I’ve found this format to be surprisingly well-received and effective. It’s my quick hitters that quickly summarizes a few topics circulating around the SMB Nation MSP community.
Karl’s “Hear Ye, Here Ye!” Community Meeting
Longtime SMB Nation fan Karl Palachuk is at it again. He’s holding an innovative live community meeting that uses the power of video presence to create a greater sense of intimacy (the platform is based on Zoom which I recently experienced first hand via Steve Taylor’s MSP Webinars).
Figure 1: Karl Palachuk
Direct from the mouth of Karl: “I am trying something new. To my knowledge, this hasn't been done in our community before. I've set up a Zoom.us meeting that will take up to 100 participants. That means up to 100 people can be logged in at the same time - AND join the conversation.Believe me: I'm quite prepared for there to be a bit of chaos! Everyone could be connected with audio AND Video. So wear your nice clothes and mute your microphone when we start.
Here's what I'm doing . . .
This is intended to be an open discussion about what you need. I want to talk about a possible new, interactive venture in the SMB IT and Managed Service community. BUT I promise there will be no sales pitch.
Over the last dozen years, I've been lucky enough to come up with products and services that you need and want. Lots of it is available for free. Lots of is sells for a price. But I can't read your minds!
I want an open discussion about what works and what doesn't work in our community. I want to talk to you about a new project I'm scheming up and see how you think it should evolve. Setting my ego aside, I'm also prepared for the attendees to say it's the stupidest thing they've ever heard.Who knows. This Community Meeting might work. Or it might bomb. But let's give it a try.”
You can discover more and register here.
Power BI Templates
As you know – I’m preaching analytics to the SMB Nation MSP community. Wanna a kick start that motion? SherWeb has launched ready-to-use templates and object libraries for those partners interested in digital transformation for their customers. Discover more here.
Native Call Center App for Office 365 and Skype for Business
Please check out this out on TouchPoint Agent, the only server-less, native call center app for Office 365 and Skype for Business. Enghouse is recognized by analysts including Gartner as a (if not the) leading contact center solutions provider for Microsoft Skype for Business and Office 365.
In this year's Contact Center Infrastructure Report, Gartner notes, "Enghouse's channel partners have amassed a large installed base for integrations of CC [Enghouse Interactive Communications Center] with Microsoft's Skype for Business infrastructure. A number of these have migrated with CC from legacy PBX platforms to Skype for Business. This can be useful for organizations looking for reference examples for a planned integration."
New Terminology
Anthony Smallbeck shared the following “HI Harry, I know you are a multi platform, social media type of guy (I suspect those are all now "old-fashioned" terms for what I'm describing.. So sue me!) :-) And I know you like informing folks about related trends.
I noticed recently the use of "troll farm". Being of Scandinavian decent, which is a group that actually has a noted cultural affiliation with Trolls, I didn't understand the term (you can only guess what I was thinking!). Now that I know the origin, it makes sense. If you are referring to a group of people actively trolling via concerted effort certain social media sites ..."Troll farm" fits well. And it's a major concern, because you can deal with people's real concerns " one on one " a lot easier than what actually might be a phony " pile on" . :-)
I'm wondering if you might want to comment on that via the Sunday Paper, because I'm curious to find out from SMB folks how they handle these type of things in both their personal lives and in their business efforts. Much appreciated.”