Smb Community Podcast By Karl W. Palachuk

ChannelEyes is now in its second year and Jay McBain was on the floor at IT Nation to talk to vendors about connecting with partners. According to Jay, most MSPs work with an average of eight vendors, and yet they are overwhelmed with the information flooding from vendors to partners. Jay explains the mobile “Channel Candy” apps that ChannelEyes makes available for vendors to develop. Channel Candy apps will live on your cell phone/mobile device and be a direct communication system between vendors and their channel partners. Jay gives us a great deal of detail on channel relations and how ChannelEyes is working to improve those relations. Download the Interview with Jay McBain from ChannelEyes here. For more information on ChannelEyes, everyone should visit www.channeleyes.com. For vendors to view the mobile app, visit www.channelcandy.com. For more information on IT Nation, visit www.TheITNation.com. For more information on ConnectWise, visit www.ConnectWise.com.

Kim’s cloud display was very clever. In fact, it caught my eye and I had to take a picture. Then, of course, I turned on the microphone to ask what they do. Integral is a “full IT solution provider.” They were recruiting partners to resell their managed service offerings, including cloud services and hosting/colo services. SSAE 16 SOC2 Audit Compliant. (See http://www.ssae16.org/ssae-16-reporting/ssae-16-type-2-reports.html) Their channel program has no minimums and no quotas. They will help train you to sell their solutions, so they can help you with both sales and technical support. Download the Interview with Kim Mann from Integral here.   For more information on Integral, visit www.integralsg.com.   For more information on IT Nation, visit www.TheITNation.com. For more information on ConnectWise, visit www.ConnectWise.com.

I dropped by the Symantec booth at IT Nation and had some fun horsing around with Anne Stobaugh and Dal Gemmell. They brought me up to speed with some of the latest programs at Syamantec. Anne made a point that Symantec is trying to be very MSP friendly. They offer a monthly subscription buying program AND promised that you don’t have to worry about Symantec contacting end users! The monthly program is a buy-what-you-need model and great for cash flow. A few products are available in this program either on-premise or in the Cloud, including End Point Protection and Backup Exec. Dal focuses on that Endpoint Protection piece and says Symantec is totally supporting Windows 8 devices at this time. As he says, “In this business, if you don’t adapt quickly to change, you’re not going to be in business for very long.” Symantec is also a big supporter of HTG. They support some groups directly and try to have a tight relationship. Their goal her is to stay tuned to what MSPs are looking for. Symantec has an “MSP Spec

Karl with Jenna from Spam Soap Jenna Chase is always in a good mood, and she really enjoyed the IT Nation vendor floor this year. We caught up with her on the last day. Spam Soap is a cloud based email and security provider. Which means cloud-based spam filtering, archiving, encryption, and hosted Exchange services. Of course they’ll filter any email you need filtering, so you don’t have to be hosted with them. Download the Interview with Jenna Chase from Spam Soap. For more information on Spam Soap, visit http://spamsoap.com or Call 866-772-6688.   For more information on IT Nation, visit www.TheITNation.com. For more information on ConnectWise, visit www.ConnectWise.com.    

One of the vendors that seems to make every show is eFolder (www.eFolder.net). I talked to Booth Dude Tel Hulsy about the eFolder product and what they’re up to. eFolder Crew at IT Nation Ted’s big push is the eFolder/AppAssure combination that allows client systems to be imaged to the eFolder cloud. This gives them on-site data recovery plus cloud-based recovery options. We also talked a bit about the explosion of data on client sites and how that affects backups. Ted explained a bit about eFolder’s de-duplication feature. Other topics included . . . – Why public cloud? – How does the availability of bandwidth affect recovery? – Running clients in the virtual environment in the cloud – The “eFolder Continuity Cloud” Download the Interview with Ted Hulsy from eFolder. For more information on eFolder, visit www.eFolder.net. For more information on IT Nation, visit www.TheITNation.com. For more information on ConnectWise, visit www.ConnectWise.com.

ConnectWise Goes Way Beyond PSA I had a chance to sit down with Arnie and David Bellini near the end of IT Nation and get some insights into what they’re doing and where the company is going. Arnie Bellini is the CEO of ConnectWise and David is the COO. Arnie Bellini, Karl Palachuk, David Bellini As Arnie describes ConnectWise, their mission is to help you run your business better by bringing all of your “Silos of Chaos” into a common interface. Now, in addition to the features built into ConnectWise, they are building strong alliances with other products in order to take integration to a higher level. Two of the coolest things I saw at the keynote were the “Marketplace” and the “Partner Kits.” You can check out the Marketplace at www.connectwise.com/marketplace. They list all of their all integration partners – about 400 in all. The Partner kits are available at www.connectwise.com/partnerkits and include quick-start kits for sales, helpdesk, human resources, and more. Arnie is justifiably proud of their

One of my old friends Steve Noel talked to me about his role at Axcient and what the company’s up to these days. Steve is a Techno Sales Engineer at Axcient. Steve Noel Axcient is a 100% Channel focused backup and BDR solution. Steven doesn’t describe their solution as “BDR” but he says, “We eliminate downtime.” Whether your systems are physical, virtual, or some combination of things, Axcient can back up your stuff. Steve gives us a few notes on the new people who working at Axcient development. He promises that they have a lot of new developments in the funnel. Axcient is on a 6-week development cycle, so he expects some big changes very soon. Because the appliances are in constant communication with Axcient, they can increase functionality and update systems remotely and automatically. And of course quality assurance is very important in this process. Steve also gave us some information on their integration strategies for LabTech, ConnectWise, and other products. In addition, they have a strong relation

I sat down with Larry Walsh, CEO of The 2112 Group at IT Nation. The 2112 Group is an analyst firm that supports vendors in the solution provider community. They provide “leadership and best practices” for solution providers. Larry Walsh – The 2112 Group On the topic of having vendors selling direct versus selling through the channel, Larry says that this has always been true. He explains how you differentiate yourself so the vendors’ practices become irrelevant. On the question of how vendors can help get the right information to solution providers, he says “The channel is awash in content.” So he is not worried about whether solution providers will have access to information. But he argues that solution providers need to figure out what their business model is going forward. Once they do that, they can get the information they need from their vendors. Download the Interview with Larry Walsh here.  (17 MB) For more information . . . ChannelNomics.com ChannelNomics on Twitter and Facebook lmwalsh2112 on Tw

Kevin McGibben – CEO of LogicMonitor – met up with me at the ConnectWise IT Nation conference in Orlando Friday. LogicMonitor is a “pure SaaS based IT infrastructure monitoring service.” We talked about what that means and why it is NOT an RMM tool. LogicMonitor discovers and analyzes everything at the hardware level and up through virtual environments and hosted services. As a SaaS model, there is no on-premise tool. And because they deploy to any location at once, you can monitor everything from database performance in hosted environments all the way down to hardware at your colo facility. The price is also very good . . . and very much in line with standard Managed Services pricing. Everything can be based on pure usage for you while you parcel out monitoring across all your clients. There is one master portal that you can customize. Kevin McGibben of LogicMonitor In case you want to take a closer look and see if this is something you can integrate into your managed service business, LogicMonitor is hap

I caught up with Jason Samples from PacketTrap at the ConnectWise IT Nation conference in Orlando. My first question was “What are you doing here?” PacketTrap has both a PSA and an RMM tool. Their RMM tool is an “agent/agent-less hybrid” that integrates fully with other PSA systems – including ConnectWise. So they are having good luck talking to their clients and prospects on the vendor floor. Jason Samples from PacketTrap PacketTrap offers trials for their tools. Jason recommends that you start with the RMM side. Once you’re comfortable with that, then they invite you to look at the PSA. They have a number of online training videos and we’re planning to do a webinar together in the next month. Download the Interview with Jason Samples from PacketTrap here. You can find out more about PacketTrap at www.packettrap.com. – – – – – For more information on IT Nation, visit TheITNation.com. For more information on ConnectWise, visit ConnectWise.com.

Final Report from SMB Nation Fall 2012. Our final interview from SMB Nation’s Fall conference is with Tom Poole, Founder and CEO of Cloud Nation. Cloud Nation is an SMB Nation family brand. Cloud Nation has created a three-pronged program for helping MSPs make it to the cloud. Their goal is to provide a system so that SMB Consultants can jump into cloud offerings very quickly — confident that they’re selling top-notch, reliable services. The program is good for both existing MSPs without a cloud offering and folks who are knew to the business altogether. Tom Poole Cloud Nation Components include: – Sales and marketing support – Education and certification – Platform (actual cloud offerings) Download the Interview with Tom Poole here. The timetable for the release of Cloud Nation is: – November 1st – You can sign up at http://cloudnation.co – December 1st – Educational component goes live – January 1, 2013 – The entire operation goes live   Past Podcasts We recorded two other podcasts with Tom. The first wa

Report from SMB Nation Fall 2012. Mike Bayless Near the end of this year’s SMB Nation, I caught up with Mike Bayless from America’s Tech Support in Sacramento. Mike says that networking with other MSP partners is the biggest benefit to attending. “The majority of what happens here for me is either at the exhibitor booths, or the vendor booths, or in the hallways and at parties.” Mike is very clear that the conversation has already moved past the “death of SBS” issue. Partners were talking about strategies for the future. Download the Interview with Mike Bayless here.

Report from SMB Nation Fall 2012. I was wandering past the Datto booth at SMB Nation and stopped to chat with Shannon Kohn, the Director of Marketing and Channel Relations. She invited me to watch them blow things up. We recorded a brief podcast. Download the Interview with Shannon Kohn here. Find out more about Datto at www.dattobackup.com. After that, they did in fact destroy a machine. Here’s Shannon’s report: The Datto team had a strong showing at the “Back to the Future” themed SMB Nation Fall event. As a Gold Sponsor, Datto was given a breakout session on Saturday that many attendees showed up for. The breakout, titled ‘Datto’s LIVE Disaster Demo’, was an interactive hardware destruction session that showcased their flagship business continuity solution, SIRIS. The Datto team put SIRIS to the test, performing both an instant local virtualization and an instant off-site virtualization in Datto’s cloud, right before the attendees eyes. To make it clear that this was not just an act, Datto let audience me

Report from SMB Nation Fall 2012. I had a good chat with Regina Ciardiello, Editor of SMB Nation magazine while I was in Las Vegas. Regina wrote the Daily Gazette “newsletter” for the event. In addition to the plug for next year’s SMB Nation conference, Regina gave us some information about SMB Nation staff member Jeremiah Ilges. Jeremiah suffers from aplastic anemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. Jeremiah is scheduled for his bone marrow transplant in a couple of weeks. A “10/10” match donor has been found. Jeremiah’s family could use some financial assistance. So the folks at SMB Nation are encouraging everyone to contribute what they can at www.adoptourfamily.com. Download the Interview with Regina Ciardiello now.

Interview with Jon Sastre One of the best interviews I had at SMB Nation was with Jon Sastre, one of the IAMCP leaders at the state, national, and international levels. Jon is also a very successful managed service provider, value added reseller, and system integrator. Jon’s company is Conquest Technology Services of Southern Florida. They are the Microsoft Partner of the Year for Lync. Download the interview Jon Sastre now.  

One of the reasons I love working with my brother Manuel is that he is AMAZING at defining and implementing successful processes. Earlier this year he started a new coaching program geared specifically toward Managed Service Providers. Manuel was the President of my MSP (KPEnterprises) for three years. After that he took a position as the outsourced Chief Operating Officer for an MSP in Florida. He turned their operation around and brought them four quarters in a row of profitability – something they had not had before. Manuel has a great resource site at www.conceptualageconsulting.net. Check it out and review the programs he has available. Just FYI: My coaching program is full and I have a waiting list. Trust me. You will miss NOTHING if you engage with Manuel. He is the best team leader I have ever seen. He is also amazing at defining and implementing processes. After all – he had primary responsibility for the 270 page checklist in the Network Migration Workbook! Our mastery of ConnectWise, Autotask, Kas

Rob Patterson talked to me at SMB Nation about his very successful IT Pro group in New York City – the New York Small Business Server Group. He revealed to us the secrets of holding a meeting, plus the Pre-meeting meeting and the Post-meeting meeting. There’s no B.S. here: Rob is one of the great user group leaders out there. His success is possible because he has a large group of people who jump in and make things happen. The group has many unique features, including Michael Klein’s special presentation on news, trends, links, and more. He is a true resource who “does the reading so you don’t have to.” The New York group has a very strong community. Over 300 members with up to 100 at a meeting (200 when Microsoft has a big event). If you’re interested in contacting Rob, go to nysbs.net http://nysbs.net/ You can also sign up for their Yahoo Group from that site. Download the Interview with Rob Patterson Here.  

One of the fun things at this year’s SMB Nation event was the whole “Back to the Future” theme. In addition to the lovely Claudia Wells (see previous podcast), StorageCraft and Intel paid to bring the Time Machine to the conference hall. Since he was there all weekend, I grabbed the opportunity to talk to the current owner, Mark Shields. Download the interview with Mark Shields now. You can find Mark online at: www.TimeMachineRental.com or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/deloreanrental His web site has a photo gallery as well as a video gallery. Mark is an application Architect for a large corporation in Minneapolis, so this is a part-time gig for him. Not a bad side job. As Mark mentions in his interview, a portion of his rental fee goes to the The Michael J. Fox Foundation to fight Parkinson’s Disease. https://www.michaeljfox.org/ Over on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/karlpalachuk), I posted some close-up pictures of the car. Mark says there are about ten replicas in the US. One very interesting

I caught up with Jeff Middleton at SMB Nation over the weekend. We covered several topics, including: – Update on the SBS Migration / IT Pro Experts conference (the annual conference that is held from time to time) – SMB Community Roadshow, sponsored by Microsoft and HP – The future (and past) of Small Business Server – The new IT Pro Experts brand: www.itproexperts.com – SBS Migrations going forward – Microsoft’s participation in the SMB space Jeff is a Microsoft MVP and a long-standing leader in the small business and SBS community. In addition to helping people with the technical side of what they do, he is very active (and successful) at bringing vendors into our space to participate at a level that can help small IT consultants to make money. Download the Interview with Jeff Middleton here. You can review the SBS Migration catalog at www.sbsmigration.com. You can explore IT Pro Experts at www.itproexperts.com. And Jeff says you can always email him at “Jeff@ almost any domain I control.”

As I said on my Facebook page, two of my favorite people in the world have been honored as the SBSers of the year: Rayanne Buchianico and Bob Nitrio. This award is officially the Jim Locke Memorial Community Award and is sponsored by SMB Nation and the SMB Technology Network (SMBTN). Both of these folks happen to be user group leaders, so we talked a bit about that. But we also talked about community involvement and why they participate so heavily. Robert A. Nitrio is the CEO of Ranvest Associates, Orangevale CA. The is the president of the Sacramento SMB IT Pros. Rayanne Buchianico is the Owner of ABC Solutions, Tampa FL. She is the founder (and runs) the Tampa Bay SBS User Group. Both are very active in the “SBS Group Leads” Yahoo group.   We also covered some of the other events they participate in each year and why they find value in them. Please download the Interview with Rayanne and Bob here. Also check out SMBTN and SMB Nation. http://www.smbtn.org http://www.smbnation.com