Ambition Mission

The biggest conference (literally) of the year for the IT provider is coming up soon - Micrsosoft Worldwide Partner conference is July 7-10 in Houston.  (other than the Houston in July thing), it’s shaping up to be a good show.  Here are some highlights, what to look for and some tips for maxamizing the conference.  First things first - the conference is at 80% attendance (and already at capacity for certain categories of attendees).  so, if you’re interested in attending, register at www.Microsoftwwpartnerconference.com 

1. My good friend Stuart Crawford will be a speaker at the conference!  Stuart is an expert in leveraging PR and blogging to grow a business.  You’ll definitely want to check out his session.
2. The biggest thing to look for is Microsoft’s S+S (Software plus Services) play.  Many IT providers are not happy, confused, or not sure about S+S.  Look for this to be the main undercurrent of the conference 
3. This is one of the best conferences to network with Microsoft people (see suggestions below) 
4. Sara and I are attending - you’ll usually FIND ME IN THE YELLOW LOUNGE or just look around for “the guy in the suit” its probably me
5. The ISV party will be “the party” but it was invite only and already at capacity - don’t worry there will be PLENTY to do.

This is a small excerpt from my upcoming 2nd book - A Guide to MARKETING Managed Services - faster, easier, & for greater profit (See full table of contents here) - I have an entire Chapter dedicated to Leveraging Microsoft.

Constructively complaining:A Partner’s first interaction with a Microsoft employee is pretty interesting.  It usually involves the Partner complaining and the Microsoft employee smiling and nodding.  When meeting a Microsoft employee, it is important to know that unless he/she is on the development team of the product you’re complaining about – chances are he/she can’t do anything to help you, other than of course to smile and nod and wait for you to stop talking.  FYI – most product team developers and managers are not out and about meeting Partners.   Partners

When meeting a Microsoft employee, ask what they do for Microsoft within the first 15 seconds of introducing yourself. 

Partners

The sooner it is realized what a person does for Microsoft and what that person’s goals are this year, the quicker it can be determined how to best leverage that contact at Microsoft.  Also be sure to offer a solution to any problem that may exist.  So hold that complaint about whatever until:

Partners

1)      You’re communicating with someone in the department that is responsible for those issues

Partners

2)      You have an idea for a solution that you can offer 

Partners

I continue to see Partners find a Microsoft person at a conference or other event and insist on venting about all ways in which he feels Microsoft has not done a good job.  It seems the goal of these folks is to complain to as many Microsoft people as possible.  Perhaps the thinking is that sooner or later, someone will care. 

PartnersSince the chances of meeting the exact right person or manager to vent your complaint to is actually small, why not seek out something positive?  Decide how Microsoft can best help your company’s growth and ask for it.  The more thought out and specific the better.  Not only will you eventually get what you’re looking for (assuming it’s a reasonable request), you’re likely to build a great database of Microsoft employees along the way. 

Happy hunting at WPC!

Coming off the heels of the IT Pro conference in New Orleans followed by a cruise with Jeff Middleton and 20 other folks from the conference, I am regrouping (for a day) before heading out from my home in New Jersey to San Francisco for a half day event on Tuesday, 5/20.  See the events page for more info.

 On the topic of work/life balance, there is always some good thought and discussion.  Well, in this regard I have been contemplating often as of late and recently discovered something.  Something that is too important not to share.

If you don’t know Jeff Middleton, he is, by his own definition “a contrarian.”  Therefore, I am fine with the fact that this post is not a conference summary or recap.  Rather, it is my attempt to share a recent attitude adjustment I experienced as result of an excellent conversation with Jeff (over a Pina Colada with a splash of Myers Rum).   The other reason behind this adjustment was also the fact that I was ready to hear it and to a certain degree, already thinking about it.

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So, like numerous others in the IT community, I work a lot.  I work weekends.  I work nights.  I bring my laptop on vacation and even when I am not working, my attention is never too far away.  I have been the sole practitioner juggling the tasks of servicing customers while growing the business and trying not to appear small.  I experienced the joy of having people I trusted to run my company so that I could take a “real” vacation (real vacation means no calls/emails to/from the office or customers).  I worked from home, from a real office, and have done the traveling bit.  I’ve been a W2, a 1099, a Contractor, Consultant, Project Manager, Owner, Salesperson, Office Manager, Trainer, Technician, Author, Coach, and more! 

The point is that whenever it came to my professional life, I have always been focused, goal oriented, and driven.   I still am very ambitious (no pun intended). 

There is always a trade off because one’s business can take every ounce of energy one can put into it.  There can never be too much.  (think of RAM in a PC/Server as an analogy).  Sure we know (just like with RAM), that after a certain point the advantage of the “extra” is marginal if noticeable at all, but most business owners are extremists and do it anyway!

It is easy (or easier) to make a choice between a 16 hour day and getting home so the kids can see you before bedtime than to spending money to do the right thing.

The point is that with all the money we spend (a.k.a. “invest”) in our businesses, how much does each of us invest in family time?  Do we have a more difficult time putting our hands in our pockets when the result is ‘family time’ than when the result is ‘a better server’ for the business? 

For me, this hit me like a ton of bricks.  When it comes to making decisions that would cost actual greenbacks and create family time, they have typically been brushed off as “not good for the business.”  Well, what I came to realize this past week is it is OK to spend money on my family too!  After all, ‘family time’ is a large part of why I do what I do in the first place.

So the next time you’re faced with a similar dilemma, analyze the costs on both sides.  Here’s an example -

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Do you need that office admin that will cost the business another $3,500/month or can you simply work more hours to pick up the slack?  Do the latter, and you’re are undoubtedly focused upon the financial health of your business.  If you can do it, you’re most likely doing what is in the best interest of your business – then again, is the business growth the ONLY thing you care about?

What if hiring that admin will decrease your average work week from 55-60 hours closer to 45?  Compare that to the likelihood that your average week will increase to 65 or 75 without the addition of an Admin.  So, given this example, is 20-30 extra hours with your family EACH WEEK worth $3,500/month to you? 

If you’ve thought about this before then congratulations, you’re more in tune that I have been.  If this hits you like a ton of bricks as it did for me, well then I’ve done my good deed for the day!

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I’ll close this post with an example that illustrates this point for me.  I have been traveling so extensively lately that I have only seen my kids in quick ½ day spurts a couple of times of the last 6 weeks.  I have been toying with the idea of taking one of my kids (I have 4 in case you didn’t know) on one of my trips as sort of an extreme case of “take your child to work day.”  Of course I never had for numerous reasons, but the largest was the added cost b/c there is zero business value ROI on that expenditure.

Given my recent attitude adjustment, I balanced what it would actually cost against the benefits to my family, my relationship with my son, and his growth and development.

So for those of you attending the “Making the Transition to Managed Services” event at the Microsoft San Francisco office this Tuesday 5/20 at 1:00 PM, you’ll not only get some great content to grow and transform your business, but you’ll get a chance to meet my oldest son, Grantham, who at age 7 will be on his first business trip with his dad.

Paraphrased from my favorite Successories print – “In the end it will not matter how much money you had in the bank or the kind of car you drove, but the world may be a better place because you made a difference in the life of a child.”

-         Matt Makowicz

Just coming off an exciting weekend at SMB Nation East in NJ, there was a lot of buzz about the Microsoft Response Point telephone system solution.  Some attendees loved it, others didn’t.  In fact, after getting an ‘earful’ from what I consider to be a prominent IT company in the NY area, I took notes on what folks thought about Response Point.  Here goes:

The Not So Great -  

·         No call accounting

·         No provision for any messages or music on hold other than what came with the system

·         No LDAP for Active Directory – must key in all employee names

·         No intercom/paging within phone system (unless use other installed speaker system)

·         1100 contact maximum per user

·         All phones must be on same subnet – i.e. no branch offices

·         No soft phones for telecommuters

·         100 MB mailbox limit (for all user’s mailboxes)

·         Doesn’t integrate outbound with Outlook or CRM (i.e. cannot bring up a contact and click dial)

·         Cannot record a conversation

·         Limited to 2 person (3 party) conference call

While that was an earfull - I also recieved some positive comments from this partner:

·         Seen as SBS 4.0 - i.e. an entry level product not quite there yet with a TON OF POTENTIAL

·         No one else has something like this at this price point (other than maybe Linksys)

·         If MS stays committed to this product, expect great things to come

Here’s what I think -

MS Response Point is NOT a robust, feature heavy, universally applicable phone system for small business - not yet anyway.  If you’re familiar with products such as Avaya IP Office, don’t try to compare head to head the two.  Also, if you know the IP office system, you know that a 5-10 person company will likely spend between $12,000 and $15,000 for it, while response Point will be between $2,000 - $3,000. 

The Good news is that Response Point is a great entry level product that will allow most smaller small business customers to get 80%-100% of what they are looking for in a phone system.  It is also an additional revenue stream for you as a Partner to be more of a one stop shop for your customers.

The Better news is that Microsoft also has a higher end software based solution with Live Communications Server which is very powerful.  It is only a matter of time and version releases before these two products get closer and Microsoft (and more importantly, you as a Partner) will have a robust telephone solution for any small business with any level of need.

The Best news is that we’ve seen what Microsoft does when it wants to enter a market.  They enter with a solution that sounds fantastic but when you look under the hood (or look with hindsight) is all one may have hoped for.  (SBS 4.0).  But the deed is done - Microsoft has entered the market and the product just keeps getting better, and Partners have continually increasing revenue opportunities around the product.

So my advice is to begin.  MS Reponse Point may not be perfect, but it is good enough for millions of customers out there who have a need.  You can keep a potential competitor on the outside by offering your customers a solution.  Then, years from now, when Microsoft’s phone system solutions are like SBS 2003 (unbeatable in the Small Biz market), you’ll proudly state that you have been working with the product from the beginning!  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -    Also consider that almost every phone system provider needs to get into the network support business to survive in the years ahead.  It is a harder road for them to learn network support than for us to learn phone system technologies - so don’t waste the head start you already have.

Happy hunting! 

Matt Makowicz

SMB IT Providers are about to be bombarded with invitations to the 2008 conferences.  This is actually a good thing, in fact a very good thing. 

Choice is good!  It was only 4-5 years ago when the pickings were slim, in fact there was really only one, SMB Nation (www.SMBNation.com).  A few years ago, Microsoft took an idea from Harry Brelsford’s playbook and decided to do a pre-day conference to the World Wide Partner conference and the Microsoft Small Business Symposium was born.  (no link yet - this link goes to the 2007 WPC http://www.microsoft.com/partner/events/wwpartnerconference/).  Then, out West was born a great collaboration of SMB companies and the SMBTN was formed along with the SMB Summit, now in its 4th year (www.SMBSummit.com).  But that’s not all!  Industry guru Jeff Middleton, creator of the widely popular swing migration, decided to put on a different type of conference and 2008 will see his second conference (www.SBSMigration.com).  Other organizations, such as the ICCA, are in a resurgence and are having an SMB focused conference in 2008 as well (www.ICCA.org). 

So many choices!  What is an SMB IT provider to do?  What conference is going to hold the most value?  What conference should you attend?  Most smaller SMB IT providers can usually only budget for one, unless there happens to be another in their backyard.  Even larger players in the SMB space are confused, though deciding what the “deal & feel” for each event will be and trying to determine where to best place their conference budgets.So, for what it’s worth, here is my two cents on the “skinny”, the “deal” and the “feel” of each event.  Of course, because I am focused on helping and training Partners, I will be at all of them - with different content, different focuses, etc.. all aimed with a different attendee in mind. 

So here goes, I hope it proves helpful:In order of the date the conferences occur (you can also check out the www.AmbitionMission.com/events for more info):

• SMB Nation (East) - NY/NJ March - SMB Nation is the original.  The 3rd annual East derivative of this conference with approx 200+ attendees is geared to “sbsers,” IT consultants and SMB IT providers looking to grow their business.  The event in NJ will have business sessions and a ton of info on Microsoft Response Point, which if you haven’t heard, is Microsoft’s phone system for the SMB Market.

• SMB Summit - Dallas, TX April - the 4th annual conference is shaping up to be a tremendous event.  The focus is two fold for this 4 day conference - the first 2 days are all about Cougar (next version of SBS) & Centro (a mid market version of SBS).  - the last two days are all about business sessions.  One Man shops be warned, a lot of the sessions are geared to IT providers with 3 + employees.  Expect about 500+ partners in attendance.

• SMB Nation (East) - not a typo - in early May, SMB Nation East is in Toronto.  This conference will likely be very similar to the one in NJ with one significant difference - no Response Point (it’s not available in Canada yet).  Our friends in the Great White North don’t get conferences up there too often, especially focused on SMB so I am expecting more than the 200+ attendees than in NY/NJ.  This will be a mostly business focused conference and I’m looking forward to seeing what is all abooot.  (couldn’t help it)

• SBS Migration - New Orleans - May.  Jeff Middleton is not a fan of the normal power point session lecture style conference.  Expect a lot of interaction learning from experts with experience.  This is an intimate (and fun - hey it’s in New Orleans) hands on conference with from 150+ in attendance.  As an added bonus, after the 3 day conference, expect about 1/3 to 1/2 of the attendees to board the Carnival Fantasy cruise ship for another 5 days of interaction with fellow SMB providers and a daily conference session on the ship.  I was disappointed I missed the inaugural conference last year, and have heard all good things and after extensive conversations with Jeff, I know this will be even better.

• ICCA - Washington, DC - early June - I am just getting to know this organization and have spoken at some of their Chapter meetings.  The “Independent” part of the name suggests that this conference will be attended by approx 200+ one man shops looking to grow.  The ICCA is serious about its membership so this should be a valuable event.

• Microsoft Small Business Symposium and WorldWide Partner Conference - Houston, TX, July - this is the big one.  WPC is 3 days preceded by the SB Symposium which is a full day.  While WPC is over $1,000 to attend, the SB Symposium is free to SBSC partners (at least it has been the last 2 years).  WPC will host 15,000 attendees representing 5,000+ partners from around the world.  The SB Symposium reaches the 600-1000 attendee marks.  While some SMB IT providers come in town for the Symposium and then split, I think the WPC is one of the best conferences to attend because you get a chance to see a lot more than you’re used to and meet partners who were small once too… It’s expensive, but I think worth it.  Register early for savings (a good tip for all conferences btw).

General conference tips:

• Come early stay late - plan on arriving the early part of the day prior to the first day - there is always something valuable going on.  There is also always something fun and valuable the evening after the last session.  (hint - don’t book an early morning flight - 11:00 AM should be the earliest)
• Plan ahead - get an idea of sessions you don’t want to miss and put them on your calendar with reminders before arriving in town.  You will get engrossed in fantastic conversations with other partners in the “hallways” of the event that you may miss sessions you were looking forward to (most are NOT recorded for later viewing)
• Get a room mate - this cuts your hotel bill (one of the largest travelling expenses) in half
• Bring LOTS of business cards and notebook paper - also develop a system and put time in your schedule upon returning from the conference for the follow up you’ll want to do - otherwise your investment will be (at least partially) wasted
• Listen more than you talk - ask partners questions.  People love to talk about their business.  Be willing to share as well.  These conversations will be the most valuable take a ways upon your return home.

Have fun, safe travels, and I will see you at (one of) the conference!Matt Makowicz“Let Ambition Be Your Mission.”