynote Presentation – Datto
Best Partner Incentive – Cytracom
Best Market Opportunity – Pax8
Best Productivity Solution – IT Glue
Best Revenue Generator – Datto
Best Channel Programs – Datto
Top Distributor – Pax8
Best Partner Involvement – Cytracom/ Datto/ SherWeb
Best of Show – Pax8
ChannelPro: Legendary Conman and Security Consultant Headline ASCII Group Conference
ChannelPro coverage of the 2017 Orange County ASCII IT SMB Success Summit.
Read the full ChannelPro article here: http://bit.ly/2ojCZwr
audIT forms relationship with ASCII Group Community on sales system for MSPs
ASCII is pleased to announce a partnership with fellow ASCII Member, Frank DeBenedetto, founder of audIT Sales Presentation System. Priced exclusively for ASCII Members, audIT is a software system that allows members to turn their data into stunning sales presentations that helps sell more IT services with ease. The emotionally charged and simple presentation helps you close the sale without objections, get more up and cross sells and generate more revenue.
ASCII members are invited to download a full sample audIT report so you can see how it will help you close more sales with greater ease and get the special discount code. After you download the report, you are then invited to try audIT for free. https://fmdb.clickfunnels.com/get-all-in-audit
ASCII Members in the News (Industry Articles) February & March 2017
ChannelPro
March Cover – ASCII Member AndrewHarrover
A Lesson in Whento Get Out of the Way by Andrew Harrover, President, MatrixComputer Consulting and member of The ASCII Group since 2012.
Business SolutionsMagazine
3 TrendsChanging How MSPs Work by Corey Kirkendoll, President/CEO5k Technical Services and member of The ASCII Group since 2016.
Will You Survivethe MSP-Vetting Process
by Mike Bloomfield, President, TekieGeek and member of The ASCII Group since 2016.
10 Reasons Why The Managed Services Market is Flourishing by David Molnar, CEO Dave’s Computers and member of The ASCII Group since 2014.
TechTarget|SearchITChannel
How to Sell YourServices in the Public by Tony Stirk, President Iron Horse, and member of The ASCII Groupsince 1994.
ChannelPro: ASCII IT SMB Success Summit Touches Down in Houston
ChannelPro coverage of the 2017 Houston ASCII IT SMB Success Summit.
Read the full ChannelPro articles here:
Check out the hot topics that are trending on The ASCII Group Forum!
The ASCII Group Forum(ASCII-Link) is a valuable resource for technical and business knowledge, and away for members to share partnership opportunities. The members-only email listserv allows for networking 24/7 with peers. ASCII-Link has over700 active members and generates over 3,000 emails per month.
If you were a member, you could be on our forum right now learning tips to grow your MSP business.
Learn more about becoming a member! http://bit.ly/2n6BOga
January Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2lKWZqC
February Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2n5PuYC
March Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2oEGDOn
April/May Hot Topics http://bit.ly/2sh2lN9
Security as a Service - Trusted Metrics forms relationship with ASCII Community
It is a pleasure to announce that Trusted Metrics is working with the ASCII community.
The relationship will help reinforce opportunities for MSPs in offering Security as a Service.
Trusted Metrics offers an Elastic Security Operations Center (Elastic SOC®), which is a cloud-based platform and 24×7 Security Monitoring service, that collects security event logs, correlates them against threat intelligence and provides actionable analytics via alarms, dashboards and reports. It combines event correlation and real-time alerting with long-term data retention in an easy-to-use web portal.
Elastic SOC® supports multi-tenancy and can be white-labeled allowing Managed Service Providers to offer their clients that same level of enterprise security monitoring only seen in large-scale network environments, via a distributed cost model. Elastic SOC® is “elastic” at the core. There is no concept of having to distribute clients across multiple SQL-based databases, file stores or UI consoles.
Further details regarding member benefits are available on www.ascii.com.
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