Saturday, January 31, 2009

Good Bye Dallas, For Now.....

A week ago we began our descent on Dallas Fort Worth for our Q1 HTG meetings. This was the first of our HTG2.0 format where all 17 US based groups met in the same fantastic venue - the Omni Mandalay Hotel in Los Colinas. We again experienced the definition of customer service as the staff there met our needs and took very good care of us all week. Over the course of the week all 17 groups held their 2 day peer group meetings in separate meeting rooms at the hotel. But that is old stuff - the core of HTG where a group of 12 companies meets for 2 days each quarter to share best practices and push execution through accountability. We had a number of firsts that happened this week which are worth noting:

- first time all groups met simultaneously in a single venue
- first time all sponsors were able to meet with the membership in one venue
- first time we were able to have an HTGALL meeting where everyone could be updated on the great changes that are happening in HTG
- first time we were all able to hear from our platinum sponsors. This quarter it was ConnectWise and Zenith Infotech.
- first time we have been able to build a relationship with a business college like the University of Nebraska Kearney and announce the longitudinal study that will help us measure our impact
- first time we have had some staff to handle the needs of our members
- first time we have actually had some funding and a budget to work with
- first time we have been able to hold a leadership meeting face to face
- first time we could hold a facilitator training face to face
- first time we could have a Platinum and Gold vendor meeting to discuss our partnership program
- first face to face meeting of the Platinum vendor advisory council (Led by Dave Sobel and Erick Simpson)
- first meeting face to face of our board of directors
- first look at the new SharePoint portal that comes on line March 1
- first opportunity for many of our vendor sponsors to engage with HTG
- first sales management and service management tracks across HTG groups
- first app dev group meeting
- first vertical breakouts for healthcare (Garrett Brucker and Mike Ritsema) and Financial Services (Sonny Clark)

There are more but you should get the idea by now - it was an unbelievable and amazing week! We had hoped it would be good, but it was awesome. As with anything new, there were skeptics and critics but if they participated at all, the tune was completely different by the end of Wednesday. Change is never fun, but this format and these changes are critical for HTG to move to the next level.

It is already time to begin planning for April. If you don't have your hotel reservation, get it now. I can't tell you how many of the vendors told me they were pulling out all the stops next quarter for the vendor reception because as one put it.....HTG members rock and are the cream of the crop. I have been telling them that for months but this week - many got it for the very first time.

Be ready for an even better event in April. Christy Sacco is our event planner so it will be a lot more organized and under control I look forward to seeing all of you then.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Look Out Dallas - Here We Come

Monday begins the Q1 meetings for HTG in the US. We are descending on the Omni Mandalay hotel in Los Colinas for a week full of interaction, learning and community. Seventeen US based groups will be meeting this week. Half meet on Monday and Tuesday, the other half on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is our HTGALL day - a new addition to the HTG program for 2009. We have 8 tracks running all day that day to allow members to learn more about the entire gamut of running their small business. Also that evening is our vendor reception where our great HTG vendor sponsors will have some time with the HTG membership. It will be a great week for sure. It is a bit cold here though - thirties? C'mon Texas, it isn't supposed to be this cold. Some of the troops want to play golf. Of course there is another group that wants to play poker after we wrap for the evening too. Quite an inventive and mischevious bunch we have. Our vendor partners will be here in force as well, so let's make sure they have a week they will never forget too!

But equally as exciting has been the successful second meeting of HTG11 in the UK led by Dave Sobel, and the HTG10 group just finished their third meeting in Vancouver led by Stuart Crawford. Both groups have a great core set of members and we are looking to grow those groups and increase our presence in both countries. Jesse Jervis wrote his thoughts on the recent Canadian HTG meeting here http://jervisjesse.blogspot.com/. There also is now a blog for our Canadian HTG brethren to post to as well at http://canada.htgblogs.com/. So many good things going on up north!

The time is now to move HTG to the next level. I look forward to seeing all of you in Dallas. Spread the word. HTG is making things happen and 2009 will be a banner year for all of us, in spite of the economy or the media reports. Let's make it happen!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Are You Using the New BTAT Tool?

Microsoft has recently updated the Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit to version 3.5. Been quite a few years since we originally rolled out the initial version. On Friday July 23, four HTG members will be discussing how to use assessments to drive business. Hear Joddey Hicks, Aaron Booker, Brent Morris and Erin Arnold as they share their wisdom about BTAT. There is no better time than now to focus on going deeper with clients, and no better tool than the assessment process to dig deep, peel the onion and find opportunities to serve your clients. Here are the details:

The Microsoft Business and Technology Assessment Toolkit V3.5 - How Partners are Using It to Generate Real Revenue and Profit.

This webcast will review how MS Partners use the Microsoft Business and Technology toolkit to generate revenue and drive a long lasting client relationship that continues to provide opportunity for years to come. These veteran Microsoft partners will share their secret sauce on how they use the assessment process and the data collected to build long term IT plans and strategies for their clients and then use those to get their clients to open their wallets and continually make purchases of technology and services. We’ll also discuss the new and enhanced features of the new toolkit, including SBS/EBS updates and a new proposal generator.

January 23 at 9:00 Pacific time.

Register at http://www.mssmallbiz.com/training/. The session is down toward the bottom in teh Growing your Business section.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Time with HTG11 in the UK

This week I have been blessed to spend time with the HTG11 group in Birmingham England. We have had an active couple days of sharing and learning from each other. I have done a lot of learning as the guys have tried to educate me on the ways of business here in the UK. There are certainly some differences. Employee benefits are very different - 20 days of holiday (vacation) required for everyone when they start. Banks don't really set up lines of credit and really don't sound like they work closely with businesses at all. Vendors and particularly distributors don't seem to have nearly the level of relationship and service offerings I am accustomed to. The language here has some weird words and certainly meanings of words from what I am used to in the States. The Euro doesn't play here at all. But we have had a bloody good time!

While I have observed a lot of differences, at the end of the day there are very many similarities. People are people everywhere, and that is where most of the challenges seem to occur. Employees don't perform and feel entitled, folks don't follow through with committments or communication, customers don't pay and have unrealistic expectations, and on the similarities go. It appears to me, and most of the guys in the group have verified, that the IT segment here in the UK is 12-18 months behind the US. Living in the midwest I certainly understand that and see it as a huge benefit. We are typically 3-6 months behind the coasts, sometimes longer, and I use that as a competitive advantage by knowing companies on the coasts who can help me understand what is coming. I think HTG can do some of that for our friends here in the UK as well.

Richard Tubb served as our host, and we also got to spend time with great folks like Raja, Vijay, Ashish, James, Chris, David, Simon and Neil. Dave Sobel leads the group here in the UK for us. We had time with Arnie and Jeanine from ConnectWise, Jullian from Ingram UK, and a couple other vendor reps from A-Server (representing Zenith) and Emerson Power. We are still looking for a few good partners here in the UK, so if you know someone let me know. I think the key learning from me was that no matter what stage we are at in our companies, we can learn from one another. There is so much to understand and so many opportunities to take advantage of that the perspective of many is so important to us getting our companies moving forward. The power of peers is evident here in the UK and I am excited to see HTG in the UK, and around the world for that matter, flourish and grow as we apply the go-giver mentality and make it happen for each other. Thanks to all my new friends here in this beautiful place. I am blessed to know and share time with you all!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Another Did You Know Moment

I finally got Win 7 loaded on an older notebook so I could take a look at things. We didn't have a good test box available so it is on a 1.5 gig machine and actually runs better than I expected. There are some obvious changes in the interface - one of my engineers called it Vista on steroids with a new design. So far I am pleased with what I see, but we are just starting to get our feet wet.

I did learn about something I didn't know regarding Vista. At least it was new to me although some days I feel like I live under a rock or something. Perhaps you have a customer with a small business who has been reluctant to move to Windows Vista, or have just wanted to avoid some family and neighborhood tech support duties. If so, you should know that Microsoft extended its Windows Vista Small Business Assurance (WVSBA) offer through June 30, 2009 (instead of December 31, 2008).

This means customers purchasing new PCs with Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate between July 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009 are eligible for WVSBA, and support is now available until June 30, 2009. One note, this support offer is only available in the United States and Canada.

Qualifying customers can get free support on:
· Windows Vista questions
· Compatibility assistance for applications and devices
· Guidance on key features
· Detailed technical support for customers who may need help working through a compatibility issue or configuring Windows Vista

See all the details at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/assurance/

Microsoft extended the offer based on continued positive reaction from small business customers. Especially given the economy Microsoft felt it was important to extend the WVSBA offer to small businesses who have indicated that they continue to see value in this free offer.

Wanted to make sure you were aware of this offer. I particularly like the idea of losing the family support. Just give them a number to call. Much easier to keep the peace with the wife that way!

Thursday, January 8, 2009

A Couple of Opportunities

Three HTG members have teamed up to present some great ideas on positioning your company for success when everyone seems to be tightening their belts.

Microsoft 5w50 Webinar - Maximizing Success in Troubled Times
January 12th - 9:00 AM Pacific

- Karl Palachuk, KPEnterprises Business Consulting, Inc.
- Scott Mallet, Network Technology Solutions
- Tavis Patterson, TAZ Networks

Register at:
https://training.partner.microsoft.com/plc/details.aspx?publisher=12&delivery=259605

Please join these successful SMB Consultants as they explore some of their great ideas for what may be a tough year ahead. This is part of Microsoft's 5w50 seminar series.

Scott does a great deal of training in his business. He'll talk about how Microsoft Training can be a major boost for your business in the year ahead.

Tavis has a unique approach to sales promotion. He committed to a program a few months ago. We'll check in to find out what he learned and what lessons he has for us in the months ahead.

Karl will talk about some ways to improve cash flow and safeguard against sudden turn-arounds.

***********************************************************************************

Another opportunity comes along Friday at Noon Eastern Time/9 AM Pacific as well. Here are the details:

Leveraging Kaseya in your SMB IT Business

Kaseya is one of the leading monitoring tools available to SMB IT Professionals today. Join Stuart Crawford with Andrew Morgan from Kaseya as we chat about how a relationship with Kaseya will benefit your IT practice. Andrew Morgan is the Regional Sales Manager for Kaseya and works with IT Partners everyday, helping them build their practice with Kaseya's tools. This 60 minute interview with Andrew will introduce new concepts and how you as a Managed Services Provider can leverage the tools available from Kaseya to better service your clients.

For more information visit - http://www.blogtalkradio.com/smb/2009/01/09/Leveraging-Kaseya-in-your-SMB-IT-Business

Hopefully one of these will be of value as you plot your course for 2009 and beyond!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Home Server Sales Pitch

I don't usually push a product in this blog, but once again Home Server has come to the rescue. I had a drive fail last week in my notebook (no this is not the notebook that fried a dozen hard drives a few years ago). I was 34 months into a 36 month warranty so HP overnighted me a drive, I put it in, booted to the Home Server Restore cd, pressed enter twice and in about 1.5 hours I had my machine completely restored and back to where it was a couple days earlier. I was very skeptical the first couple times I used it, but after my experience, and that of some other HTG’ers, I currently back up ALL the machines I use (on our network and off), the most important of all - my wife’s notebook, and my daughter bring her notebook home and plugs in on breaks too.

I am a believer in that little product. We have HTG members using Home Server as a migration tool for customers who are changing machines or upgrading their networks. It may not be intended for that, but it is certainly a powerful little tool.

I am currently testing E-Folder to back up my Home Server. That is the one hole in my strategy - no offsite storage - so I have been working with Jan and the team at E-Folder to see if I can back up the Home Server offsite using their tools. Still too early to tell - they don't have a plug in yet so it was a little work - but Kevin was extremely helpful in helping me set up and give it a shot.

I would love to hear how you are creatively using Home Server in your client service strategy. Let me know what you are doing......

Monday, January 5, 2009

A Great Approach

I was copied on an update from Robert Kyslinger from Houston to his HTG16 comrades reviewing his goal progress for the quarter. Good update - and great work by him and his team. A common theme from our HTG members - execution. But the real message comes in the last line of his email.

"I’ve chosen not to participate in the recession. No matter what happens to the economy, somebody is making money and that organization needs our (yours and mine) services to keep them growing."

So much of what happens in business comes as a result of our approach and attitude. When we stay positive and focus on the good things that can happen, we get that result. Robert sets a great tone for all of us to consider as we face some rather difficult times. What is your approach to things? Do you focus on the positive or the negative? Attitude makes a huge difference.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Are You a Twitterer?

Twitter is one of those social networking tools I am still trying to get my arms around. I know that several of the HTG folks use Twitter, and I have looked at it and considered the possibility, but it just seemed like a stretch for a guy in his 50's. But as we are working on our PR and communication strategy, being led by Stuart Crawford who fills that role on our HTG board of directors, well Twitter is coming into my life. http://twitter.com/htgmembers is our URL. Stuart will put together some information on how to use this little tool in the next few weeks. Watch for it in an upcoming newsletter.

It took me quite a while to succumb to the whole idea of blogging, but that has actually been pretty effective as a communication tool. Twitter allows us to set up blogs to feed into it so that will be the primary use. There will likely be some use particularly at our quarterly events when we are trying to get the word out quickly. I am no expert, but it does have some potential and we are beginning to work with it as a tool for HTG.

Stuart has also started our process of creating an HTG blog site - www.htgblogs.com - which will be a central repository for HTG specific information. This peer power blog often addresses HTG, but it is not completely dedicated to that - more of an IT SMB industry focus. So some of the things I write here, or that others write on their blogs will be posted to the HTGBlogs.com site as well.

It also will be a source for the public relations and media coverage that Stuart will drive. We have started to be more proactive in that area, with recent coverage around our Ingram partnership and some great work by Storagecraft around their sponsorship of HTG. We want to replicate that for all our relationships. And we want to highlight things that our members do as they tell the HTG story, so if you have an article published, a local newpaper clipping, or anything that we can share, we want to highlight that and help get the word out about what our HTG members are up to. We have the greatest people in this industry involved in HTG, from members, to vendors, to industry resources and distributors. And we want to let people know all about you and your success and partnership with HTG.

So I hope you continue to learn about the social networking tools that are out there. They can be effective ways to connect and communicate. I am still trying to grasp the business applications, which I know there are some of, and we will be working to educate you about those as we move through 2009 together. For now, just start learning and checking things out!