Folks - some breaking news - I'll get more details later and update this blog. These are two well=-respected Seattle firms that have joined at the hip. How cool is that?

Announcement:

I am pleased to announce that on July 1, X-BAR became part of JWCS, one of Seattle’s most highly regarded IT Services firms. We’ve admired the quality of service and the intense client focus of JWCS for quite some time and now, as part of JWCS, we have a significantly larger staff with broader and deeper technical expertise, plus greater resources to better serve the evolving needs of your business.

Founded in 1995, JWCS

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Folks - we sent this out vi PR Newswire yesterday!

Pocket MBA Online Program Developed for SMB Tech Providers

PR Newswire

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash., July 29

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash., July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SMB Nation (www.smbnation.com) and Aspen University (www.aspen.edu) announce training partnership for technical SMB channel partners. 

"Being the best technologist is the easy part, thriving as a business is more of a mystery

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Did you know that I am honored to be a co-host of the popular Computer Outlook radio talk show? It’s created and hosted by John Iasiuolo out of Las Vegas NV. Please “listen on” as I think you’ll find the past show, just a click away, to be of great interest to you as you navigate technology in these changing times!

Listen Up!
Here are the past several shows that can be accessed HERE. The show segment is titled “BusinessSpeak”

07/22/10 Business Speak
Harry Brelsford - Show Co-Host - SMB Nation
Jason A. Davidson - Solutions Architect - Intel Hybrid Cloud - Intel Corporation - Corporate Architecture and Planning

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 I was briefed late last week on changes at Virgo Publishing involving senior management. As you may know, Virgo is our partner in crime in the telephony area. We host a show-within-a-show at its Channel Partners conference. Our effort is the SMB VoIP workshop (the next one is September 20-22, 2010 in Washington DC – sign up HERE)

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Think of this as a "internal" TechEd for blue badges. It's meant to be a gathering of Microsoft field and HQ folks to learn about product road maps in a technical vein, see new products under development, etc.

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Folks - On a recent trip to Bend OR and Denver CO, I spoke with leading CMIT players about the recent acquistion by Jeff Connally of this well-respected Austin, TX-based franchise. Here are my video reports. Kindly not that I'll meet with Jeff on August 11th at his CMIT HQ for yet another update. But so far - this appears to be the acquisiton that roared, not whimpered!

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On a recent trip to Mumbia India, I was invited into the secret lab for the new VU Telepresence video conferencing system. It is specifically designed for small businesses with a channel partner twist. Check out this vid to get the backstory; the "front story" will be written in a few weeks after I test the system live at SMB Nation!

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Here's an update for those following the biking Brelsfords...

Harry Jr. (11YO) was the first to cross the line in the tour De Kitsap on Sunday in Silverdale, Washington (held as part of Whaling Days). There were four distances: 32-miles, 50-miles, 75-miles and 100-miles. Harry "won" the 32-mile ride by dropping both Mom and Dad on the hills. The course had significant elevation.

Next weekend is the Seattle Century. Harry Sr. will ride the 50-miler ande Harry Jr. will ride the 100-miler.

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Did you hear the one about the well-known SMB community member with sticky fingers on the way out the door?

As it was described to me last November in Las Vegas, a cloud services distributor in the SMB space parted ways with an employee (not his own).

That is a not uncommon experience. What is uncommon is that the former employer, the owner of the cloud services distributor, received a telephone call from the security department of Salesforce.com identifying irregular customer list download activity.

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