SMB Community Podcast

While in DC for the MAX 2015 conference, I wandered down to the vendor hall. Of course I took my trusty recorder along for the stroll. Here are three quick interviews with vendors I met.

Carl Banzhof from iScanOnline talked about "data breach intelligence." Basically, they use a host-based agent to search for sensitive data. In addition to the places where you know you have data (e.g., the database), iScanOnline looks at PDF and Excel reports that were generated from a database, but now those reports are stored on local PCs and in Dropbox accounts.

In addition to cataloging data that might be where it doesn't belong, the tool also checks to see whether a breach has occurred and calculates the estimated cost of that breach. You can request a 14 day free trial on their web site at www.iscanonline.com.

Jim Lippie from Clarity Intelligence Platform talks about "turn-key automated analytics as a service" platform. Basically, that's a tool that looks at how their data is moving around inside their business (both on premise and cloud-based). General topic areas include finances, sales and marketing, and I.T. operations.

I love the line he uses: "Small businesses are pack rats." One of the ways to use this tool is to find the data that's rarely used and recommend that it get moved off to long-term (less expensive) storage. The reports will certainly make monthly business reviews or quarterly business reviews a lot easier. And now you can bring juicy good data and not just how many viruses you stopped last month. Check out the free 90 trial at www.clarityintelplatform.com.

Josh Peterson

Josh Peterson from Bering McKinley joins us to talk about Peer Groups. In addition to group calls and in-person meetings, Bering McKinley provides a partner portal for members to communicate and help each other between meetings. They also partner with Corelytics to provide meaningful financial analysis so that members can benchmark themselves against others in the industry.

While some peer groups are "pure peer," Bering McKinley provides a facilitator to help members get the most out of their meetings and overall experience. While a peer group might see the insides of 10-12 businesses, the facilitator has seen hundreds or thousands of businesses. The facilitator will also know a lot about how to tweak things in the business to meet the "best in class" benchmarks in Corelytics. For more info, visit www.beringmckinley.com.

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I always love working with Joe Panettieri. He's a very smart guy, very fun to talk to, and totally tuned into the channel.So I had to grab him for a quick podcast when I saw him in DC this week.

Joe Penettieri at MAX

Joe and his partner Amy Katz run After Nines, Inc., a consulting company. And they've been working on a new project. In fact, they're going to announce it and launch in a few days. I knew Joe wouldn't give me the full scoop, but I got some hints.

Joe's using the hashtag #E2E so you can look for that on Twitter, etc.

The official announcement is Tuesday, September 15th.

In the meantime, here's a teaser podcast.

Check out the After Nines Blog at http://www.afternines.com/news/

And follow Joe on Twitter at https://twitter.com/joepanettieri

UPDATE: The Site is Now Live

Visit my Small Biz Thoughts blog for the details:

ChannelE2E Launch Promised to Walk You to The Exit and the new adventure is . . . Channel e2e – https://www.channele2e.com

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I love the ChannelPro SMB Forums. There's always something new and different going on. Even the panels change from city to city.

Here's a quick report from the ChannelPro SMB Forum in Chicago last week. You can still sign up for the last show of the year – November 3rd in New York / New Jersey. See http://events.channelpronetwork.com for more details.

In this podcast, I interview Erick Simpson and Todd Haugland.

Erick Simpson

Erick Simpson is the VP and CIO, of SPC International – see http://www.spc-intl.com.

Erick was one of the panel members on Cloud Services and bundling. He also made a presentation on "Value Pricing." I asked what that is and Erick explained. Instead of taking costs plus x%, value pricing focuses on identifying the client's pain and pricing services with client pain relief in mind.

Note that this is a different kind of sales process, and is focused on clients who approach technology from a strategi perspective. Luckily, Erick is convinced that anyone can learn this process.

For more information, see SPC, International at http://www.spc-intl.com.

Todd Hauglund is the Lead Sales Engineer for MAXfocus by LogicNow.

Todd Haugland

Todd presented an in-depth Preday training called the "MAXfocus Remote Management Academy Classroom Training Day." As you can hear in the interview, I gave him some grief for that title. Todd tells us something about that training, which he'll be repeating in New York in November.

But more importantly, Todd wanted to talk about the big MAX 2015 U.S. conference that's coming up Tues-Thurs in Washington, DC. The conference is September 9-11.

The conference will have Five tracks – and Todd is presenting an entire track by himself! Other tracks include technology, business, vendors, and sales.

MAX will be making some big announcements about new features as well as filling in some details about announcements that have recently been made. Last week then released new pricing to customers and announced that they will be switching to Bitdefender for anti-virus.

Because I saw the announcements in Australia, I know the biggest announcements that will be made a few days from now. – And I'll report those right here. So subscribe to the SMB Community Podcast and don't miss the news!

MAX currently has more than 12,000+ partners. Todd says they are very close to 13,000. Growth has been spectacular.

Find out more about MAX at https://www.maxfocus.com/

Find out about the conference at http://conferences.maxfocus.com/us-2015/

… And follow the MAX IQ blog at https://www.maxfocus.com/blog/

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Earlier this year I spoke at the Retail IT VAR of the Future Conference, sponsored by Business Solutions Magazine.

In this interview, I talk to Jim Roddy, President of BSM, about the upcoming conferences called Channel Transitions. The conferences will be:

Chicago – Sept. 24th

and

Orlando – Nov. 5th

You can find out more at www.channeltransitions.com or www.BSMInfo.com.

Jim Roddy

The conferences will focus on transitioning to recurring revenue models. Traditionally, Business Solutions subscribers (about 40,000) have included a large number of businesses with vertical markets in POS (point of sale) and barcode technology.

Jim mentions an interview with Greg Dixon from ScanSource called Managed Services Tsunami. You can read that article here: http://www.bsminfo.com/doc/a-managed-services-tsunami-in-pos-bar-coding-is-coming-don-t-say-you-weren-t-warned-0001.

Note: You can get into these conference free of charge with the checkout code PODCAST01.

Additional Contact info:

Web – www.BSMinfo.com Blog – blog.BSMinfo.com Twitter – @Jim_Roddy Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Business-Solutions-Magazine/302094311173 LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/pub/jim-roddy/6/523/a68 YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/BSMinfo

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sell My MSP!

What a great idea!

I love the new project from Managed Service rock stars Amy Babinchak and Rayanne Buchianico for a number of reasons.

Their new project is called Sell My MSP and the web site is www.SellMyMSP.com. It's a new clearinghouse for people looking to buy or sell an I.T. business.

Sell My MSP

The first reason I love this project is that it's very educational. You can request an evaluation of your business right away. But you can also get some forms and worksheets to "prep" your business for sale. Those will give you some checklists that are educational to go through.

Second, Amy and Rayanne are totally focused on the reality of selling a business. Some people have unrealistic expectations about the value of their client list, the role of debt in the process, and the timeline needed to complete a sale.

Amy talks about the "strategy" of letting a business winnow down until there are just a few clients left. Rayanne mentioned the need to put debt outside the sales process. Both of them talk about having a long-term plan for selling your business.

What's your exit strategy?

The service – Sell My MSP – is a clearinghouse. Prospective sellers can list their business anonymously, so clients and investors can't tell that your business is for sale. Of course identities of buyers and sellers are revealed at some point.

Unlike many listing services that don't focus on the SMB space, Sell My MSP does not take a piece of the action or base fees on a percentage of the sales price. There's a flat fee for buyers and a flat fee for sellers. And BOTH are at a reduce site during the introductory period.

So check it out today. They have a new blog, so subscribe to that as well.

You never know when you might find it useful!

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While I was down under at the MAXfocus partner conference in Melbourne, Australia, I talked to a couple of the sponsors in the back of the room.

Mark Winter

Mark Winter from Rapid Fire Tools was promoting their Network Detective product. Rapid Fire Tools (www.rapidfiretools.com) already has a presence in Australia. Mark was here to meet partners as well as sign up some new partners.

In this interview we discuss HIPAA equivalent issues in Australia as well as the global PCI standards. Mark also had some good conversations with distributors in Australia. So things are looking great for them!

Contact info:

[email protected]

Web – www.rapidfiretools.com

Phone – +1 678-323-1300

Jerry Koutavas

I'm always happy to run into Jerry Koutavas – even when I'm not expecting it.

Jerry and the ASCII Group were in Melbourne to support MAX as well as test the waters with regard to expansion of ASCII into Australia. Of course I used the opportunity to probe about specific programs they might be offering. I've always loved the ASCII Group and think the folks down under will be well serviced by them!

Jerry gave a wonderful presentation about using publicly available tools to dig into prospective clients. He used a local business owner he found on LinkedIn as his example. It was quite amazing how much information Jerry could dig up in a very short time span.

Here in the U.S., ASCII is preparing for their bill "ASCII CUP" competition and end-of-year conference in October in Irvine, CA. I will be speaking there, so check it out – and join us if you can!

Find out more about the ASCII SMB Success Summits and the Fall conference at http://www.asciievents.com/.

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

While I was in Australia for the MAXfocus Partner Conference, I was quite impressed with their plans to data mine their own tools.

Dave Sobel

I caught up with Dave Sobel, Director of Partner Community for LogicNow (MAXfocus). Dave's team is responsible for the MAX partner conferences and they did a great job with this one.

I asked Dave about the whole "Big Data" initiative at MAX. He was very excited about the possibilities. As he says in the interview, MAX has billions of data points to analyze, not just from how their tools are used, but for end-user computer systems as well.

Dave gives some hints about the big announcements coming from MAX at the U.S. Conference next month. He also brags up his team in Australia.

Dana Bullister

Next I talked to Dana Bullister, a Data Scientist for LogicNow. Of course I thought they had one. She assures me that they have a whole team of Data Scientists (isn't that a cool title?).

Dana talked about how the data are gathered and used. She makes the point that the concept of "best practices" takes a different angle when you look at how hundreds of thousands of machines are configured and maintained. With almost 20,000 partners, LogicNow supports an amazing array of end-points.

One of the coolest concepts they're working on is predictive failure of equipment. When you can isolate all the servers with a specific motherboard or hard drive, and you see problems across thousands (or tens or hundreds of thousands) of machines, it becomes possible to assign probabilities that a given component or system will fail. The Data Folks at LogicNow are working to make that service possible.

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Todd Billiar

Yesterday I talked with a couple of pros about the hiring environment for small IT shops. The good news: According to Todd Billiar from VAR Staffing, there's about a 1-2% unemployment rate for I.T. Consultants. The bad news: Everyone wants more money – even if they're not qualified.

This podcast includes interviews with Todd as well as Josh Peterson, one of the great coaches in the IT community.

Todd recently published an article in ChannelPro SMB magazine. That got me thinking about the best interviewing approaches today. I discovered that he's got all kinds of great information about the trends in our industry today. Here we talk about some of those trends, including the rising cost of technicians as well as the types in highest demand.

Todd's Billiar Contact Info:

www.varstaffing.com email [email protected] Phone 972-847-0566

Next up I talked to Josh Peterson about the recruiting/hiring process. Josh is a firm believer that you should also be talking to people about working for you.

Josh Peterson

Like everything else in business, you should be prepared for the "urgent" situation when you need a new technician. You need to avoid hiring because you're in a panic. You need to avoid hiring with a single interview, or the the person who walks in the door.

Josh also gives some great advice about making the most of the first day, first week, and 30-60-90 days. Even if you don't execute that flawlessly, having a plan before you need it will be very helpful.

Finally, Josh talks about the best interview technique for getting the information you need from technicians.

Josh Peterson's Contact Info:

www.beringmckinley.com Blog: www.jo-sh.com[email protected] Phone 212-203-1364

A Few Other Resources

• If you're looking to hire a technician, check out the job resources at ChannelPro: http://jobs.channelpronetwork.com
• Volume Two of the Managed Services Operations Manuel is all about employee hiring and management. If you already own it, please go read it. If not – buy it!

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dave Seibert joins me for a look at tapping into Community Knowledge.

Dave Seibert

This conversation flows from a presentation I saw Dave give in Anaheim last year at the SMB Techfest (www.smbtechfest.com). In fact, I liked the presentation so much that I asked Dave to create a new version for the SMB Online Conference.

There are people "talk" community and there are people who "do" community. Dave does community ALL THE TIME! He was just named as one of ChannelPro SMB's top 20/20 visionaries. And that's the tip of the iceberg after his recognition as a Microsoft MVP, SMB 150 honoree, MSP 250, VP of the So Cal IAMCP chapter, a major player in the SMBTN, and so much more.

WHY does Dave participate in all those things and more? Because he totally understands the value of participating in the community.

In this podcast Dave talks about how he garners knowledge on new topics and challenges as an IT professional by engaging in conversations at various SMB channel events. Then he gives some notes from his upcoming presentation. In all, he sprinkles in great advice and perspective from someone who is a great example for the rest of us!

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I had a great catch-up chat with Harry Brelsford from SMB Nation. He's busy with a couple of things going on at once. I know: Shocker!

First up, SMB Nation is putting on the first "Behind the Curtains" training on Windows 10, in association with Microsoft. This is a vendor-free event. It is also sold out – but Harry has a waiting list. So be sure to register because that will guarantee you're on the list to get information about the next big Windows 10 event.

Details at the Events Page at SMB Nation.

The much bigger event is SMB Nation / Office365 Nation's Get Connected event.

Details are at http://getconnected.o365nation.com/ – including the agenda and speaker lists.

Get Connected happens August 4-5 and focuses on Office 365, Windows 10, and Azure.

As their web site says:

"Bringing together Office 365 and Win10 experts, thought leaders, and a wide range of IT Professionals, THE Get Connected event provides you the opportunity to gain the knowledge, skills and tools you need to support your organization. Learn how to incorporate the industry best practices at more than 20 educational sessions tailored to Office 365 and Win10. Join us to learn and explore bench marking features of Office 365 and Win 10 via this two day online conference August 4 and 5th, 2015, from the comfort of your desk."

The fun starts at 7:00 AM (Pacific) on Tuesday, August 4th. Sessions go through 4:00 PM that day. On the 5th, sessions are 7:00 AM until 1:30 PM.

Harry Brelsford

Topics scheduled so far include:

• Office 365 Licensing
• Office 365 Click-To-Run Deployment
• Making Money with clients on Office 365
• Line of Business Apps/Integration
• SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business
• Migration
• Introduction to Windows 10
• Windows 10 Security
• Windows 10 and Universal Applications
• Windows 10 and the Internet of Things
• Windows 10 Sales and Support Opportunities

Interviews with Harry are always fun and informative.

Listen Now:

Listen to the Podcast.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.