ConnectWise Partner Summit starts in a few days and it’s one of the biggest MSP-centric events of the year that brings together all walks of IT life.

Last year the vibe was very positive, attendees were excited and everyone was “trying to move my clients to managed services” but since then we’ve had a catastrophic collapse of the banking industry, something damn near a stock market crash, record streak of unemployment growth and a slowdown of all measurable economic growth indicators.

Looking over the numbers that we track, pure play MSP’s have been hit the hardest. They led the pack in the percentage of closed shops and they were overwhelmingly the ones that lost the largest number of seats.

In the same time span, OWN has had an all time record growth in accounts, revenues and profits (unfortunately we’ve also had to do a lot of collections and longer DSO as economy spares no one). Today is our biggest $ day, ever. Our partners at MSP University, ConnectWise, Autotask, CharTec have also posted record numbers and the MSP solution provider presence at conferences and events is bigger than it’s ever been.

What Vlad would like to know is….

It’s obvious that the only people making significant money in the MSP industry are the software and outsourcing companies providing managed service providers with services that they use to manage end customers. MSPs aren’t doing so hot. Some are even losing out to their suppliers that compete for MSP business, such as Dell.

With the space getting crowded and the deliverable/value very difficult to differentiate and distinguish between MSPs.. which other lines of business are MSPs going into to actually generate profit growth?

So where is the money at? Let me know, we’ll have a booth at both HTG and ConnectWise events next week, would love to hear some really good MSP stories and ideas for a change.

I’m writing this post at the Las Vegas airport, with one of the most expensive skylines in the whole world. Nearly all of it built over the past 15 years.

It has a lot in common with the computer business industry these days.

Hotels are half empty, showing clear sign of neglect and overbuilt space.

Some hotels are halted in the middle of construction…  places like The Venetian have idle cranes resting on top of the homage to the old world paradise.

It is currently all sustained on the deals, tricks and haggles… holding on to hope that things will get better quick, before the banks forclose on the remainder of the unfinished projects, and the serfs underneath grumble in despair.

But what if it doesn’t get better?

I don’t know about you do for living, but this is something I think about because I’m responsible for a lot of families out there that depend on me for a paycheck.

This week we sponsored a conference at which we were promised two thousand companies with businesses bringing in more than $1 million in revenue. I’ll tell you something funny, for a bunch of millionaires in this bunch, an alarming number of them don’t own pants, long sleve shirts, or polo shirts that don’t have some vendors logo on them. Yes, the world of IT professionals and millionaire business owners is dominated by the guys in shorts, vendor shirts and sweatpants. Amazing.

You know how I know I’m right? When I try to explain what we are working on right now to these folks they look at me like deer in headlights. They have no idea what I’m talking about, how to make money in that world, or what their role in it could even possibly be. The more they hope for a world in which they can make $100/hr walking a person through filling out a web form, the faster the innovation will remove them from the chain.

As some empires go, new ones come in their place. The amateurs and enthusiasts are on their way out and under.

It’s a great time to be in this business, folks.

Here is a quickie overview of where we’ll be in case you want to meet us, hang out with us, get the new ExchangeDefender shirts, etc.

Tomorrow/Thursday – ASCII Chicago – Nicole

2nd week of July – Microsoft WPC NOLA – Vlad, Nicole, Travis, Jen

1st week of August – CompTIA Las Vegas – Vlad, Nicole, Travis, Jen

2nd week of August – MSPU Los Angeles – Vlad & whoever draws the short straw.

There may be other smaller events through August that I am not aware of….

I am really looking forward to the MSP University bootcamp this week. It’s in Baltimore at the end of this week and is my last big thing for this quarter before we get into the summer of announcements.

I’m excited because I’m trying out new content. For years I’ve done a variation of “Vlad Mazek, MCSE, CEO… I’m here to make you money” followed by 20-30 slides outlining our company. This typically went over the head of 50% of the audience, the other half would come and chat with me for a free tshirt and we’d get about 10% of them to try out our stuff. Worked great but at this point in our business and in the marketplace (where we are already working with just about everyone in the SMB market) it’s more about getting to the core of the problems we find in this business together than just trying to earn that next IT guy that’s never heard of us.

My new deck starts with:

Vlad Mazek, Philanthropist, Remote Viewer, Prophet.

Should be interesting. Should be unique.

For years I’ve had the benefit of observing my fellow peers / clients / victims at the events and one of the constants until 2009 has been the perpetual lack of progress. People kept on coming to events, to the extent that I doubt they ever did any actual work, only to be seen at the next event slightly disheartened about their lack of progress.

But they fixed it that night at the bar.

In the morning they were back with lack of progress, lack of a cohesive approach to their market and no concrete process driven environment that can be replicated and grown as the news of their service spread.

But they fixed it that night at the free drinks party that some vendor invited them too.

The next morning they were still going and getting nowhere, but they had more friends.

And then it ended….

2009 came around, economy fell apart and their prize 1-2 clients went out of business and along with them a huge bulk of their revenues. Dell entered the market, other shops smelled the blood and the local competition intensified. Are you the next one to jump the shark?

The tragedy here is that it didn’t have to go down like this – because for the most part the business owners had all the control, had all the opportunity, had a demanding market, had a thirsty audience with nothing but problems and broken infrastructure on hand – and so many people failed to capture it.

Why? Because it required hard work.

This is why I love Erick’s events and am so dedicated to helping folks that are part of MSP University bootcamps. They aren’t swag collectors sitting around in hallways waiting for the next snack break or for the big dinner – MSP University is a bootcamp. Classroom all day, homework at night.

It’s so easy to find out who will not be with us next year – they will be at the bar all night!

When you listen to Gary and Erick present with their minions, one thing is clear – this stuff is not difficult, but you gotta get on the ball right now. Not tomorrow.

Times are tough, for many…. there is no tomorrow. I’m accounting for so much in my presentation and not even bothering to talk about OWN and all the ways we can help produce revenues and grow the client base – because if the fundamentals and process of our reseller aren’t solid…. then we’re just wasting time setting up reoccurring billing.

Welcome to the new world.

The first day of the event went very well I have to admit. Autotask hooked us up with a very nice spot, we got a lot of traffic and got to chat to a lot of new folks and existing customers. For the most part, slimy vendor whoring at these events has gotten much tamer over the years as more people use them to showcase solutions and software becomes a subscription, instead of a bucket of Oxi Clean. For us, the key value as we grow is collecting live feedback that just doesn’t get to us any other way, good or bad. Most people, even live, are admittedly swamped throughout their workweek to bring up stuff that is working well or remarkably poorly, so days like this give us some insight to what we are doing and what we could be doing to make money for everyone involved.

My presentation is later this afternoon. We’re talking about OWN-Autotask support integration workflows and the difference this makes when you are reselling services. Since services/hosting thrives in tough times, managing the support of services becomes crucial and if you have to go back and forth through different portals not only do you lose money but you also lose insight and reporting capability that you have when all your support is rendered in house. That, and a few other surprises. I know this block is likely to raise all sorts of “but what about Shockey Monkey and ConnectWise?” – April/May.

If you aren’t here, or you just got lost in Gaylord and decided to settle somewhere in the Delta Quadrant and start a new life, don’t worry – we’ll have series of webcasts starting next week to onramp people onto the new support integration and all the support tools.

One thing we’ve had to come to terms with is that nobody, ever, reads the documentation. So going forward, we won’t do anything so stupid as to put our software on the front page (www.exchangedefender.com) and hope the people look at those README or Documentation folders. Instead, access to the integration and product management will be embedded behind a training webcast and a quiz – we’re growing too rapidly and too widely with our solutions and business management is becoming too complex to “release and pray” any further. If that doesn’t sound appealing, we’ve also teamed up with a bunch of people that will offer our stuff direct off their web sites, probably significantly cheaper than we’re willing to let it go for…

…

You can’t really tell that this is the first conference Autotask has thrown. Everything is very clean, organized and put together. Our handler Lauren has followed up with us a bunch of times during the event, Autotask staff is mixing with the crowd and introducing people to us, everyone is taking really good care of just about everything. As more vendors look to bring in their own communities together, and display this level of professionalism and event management, it sort of spells doom for the big disorganized SMB conferences with spotty content and general lack of understanding who is there and why… As a slimy vendor whore I welcome that demise because it helps filter the message – much like with MSPU – the people that are here didn’t just sign a check, they have actually developed a solution for your platform/business and we all work together.

We’ll be in California next week.

Through Sunday actually. If you’re in SoCal and work with us we’d love to meet up with you. We’re doing a lot of interesting road work with our partners this year.

We’re very happy to be supporting Erick Simpson’s MSP University bootcamps this year. I haven’t seen once since 2006 but have sent a bunch of people there, it would be interesting to be a part of the whole thing again. We are bringing a mountain of swag, tshirts, spare office furniture, etc. If you plan to attend, let me know. We always have some extra special swag hanging around.

As for the blog, I’ve gotten a number of pings – yes, I’m fine. Things are moving a little slower @OWN than I’d like, and we’re making more idiotic mistakes than I’d prefer, and we’re growing faster than I’ve expected, and I need a bigger office and a few more hours in a day. Seeing the wasteland of economic apocalypse, I am more than thankful to have these problems. But I’m in there, greasing the wheels, dipping monkeys into water head first and throwing in the space heater. It’s moving… This is when our competitors are slowing down, labor is cheap and people are cutting deals – if you can’t cut it now don’t even bother showing up.

It doesn’t leave much energy to put on the Vladville show each day. Good news tho, SPAM Show will still be recorded tomorrow.

Just a courtesy mention for an event that my dear friend Susanne Dansey is planning in the UK this week. Over 170 have signed up, and you can register here. I believe in Susanne enough that I can blindly endorse this, she can throw things like nobody’s business, and I can tell you that the sub-200 crowd is far better than the larger events, especially if you’re trying to build relationships and network with everyone there. So if you can, go.

Andy mentions that the event may have sold out already, but he can get you in. If that fails, remember that tech events in SMB are highly dependant on the things that “come up” so the odds that you’ll be able to get in might be better than you imagine. And if you still can’t get in, contact me for some incriminating pictures and video of Susanne that will get you right in and into the VIP seats*.

(* Limited to the first 10,000 people that request it.) 

Don’t forget the Orlando ITPRO Meeting is this Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at the New Horizons on Lee Rd and I4. Since the summer whiner cleaning and ass kicking, the group has really been reinvigorated with presentations on helpdesk software use and implementation for smaller shops, presentation on running an SMB practice by Microsoft’s top SMB brass and coming up this Tuesday: Virtualization. Erik says:

Dale Frohman and I will be presenting virtualization.  At Spiderhost, we use virtualization products for a number of solutions.  For everything from production servers to backup and recovery.  Guys (and girls), this really makes your life easier.  If you haven’t seen it, or don’t know what it is, it’s worth your time!

Erik has stepped up in Orlando big time! If you’re within the hour of Orlando (which pretty much covers, Orlando, Daytona, Tampa, Ocala and Melbourne, you ought to come out and check this out. Come out, enjoy some food and virtualization festivities, explore possible partnerships and profit.

[xxxxx   Vlad Mazek 8/23/2007 - the day Vlad finally caved in to the vast sucking pressure of MVP mafia]

Dear Riff Raff,

Just say no.

Say no to the paid off MVP mob force that is trying to squash any bit of truth when one of their own screws up.

Say no to the events that make you pay to watch infomercials, eat in a parking lot and then spam you.

I am not paid off to tell you to give my friends money after they screwed you, I do not have an alterior motive, I do not have a competing event/conference. I just believe in truth and value and if you think you’re riff raff there are better places to spend your money:

Spend it on true SMB community events: SBS Migration ITPRO Conference (New Orleans), SMBTN Conference (Dallas),  SMB Focus (Australia)

Spend it with the MSPU, Mobilize SMB, Great Little Book, SBS Unleashed

Spend it to send a thank you postcard from your vacation to the SMB blogging elite that calls it like it is and never asks for a damn thing in return: Susan Bradley, Susanne Dansey, Tim Barrett, Eriq Neale, Andy Goodman Blog, Andy Goodman Chat, Dana Epp, Vijay Riyaait, Chad Gross, Dean Calvert, Andy Parkes, David Mackie, David Schrag,  Steve Wright, Jeff Altman, Bill Leeman, Anne Stanton, Richard Tubb, Bill Waters, Jason Lieb, Karl Palachuk, Mark Crall, Larry Lentz, Nick Whittome, Kevin Weilbacher, Amy Babinchak and the TS2 community guys who although Microsoft employees probably spend more than anyone outside of 9–5 to locally support the SMB community.

Bring some food, drag a vendor, contribute a presentation or share notes from your SMB user group meeting.. or start one.

These are the people and events that build our community, if you like them support them. If you want to call yourself a leader try being honest about the past mistakes instead of glossing over them, try supporting and promoting new blood instead of clapping on your old social circle, try focusing on the big picture of promoting community involvement instead of nitpicking little nuances to support taking people to the wallet cleaners and locking them into your limited frame of thinking. You’re either leading, or standing in its way. I hope you choose correctly.

Bad leader,
MVP,
Community crusher
But not a sold out whore,
-Vlad Mazek

No.

Of course not. If you’d like to know why, read below…

Everyone seems to be asking if I’m going. After last years sales festival everyone seems to be trying to figure out if Dana and Arlin are really going to change it or if it will be a shame on me moment. Point is, everyone is wondering. Should I go? Do you think it will be better? Think they’ll get it back to what it used to be? Who else is going? Think I should go?

I don’t know, I’m nobody’s daddy (that I know of) but I made a decision on one simple observation that I get because my role involves talking to a lot of partners: nobody I want to network with is going. Pure and simple. I have a lot of peers in this segment, I work with a lot of people that I respect and can learn a lot from and it just seems that none of them are going this year. What their reasons are I don’t know and don’t care, I am not interested in flying accross the country to meet a bunch of people that are just starting their business.

Mind you, there is a handful of very impressive people going.. Matt Mackowicz, Erick Simpson, Karl Palachuk, Arlin Sorensin, Mark Crall, Dana Epp, Susan Bradley, Jeff Middleton.. but (with the exception of Susan who is just insane) they are all going because they are speaking or selling our launching a book or attending an SBS MVP meeting. There is no shame in that, more power to them but I’m looking after myself: Will I get a chance to talk to them when they are surrounded by the riff-raff, can we really talk about the issues businesses on our level face when other people on the table are struggling with the concept of E&O?

So I did my evaluation and based on just those two pieces I decided not to go. I also took into account Jeff’s SMB ITPRO conference, SMBTN and found them head and shoulders over SMB Nation 2006. I also considered the full weeks that I spent at Microsoft WWPC and Microsoft TechEd and the potential CES trip and it just turned out to be a no brainer. There is a lot more to this, and me cancelling the conference schedule I had on my plate, which I intend to cover in a future blog post.