Business Speak

At the recent Ingram Cloud X conference, I made “Women in Technology” a pillar coverage area. There are important reasons for this – Ingram Micro has made it a solid pre-day session at it’s spring show. And more research is coming out that speaks towards the “Middle School cliff”

TechTuesday broadcast live from Ingram Cloud X in San Diego, CA today with a conference overview and hooks to Northwest companies.

Right here right now I’m happy to reveal that my 21^st book is ahead of schedule and will be released next week at SxSW in Austin, TX. It’s my first book after a ten-year recharge and I’m fired up! Things have changed, and SMB Nation has led the transformation parade – this book reflects all that and more. 

Hear ye! Hear ye! The MSP Makeover contest deadline is March 31, 2019. Complete two simple steps to participate i the contest. One luck SMB Nation managed services provider (MSP) wins a "Day of Harry" that includes a morning workshop and an afternoon sales call.

Having started in November 2008 in the early depths of the Great Recession, SoundLine Communications has not only survived and thrived. Today’s its crossed the ten year mark and is a small business serving the business community in the voice-over-IP (VoIP), telephony and Unified Communications space.

In this recent interview with Joel Maloff, Senior Vice President – Strategic Alliances/Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) at PHONE.COM, after proper introductions we give a tip of the hat to the good old days of being in IT service provider (organic customer referrals, could do it all yourself, etc.)  and then…and then…we look forward to the future.

Don’t look away for long or you might miss real news. Yesterday while running errands I peeked at my mobile phone to see the news from Joe (here) about Thoma Bravo acquiring ConnectWise for a reported $1.5B. Happy to share the basic details about employee shareholders will share in $270m of the proceeds resulting in 70 instant millionaires; 100 redundant layoffs; new strategic hires, etc.

I’ve always tried to lead by example as I encourage all of us to transform and improve our business models. So with great pleasure, I’m delighted to announce that I’ve become an accredited member of the U.S. press corps. The designation is significant for a few reasons.

I can now demonstrate my cred as a long-time writer and analyst.

It is a story of be there at the start. SMB Nation and StorageCraft were connected in our younger days. StorageCraft was just starting and SMB Nation was moving from the "crawal" to the "walk" stage. In a sense we grew up together. 

In this recent interview at an industry conference (NexGen), I check-in with Mark Baird,

Pinch me but it’s true. I’ve been covering IBM for over a decade at its annual partner events, the retired LotusSphere and now THINK. My job is to make sure two audiences keep IBM top-of-mind for what I feel it does best: Analytics,

Long-time technology channel executive Rob Spee reached out late last year while I was skiing on holiday break to connect on his new podcast series. Spee is a thinking man and this thoughtful interview draws out a few key themes that are central to my mission as a “guide-by-the-side” MSP motion.

I gave it a go but it’s now no no to GoGo.

I travel frequently and value my time. In 2018 I went all in for the monthly GoGo pass on my primary carrier, Alaska Airlines. I will not repeat.