Saturday, April 24, 2010

What Kind Of Community Member Are You?

There are many different communities available today for partners in the IT channel. Distributors have them - VTN, Tech Select, Varnex, SMBA and the like. Industry groups have them like ASCII and CompTIA. Vendors have them like ConnectWise and Autotask and Microsoft SBSC and dozens of others. Peer group organizations take it to a new level like HTG, TPG, Taylor Business Groups and others. There is no shortage of places for partners to plug in and be in community.

And honestly, after 25 years in the IT world, there is nothing with more power to change a business or a life than being part of a vibrant community. Community works. It changes people and businesses. And the reality is that it is one of the few real ways to see consistent and repeatable growth happen.

One of the things I have heard somewhat regularly relates to the value of communities. It seems some have the perception that they have learned all they can from their peers in the community they belong to. First of all, I highly doubt that to be the case. There is always more we can learn. But once the focus moves to self and what they get out of it, all of a sudden the rules change. Since business is doing so much better, and in some cases companies are really doing well now, some are not sure it is worth the time to come and continue to participate in their community any longer. They have got all they believe they can squeeze out of their participation so off they ride into the sunset.

When I have these conversations – I realize there has been a failure to communicate. Community, and certainly HTG, is NOT ABOUT YOU taking what you want from others. Community is about giving what you know to others. It is about sharing life. When is it time for you to move on from your community? Here are the short things I would have on that list:

1. You have given all you know and helped every member in your patch apply and be successful with it
2. You have clearly defined your business, leadership, life and legacy plans and shared that with all stakeholders so they have understanding
3. You are executing as a CEO thinker and not mired down in the day to day problems and issues
4. You have reached your goals, achieved your dreams, accomplished what you believe is most important

Having a great quarter, signing a big contract, selling more than ever before, enjoying success at the moment – those are all great things and definitely part of any community's mission. But that isn’t the end game. The question is – have you given all you can in a way that helps every person you touch become much better because they know you? Are you pouring your life into the important things – your spouse, family, relationship with God and anything else you say is important? DO you LIVE the way you talk? Vision without execution applies just as equally in areas of life and leadership as it does in achieving your business plan.

As you attend whatever community events you are part of – I hope you will come with a focus on WHAT CAN YOU GIVE rather than what you are going to take away. If everyone comes with that as their primary objective, we can all experience a time that will be unparalleled in industry history. If we come focused on sucking everything possible out of those we touch, it will just be another event. Put your focus on the giving. The receiving will take care of itself. Being a Go-Giver requires us to focus on the other person - not me, myself and I. Are you living that way? If so, I seriously doubt it is time to move on quite yet. You still have a lot of work to do in the community you are part of!

Friday, April 23, 2010

The New Microsoft Partner Program (MPN)

While there is some buzz of discontentment about the new MPN program, I applaud the moves that Microsoft is making to revamp their partner program and create some differentiation once again among their channel partners. Under the current model – there are far too many gold certified partners, and it has become impossible to create any differentiation. The new model creates three levels with very different requirements that definitely not all partners will be able to achieve. SBSC was on the chopping block for a while, and through the determined support of some inside the walls at Microsoft, and a number of us as partners, it has survived and will play a vital role in providing community for all partners serving SMB that want to be part of it going forward. That is very good for the partner community as it gives all a place to fit in the new model.

The Small Business and Midmarket Solution Provider competencies allow differentiation one step up – and will fit many serving the SMB marketplace. The stakes are a bit higher but the benefits of having two different places to fit are very good. When you add the Advanced Competencies for these two areas, you really begin to differentiate the channel. Purely the required number of staff to even qualify here is one major separation point. And the levels these folks need to achieve is significantly higher than the old gold certified requirements. Throw in some of the other requirements and you have a level that is once again a challenge to achieve. I personally have lobbied for this for some time now – to allow companies that have some scale and have made significant investments in their team to be able to differentiate in the SMB channel. This level is not designed to fit all – only a small minority will be able to achieve this level. But that is not a turning away from the SMB – it is a matter of Microsoft listening to partners and creating a tiered partner program that allows companies to make investments and commitments to set themselves apart in the chosen areas they want to focus.

IMHO – Microsoft is showing a real commitment to the SMB partner by adding these two areas as full fledged competencies. After all, previously we only had SBSC to serve as the SMB banner and it wasn’t a real level – sort of some hybrid less than full certification. Now we are finally seeing the SMB treated just like the enterprise competencies with the same kinds of requirements and ultimately the same ability to market and focus on specific targets we want to build practices around. Requiring current version tests to qualify is just another of the very good decisions that have been made in rolling out MPN.

I believe Microsoft has done their job well and thought through the needs of the channel – from small partners who still have their home in the SBSC – to larger partners who can now build a practice and leverage their huge staff investment and be able to differentiate themselves from others in the channel. Some will feel it is unfair because they can’t get to the top level after being gold certified under the current program. I don’t think that is a ratcheting down of focus – I see it as a very positive ratcheting up of creating a partner program that will get larger partners more interested in being part of the SMB and Midmarket competencies again. Tiering of partners is critical to make any program of value. I applaud Microsoft for making it happen with this MPN plan.

If there is a downside - it is the delay in making the requirements known and creating the gap analysis tools that most every partner will need to use to determine their best fit in the new MPN. It is nothing like the current program where resources apply broadly across many competencies. In the new world, we need to map our staff to specific tracks and testing so we can get the most bang for the literal buck as the cost to participate has gone up. With these things kicking in fairly soon - partners need time to put their strategy together and get their team trained and tested. Every day the guidance is not available makes it more difficult for companies desiring the Advanced Competencies to achieve those. I hope there is some major haste made to get the tools in place to guide us to success. Otherwise the hard work and value will be pushed off as partners try and figure out what to do.

Many vendors are moving the opposite way - trying to add more partners and create a bigger pool. In HTG, we are taking a similar approach - focusing on depth and differentiation rather than breadth and the same old stuff. Great job Microsoft for making this move to the next generation. It fits right along with the other major shifts we will have to make addressing the reality of the Cloud.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Time with CompTIA in Chicago

This week I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the first annual CompTIA member meeting in Chicago. It was a very full day of content and meetings about matters that are important to the technology industry. HTG has a strategic partnership with CompTIA and it has been great to get to know the team at CompTIA and begin understanding just how important their mission is for partners and others in the channel.

CompTIA is uniquely positioned to speak for all of us. They work hard to remain independent and to include all facets of our very complex industry. Members consist of partners of all shapes and sizes, manufacturers, consultants, vendors, distributors, industry experts and on it goes. Everyone has a place in this organization. They are tackling key areas that impact how business will happen. Cloud computing was a big topic of this meeting. But there were breakouts on managed services, training, certifications and more.

They are best known for their certification programs which are generic industry certs and very helpful to identify levels of knowledge in the workforce. But they fill vital roles of serving to lobby and protect our industry in Washington and across states as well. They bring together people who are unlikely to work together in any other forum to help create things that make the industry better. They are actively working to build a workforce for the future. Some of the statistics are frightening. CompTIA takes a very broad and high level look at all aspects of the industry as well as external influences that may impact it - and they tackle those things head on. Todd Thibodeaux as CEO is taking this organization into new areas that are vital to a healthy ecosystem.

CompTIA has a great staff of professionals who are leading this industry in many areas. I really enjoyed the content they presented and am grateful for their continued persistence to make this industry better. Are you a CompTIA member? It is a real value along with being an important way to get behind our industry. Just this week I downloaded a couple of the legal templates from the member site which easily saved me the cost of membership in saved legal fees. But it is far more than that. It is a chance to get involved with and make a difference in the channel. Don't just pay your fees for dues. Get involved, participate in shaping the future and be part of the organization that is leading the channel into the future.

Check them out at http://www.comptia.org/ and get involved today!

To take advantage of CompTIA’s special membership offer for HTG Peer Group members, please visit the link here:

https://portal.htgmembers.com/Sponsors/CompTIA/Shared%20Documents/SignUp.mht

You will need to use the promo code HTGAlliance.

This membership will provide HTG Peer Group members with the full benefits of CompTIA Membership except voting rights in the association and the $40 certification voucher which is offered with a standard CompTIA membership.

If you have specific questions about any aspect of CompTIA membership, please contact Charlene Lundy at clundy@comptia.org or (630) 678-8530

Great Content from Our Friends at Trend Micro

Are you offering substandard security to your customers because it's easy or included in a management package you are using today? Trend Micro's Worry-Free Business Security is designed to meet the needs of your small business customer. And as an HTG member you can take advantage of exclusive pricing.

Meet your Trend Micro contacts! Join security experts
- T.J. Alldridge, Product Marketing Manager
- Ryan Delany, Systems Engineer
- Lili Bender, Distribution Channel Manager

Wednesday, April 14 at 11:00 AM PST for a live and interactive webinar. The speakers will provide an overview of Trend Micro's Worry-Free Business Security and will discuss the huge margin opportunity you can make as an HTG member. Migrating to Trend Micro is easier and more profitable than you think. Register today!

Learn more about:
• Who Trend Micro is and what makes the Worry-Free product family different.
• How to easily migrate your customers to Trend Micro.
• How to take advantage of the exclusive HTG pricing.
• How easy it is to deploy Trend Micro products to remove AVG, Symantec, McAfee, Sunbelt and more.
• Trend Micro's Worry Free Remote Manager (free product to manage your customers remotely).

This is an online event. You will receive an email confirmation with joining details immediately after registering.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Peer Power - So What?

The daily Harvard Business Review email today contained a great article on the power of peers. At HTG we have known and watched this for years. Peers do make a difference. They change things. Jon R. Katzenbach and Zia Khan wrote a very insightful article that I wanted to make you aware of. Here are a few sentences:

"Peer to peer interactions may be the single most neglected lever of change. When enlisted, they are change's most powerful ally; when resisted, they are its most stubborn foe. Peers in large organizations are invaluable in spreading behavior change across an enterprise. In that respect, they constitute a woefully underused set of resources, mostly accessible within the "informal elements" of our organizations.

Whenever significant numbers of peers interact formally or informally, they constitute a force to be reckoned with. When they share mutual respect, they will listen to, learn from, and secretly support one another in ways that can shape opinions, create resistance, or generate energy
".

I often am asked what the "magic" is in HTG. Quite honestly - this is it - the power of peers. When people come together to focus on others, rather than self, good things happen. When people create community with a common goal - change happens. It is a powerful force. HTG provides a framework to help direct that force. As we do, we see powerful transformation and change happen in the members. They do things they would never tackle on their own. Why? Because they need someone to help them move down the path giving them confidence and assurance they are not going alone. They need accountability to keep after it until they succeed. Peers make things happen.

Do you need change in your life, or your business? Find a group of peers that can help you drive it. They exist all over the place if you look. If you can't find someone, then create your own group of like minded folks that will take whatever journey you are facing with you. It works.

Many companies are now starting to realize just how powerful that can be - both internally with staff and externally with customers. Social media gives a platform for a lot of peer interaction to occur. We need to understand and learn how to leverage this change agent as well.

Don't miss out on the power of peers. It will change everything if you just jump in!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

MSPU Boot Camp Coming to Atlanta

Our friends at MSPU are hosting a bootcamp in Atlanta April 14-16. They are increasing the content for this event by including an EMR/EHR breakout session. Hot topics - great information. I can't do it justice - there is so much going on. Check out the details here and get registered.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

The HTG SWOT process in action

This week I was blessed to spend a few days on the east coast with the team at NTS in the Fort Lauderdale area. Scott Mallet leads the team and is a member of HTG13. The HTG SWOT team consisted of Steve Riat from Hays Kansas from HTG3, Kyle Elworthy from Charlotte who also is in HTG13, Christy Sacco and myself from HTG. We began our intense two days of interaction with the NTS team Tuesday morning and ended with a final presentation on Wednesday late afternoon. Typically these events take two days as it gives us time to interact with each team member and watch business happen over the course of a couple days.

The host company, NTS in this case, prepares for 45-60 days in advance by pulling together all sorts of financial, sales, marketing, service, HR, policies, procedures and the like for the team to review. The preparation exercise in itself is often extremely valuable as it requires getting the house in order in many ways. The team takes a look at things and comes with some ideas about possible areas of concern, as well as things that need clarification during the SWOT process. As is always the case, the numbers and prepared documents don’t tell the story, but they are a good place to start from. Scott and the team did a great job prepping for our visit and we had lots of documentation to review and come prepared about.

We started day one reviewing the company from 50,000 foot. What is the mission, vision, values and dream for the company? It should be part of your business plan. And your team should know it. NTS got one out of two – defined but no one seemed to know what it was we discovered later in the day. Interestingly, one of the Harvard Business Review emails this week asked two questions that demand the attention of leaders:

1. The first is familiar: What keeps you up at night? What are the worries that nag at you?
2. The second is less familiar, but perhaps more important: What gets you up in the morning? What keeps you more committed than ever, more engaged than ever, more excited than ever, as the environment around you gets tougher and more demanding than ever?

Bottom line – we need to know our mission and what will keep the fire in our belly burning. Leadership is a big deal in a small business. And often leaders begin to burn out over time as they face the daily battle and have to deal with a never ending amount of problems, people and frustrations. Without knowing “why” – the odds of us staying in the game at a level that makes an impact drop off quickly. Part of the SWOT process is making sure people know “why”. "How" doesn’t really matter if the “why” does not exist.

So we spent time talking about what the executive management team wanted NTS to look like in 3-5 years, and then 15 years. Most of us have a one year business plan that really is probably about 6 months worth of plans. We may say we have some idea of what we want the next few years to look like, but few have defined their “castle on the hill” for the long term. And even if they have, it is very rare that they have shared it with anyone, including their spouse. Sad way to plan or even dream. We need to involve the people who will be part of the journey. All of us are guilty of having way more information in our head than we share, and even more likely is the fact that we have feelings in our heart we never let see the light of day. Time for some transparency in leading!

After we get on the same page about the immediate, mid and long range goals, we have enough background to start walking through the SWOT process. Strengths and weaknesses are things internal to the company. Opportunities and threats are things that are external. At least those are good guidelines to use. We created a quadrant with the four sections and started making a list. As has been the case in all the previous 15 or so events, weaknesses always win the prize for the most. We gathered a good list in all areas and then finished our morning shadowing the team. This takes some trust – as we are going one on one or a few on one with staff without any NTS management around. But it is in these little discussions we learn a lot about what really is happening on the ground and it gives us confidence to make recommendations at the end of the event.

One of the highlights of our time happens over an extended lunch on day one. We invite the entire team minus the executive management to review our SWOT findings. This is where we get the real scoop and ground truth what we were told earlier that morning. We got some great feedback, some additions to our list, some challenges to things that were listed, and almost two hours of very interactive discussion. We find the leaders of the pack and those who are focused on helping drive the company forward. This is always an enjoyable time as we offer immunity from any retaliation from the management in exchange for raw and uncensored honesty. It is amazing what every team tells a group of interested outsiders that they would never tell their management.

The afternoon was spent doing more shadowing and some follow up digging on things we uncovered through the SWOT process. Since we are going to make some rather large suggested changes – it is critical we have our facts right. Often we can identify the issues within the first few hours, but the secret to success is to craft a plan to overcome those things utilizing the talent and resources available. It is one thing to figure out what is broke. It is another to come up with an execution plan that depends on resources we are not all that familiar with. So spending time with the team is critical for us to know what we can and can’t depend on.

We end the day with a review of our findings and make a list of our top three items. Our entire team was in agreement as it was the same list we identified earlier that day. We spend the evening over dinner and talk through some of the surprises we experienced which are always fun to laugh about.

Day two begins with getting the feedback from our overnight thoughts. My experience is that the SWOT team keeps on thinking through the night about the areas we are going to offer suggestions about, and often those sleepless hours and the ongoing pondering through the night has created some very insightful ideas. So we capture those and begin to craft our presentation. Much of our day on the second day involves building our recommendations and reviewing those with the right stakeholders so we have buy in. It doesn’t do a lot of good to leave a plan than management is not willing to execute. While I have never had that happen, it does take some time spent walking through it and getting buy in. We also often have to involve key members of the team in that process so there are not bombshells dropped when the presentation comes later that day. No one likes change – but people like it less if it comes unexpectedly with shock.

Day two lunch is with key managers who make it happen. We spent the time with key service delivery members and walked through flow charting how things happen at NTS. That helped us all get on the same page and talk about some of the challenges. We spent the remainder of the afternoon building the presentation which had our recommendations and then previewing that with the executive team. Again – no surprises is a good thing. We did manage to sneak a couple in on Scott since there were some commitments from his HTG13 list that were still unfulfilled. So we expanded his accountability team to include his own staff which was a welcome addition to our focus.

The day ended with our presentation to the team. All of our SWOT team members gave a portion of the presentation and we laid out the plan we had to help position the company for the growth that was identified at the beginning of the process. The plan tweaked some areas and touched everyone, so we had to make sure people understood and were bought into the strategy. This is the chance to build excitement and anticipation of great things ahead. The reality is that when we leave a SWOT presentation – people are ready to get after it and the risk is that management does not move quickly enough. Execution is not optional – everyone is bought in and expecting it to happen – so now it boils down to getting it done.

We had a great experience at NTS. Scott and the team were awesome hosts. We enjoyed the time with the team and the dinners around the area in the evening. It was great meeting Scott’s fiancĂ© and hearing about their upcoming plans. The SWOT process is about more than business, it is about achieving dreams and accomplishing plans for both business and life. We will continue to monitor and support the NTS team as they implement and execute. We will receive regular reports on progress and provide a swift kick when needed to keep them moving. But it really boils down to the team taking on the challenge and making it happen. I am confident they will. That is what happens when great people come together to get it done. Thanks to everyone who made our visit so special!