MSP University Managed Services Blog

Wildfires From 20,000 Feet

Spent Thursday in Dallas, TX helping Matt Makowicz and the TS2 Team educate Microsoft Partners on Managed Services, System Center Essentials, Forefront Client Security, Windows Vista Group Policies, Exchange Hosted Services, Management Utilities and more. If you haven't attended one of these Managed Services-focused TS2 Events, you don't know what you're missing. I strongly suggest you register, but more importantly ATTEND this TS2 Event!  The slide deck is available here, for those of you that can't get to the live event.

Special thanks go out to Charles Van Heusen, Peter Gallagher, Mike Marshall and Tina Parkhouse - what a great team to have helping our Partners!

While flying back in to LAX late last night, the brilliant wildfires we're experiencing in California overshadowed the city lights....

The fires are so bad in San Diego that tomorrow's scheduled TS2 event in that city has been cancelled, as evacuations continue today....

Erick Simpson
www.mspu.us

An excellent recap of SMBNation 2007

I'd like to share with you what my friend and Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist on the TS2 Team, Charles Van Heusen has to say about SMBNation 2007:

SMBNation 2007 - A Step Forward

There was a lot of concern coming into this years SMBNation Conference in Redmond, Washington this year throughout the Partner Community.    Let me digress...  At the SMBNation 2005 conference, Harry and SMBNation had a break out year with some of the best speakers in the industry at their conference.  The move to the Microsoft Campus and the use of the Executive Briefing Center really kicked up the quality of the event.   In comes Robin Robbins, by far one of the best speakers and industry influencers in the SMB Technology Marketing space I've had the privilege to meet.   Robin came in and mesmerized the crowds and sold all of her $1200 marketing kits that she brought with her, which was an overwhelming success for her and the conference.

As you know, when anyone is successful, others are sure to follow and that is what happened last year at the 2006 conference.  It seemed like everyone that was delivering a presentation was trying to sell something  and it came across like a giant infomercial.  Thus the descent amongst the ranks in the attendance this year, and honestly, this was the year they should have attended.   

The pre-event day with Robin Robbins return as well as the sessions hosted by Karl Palachuk, Arlin Sorensen, Erick Simpson, Matt Makowicz, and Stuart (Sorry, I forgot your last name Stuart), hosted a great round of discussions on managed services, selling solutions, and of course, why you should buy their new line of books.

This was the only time attendees were hit up to spend $$ during any sessions and these weren't actually parts of the conference.  During the sessions, there wasn't a whisper of services or products to be sold.  Even when attendees asked Jeff Middleton about his Swing Migration products, he deferred them to the booths in the Vendor Fair to discuss products.  This was a definite change in the right direction.

The Vendor Fair area was elbow to elbow again and the support from industry vendors was stronger than ever before. The key players in the Managed Services Space from last year, were there again, such as  ConnectWise, Zenith/Infotech, and Level Platforms.

The part that impressed me most was the attendance turnover, 60% of the attendees were first time attendees, which shows the growth in our market place.  I'm not sure what Harry and the SMBNation team will do next year as far as a venue since the conference seems to be outgrowing the Microsoft Conference Center, but I know that the Microsoft Across America team plans to be there to support it again.

I couldn't agree more, Charles - the value of SMBNation has become a topic of heated debate since 2006, and really picked up steam in the months leading up to 2007, with past attendees squarely on one side of the fence or the other "is it worth it to go this year, after what we experienced last year?". Well, I congratulate Harry and the team at SMBNation for listening to the feedback and making the decision to bring Arlin Sorensen and Dana Epp in for an "Extreme SMBNation Makeover". In my opinion, and many other attendees I polled during and after the conference, SMBNation 2007 delivered tons of value for its intended audience.

P.S. Charles - tell Fred to set his alarm clock ahead 1/2 hour when you see him next!

Erick Simpson
www.mspu.us

Educate, Train & Support

I had an epiphany today during an internal (internal MSPU) marketing meeting. We were discussing our "Educate, Train & Support" philosophy for Partners which we deliver in the following fashion:

Educate

• Books - "The Guide to a Successful Managed Services Practice" and "The Best I.T. Sales & Marketing BOOK EVER!"
• MSP University - online training delivered via Webinars along with supporting forms, tools and collateral

Train

• Community Webcasts
• Live Workshops
• Industry Events
• Boot Camps
• Onsite Consulting

Support

• Marketing as a Service (MaaS)
• Collateral as a Service (CaaS)
• Helpdesk Services
• CEO Program

And I realized after our meeting that we as Service Providers also follow this same basic philosophy of "Educate, Train and Support" with our clients. Think about it for a second - we educate our clients even before they become our clients as to why they should hire us as their Trusted Advisor, then continue to educate them on new Solutions to reduce their costs, improve their efficiencies and mitigate their business pain and risk. During our relationship, we train our clients in the new technologies and solutions we deliver, and finally we support their businesses proactively, leveraging tools and technology, process and procedure as their Trusted MSP and Advisor.

These parallels, and their realization prompted me to blog. Does this process ring true with your organization? I look forward to your feedback.

Erick Simpson
www.mspu.us

Should MSP's fear large retailers entering their space?

So I always tell our Partners that are worried about the 800lb gorillas stealing their clients that the key to keeping them is their relationships with their clients. I'm confident that Microsoft, Dell, Ingram, Best Buy, Staples, Circut City, etc. would never be able to replace our relationship with our clients.

Well, Dell is stepping up their efforts. My friend Arlin Sorensen just sent me a telling CMP article chronicling Dell's latest move in alienating the channel:

Dell Launches Mega-Bundle, But Cuts Out Channel

By Edward F. Moltzen, CMP Channel
4:21 PM EDT Wed. Oct. 10, 2007

Click here to recommend this article. What's this?

Dell is launching a new top-to-bottom bundle that includes desktops, servers, networking and service, but will only sell it directly -- even as the company is working behind the scenes to hash out details on its forthcoming formal channel program.

The Round Rock, Texas-based company is cutting the channel out of its On-Demand Desktop Streaming solution. The offering, announced Wednesday, is a bundle that includes diskless OptiPlex desktops, a PowerEdge 2950 server, a PowerConnect Gigabit switch, Citrix Provisioning Server for Desktops Software, and a PowerEdge 2900 storage server.

The new solution is part of Dell's continuing initiative to streamline information technology products, the company said. During a press conference, though, Dell Senior Vice President Jeff Clarke said the product would not be available through the channel.

"This is going to be sold with our direct sales force, our direct service force," Clarke said. The offering is aimed at what the company describes as IT simplification, and allows for system images to be deployed, managed and refreshed across many desktops, remotely. The company says 100 clients can be managed across a single server.

"This is an evolution of Dell from being a hardware provider to being a solution provider," Clarke said.

Dell said the offering allows for software, applications and data to be streamed across a network to desk-based workers, and that it believes it can lower IT labor costs by as much as 56 percent.

The announcement and Clarke's remarks came on the same day when Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell appeared at the Gartner IT Symposium in Orlando, Fla., to be peppered with questions about Dell's channel strategy. To some in the channel, where skepticism about Dell's channel plans have run high, the move does not appear to be one that will change the mood.

"If you called me a month ago, I might have told you I felt differently, that they were truly committed to a channel, but it's just another day in the park with Dell," said John Riesenburger, chief operating officer of Vertical IT Solutions, a Tampa, Fla.-based solution provider and Dell reseller. "There is no channel program and they really need to not be saying they have that."

Riesenburger said the new Dell offering sounds like a move back to the mainframe model, "going back to centralized processing.

"If it pulls it off and it comes to fruition, it sounds like a pretty interesting initiative," Riesenburger said. He added, "Dell can't do anything from a service delivery standpoint. That's the good news."

Dell executives have said the company plans to roll out details of a new channel program by year's end, including deal registration and solution provider incentives. The company is in the midst of an overhaul of its business strategy after two years of under-pressure sales and profits and after losing the worldwide market share lead in PCs to Dell.

While my position regarding client relationships is still key to maintaning and growing any  business partnership, it's also become increasingly more important for us as MSPs to remain vigilant of the 800lb gorillas...

Erick Simpson
www.mspu.us