I have not been to a Kaseya user conference personally but I know more and more vendors are bringing their partner channels together each year.

The idea of these conferences is for networking, sharing ideas with the community, and the vendor providing information on their latest offerings as well as bringing together value added resources for the community.

I am a big fan of these conferences when done right and I am curious if anyone attended last year’s Kaseya conference and would be willing to share the experience?

Josh

Kaseya and Gary Pica have teamed up to bring what they call the Revolution Sessions to the managed services community.

I have not had the chance to attend the seminars with Gary at this point but I have started to see a lot of blog posts and information going around about the events.

For the most part the feedback on the events has been positive, which is great. I am curious if anyone has had the opportunity to attend an event and what the experience was like for you.

Andrew Morgan at Kaseya is pretty diligent about following up with me regularly to get us into the Kaseya tool set and I have to admit that their tool is a fantastic one. For the sake of full disclosure I would tell you that we are currently a Zenith Infotech partner and are very happy with their services.

That being said I want to make sure we are unbiased in our blogging about tools and events so please let me know if you have had the opportunity to attend and what you thought of it.

Josh

At least for those of us that generally provide support on a flat-fee basis.  I love the iPhone, but supporting it may pose some challenges until Apple releases some more updates.

A story to illustrate:

One of my best friends just switched from T-Mobile to ATT to get the iPhone.  After waiting in line for six hours (This is an adult with three very young children mind you.  Better things to do with his time?!) he proceeded to watch the sales reps go through SEVEN iPhones before they were able to get him up and running.  SEVEN!  And it took him another six hours.

They ended up giving him the phone for free.

MSPMentor just posted on the fact that Kaseya is now officially supporting iPhones, and several other MSPs are making plays to include iPhone services in their portfolio.  I agree that it’s a good move, I would just encourage most MSPs to charge for it on a time and materials basis for the next X months so you don’t get beat up!

This is a very important lesson for anyone providing IT services on a flat-fee basis like Everon.  Your customers will try to bait you into supporting EVERYTHING for the original flat fee you sold them on.  We have a very important word that we use at Everon to combat this phenomenon:

NEW.

Simple, right?  If something is new to the marketplace, new to your network, or just new to Everon – we reserve the right to evaluate it and determine if we should charge more as part of the support plan we have with you.  It puts you in the position to protect yourself, and it’s something everyone should have in their contract.

MRC

I have to say that I have been impressed that Dell has been showing up all over the place in blogs that I read. I have been equally impressed with the number of blogs the giant has launched to communicate with the world.

Corporate blogs can be a mixed blessing as they often start with the best intentions and quickly turn into a wasteland of infrequently updated information. I hate to pick on Kaseya but has anyone been watching their blog? I am still not quite sure why they bothered to launch it rather than just putting up a ‘recent news’ section on their site.

Dell on the other hand seems to have a fleet of bloggers out there, I have even heard from their “Chief Blogger” on occasion, responding to comments and spreading the message Dell wants the public to hear.

Only time will tell how effective Dells new channel / partner blog is with the community but regardless i have to applaud them for their blogging efforts.

I ran into a blog post that wsj.com put up about Dells blog strategy that is worth takeing a few minutes to read:

http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/06/03/dell-incites-internet-buzz/

I have to admit that for as hard as I am on Dell they are a brilliant company and implementing this blogging team is a cool move on their part.

JC

Here is my response to a recent post of his on MSPMentor.  His post follows in full.  I would be interested in what others in the community think!

Mike Cooch Says:

February 13th, 2008 at 5:09 pm

No disrespect intended, but I disagree with Dan completely. The number one challenge facing MSPs is by far and away sales. Yes, I know, Kaseya and every other provider of products and services to MSPs can point out their example of an MSP customer of their’s that is growing like a weed, but the majority are really struggling. This will eventually be a problem for anyone basing their growth on the growth of MSPs, and will lead to major consolidation in the industry.

Mike Cooch
www.everonit.com
www.smbitpros.com

 Dan’s post:

The Top Three Challenges Facing MSPs

Posted February 13th, 2008 by Dan Shapero

According to Ziff Davis Enterprise (Bright Future for Managed Service Providers, 2007), the top three issues facing MSPs today include: determining SLAs, pricing and transitioning customers to managed service.

Fortunately, MSPs can turn to key resources to help hone their skills, keep abreast of industry trends and learn from the experts. The unique needs of Managed Service Providers require access to strategic business insight for issues like business transformation, growth management, lead generation, sales training and positioning.

They also need to keep their finger on the pulse of the industry with immediate access to tools and resources that can help them to establish and maintain that competitive edge.

It is common in the industry for vendors to join forces with complementary technology solutions, training and education experts and resource providers in order to expand their capabilities and ensure the successful implementation and usage of their products or service. By pooling resources, companies can provide a complete end to end solution that is clearly greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Working closely with your customers, you discover the areas of assistance they may require that may be better served by partnering with an organization with that specialization. Teaming with industry leaders to deliver results programs targeted specifically to the unique needs of your customer can result in a comprehensive blueprint for success.

It’s equally important that the partners you choose share in your belief that partnering is a key success factor where your mutual customers are the definitive beneficiaries.

While many vendors such as Kaseya offer training, toolkits and other programs designed to aid the MSP, there are a variety of “MSP turned educators” that have significant value to add to the MSP community. Kaseya has created a program, The Kaseya Managed Service Resource Program that provides access to respected industry experts.

These resources assist our MSP Customers in transitioning, managing and growing their business. Augmenting the product training and education provided by Kaseya, the MSRP Partners bring a wealth of added value in sales & marketing, education, best practices and industry trends. It’s a win-win situation for us all when, by pooling resources, MSPs have a happy and vibrant business.

Note: Dan Shapero is Senior Vice President, Marketing at Kaseya.