Blog

Actually, Karl Palachuk and I have more in common than not. We both recently published blogs on MSP events.

My blog that was part of a recent newsletter to you focused on highly successful MSPs attending no events per year to focus on growing their MSP business. You can revisit my blog HERE. 

Karl respectively took a different approach to this conversation. His contribution spoke to the “rest of us” and what’s practical for the true SMB MSP in our space. Here is an excerpt followed by the link to read the complete blog!

How Many Events Should You Attend?

This is a commentary on an article my friend Harry Brelsford posted in his recent newsletter.  Harry notes that there appears to be an inverse relationship between attending too many conferences and being financially successful in this industry.

If you are a living and breathing MSP, you couldn’t miss the recent news on ConnectWise. Let’s start with the acquisition.

SkyKick and Axcient

I knew the founders of SkyKick (Evan and Todd) when they worked on the SMB team at Microsoft and the broke out to start SkyKick in the early part of the 2000-teens.

We’ve quickly turned the corner on 2024 and are sprinting towards 2025. What better time to reflect on what remains for the next several months. I’ll take a stab at it!

1. Industry Consolidations – Both on the vendor and MSP sides, I’m seeing continued consolidations.

That’s not a surprise with the number of cybersecurity vendors entering the SMB MSP space has accelerated. Need proof? Just survey the aisles at large MSP events you like to attend. Admittedly, many of those cybersecurity vendors are “one and done” logos but you’d be surprised with the M&A activity occurring in the background. Heck some times I wonder if folks created ISVs just to be acquired.

On the MSP front, as many in our space are aging out and private equity is circling the wagons to prey upon MSPs, you are seeing folks thinking getting acquired is looking pretty darn tootin good. Just had a cup of coffee with an MSP

Harry Brelsford and Rob Rae discussed the three pillars of MSP success: community, education, and innovation. They emphasized the importance of these pillars in helping MSPs grow their businesses, with a focus on Pax8's investment in the Pax8 Academy and their use of AI and industry best practices. Later, Harry Brelsford and Rob Rae discussed the significance of community in the MSP space, with Rob Rae high lighting the growth of the MSP community and the number of attendees at the conference.

At the recent IT Nation 2023 event in Orlando, both William Toll and Amy Luby took a few minutes away on a busy expo floor to answer my one question. What is Seceon? With two powerhouses like Toll and Luby joining the team, somethings up and I wanted to get to the bottom of it! Please watch this interesting pod cast! And be sure to give a little love with a  like and a comment. ;) 

Recently my team reached out to over 500 Managed Service Providers (MSPs) in the Northeast US to invite them to attend our MSP Rescue Workshop in Princeton, NJ. We targeted New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Attendee Recruitment Methodology

Our approach was very simple. Searching on simple terms like “MSP” with a geographic reference such as “New York City” or “Philadelphia” we were able to quickly compile the list of targets mentioned above.  Next, we completed the “Contact Us” form on the MSP’s website to establish communication. Here is what we found:

Step back and hear me out on this one.

While not a direct hit with the Managed Services Provider (MSP) small and medium business (SMB) space, it’s a technology story at its core: curbside pick-up.

First my journey. I recently started using curbside pick-up at a local grocery store “HEB” in the Austin, TX area. I am sold and will minimize my in-store visits moving forward. Here are a couple take aways.

Accuracy. The customer experience for online ordering has been awesome. The “stuff” I wanna buy is easy to find online. Also – there is an order history so I can simply repeat the last order (like copy-and-paste) and then make simple modifications.

Recently SMB Nation teamed with Ostra and Security Studio to have a non-salesy, open conversation about the challenges Small and Medium Business (SMB) Managed Services Providers (MSPs) face in providing robust cybersecurity solutions. Beyond the technical realm, there is a loneliness feeling that many MSPs feel alone. We hit that head on in the 30-min webcast.

Topics include:

Former Microsoft executive Caroline Goles at a recent industry conference hosted by Pax8 in Denver. Highlights from the interview include:

• Partner relations and cloud technology.
• Career progression and industry experience.
• Aligning sales and marketing strategies for partnership success.
• Partner needs and marketing services.

As folks including clients and MSPs focus more on the “spend-side” including expenses, QuoteWerks is more relevant than EVER.

We recently cornered Brian Laufer, long-time partner at QuoteWerks for a business models update.

High-level points in the interview include:

• Sales quoting and proposal solutions with a focus on supply chain trends
• Using data science to analyze vendor information
• Supply chain issues in the IT industry during COVID-19
• The benefits of using a service to manage procurement for MSPs

We caught up with a busy Jeffrey Goldstein - Managing Director at Queue Associates recently at the Ingram Micro Global Cloud and Innovation Summit in Las Vegas. Goldstein's technology practice (focused on Microsoft Dynamics) recently celebrated its 30th Anniversary. Catch the conversation about his global footprint that includes Europe and Asia! Learn more about this rock star and his company HERE. 

Wait! What? It’s already the second half of 2023?!?! Not only is that true but the first half went very fast. So its time for my predictions before 2024 sneaks up on us (YIKES). These are in no particular order and I’d love your feedback (just hit reply to this newsletter).The categories are Economic Anxiety, Marketplaces, MSPs and AI, Events and Cybersecurity.