Smb Community Podcast By Karl W. Palachuk

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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collectio

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." Hosted by Simp

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 Hosted by Simplecast, an A

I talked to Bob Godgart from ChannelEyes (www.channeleyes.com) about what's new with their cool channel partner tools. The coolest new product – Channel Candy – is an app that allows vendors to create a branded partner app for smart phones. This will allow you to track the information and updates from your vendors. There will be some common controls from one vendor to another, but vendors will be able to customize as they see fit. If you're like me, you are a "partner" with 6-12 vendors. But, if you're like me, you might visit each site once or twice a year. Channel Candy will allow vendors to create information channels so you can decide which information your receive. And the vendors can send you to their portal when there's a program they really want you to see it. Bob gives a lot more detail in the audio. Download the Interview with Bob Godgart here. You can join ChannelEyes and download the apps for free. Visit www.channeleyes.com. While you're there, you will also find a channel with my Small Biz Though

Report from SMB Nation Fall 2012. I caught up with Jessica DeVita – one of my favorite people in the IT space. Jessica is an IT consultant, technical wiz, advocate for education in the IT community, Microsoft MVP and a really great person. Her web site is www.theubergeekgirl.com. Recently, Jessica was on the cover of ChannelPro magazine and had an article in there about Women in IT. We talked to her about that and the work she's doing to educate women (and men) on IT as field. Check out the magazine at http://www.channelprosmb.com/archive/channelpro_smb_september_2012. Recently Jessica has been on several panels recently discussion IT as a career choice and on mentoring young women. She will be speaking on November 7th at Santa Monica College for a program called Cool Careers. As a side note, I asked Jessica how she came up with the name Uber Geek Girl. Download the Interview with Jessica DeVita here. This is not my first interview with Jessica. Check out the earlier podcasts at SMB Community Podcast. Hos

Report from SMB Nation Fall 2012. Highly Reliable Systems Provides a New Approach to Backup Hardware Many people don't like tape backups. But most hard drive-based backups have their own problems. I talked to Darren McBride about the "Highly Reliable" systems and what makes them different. Their story is interesting and compelling. Until this conversation, I wasn't sure about the exact need they filled. In addition to adding a level of security to the physical handling of backups, Highly Reliable Systems is providing tape replacements from extremely reasonable to 12 TB. Listen to the interview. You'll see why it's worth taking a look at this technology. Download the Interview Here Check out their web site at www.high-rely.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The theme of this year's SMB Nation is "Back to the Future." Basically, it's wrapped around all the cool new things we have . . . and understanding them in light of the fact that SBS Server end of life is upon us. So Harry Brelsford and Chris Bangs over at SMB Nation got ahold of the guy who owns the DeLorean from the movie (Mark Shields). Yes: This guy still drives this car. Then they got ahold of Claudia Wells, who played Marty's girlfriend Jennifer in the original movie. Claudia attended the first get together on the night of the Preday events. Turns out she's a very nice, normal business owner with a great sense of humor. She owns a high end clothing story in Studio City, CA. She's also got some new movies in the works. I caught up with her while taking shelter from the lightning storm. She agreed to a podcast. Download the Podcast Here Claudia's store can be found at www.armaniwells.com http://www.armaniwells.com/ – High end clothing at discount prices. In addition she has a personal page at www.claudiaw

This article was originally posted June 23, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. SMB Community Podcast: Chatting with Jeannine Edwards and Erinn Davis Fifteen minutes of information and commentary. – – – – – I caught up with Jeannine Edwards (ConnectWise) and Erinn Davis (LabTech Software) and had a great discussion about what's new, the community, IT Nation, and what they see for the SMB Community in the year ahead. Download the podcast here. Jeannine is the Director of Community for ConnectWise, LabTech, and Quosal. Erinn is the Community Manager at LabTech Software. Their job is to nuture the complete communication cycle between the ConnectWise / LabTech / Quosal family of products and their clients. One of the best guidelines these folks have is: "If it can be monitored and managed, it can be put in a contract." (And of course it can then become recurring revenue.) In the end, it's all about predictable costs for the client and predictable revenue for the consultant. Jeannine will be one of the

This article was originally posted June 16, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday Report: Three Conferences in Eight Days This is a very different Freeday Friday podcast . . . and the last one we'll produce. – – – – – My report on IT Pro Conference in New Orleans. "Trusted Identity" and what it means in the big picture. A few comments on delegation of trust and what that means to our clients. My recommendations based on the topics from this conference. I talk a bit about the kinds of white papers and "lunch and learn" seminars you might create on cloud computing, modern security concerns, BYOD, and mixed (Windows/Non-Windows) environments. Then I talk about the Autotask conference and their expansion into international markets. After that I went to TechEd North America and the "Birds of a Feather" sessions I moderated there. In addition to the community activities at TechEd, I report on a cool new laptop and a bit about Server 2012. My presentation on Relax Focus Succ

This article was originally posted June 15, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Thomas Dawkins Introduces Microsoft Technical Communities While attending the Microsoft TechEd North America conference last week, I literally ran into Thomas Dawkins just wandering the floor. Thomas is a senior IT Pro Audience Marketing Manager at Microsoft. He is responsible for relationships with IT Pro Groups and User Groups. In this interview Thomas gave us some hints about the community involvement for the year ahead. Microsoft Technical Communities will officially be launched next fiscal year (next month). Services include helping user groups with speakers, funding, and training. It is also clear that Microsoft is engaging groups in many other markets besides the "small and medium" market we know so well. If you listen carefully, you'll hear a very big hint about funding for groups and product launches. For more information, see the new site at www.technicalcommunities.com (content will be up once the program is

This article was originally posted June 15, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Len DiCostanzo Reports on Autotask Community Live 2012 June 2012 – Orlando, FL – A buncha people gathered in Orlando for the Autotask Community Live conference. This is, of course, a very product-specific conference. Many of the panels were run by users. The coolest thing about that is that 83% of the attendees were first-time attendees, so they were eager to find out how others are using the tool. We had a great time learning about what's new with Autotask and what's planned for the year ahead. I interviewed Len DiCostanzo, Senior Vice President, Community and Business Development for Autotask. Obviously, Len was super-busy. So we were lucky to grab a few minutes. Len gave me some great information, including that 83% stat above. Over 90 sessions, more than 70 run by customers. You can tell from this interview that he is very jazzed about the entire event and enjoyed it like the rest of us. For more information on Autotask, pl

This article was originally posted June 15, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Mark Moreno Gives a Mid-Market Perspective on some SMB Events One of my favorite people in the SMB/MSP space is Mark Moreno from C & M Support Services. I think I first met Mark at the IT Pro Conference in New Orleans five years ago. But I also see him at SMB Nation and several other events. In the last ten days I ran into Mark at two separate conferences: the 2012 IT Pro Conference and Autotask Community Live. Both Mark and I flew straight from New Orleans (the IT Pro Conference – see this blog post) to Orlando. So no time off for good behavior. Um . . . I guess that's appropriate. Anyway, we had a great time learning about challenges and opportunities in consulting today. It's actually pretty nice to jump in with both feet and totally immerse yourself in the business side of your business for a week or so. Mark is known as "Christ's IT Guy." He specializes in helping large churches with their technology needs. H

This article was originally posted June 15, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Six Podcast Reports from New Orleans IT Pro Conference June 2012 – New Orleans – Jeff Middleton's IT Pro Conference was a great success last week. Two days of panels and discussions on the theme "Trusted Identity: Faith in a Technology World" were very well received. About 150 attendees spent the time in a conversation that wound around through discussions of – Trusted Advisor roles – Identity Theft – Social Media Privacy Breaches – Hosted Environments – Government Oversight – Unintended Electronic Disclosures – Branding Realities in a Business or Technology without Trust – Partnership and Service Provider Failures – Identity Federation (Facebook, Gmail, Passport, service aggregators) – Social Media and more! Naturally, I decided to catch up with some folks and get their impressions of the whole event. I started with Andy Goodman, a long-time community member and leader. Andy has been working for/with SBSMigration.com

This article was originally posted May 18, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Reports from the SMB 150 Banquet 2012 May 16th – Los Angeles – SMB Nation put on a nice banquet to celebrate the 2nd Annual SMB 150 Influencers. This was a great event. To be honest, this event started for me about lunchtime as I met with a series of great people that I don't get to see very often. Download the SMB 150 report now On Friday I asked Harry Brelsford from SMB Nationto give us a brief report on the event. That's included here. In fact, Harry kicks off the podcast. While I was in Los Angeles, I interviewed a few folks. So those very short interviews are here as well. Interviewees include Denis Wilson, Terry VanWinkel, and Jerry Koutavas. I do have to say that I was really impressed that people came all the way from the eastern side of the U.S. But I was more impressed with people who came from Canada, Brazil, the UK, and Australia. I'm not sure how Harry does this, but he really knows how to put on a community event!

This article was originally posted May 18, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday May Podcast Posted – US / UK Edition This program was recorded and is posted here. How to Convert 700 Clients to Managed Services Without Dropping Any The US/UK Edition of Freeday Friday featured a kickoff question of whether it's possible to covert a traditionally break/fix business into managed services. The question came from a partner with three employees and 700 customers. That told me something about his business and his customers. I talked about what we did in the transition to managed services and gave him some advice. We also had a few questions about the hiring process, specifically about filtering candidates. I talked about our process and how well it works . . . as long as I don't break the rules and just hire someone. Boy, can that go wrong! If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email tokarlp@greatlittlebook.com. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line. Freed

This article was originally posted May 18, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday May Podcast Posted – Oceanic Edition This program was recorded and is posted here. Customizing Cloud Services for Medical and Other Verticals The "Down Under" edition of Freeday Friday featured a kickoff question about building a cloud package for the medical industry. In particular, how do we deal with a combination of cloud services and one or more servers that remain onsite. We actually have clients with this scenario, so I talk about what we do. We also had a question about getting started in our business today. Is it a good idea? What would I do differently? So went spent time on that. Then we covered a few misc. questions. If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email tokarlp@greatlittlebook.com. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line. Freeday Friday is a program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com.

This article was originally posted April 20, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday April Podcast Posted – US / UK Edition This program was recorded and is posted here. Do I Really Need to Try to Sell SBS Essentials into My Client Base? We had a good show today (45 minutes). Four people posted questions live and we had a good email question to kick us off. The kickoff question was, "Do I really need to sell SBS Essentials?" We talked about when it is and is not the right product to sell to specific clients. Caller Ken asked a follow-up question: When to sell SBS Essentials and when to sell Foundation Server since they have so many features in common. . . . And lots more! If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email tokarlp@greatlittlebook.com. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line. Freeday Friday is a new program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com. Basically, I am offering

This article was originally posted April 19, 2012 on Cloud Services Roundtable. Freeday Friday Podcast Posted – Oceanic Edition This program was recorded and is posted here. How Do I sell if I'm Not a Salesman? We had a quick show today (35 minutes). Just a few questions. The kickoff question was, "How do I upsell clients when I don't want to be the salesman?" I give a little advice and encouragement. and we answer a question from a live listener as well. If you would like your question to be the start-off question, just send an email tokarlp@greatlittlebook.com. Please put Freeday Friday in the subject line. Freeday Friday is a new program to give you access to some coaching advice in a totally new format. See details at www.FreedayFriday.com. Basically, I am offering free coaching advice to a very few people – live and free. The "price" for free advice is that other people get to listen in. The idea is that we all share some common challenges, so we might be able to learn from each o