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Good morning, SMB Nation Community and a very Happy Thanksgiving (US) to you from the SMB Nation Team! Just a quick note to let you know that our offices are closed for today and tomorrow, but we look forward to working with you all again on Monday, December 1. We wish all of our community members a very safe and happy weekend, and we want to know that this year, we are thankful for all of you.
As many of you remember, Harrybbb participated in the National Day of Unplugging in 2014, which was a vow to avoid all mobile devices and laptops for one day (from sundown to sundown) to spend time relaxing with family, skiing, etc.
StorageCraft Technology Corporation, backup and disaster recovery solution leader, and Connectwise, business management platform provider, announced earlier this week availability of a new integration module.
The module allows managed service providers (MSPs) to automate billing by mapping and synchronizing data from the StorageCraft MSP porta and StorageCraft Cloud Services with the Connectwise business management platform.
A lot of O365ers forget that LinkedIn originally started as something of an employment site before the world really thought “social media.” I’m active in several Office 365 groups on LinkedIn, including the “Microsoft Office 365” group, which is fast approaching 45,000 members. So given I post often on O365 topics to these LinkedIn groups, it’s only fitting I divulge how you can get an Office 365-related job! Read on.
e-Management’s first CyberRx survey revealed 63 percent of small businesses surveyed were insecure about continuous monitoring (CM) efforts against cybersecurity threat.
The respondents, attendees at the CyberMaryland conference, included CEOs, C-level executives and IT and cybersecurity professionals of businesses with fewer than 2,500 employees. Almost 70 percent of respondents worked at companies with less than 100 employees.
Though many respondents were insecure about CM, more than 60 percent provide periodic awareness training to ensure employees understand cyber threats and 45 percent said small businesses should be mandated to follow the NIST cybersecurity framework.
Join SMB Nation and your peers for a focused one day event on Office 365 in 2015. Be sure to check out our event finder for a city near you. If you don’t see a city near you be sure to let us know you would like us to bring the show to you by requesting an event, located at the bottom of the event website, or send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
WatchGuard Technologies today announced its new next-generation firewall and unified threat management appliances engineered for SMBs and distributed enterprises.
The WatchGuard Firebox M400 and M500 appliances, based on Intel Pentium and Celeron processors, outperform rival solutions, with up to a 61 percent increase in overall performance and up to a 149 percent increase in HTTPS inspection.
On November 20, 2014, the Sahar Education for Afghan Girls Organization held its annual fundraiser at the Foundry in South Downtown, Seattle, WA. This organization, formerly known as Ayni, changed its name to Sahar, which means “dawn” in Dali, the most commonly-spoken language in Northern Afghanistan.
“The fundraiser was a great success, due in part to the professional skills and contribution of SMB Nation team members, Jenny Hallmark and Edna Sparkman,” said Ginna Brelsford, Executive Director of Sahar.
D&H Distributing recently announced the release of two new promotions for its resellers this holiday season, particularly for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. These two programs include the “Holiday Hustle,” and a special partnership with D&H vendor partners for extra Black Friday and Cyber Monday savings.
There is no question that Office 365 is a massive success for Microsoft, and that it is disrupting the entire productivity software category. Nowhere is that more evident than in the SMB customer segment. Adoption of Office 365 by SMBs is already off the charts and even seems to be accelerating lately. However, as is often the case when a new, disruptive technology comes along, partners can be left wondering “What’s in it for me?” and “How do I take advantage of this massive change?”
By Bob Vogel, B2 Marketing
According to a recent survey of IT Service Providers and MSPs conducted by RapidFire Tools, the vast majority (more than 80%) reported having one or more clients with internal IT departments. A third of them have 10 or more such clients.
Dealing with clients that have their own internal IT resources is both a blessing and curse. The good part about it is you have an “educated” client who can really appreciate the value of the services you are delivering. They also tend to be larger, with bigger budgets.
Unitrends recently revealed Release 8.0, a solution that provides scalable protection for EMC and NetApp NAS arrays and extends Unitrends’ support for virtual environments.
Unitrends Release 8.0 also introduces extended support for Network Data Management Protocol and physical and virtual recovery for Hyper-V virtual machines in minutes.
The following Blog was written by Management Consultant and author Ken Thoreson
Partnering up with other organizations can only help you provide a better level of service to current and potential customers.
At Acumen Management, we've found that today's most successful salespeople tend to excel in six critical areas of sales management:
If your company isn't hitting home runs in all those areas, you may want to consider establishing your own partnership program to help improve your performance.
When I was working at a partner organization the president told me that if I was success in building partnership program: it would bring me the equilviant of one salesperson’s quota /year without having to hire more resources”
Working with partners can provide you with the additional knowledge that you may need, for instance, to better understand a particular client's needs or more readily identify prospective accounts. Your partners may be able to introduce you to important contacts, purchasing patterns and corporate strategies or access to decision makers. Their sales and technical teams may be able to help yours make joint presentations and proposals, better serve mutual territories and accounts or create true business solutions for customers. Ultimately, joining forces can help both parties improve their market positioning and achieve higher sales goals.
You can choose among several types of partnerships. While space limitations prevent us from exploring them in depth here, some of your options are:
Business partnerships designed to increase asset bases, expand the numbers and types of products or services offered and improve competitive advantage for both parties (possibly involving a formal merger or acquisition).
Business ecosystem partnerships that let non-competing parties sell related products and services in certain shared markets. This is the key kind of partner each organization should develop 3 to 5 business ecosystem partners. If executed properly, this relationship can bring you the equivalent of one salesperson’s quota per year.
Market alliance partnerships that allow two companies to share leads, establish salesperson-to-salesperson relationships and pay each other for referrals.
Strategic alliance partnerships with vendors that can provide your business with leads and support.
Alliance/consulting relationships in which companies exchange mutually beneficial services, such as serving on each other's advisory boards.
Before opening talks with any business ecosystem potential partners, it's smart to seek answers to a few important questions:
Finally, remember that business ecosystem partnerships take time to develop. Successful ones involve:
Need to learn more about increasing leverage? If you are currently a Microsoft SMB partner or wish to become a partner, you NEED to know about Microsoft Community Connections (MCC, it is designed to help leverage relationships
MCC is designed exclusively for Small and Midsize Business partners to enable them to leverage Microsoft’s resources and relationships to generate more leads and increase your sales pipeline.
You are invited to two special events to learn how to unlock the value of Microsoft Community Connections (MCC) and learn about a new Playbook designed to show you how to increase sales through leverage. In these exciting sessions find out how other partners are creating leverage in their community and increasing sales without investing marketing dollars or hiring salespeople. We will discuss the secret sauce and 5 steps you can take now to change your business. Download a Playbook to learn more, Denis Wilson of DWP Information Architects who says: “The MCC Playbook is superb and the best training document I have seen of its kind.”
To Register goHere
Webinar 1 of 2: Tuesday, December 16th
Eastern 9am (EST)
Midwest 10am (CST)
West 9:30am (PST)
Webinar 2 of 2: Tuesday, December 16th
Eastern 9am (EST)
Midwest 10am (CST)
West 9:30am (PST)
MCC helps partners engage with their local communities through their local influencers such as the Chamber of commerce, CPA organizations, Small Business Associations, legal, and many other 501C3 and 501C6 associations.
Partners who engage with MCC are growing 15% faster than Partners who don’t! So take advantage and engage NOW! For a preview of the Playbook, go HERE
To Register for Webinar(s) go HERE
About the Author
Ken Thoreson “operationalizes” sales management systems and processes that pull revenue out of the doldrums into the fresh zone. During the past 16 years, our consulting, advisory, and platform services have illuminated, motivated, and rejuvenated the sales efforts for organizations throughout the world.
He was recently ranked for the third year in a row by Top Sales World magazine as one of the Top 50 Sales & Marketing Influencers for 2014.
Ken has written 5 books, his latest book is: SLAMMED! for First Time Sales Managers, Ken provides Keynotes, consulting services and products designed to improve business performance.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.AcumenManagement.com
IBM today launched its new social collaboration offering, IBM Verse, which brings together myriad IBM platforms, innovations and ideas to integrate the ways employees connect daily.
IBM Verse brings together email, meetings, calendars, file sharing, instant messaging, social updates and video chats and is the first messaging system to enable users to pinpoint and retrieve specific information across various types of email content.
It has built-in analytics and learns employee preferences and priorities over time. IBM Verse clients will also have the future opportunity to embed a Watson feature, a predictive and visual analytics tool.
AT&T and Cisco are working to make conferencing accessible for business users through AT&T Conferencing with Cisco CMR Cloud, expected to be available in December 2014.
This offering will allow customers to activate conferences with voice, video and content sharing on most connected devices, simplifying business conferencing. The solution can be used in-office or on-the-go, eliminating the need for expensive, fixed equipment.
We're hitting the road in 2015 and bringing the show to you! From popular demand and many request we are focusing this year’s tour on Office 365.
The Office 365 Tour has so many reasons to attend: The content, the relationships, and the fact there is no travel required.
Join us for this one day educational event which offers over 6-hours of pure Office 365 content, plus the ability to join the new network of Office 365 user groups. Benefit from peer sharing and professional networking. Leave with technical and strategic business knowledge you can apply immediately to Office 365 matters.
Below, you can see some of the sessions so you can get an even better idea of what we have planned. Of course, the awesome sessions are reason enough to attend but don’t forget about the hallway networking, exhibit hall, and incredible speakers and more all add to the experience.
Sessions:
Have you registered? If not … seriously, don't wait any longer.
Want to learn more? Please contact us at 206.201.2943 ext 105
I have always thought that LinkedIn should hold events to connect the people within a community. Wouldn’t you like to meet some of the people you are intertwined with and discover good business? Of course you would.
Last night, LinkedIn held its first-ever event at a hip-and-cool art gallery in the Downtown Seattle area, inviting approximately 200 professionals (pictured right). I was impressed. High-end appetizers, top-shelf open bar, profile “makeover consulting” at kiosks on the floor, and professional glamour headshots (with make-up professionally applied). It was a win. I believe the company’s intent is to hold similar events in other cities.
I listened intently to the panel presentation, which was about 30-mins of the nearly 3-hour reception. Two experts joined two LinkedIn employees. The takeaway of this session? The morning after, you should have a meeting with someone you met the previous day, send a LinkedIn request, and make it a “thank you for meeting with me” message. During the Q&A portion, I was able to ask the LinkedIn employees about creating a certification title, as well as a partner program. The reason behind my question is a rise in the trend of people wanting to be LinkedIn consultants to small businesses.
Other conversations I had with attendees included job hunting (LinkedIn is still a vehicle for finding work opportunities), event photography and relationships (one attendees noticed that there were more women than men and made an off-handed remark about match.com). I also spoke with an attendee about how great it was that Seattle was selected for the global kick-off. I get that. I grew up in a small town and, no such events occurred there.
So keep your eyes open for future LinkedIn events in your area. They are highly recommended and I will definitely be attending the next one in the Seattle area.
Voxox, a cloud-based rich communication semrvice, announced it ranked 224th on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, which ranks the fastest growing technology, media, telecomunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America.
”We are honored to be recognized as one of Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 companies and credit our success to the tireless efforts of our dedicated Voxox team,” said Bryan Hertz, co-founder and CEO of Voxox. “Voxox’s mission has always been to provide true unified communications for consumers and businesses, and we are proud to be recognized by such a prestigious organization for our hard work and growth over the past few years.”
There is no question that Office 365 is a massive success for Microsoft, and that it is disrupting the entire productivity software category. Nowhere is that more evident than in the SMB customer segment. Adoption of Office 365 by SMBs is already off the charts and even seems to be accelerating lately. However, as is often the case when a new, disruptive technology comes along, partners can be left wondering “What’s in it for me?” and “How do I take advantage of this massive change?”
As a long-time veteran in the SMB space, both as a channel partner and in various roles in Microsoft, (including the initiation of a concept that eventually became Office 365), I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about these questions and discussing them with partners, customers and other industry experts. The good news is that there are some relatively simple ways for partners to turn Office 365 into an efficient and economically viable business model for themselves and their customers.
A
fter looking back on the first half of 2014, we see momentum rising in the cloud communications market and a positive outlook on the future from our customers.
The research and forecasts from firms like Infonetics Research tell a story of a rapidly growing market for cloud communications, with adoption being driven by real customer demand. We can see that, so far in 2014, cloud communications have moved beyond the hype and are delivering true value for partners and their customers.
As we’ve spoken to our customers over the last 6 months, these are the four things that stood out:
My esteemed colleague Kevin McLaughlin at CRN has broken a story that Microsoft has exhausted funding for its controversial FastTrack program.
But let’s back up. Microsoft now provides free remote onboarding services to customers that buy 150 seats or more of Office 365, as part of an update to its Office 365 Fast Track program. Microsoft also offers customers free email migrations to Office 365 as part of a special adoption offer that runs from September 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. According to McLaughlin, this last part has many Microsoft partners upset because they charge money for their email migration services. Anything more complex than a basic email migration will still be handled by Microsoft partners, Microsoft’s Phil Sorgen reported to McLaughlin.
In these cases, Microsoft will provide funding to customers to defray the costs of the partner engagement. Microsoft partners can get $15 per seat for up to 1,000 seats and $5 per seat after that, with a cap of $60,000 per customer. You can read that entire interview here.
The Office 365 Fast Track changes stand to impact Microsoft's “born in the cloud” partners the most, as many of them got into Office 365 early on and have made significant investments in building service capabilities.
Now back to the main point. The above funding of $15 per seat, $5 afterwards with the $60K cap is still intact. What’s exhausted is another funding category, called Microsoft Partner Investment Engine (PIE) used to fund high-end pilots and deployments. It’s that funding that has been depleted faster than expected but, to clarify the confusion, the rest of the Office 365 Fast Track program is still operating.
Geeman Yip, CEO at BitTitan, offered the following observations in this video interview I conducted recently. Click here.
“While Microsoft funding is currently allocated, I think it’s important to remember the value of a customer engagement with a Microsoft Partner. The goal of the partner is to ensure all facets of the migration are seamless as possible to the customer, and to add value in providing the missing pieces in a proactive manner. The funding from Microsoft may not be available, but the partner and the value they bring to a customer is plentiful.” Melanie Gass, president of Center Point Solutions shared.
“What’s encouraging with this news is that FastTrack support, as well as the Office 365 Deployment Offer, continues. Our partners have told us they’re getting big leads from the FastTrack support center, so partners should view FastTrack as a solid lead source for 150+ seat deals, as well as Tier 2 support for partners. What’s exciting is when partners combine the Office 365 Deployment Offer of $15/mailbox with the 20-30% deployment savings of the Microsoft Turbo Offer which automates entire migration projects for partners at a discount, there is a big opportunity to drive significant partner profitability and end-customer savings for Office 365 migrations.” Said Todd Schwartz, co-CEO at SkyKick.
GridVision has released its multi-tenant automation and IT management platforms for SMBs. As you may remember from my last article with GridVision, in which I saw the beta launch, their technology is based on Azure, uses a web-based portal (pictured), and allows users to create custom policies to best-fit their needs.
Currently, many SMBs are using a variety of solutions, including manual processes to manage their infrastructure. The GridVision release is designed to offer a more broad coverage option for IT Pros to manage Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, Windows servers and Office 365 from a single platform.
I caught a few more moments with Christian Ehrenthal (pictured) today, where he answered a few of my burning questions:
Continuing its investment in its Ohio network and team, AT&T is seeking applicants to fill more than 120 jobs statewide. In the past 22 months, AT&T has filled more than 1,600 jobs in Ohio and has invested $1.6 billion in state wireless and wireline networks since 2011.
"Ohio's broadband network is one of the most important infrastructure components for our state's economy and for our residents' ability to prosper at work and at home," said State Senator Cliff Hite. "I'm excited to hear that AT&T continues to offer good-paying job openings with benefits throughout the Buckeye State, many of which are focused on the build-out of their broadband network."
Members of the PowerSource online community enjoy unparalleled opportunities to buy and sell all kinds of new, used or refurbished IT and telecom parts, including computer parts and related equipment. Our B2B network connects sellers with thousands of buyers worldwide, allowing suppliers and resellers of computer components to greatly expand their sales prospects and develop industry contacts from a single online platform.
PowerSource Online’s advanced selling and sourcing tools give our members a leg up on the competition by allowing them to advertise up to 30 “Seeking to Sell” postings per day. Members can view and respond directly to requests to buy computer parts, telecom equipment and more. Another advantage of PowerSource is the ability for members to customize who sees their inventory. As well, PowerSource members are able to access government contract opportunities in their region that require the purchase or sale of computer parts and telecom equipment.
Websites come in so many different layouts and styles that it can be mind-boggling at times. That being said, when you see a poorly organized business website, chances are you don’t spend much time considering working with that company.
Here are 5 website mistakes that should always be avoided:
It’s migration season, and not just for the birds. Moving your small-to-midsized business customers to the cloud is a great way bring in more revenue – especially during November and December. Getting your migration projects in during these months is advantageous for several reasons; none of which more significant than capitalizing on that year-end spending push. But where do you start?
Fortunately, two new package deals from BitTitan, Office 365 migration experts, make this decision a lot easier and help you cut costs. BitTitan’s Office 365 QuickStart bundle, featuring the automated solution UserActivation, enables partners to get their first Office 365 onboarding project of up to 30 seats free. UserActivation removes the risks from the onboarding process and turns it into a few simplified steps – from helping you choose the right plan and auto-discovering all user accounts, to migrating mailboxes and configuring Outlook and all desktop applications. At a $900 value, the Office 365 QuickStart bundle is the perfect solution to move to the cloud, risk-free.
Good news for SkyKick, as today it was added to the Ingram Micro UK Cloud portfolio. This announcement expands on the US-only distribution agreement that SkyKick signed with Ingram Micro earlier this year.
Nuvotera today announced that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with Soonr to provide secure file sharing and collaboration services for its MSP customers. Under this agreement, Soonr will be distributed to Nuvotera’s network of MSPs, and the Soonr Workplace solution will integrate with Nuvotera’s Nuvoconnex Platform.
RackWare announced RackWare Management Module (RMM) for Amazon Web Services (AWS) will be available Nov. 24.
RMM enables enterprises to move workloads from any source infrastructure to AWS. It offers hybrid scaling by automatically instantiating applications in AWS when demand spikes and dropping them back into the internal site as demand falls.
Continuum Veterans Foundation donated $50,000 for a second year to Hire Heroes USA, an organization that works to create job opportunities for U.S. veterans and their spouses and lower the veteran unemployment rate.
Continuum established the Continuum Veterans Foundation in 2012, and its donation to Hire Heroes USA helped 101 veterans obtain employment in civilian jobs, more than double Continuum’s goal.
Acronis today announced the release of Acronis Access 7, designed specifically to allow SMBs a safe and secure data access, sync, and share solution. I was able to spend a few moments with Anders Lofgren, Acronis’ VP of Product Management, Mobility, and we had a great discussion both about the new solution, and how it was developed for the company’s resellers.
Netsuite Inc., a provider of cloud-based financials, ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, announced Ciber UK, part of IT consulting company Ciber, joined its solution provider program.
Ciber UK joined the program to deliver NetSuite solutions to customers in B2B and B2C ecommerce, SRP, and professional services automation.
Mark your calendar as SMB Nation is hitting the road with its Office 365 Tour. It may be in 2015, but we are busy working to make sure this tour brings you the latest content, best speakers, and networking together in this one day event.
Check out some of our Sessions:
• Line of Business Apps/Integration
• Migration
• SharePoint Online & OneDrive for Business 101
Registration is open now. Be sure to secure your space, because we would hate for you to miss out.
See you on the road!
Good morning, SMB Nation Community. The SMB Nation Team would like to wish you all a very Happy Veterans Day (US) and take a moment to thank the Veterans in our community and beyond!
This holiday in the US shares its roots with Armistice Day and Remembrance Day across the globe, first celebrated on November 11, 1919. There was a slight change, however, in 1945, when World War II veteran Raymond Weeks moved to expand the holiday to recognize veterans of all wars. The nomenclature change then happened in 1954, where the word “Armistice” was replaced by the word “Veterans.”
ShoreTel today announced that it has ranked at the top of customer service, loyalty and value in a recent study by Nemertes Research. This particular study polled replies from 500 IT Professionals in US organizations, in which pros listed, ranked and weighed their top telephony providers. This community feedback was then combined with business analytic data from Nemertes Research’s PilotHouse program.
Results for this report were segmented into the “M” (less than 2500 employees) and Enterprise (+2500 employees) markets. ShoreTel came out as the overall favorite for the Enterprise segment, winning highest value in customer service and customer loyalty.
Stage2Data, Canadian cloud solution provider, will participate in “Strategies for Managing Education and Research Data” Nov. 12, Orion Networks’ event intended to connect data management practitioners with real-world experience.
Jacques Swanepoel, Stage2Data CTO, will take part in the Q&A panel.
Another leading, not lagging, indicator of the success of Office 365 is an emerging talent shortage to do the work. While the current administration in Washington DC hasn’t been able to capitalize on the (technically) robust US job growth (over 214,000 jobs were added in October and 2.3 million jobs created in 2014), you can leverage your Office 365 expertise for more goodness. The goodness could be in the form of higher pay, a better work environment, or a better work location. Basically so goes Office 365, so goes its talent market. You heard it here first – good times dead ahead.
By Neeraj Periwal, Marketing Coordinator, efolder
Earlier this month, Microsoft made headlines by making two major announcements about Office — news that will have a big impact for many SMBs, MSPs, and VARs.
On November 4 and 6, Microsoft said it was making Office free for iOS and Android and also announced a new tie-in with Dropbox, making it seamless for Dropbox users on iOS and Android to open and edit their files directly in Office applications.
These moves make it clear that Microsoft wants to (and will!) sell more Office 365 licenses to small and medium-sized businesses. This is not only a terrific competitive move for Microsoft — it also introduces a tremendous opportunity for players in the IT channel.
By Bob Vogel, B2 Marketing
One of the biggest challenges faced by most IT executives is the fact that most of their techs are great at fixing and maintaining networks, but they lack good writing skills, and they rarely document their work.
It’s hard enough trying to get them just to update service tickets with good notes. But these are NOT the guys or gals who are going to prepare a comprehensive report for your clients detailing the work you’ve performed. And they’re certainly not the people who are going to walk out of a prospect situation and generate a well-written and well-organized set of documents detailing what they discovered, and what the implications are.
Registration Link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1209487342149945858
Date: Thursday, November 13, 2014 10:00-11:00 AM PDT
Presented by: Bill Hersh, D&H Distributing and Harry Brelsford, SMB Nation, Inc.
Over the next several months, the SMB VAR community has the single largest network infrastructure upgrade opportunity that we have ever had. We also have the broadest array of high-value options for our customers to move to, from upgraded on premise installations to all-cloud implementations and all manner of options in between. Please join Bill Hersh, Solutions Coordinator with D&H Distributing, as he reviews many of these options and the high value that they offer for different customers
Earlier this week, GoDaddy released a new Online Store solution for its SMB customer base. Through the GoDaddy Online Store, SMBs can more easily build and customize an ecommerce site for their organization.
Why did GoDaddy develop this? Well, research from BIA Kelsey showed that SMBs report 30% of revenue coming from online sources, and that most SMBs are not able to build the oftentimes complicated ecommerce platforms. This fell into line with the company’s 2014 mission of shifting the economy towards small businesses and making sure these organizations have the tools they need. The GoDaddy Online Store platform allows SMBs to select a theme, add/track inventory, assign pricing and make product descriptions without any coding experience required. In addition, the GoDaddy team optimized the platform for both web and mobile experience, and it allows users to pay via any major credit card, as well as PayPal.
RF Technologies Inc., a provider of RFID healthcare safety and security solutions, announced it has partnered with EnGenius Technologies as a value added reseller of the EnGenius DuraFon PRO phone solution.
The EnGenius DuraFon is ideal for staff in senior and assisted living communities, functioning as a pager, walkie-talkie and phone with a range diameter of 250,000 square feet.
By Casey Morgan, StorageCraft Technology Corporation
As an IT provider, you understand that backups are really just the first step toward something much bigger. A backup without a recovery is about as useful as a computer without a monitor—the data is there, but can you actually use it? But that’s why shouldn’t sell simple backups. You should sell disaster recovery as a service or “DRaaS.” (See “More Tools” below).
The tricky thing is that clients and prospects don’t always see the value in spending more for something they think are “just backups.” In order to help them understand the value in disaster recovery, it’s helpful to have a conversation about what disaster recovery is and what backups are not, and this involves asking some questions.
IT hardware integration provider Red River was named Philanthropic Partner of the Year for Dell’s 2015 fiscal year as part of Dell’s PartnerDirect channel program.
“Red River is incredibly honored to receive this recognition from Dell for the ongoing community activism and direct support that our company, and entire employee base, has provided through its dedicated philanthropic arm, Red River Technology Foundation,” said Rick Bolduc, CEO of Red River. “Dell technology has been instrumental in helping us fulfill our dual mandate and mission of encouraging students in the STEM fields and supporting U.S. military veterans transitioning to civilian life.”
Yesterday, Axcient released the results of an October 2014 survey of 453 IT Professionals on the current view of IT resiliency in today’s SMB sector. The survey, conducted by independent research firm, Dimensional Research, is based on responses from US and Canadian IT Pros, and shows that, although backup is critical, current solutions are not covering SMBs as well as they could.
To be more specific, 90% of those polled said that they use more than one backup/recovery tool, with the largest percentage of this segment (37%) using three tools. This kind of BDR coverage came with its own stress, as 91% of respondents said that using multiple tools can cause more issues, such as the need to train team members, increased costs and multi-vendor relationship management. Also, 61% of those polled said that their multiple tools actually end up having duplicate functionality.
Vonage Holdings Corp. recently announced that it is poised to acquire Phoenix, AZ-based UCaaS company, Telesphere. Telesphere, a privately-held company that has been in the Cloud space since 2006, has been recognized in the Unified Communications space by Gartner (Magic Quadrant) and TMC for its UCaaS solutions.
Avidian announced it expanded its mobile support to all applications that support Microsoft Outlook synchronization. It enables remote employees to use any Outlook-compatible app on mobile app marketplaces and securely extends Prophet CRM interoperability to any mobile device.
Long-time leading SMB influencer Karl Palachuk is about to go down under to Australia with this staff for an SMB IT roadshow and a wee bit of personal vacation time. Last week I caught up with Karl to “check-in” before his departure, and it turns out Karl has big news. He has just released a comprehensive four-book set (Karl reports he has written over 15-books now). The book set is a turnkey, I’d offer almost franchise approach, to running a business from the front office to the back office. To be honest, this book series would make a great one-year, two semester local college series of courses.
Cloud-based rich communication service Voxox announced its Cloud Phone won the Best Android—IT or Business Tool category of the 2014 Tabby Awards/Business competition.
”We are honored to see Cloud Phone take home a Tabby Award in this prestigious annual competition highlighting business and productivity applications,” said Bryan Hertz, co-founder and CEO of Voxox. “The Cloud Phone web app was designed to help small businesses with growing communications needs. This award is a great honor and testament to Cloud Phone’s usability and rich functionality.”
Trend Micro Incorporated’s annual security predictions report, “Trend Micro Security Predictions for 2015 and Beyond: The Invisible Becomes Visible,” highlights a forecast of increased targeted attacks as hackers find success worldwide in non-traditional countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. The report also details seven other cybersecurity threats.
Good morning, SMB Nation Community, and welcome to the first week in November! I recently received an invite from Jess Mooney at Fine Solutions, a Lynwood, WA-based Dynamics CRM company. Jess let me know that the Seattle Chapter of the Dynamics CRM User Group will be holding a free meeting, November 12, 2014 from 9am-2pm at the Bellevue Microsoft Campus, Microsoft Advanta, Security AB, 160th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98052.
As of this writing, this group is comprised of Microsoft product experts, consultants, power users and tech enthusiasts, and can boast that is has tripled in size over the past year. The User Group team will be providing snacks and lunch to all attendees and will have at least a quarter of the time devoted to a roundtable discussion of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In addition, attendees will receive special training across the Dynamics solution.
Here’s the meeting agenda:
That’s what every partner should ask vendors. Sometimes it can get a little frustrating working with vendors that don’t “get” partners. A lot of them don’t seem to understand the role that partners like you play in selling IT solutions to SMBs, and even worse, don’t understand how partners make money. A lot of them will create products, stick them on a web site then spend a lot of money on direct marketing and sales in an attempt to get customers to come buy them. We all know that that is not the best way to serve SMB customers.
By Bob Vogel B2 Marketing
I’ve been talking with the folks over at RapidFire Tools to learn more about their network assessment tool called The Network Detective. Their big claim to fame is that the tool they’ve created allows you to perform a completely non-invasive assessment that’s deceptively easy to set up and fast to run.
So I asked them what does” non-invasive” really mean, and why is that important?
“Basically, there’s no software to install, and no monitoring agents that need to be deployed around the network,” said Win Pham, who built the software for RapidFire Tools. “This is really important if you’re walking into a prospect environment. There might be an incumbent service provider or internal IT resource that the owner would rather not know that you are in there poking around.”
By Greg Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer, Global Velocity
Today’s cyber security risks for SMBs and how resellers can help prevent data breaches
More than ever, small to medium sized businesses are realizing they are a target for hackers and cybercrime aficionados. While SMBs are not as big as companies like Target and Home Depot, they are the majority of victims at the hands of cyber thieves seeking easy targets. The Verizon 2013 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 62 percent of breaches impacted smaller organizations, likely a conservative figure since not all small organizations are reporting breaches.
As it is Election Day in the US, I can’t let the opportunity to discuss the following pass by. Assuming you are an IT Pro out in the wild and want to improve your leadership skills, you really should get involved in Microsoft’s non-partisan Voices for Innovation political trade association. The short story is you’ll meet leaders and thereby improve your leadership skills along the way.
A MarketsandMarkets report estimated the total value of the Voice over LTE market will grow at a CAGR of 64.4 percent from 2014 to 2020.
The report shows high potential growth in the voice over IP multimedia subsystem (VoIMS) and Circuit Switched Fallback (CSFB), as VoIMS and CSFB technologies currently have the highest share of the APAC market.
Scality today announced availability of its open-source REST Block Driver, software deployable on Linux-based servers. The driver exposes a block device to applications, with REST-based, CDMI-compliant transport to backend storage and supports basic connectivity to the Scality RING storage platform.
Microsoft’s annual MVP Global Summit is currently underway! The MVP Global Summit is a multi-day event that is hosted in Bellevue, WA and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, WA. With a large catalog of technical sessions (offered only in English), and a variety of networking opportunities, the MVP Global Summit enables MVPs to connect with other MVPs, build relationships with Microsoft product managers, and provide feedback on Microsoft products and technologies. Translated, this means the best and brightest SMB IT technical minds are receiving “behind closed doors” confidential briefings on SMB-related products, so that they can return home and better support the community and prosper.
Today, D&H Distributing announced the launch of a double Incentive points program for November and December, 2014. For November, D&H announced that 13 of its vendors will offer two points per $10.00 of qualifying purchases.
“We appreciate when our vendor community makes an extra investment in our resellers, generating worthwhile advantages like increased rewards points,” said Mary Campbell, VP of Marketing, D&H Distributing. “Our rewards program provides a particular benefit to the small business reseller, assigning points according a flat percentage of each purchase, instead of by ‘tiers’ or based on a minimum threshold of money spent. This enables even the most independent of VARs to rapidly build points. As the go-to distributor for independent and SMB solution providers, we’re proud to deliver a program that caters to their sales patterns and reciprocates their loyalty.”
SIOS Technology Corp. today announced it will showcase its SAN and SANLess clustering software for SQL Server in booth 408 at PASS Summit 2014 in Seattle, Wash.
SIOS is sponsoring the PASS the Bacon breakfast held Nov. 6 at 6:45 a.m., the PASS to Prizes game Nov. 4-6 and will raffle and give away gift cards.
PASS Summit 2014 is the world’s largest annual conference for Microsoft SQL Server and BI professionals, with more than 2,000 companies worldwide sending employees to receive training, tips and make connections with other industry professionals.
How do you celebrate something as big as SMB Nation’s 15th anniversary? I think its part reflection, part forward planning and part celebration. As the founder, I’m very proud that we created a company that supports ten families. These jobs simply didn’t exist before, and I appreciate, daily, the staff that we have and the long tenures amongst them (my key employees are approaching eight years). So first and foremost on my gratitude list is a huge THANK YOU to these staff members:
Level 3 Communications, Inc. today announced it completed acquisition of tw telecom, combining the companies to provide a comprehensive product portfolio to enterprise, government and carrier customers worldwide.
"Level 3 is helping customers migrate to the next wave of technology," Level 3 president and CEO Jeff Storey said. "We know our customers' needs are changing, and by bringing together these two great, customer-focused companies, we are taking the next step in the evolution of Level 3 and bringing us closer to realizing our vision of being the trusted connection to the networked world.”
Yesterday, StorageCraft Technology Corporation announced that is has earned a spot on the MountainWest Capital Network’s Utah 100 list for the fourth year running. This list recognizes organizations that have excelled at growth within their area in the state.
On this year’s list, StorageCraft came in at number 19, a four-place improvement over the 2013 listing. The company has been recognized in the top 23 companies for all four years running, however. So, why the recognition? Well, as many of you remember, StorageCraft recently started building their new 125,000 ft2 corporate headquarters in Draper, UT. This is coupled with the opening of an international office in Ireland, as well as the company’s IT industry recognition for its BDR products.
By Raymond Vrabel, Director, Technical Account Management, Continuum Managed IT Services
Part 9 of a monthly blog series examining tips on how MSPs can work to break “bad” business habits that they might unknowingly fall into as a result of just wanting to get things done.
In honor of October being designated as Cyber Security Awareness Month, it’s only fitting that this month’s blog focus on how MSPs can protect themselves (and their SMB clients) from cyber-attacks and other types of network disasters. With viruses like Cryptolocker and Cryptowall 2.0 running rampant, now is the time for SMBs to re-examine their BDR and security policies. Here are four important steps to take when examining security:
1.) Have a Reliable BDR Plan in Place: If you think that security breaches can only happen on an enterprise level, such as the recent hacks occurring within Target and Home Depot, you are fooling yourself. In fact, cybercriminals are now (at an alarming rate) targeting SMBs, which they often feel have fewer resources dedicated to cybersecurity. According to a 2013 survey by the National Small Business Association, 44 percent of small businesses have been victims of cyber-attacks, costing an average of $8,700 per attack. If those figures aren’t enough to get you talking to your clients, think about instances other than actual security breaches.
For example, how does a natural disaster like Hurricane Sandy wreak havoc for your clients’ networks? Two years ago, Sandy pummeled the East Coast and millions lost power; some for more than two weeks. I recall hearing a story of an MSP, who, prior to Sandy, was unsuccessful in getting his client, a doctor’s office in the New York metro region, to set up a BDR plan. He didn’t listen to the MSP, and unfortunately, because the client had his servers located in the basement of his building with no backup to speak of, all of his data, including confidential patient records, was destroyed.
I can’t reiterate enough how BDR is the number one most important technology that all SMBs need.
2.) Ensure Security Infrastructure and Processes: Once you’ve helped your client realize the importance of BDR, and you have the tools in place, work with your staff on a process of who will handle what for each client should a disaster occur. First and foremost: How will the disaster (by type) be handled (and by whom)? Also, make sure your help desk is equipped to handle these types of situations. The last thing you want is for your staff and techs to be scrambling around at the last minute trying to figure out a game plan. The most important thing to remember is: The least amount of downtime, and the quickest recovery time, minimizes negative impact of the disaster.
Aside from the technology component of disaster response, the business end of this plan must also be solid and in place. Understand expectations on both sides, and review your contracts and SLAs with all clients. If possible, combine all of the business aspects together into one cohesive and individual report, so they can be accessed quickly and efficiently. The last thing you need, especially after a service interruption or security breach, is to have to tell your client they have to pay extra or additional costs that neither of you had previously planned for.
3.) Educate your Clients on Safe Internet Habits: Make sure your clients and their staff are practicing safe searching while they are online, especially if they are accessing social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., which can be platforms for virus attacks. If a link doesn’t look legitimate, it’s probably a virus or phishing scam.
A good example of this is the latest Cryptowall virus, which is disguised to look like a user is receiving a suspicious email with a ZIP or PDF attachment disguised as an invoice, purchase order or other business communication. MSPs should advise their clients to verify with the sender that they did in fact send the message prior to opening the attachment. Know that this can happen to anyone, at any time, even to the most tech-savvy of people. I recently received an email like this from one of my credit cards, regarding a past due bill, which I had already paid. A simple phone call to the company proved that the email was a hoax and I deleted it immediately.
4.) Frequent Anti-Virus Updates are Key: Aside from safe Internet searching, it’s paramount that every employee’s PC and relevant mobile device is up-to-date with anti-virus or anti-malware programs. While it’s great to have these in place, if they haven’t been updated in months, they can actually be more of a threat than a protector. Make sure your clients have best practices in place to ensure regular updates and patches are being installed. You can also save time by having the client’s employees learn how to do the updates themselves; it just takes a simple calendar reminder. Or, even better, have pre-scheduled, system-wide updates running. This is also something that you as the MSP can do for your own business. Map out a specific plan on how you handle updates and patches for you and your employees, and then share best practices with your clients.
Bottom line: When it comes to establishing a BDR/security plan, this is not something to be taken lightly – and it’s important to drive this point home with your clients. Start by sharing your own best practices including a reliable BDR, solid security processes, exercising safe Internet searches and updating anti-virus program regularly. Then if disaster or a cyber-attack does strike, both you and your clients are able to handle it with little to no down time.
Raymond Vrabel is Continuum's Director of Technical Account Management and participates in product and service growth initiatives. He manages Continuum's Technical Account Management team which supports over 3,500 partners worldwide. Vrabel has more than 15 years of experience in the IT industry, specializing in managed IT services, disaster recovery and cloud solutions. Follow him on Twitter: @rayvrabel.
SaaS provider AppRiver announced this week it’s joined the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider Program. Through the program, AppRiver owns the customer lifestyle, giving partners opportunities to sell Office 365 subscription, own the entire billing process and directly manage support.
“AppRiver’s channel partners advocated strongly for just such a program that would allow them to maintain and control their customer relationships,” said Scott Paul, senior director of sales operations with AppRiver. “We were fortunate to be one of just a few companies worldwide to pilot that two-tier program and the results have been phenomenal. It’s exciting that more partners will now be able to take advantage of it.”
Whatever you say, you gotta hand it to Microsoft that they are in it to win it with Office 365. But the win for customers will put extreme pressure on competitors both near and far. The nearby competitors are Google, Box and DropBox who will have to respond with adding more value or lower prices LOL). The ramifications extend to the financial markets where online storage IPOs will instantly look less attractive to investors. How do you compete with a free good? You don’t. Investing to a race to the bottom is insane.
Competitors further afield will have to truly continue to innovate to add value to distinguish offerings above that of OneDrive. One vendor, eFolder, already does this by providing better security, features and functionality.
Zultys, Inc., a provider of IP phone systems and unified communications systems, released Zultys Cloud Services, a cloud-based IP phone system, unified communications system, contact center and SIP trunk services solution.
It’s based on the enterprise-class MX series of IP phone systems, versatile enough to be deployed for all business sizes, and provides the same features.
Seattle-based Thursday Market launched its social referral network for service professionals earlier recently, giving consumers the ability to search for service business referrals from friends and neighbors and service professionals the chance to engage friends and neighbors of satisfied customers.
Early this week Microsoft released it FY Q1 earnings (its fiscal year starts July 1st) and it exceeded expectations with respect to cloud revenues (overall earnings were down as expected because of the Nokia hit). The Wall Street Journal perhaps said it best that Microsoft is bucking the trend as revenues rose 11%, while competitors like IBM, Oracle and H-P are posting slow or shrinking sales growth. “Microsoft may not be cool, but its sales continue to defy expectations…” wrote Shira Ovide at WSJ.COM. MarketWatch reported that CEO Satya Nadella pitched that Microsoft’s strengths in cloud-based business services – primarily Web-friendly Office 365 and Azure – had resulted in double cloud revenue. That could spell double trouble for Amazon (more on that in a moment).
Zendesk, Inc. today launched its Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys, built to enable organizations to gather and analyze customer feedback from the same customer service platform they use to interact with customers.
NPS can measure an organization’s customer loyalty over time proactively, instead of measuring satisfaction only after specific interactions.
AVG Technologies today released the results of a study conducted by independent research firm, Vanson Bourne, which shows a new picture of the SMB end user and MSP environment as it relates to the Internet of Things (IoT) trend. Overall, SMB customer demands are on the rise, and MSPs are looking to adapt.
Here’s a bit of information on the study. Vanson Bourne conducted 1770 interviews of both IT and Marketing decision makers from Austalia, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US in September 2014. All of the respondents were from companies with between 1-500 employees, with a split of 85% SMB customer respondents, and 15% MSP respondents.
By Bob Vogel, B2 Marketing
Spoiler alert: there are more than five. But I’ve interviewed literally hundreds of IT service pros over the years, and I keep seeing and hearing recurring themes among the successful ones.
Ironically, even knowing whether or not you are successful is one of the top ingredients. So many IT service companies are living from month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter, even year-to-year, without any clearly defined goals. Without goals, there’s no way to measure success. Tip 1: If you don’t have clearly defined goals for your business, establish them right now and put them in writing.
Earlier today, Connected Data, released its Transporter Genesis platform. I had the chance to talk with Connected Data’s VP of Marketing, Jim Sherhart, and COO, Russ Johnson, and they gave me an overview of the Genesis, as well as their take on the current Channel response to the Cloud.
I’ll dig right in to the community connection. Jim and Russ spoke to me about what they are seeing in the current Cloud market as it relates to file sharing. In particular, they said that cloud services have a user base of over 400 million, and that 97% of these users don’t pay for these services. Herein the dilemma lies: these services still cost the hosting company money, so these independent cloud file share organizations, like Box, are actually seeing a deficit, paired with competition from larger file-share organizations.
D&H Distributing today announced the agenda and location of its annual Mid-Atlantic Fall 2014 Technology Show, taking place November 5, 2014. This event, the last in D&H’s event season, will be held in the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey, PA and D&H is expecting to host over 100 vendors and over 1000 attendees, including resellers, dealers and integrators.
The main focus at this year’s Mid-Atlantic Fall 2014 show is the Server Refresh Opportunity Booth, a 40x40ft area in the center of the exhibit hall, where attendees can see several racks of running, live servers from Lenovo, HP and Cisco, and pick the brains of well-respected D&H Solutions Lab and Server Specialist Team members. The idea behind this display is to both familiarize resellers with the Microsoft Server 2012 R2 solution, as well as new offerings, like the System X line from Lenovo.
Digium today announced its Digium Cloud Services offering, Digium SIP Trunking, will be available tomorrow in the contiguous United States. Digium SIP Trunking offers reliable, inexpensive and simple-to-deploy VoIP connectivity for Switchvox, Asterisk, and any IP-enabled phone system.
Digium now has a complete solution, acting as a provider for phones, PBX and telephony service. Its SIP Trunking is available in metered or unlimited plans, and it offers nationwide DIDs, 911 enabled DIDs, and toll-free DIDs along with potential to port local and toll-free numbers from other carriers.
This is a story about the popular book, the E-Myth Revisited [Michael Gerber, Harper Business], the best-selling MBA program mainstay gifted to me by Dana Epp (Microsoft Security MVP and Scorpion Software founder – recently acquired by Kaseya) nearly ten years ago. The premise is that a small business owner (e.g. pie shop owner) should work ON the business but not necessarily IN the business full-time after a certain duration. So I followed Dana’s advice, and have built a company over the past 15+ years that can run without me being involved day-to-day. For that, I credit Jennifer Hallmark, who has served SMB Nation for the past eight years. She has built “Team Jenny” with an average tenure of five years inside a small business (rare and something she should be proud of). About 18-months ago, I promoted her to President of the company, and I’ve used the duration since to mentor her on the finer points of running a ten person company. Next up was the promotion of Marianne “CRM Machine” Poulos to Director of Sales eight months ago. Not a single CRM entry is missed with her team of four and her friction-free management style. Plan A is in effect for me to focus on more strategic initiatives and participate in industry opportunities while the SMB Nation trains run on time.
By Jay McBain, Co-Founder, ChannelEyes
As the summer of 2014 is quickly wrapping up, I wanted to share some of my observations on the ever-changing technology channel.
I am seeing the very definition of the channel changing. The first generation of the IT channel opened its doors in the late 1970s, with business models around midrange computing, Apple education sales and hobbyist PC sales.
When IBM announced the PC on Aug. 12, 1981, the Microsoft/Intel revolution began. The channel grew quickly and weathered numerous storms such as Dell direct in the early 1990s, explosion of the internet in the late 1990s, Y2K and, more recently, cloud, consumerization, mobility and convergence.
This week’s webinar is a treat for our community! Join SMB Nation’s own Harry Brelsford as he discussed the brand new Board of Advisors Program with Keith Lubner, Channel Consulting Corp, and Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Group (pictured).
Registration Link: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/864506928
Learn how to make 2015 your best year ever. Maybe you are ready for the next level! If you face sales, marketing and/or business management challenges in growing your business it’s time to invest in your success! Invest 45 minutes of your day on Thursday, October 23 to learn how other partners are enjoying success.
Join us at 10am PDT to get the scoop on how this is different from other traditional groups, as well as info on the three distinct program pathways, and the Board of Advisors Round Table.
Board of Advisors: powered by SMB Nation, led by Ken Thoreson, Acumen Management Group, and Keith Lubner, Channel Consulting Corp.
A lot of SMB partners are wondering if they are leaving money on the table when selling Microsoft Office 365. The shift from on-premise to cloud-based products means potential disruption of traditional partner revenue streams, but there is still plenty of opportunity for SMB partners. One of those key areas is something that Harry talks a lot about: application layering. One of the best application layer products for SMBs that we have seen is attachedapps.
Basically, attachedapps are a set of subscription-based apps that are tightly integrated with Office 365 and Outlook, and let customers to do things like turn leads into contacts, manage sales pipelines, and provide customer support. All without having to deal with the expense and complexity of full-blown CRM products.
Unitrends today announced Q3 was its 23rd consecutive quarter of growth, with growth driven by channel momentum, industry-leading technology deployments and effective customer support.
“We’ve maintained an unwavering commitment to delivering simple and affordable enterprise-class data protection offerings backed by an unrivaled customer support team,” said Mike Coney, Unitrends’ president and CEO. “This winning formula has propelled us to tremendous success in recent years, and we’ll continue to make it the foundation of our business model as we enter the next stage of corporate growth.”
Working side-by-side with the Office 365 product team in Redmond, we’re delighted to present the first community “needs” survey to you. Your participation is paramount in helping the Office 365 team shape the direction of its product support resources. In particular, what you share from the real world, will allow me to engage in deeper conversation about what type of learning assets are needed now to make you more technical successful with Office 365.
To be more specific, this survey will allow you to weigh in on how Office 365 has helped your organization/customers, and how/where you get help for any Office 365-questions! This is your chance to drive the innovation of the Office 365 solution.
BONUS: One lucky respondent will win an ActionTec ScreenBeam WIDI device (HDMI wireless display – very cool)*
GFI Software today announced immediate availability of GFI WebMonitor 2015, a complete redesign that enables IT administrators to control access, scan Internet traffic with three anti-virus engines, and unify policy configuration and management. All aspects of its user interface have layout and performance updates.
I caught a moment with this past week with Lenovo’s Vice President North America Commercial Channels and SMB, Chris Frey. During our interview, we touched base on the company’s recent acquisition of IBM’s x86 server unit, as well as Combat Kit updates, and the driving philosophy behind the company’s evolving channel program.
The main item Chris and I discussed was the recent acquisition of the IBM x86 server unit. Here’s where the Lenovo team starts to shine. As Chris explained, Lenovo is working hard to be the first to intersect people and program into channel, resulting in a new credo: “One Lenovo, One Channel.” What does this mean? Well, for starters, there’s a consistency here that all partners will share, whether they are PC resellers or working on the Server side. In fact, Chris told me that within the first 10 days of the acquisition, Lenovo had already started work on the following:
I like to lead by example. So I attended the Western Washington Summit 2014 event hosted by the West Sound Technology Association (WSTA) in the Seattle-area. My point is that, once a week, you need to engage in some form of professional outreach to remain relevant in your career. The choice of this outreach is yours; it’s the attitude to get out there that’s important.
Pictured: Renee Radcliff Sinclair and Charles Keating
Specific to the Western Washington Summit 2014, organizers Charles and Dona Keating held a mid-day event highlighted by speeches from Congressman Derek Kilmer, Olympic College Dean, Norma Whitacre, and Renee Radcliff Sinclair (who recently directed Strategic Initiatives at Apple). Sinclair just happens to live in the area and she spoke eloquently about technology in education. In a lighter moment, her Windows-based laptop display stumbled with an errant right-click context menu and this Apple executive needed Charles’ assistance in escaping out of it. Welcome to Seattle, Renee!
Cloud-based rich communication service Voxox announced its Cloud Phone, a virtual PBX service, was named the Best Mobile Utility category winner at the 2014 Silicon Valley Business App Awards.
Voxox’s Cloud Phone has set the standard for innovation and creativity in the mobile utility app world," said Vikas Sharan, CEO, SVBA Awards. "This award is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators."
invisibleCRM announced Chatter Enterprise for Outlook, an integrated solution Salesforce.com Chatter users can access and manage within Outlook, will be available in Q4 2014.
Chatter increased overall sales productivity by more than 36 percent, Salesforce reports, and leveraging the impact of Chatter through Outlook serves to streamline and boost networking capabilities.
It’s finally happening. Start-ups such as GridVision, based in New York, NY, are emerging to capitalize on the pivot to Office 365 and the cloud world. GridVision launched both its company and its SaaS-based beta IT management and automation platform solution earlier this week. I was able to sit down and talk with GridVision CEO and Co-Founder, Christian Ehrenthal (pictured), and he walked me through the basics of his company’s solution.
So what does GridVision do? I’d start with they have a lack of legacy on-premises “baggage” as a born in the cloud startup. So that gives them a lot of agility and flexibility. It’s like a country devastated by a hurricane and rebuilding its telecom infrastructure with wireless, not landlines. A fresh start is, well, refreshing!
This timing couldn’t be better with Office 365 finally validating the cloud paradigm for even the most discrimination MSP. And yes – they hook Office 365, which I’ll get to in a moment.
It is business transformation rather than simple cost cutting that will drive the next wave of cloud adoption, according to Gigaom Research. That isvery positivenews for the future of cloud-based services and SaaS platform providers.
The focus for the future should be on the value that cloud-based services can create within a business rather than basic cost reduction. Reducing costs is a positive for any enterprise IT department, but in the long-termit is innovation and the impact cloud can have on the overall business that counts. As we know, you can only reduce costs so much, while innovation and new processes are limitless.
Dell today announced its partners ranked network, mobile and cloud security as the top threats facing their customers in a recent survey.
The 120 randomly selected partners are attending the first Dell Security Peak Performance Conference in Florida.
Partners said network, mobile and cloud security are the three most common concerns they hear from customers, and BYOD, selected by 59 percent of respondents, led the partners’ ranking as one of the top two threats of concern to their customers.
As many of you know, Harrybbb is SMB Nation’s company nomad. He often travels to the numerous industry events, where he gets to meet members of our community face-to-face. Harry was in lovely Toronto, ON this past September for the D&H Technology Show, where he was able to have a short interview with ChannelLine CEO, Robert Cohen (pictured) about his company’s new XSELERATOR Program.
Check out the interview at:
The disruption drumbeat continues to march in the technology community. A day doesn’t end without some blockbuster technology news such as a break-up or hack. The sea of change brought by mobility and cloud computing is really playing out. In this contribution, I focus on two recent break-ups and speculate on others. Part One will focus on HP and Part Two will cover my observations on the recent Symantec separation.
HP
I’ve got to hand it to HP. It’s doing something to adjust to the new-new world of cloud computing. But for several years, HP has had its challenges. It took log positions in its server-side, on-premise portfolio starting in the early 2000s. (HP, of course, is a mature company 1939 and has had countless acquisitions dating back to 1958 as seen here).
The point is, HP is built for client/server and other on-premises technology paradigms. It thrived in our SMB community in the SBS 2003 era, as it was a top-of-mind solution for an SBS deployment. People loved HP! But starting a few years ago, it started to look a bit awkward at industry events promoting some legacy pillar server solution messaging. Numerous layoffs, executive management changes and mixed signals (initial tablet dropped; PC business exit/re-entry) have swung the perception meter in our community to ambiguous. As the old saying goes: “Every cloud has its silver lining.” I’ll deliver the good news from all of this in a moment.
On the services side – HP’s best acquisition was EDS in 2008, which instantly made it a player in the services business. Ummm…let’s not go there about Autonomy in 2011 LOL.
This brings us to the fast fact check concerning HP. The break-up mirrors the “bad bank” strategy in the Great Recession, used to clear toxic assets off the balance sheet. The two companies are now HP (printers and PCs) and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (will incorporate HP's current server, storage, networking, software, services, and financing operating segments). The nuts-and-bolts of the friendly divorce are better covered by my friends, The Motley Fool, here).
Not completely sure what the future holds for HP’s SMB strategy as it’ll be part of the “enterprise group” which is a whole different crowd. Also – I’d offer there will be an extended period of caution in the SMB-area, as my friends and yours seek to avoid making mistakes. You have to remember that a corporate career is a different path from that of an entrepreneur. In general, risk taking is not rewarded at the enterprise level.
I also wonder aloud if HP, which hasn’t exhibited an Office 365 strategy, is being disrupted by Office 365. I’d offer the answer is yes. I’ll continue to monitor this angle.
Finally – it’s the children that are hurt most in a divorce. I’ve got some great friends inside HP in the server area and they have been extremely supportive over the years to the SMB community. These are good people working inside a big company that is being disrupted. I get that and I’ll continue to defend my brethren!
BTW – is there really such a thing as a friendly divorce? Or will this get messy? Can co-parenting work at HP?
Next time I delve into the Symantec breakup.
Lenovo today expanded its end-to-end enterprise solutions portfolio with the announcement of new thin clients.
The new ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One attaches to the M73 or M53 clients, giving users cost-effective options for future upgrades without a need to replace the display.
By Bob Vogel, B2 Marketing
If you are reading this before Thursday, 10/23/14, I strongly recommend that you register for what could be a game-changing webinar for you.
On that day, at 2 PM Eastern 11 AM Pacific, RapidFire Tools, Inc. will be talking about Internal Vulnerabilities, and a new tool they have to help you deliver better IT security services and maybe save your clients from an “inside” attack.
Here’s the link to register to see it live or, if you missed it, to watch a recording: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/945628550.
AirTight Networks today announced the launch of mobile web app AirTight Nano and social Wi-Fi integration option WeChat, both to be demonstrated at Wi-Fi Global Congress Oct. 9-10.
"At AirTight we believe in leveling the playing field for companies of any size,” said David King, chairman and CEO of AirTight Networks. “This means making our enterprise-grade wireless platform and software applications for Wi-Fi cloud management, social engagement, analytics and security the mo
I recently came across an article on the Tech Times site, written by Joseph Mayton, on a new piece of legislation signed in by US President Barack Obama, known as the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act, which allows consumers to legally unlock their phones and purchase unlocked phones. I had a few questions about this, so I also spoke with an old friend, Steve Hilton, who helped me better understand the changes to getting and using unlocked phones.
Let me put this into perspective: at SMB Nation, we recently needed to unlock a phone for one of our employees. I went through a program called Unlockriver.com and paid $42.50 for an unlock code. The new legislation, signed in early August, makes this legal in the US. Now, here’s the kicker. Even under this legislation, cell phone companies are neither required to offer unlocked phones, nor are they being forced to unlock any phone without a valid reason.
Yesterday, AppDirect, a San Francisco, CA, based cloud services organization, announced that it has begun to collaborate with global human capital management company, ADP. Through this collaboration. AppDirect has launched an API-accessible, cloud-based marketplace for ADP to provide a one-stop shop for its services.
IP solutions developer and producer snom technology AG
announced it has appointed Finance Director Guido Wohlers as Chief Financial Officer. Wohlers has worked at snom for 12 years and brings experience and understanding as Finance Director to his new position.
Paychex, Inc. today introduced its newly expanded service offering, software-as-a-service platform Paychex Flex, as well as mobile app Paychex Time.
Cloud-based Paychex Flex adapts to the needs of human capital management spectrum users and delivers access to payroll, HR and benefits information.
The SMB Nation Team would like to thank all of this year’s attendees, media, speakers and sponsors for helping us make the 2014 Fall Conference a success! We are pleased to announce the dates and location for the SMB Nation 2015 Fall Conference today as well:
Dates: October 2-4, 2015
Location: Microsoft Conference Center, Redmond, WA
Special: Pre-Day activities on October 1, 2015
Plan ahead to meet us in Redmond! We would love to see you!
Keep an eye on this site for more information as we get into the 2015 calendar year!