Yes, I’m bringing the gaypile back. Had to be done. 

Name calling is fun. It helps people quickly identify what they are dealing with to save copy space and convey a message without getting preachy or far too elaborate. If you’ve ever had to put together a flyer you know what I mean, you try to sum up your entire universe of information to get the point across and you still want to capture attention. So you shoot for a compromise.

In professional (well, IT professional) circles, thats welcome. Coder, DBA, helpdesk can all convey a pretty clear meaning, sometimes positive and sometimes a derogative (“Oh, there goes Mr. MCSE”); And for the most part people welcome it and identify themselves as such.

In IT business, it goes the other way. We have a few dozen acronyms that we use to identify partners and opportunities. But sometimes people try their hardest to identify themselves to you. How often do you hear a pitch and just sum it up to the person to acknowledge you have received their bullshit and know what they do so they will cease the pitch? Some people can’t break out of that cycle. Some people are so sold on their own bs that they cannot escape it, even among the people that do the very same thing:

Hi, my name is Bob and I’m a trusted advisor. I do not try to make profit on products, I simply recommend whats best for you and…

Yeah, Bob, we get it, you’re full of shit. You don’t mark up the services you don’t consider material to your business. Microsoft licensing – $0 markup. Antispam – $0 markup. Offsite backups – $0 markup. You’re a great guy, thank you for recommending this to me – oh whats this $1,500 a month fee? Oh, for the managed services you provide on top of a $100 MSP software platform, $50 management agents and a $200 outsourced helpdesk? Whats that, a 500% markup, Bob?

People are trusted advisors when they are not directly trying to milk the highest possible markup from the customer. For everything else, they are trying to charge the highest possible rate that the market will handle without leaving them with less than 40 billable hours a week. That is called a business. Even if you run it by yourself in your underware 28 hours a week, you’re a business. You charge money for time, you are a vendor.

There is no shame in running a successful business. There is plenty of shame in running an unsuccessful one. Which one would you rather be? Pretty title with no substance or a success with a less glorified name?

-Vlad Mazek, MCSE, MVP, CEO. Decode that, b….

Disclosure: I have been a Microsoft MVP in Microsoft Exchange category for two years, each year the reward consists of some swag and a $150 credit in the Microsoft store. How I got the award (first or second time) is beyond me, it carries no professional status value (i.e., it’s not a certification of knowledge or experience like an MCSE) and I generally do not use it. However, it is a great honor bestowed by Microsoft to the enthusiasts of their technology and I am quite grateful for it and the product involvement that has come as a result of it.

Started by the opening few minutes of Simpson’s last night, here is some food for thought..

Some of you feel that you don’t have to support MVPs or really offer any gratification in return for someone helping you. You don’t. Some of you don’t even feel thanks are in order. Fair enough. Some of you feel that the content produced on the Internet is done at the will of its creators, distributed for free to get attention and you can take it or leave it. Very true. Some of you will go to community events like SBS groups, .NET meetings, Linux user groups, bootcamps and mashups without thinking you owe the organizers a damn thing. You’re right!

Point is, you cannot owe someone something if you didn’t agree to purchase it. If it had material value, it would come with a price tag and you would judge if it was worth the monetary tradeoff or not. And since it comes without a price tag it is equivalent to a giveaway. Do you owe it thanks? Sure, if you appreciated it. Do you owe it gratitude? I suppose so, if it gives you a lasting benefit.

In a nutshell, we are a free society with an incentive based monetary system, and if someone is going to offer something for nothing you do not owe them any compensation, personal or commercial.

So you don’t have to. But should you?

Wayne brought up a great point this morning, in a nutshell saying “people can only keep on fighting the good fight whilst they don’t need to think about how to pay the bills. Once they need to think more about money than the job they like doing, they stop to do it.”

Some people thrive on accomplishment. Some thrive on money. Some thrive on personal gratitude. Some thrive on attention. Some thrive on argument and passion. Most people have something that makes them tick, something that self-motivates them to do what they do.

The Answer Underpants Gnomes Are Seeking

South Park is a world famous adult cartoon that places children in rather vulgar adult situations and exposes how in a naive fashion children expose the huge adult flaws in logic.

One of the most quoted episodes is the one of the Underpants Gnomes (wikipedia), in which children are asked to write a paper on economics. They meet the underpants gnomes who sneak into kids rooms at nights and steal underpants.  Gnomes have this colossal operation and setup, designed to make profit with just a few missing pieces. They know where they are (collect pants) and where they want to be (profit) they just need to fill in the middle. This is also known as the “every web 2.0 and dot com business plan, EVER” which is why you see it quoted on nearly every social networking site out there when reviewing questionable business plans:

So, let’s circle this back. When you hear or see someone giving something away for free, you ought to try and answer: How are they going to survive doing that? Are they giving it away to gain exposure? Customer base? Attention? What is step 2?

Same question ought to get asked of the Microsoft MVPs, group leaders, event organizers, user groups, etc. How are the leaders, in the end, being compensated for their work?

The easy answer is the question “Who gives a shit” – after all, if they have the time to write, blog, podcast, video blog, answer questions and participate in the IT events and discussions they likely need to get another job. So what if they get tired, someone else will just fall into their place and it’s not your economic duty to subsidize people with flawed business plans – you’re saving $$$ for the iPod Touch.

And for the record – I don’t blame you. I am perhaps the same. I’ve watched the Evolution of Dance video on YouTube at least 20 times and to my recollection I haven’t paid the guy, or Youtube once. I am sure the guy makes money somehow, somewhere, frankly I don’t care.

But the things I do care about, the things that I enjoy, I support. I love 2 Live Crew music and have purchased every single CD they put out. I love The Darkness, and have purchased the CD’s and even went to a concert. (yes, there is a pattern here, I like it when people do phenomenal things with so few resources / talent). I hate Michael Savage and his beliefs with a passion, but I love his delivery – so I bought his books. I could not fall asleep without Coast 2 Coast AM, and I subscribe to its Streamlink even though the program is available on the AM band and I don’t believe in bigfoot, chupacabras or the JFK conspiracies.

Point is, I support what I enjoy because I care that it survives.

End Game

If you don’t support what you care about, it disappears. If you take what you get for free for granted, it comes back as the nastiest commercial substitute you can imagine. If you can only take, without ever giving, you might get accustomed to that and when you need it there may be none left for the taking.

The loose change bin, do you ever put loose change back or do you only take?

In restaurants, do you ever compensate someone for their hard work – even though it’s their f’n job – or do you just stiff them?

Well, dear friends, it works the same way in Cyberspace. If you don’t support the things you like, they will go away.

If you are a content creator that doesn’t want to run a business but is open to a monetary contribution from the people that enjoy what you do, setup and publish a PayPal address. You can even make a subscription, by making Paypal do a reoccurring withdrawal of a few bucks a month. Whatever the case, you are sharing what you want, the public that appreciates you will send you it feels like is appropriate and it’s not a business, it’s just a way of saying thanks.

For the consuming public: Without gratitude, the courtesy goes away. For the content creators: Be honest about what you want.

If you choose to do nothing, you end up with the insults to your intelligence such as this guys site, and SPF Nation. But if you don’t care, perhaps thats the best you deserve.

P.S. Woops. Had to edit the link to coasttocoastam.com – apparently, coast2coastam.com is an amateur porn site. Thanks to Danny from Nofx for pointing that out.

There, feel better? Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Microsoft will be holding a webcast tomorrow so if you can take a moment to climb out of the pile it might be a good idea to attend and ask questions. David Schrag has a wiki set up for people to organize questions for tomorrow, check it out here and add your own.

The webcast in question is tomorrow, register here.

P.S. Wonder how many show up or even care at this point? I have not spoken to a single person since perhaps December that has anything good to say about MAPS. A small portion of those is actually dropping their subscription and purchasing Vista outright as it makes more sense to them. Others are considering the certified partner path. Whatever the answer, I hope Microsoft spends more time on enforcement and timebombing the action pack so that the illegal sales of it end… but I live in the real world so enough dreaming and back to work.

Microsoft held a webcast yesterday to explain their retail strategy. It was an excellent webcast with a quick background info followed by an extensive Q&A. I rated it as excellent, actually almost unbelievably good, because they were about as frank and direct as you can possibly be. Here is what I heard, in summary (not a quote):

Retail didn’t ask for our permission to go direct to the consumer, let’s make the best out of it. The reason why we (Microsoft) think you’ll continue to be relevant is in the fact that retail has traditionally been about volume and they aren’t good at services and don’t have the expertise to provide support of day-to-day.

Now before I share my opinion with you I urge you to watch the webcast, when the recording is placed online and announced on mssmallbizblog.com.

The Microsoft Premise

According to the presentation, we all win with the involvement of retail in the distribution of the software. Retailers have massive square footage and can raise the business interest in the new platforms and technologies. The logic follows that more exposure is good for Microsoft, good for retailer and by translation great for SBSC because more stuff sold equals more stuff to support. Again, not a direct quote just an impression of their message.

Vlad’s Opinion: In terms of exposure, yes. But with retailers moving up the chain from the FPP (Full Packaged Product, ie: retail box) into volume licensing the core of SMB VARs sales potential is diminished. Furthermore, VAR does not retain the control of the client, retailer does; What’s in control? Service pricing. Bargaining. Service assignment. Direct sales. Basically by losing the control of the sales process you lose the control of the client and become just a contractor. For example, instead of providing a service as you do today you will get an order bid from Best Buy giving $50 for a motherboard replacement – Take it or leave it.

Why SBSC wins over Retail

According to the presentation, SBSC’s will continue to dominate the SMB arena because retailers are not good at day-to-day management of technology. They are good at selling the product. They will need to rely on the SBSC to provide exceptional high-end support and business guidance for how the technology will be used. Retailer does not have the ability to train the workforce to provide SBSC-like service because at that point their profits go down.

Vlad’s Opinion: Simply not true today. Yes, five years ago retailers were focused on sales and moving the product. Today, retailers are interested in service, support, extended warranty, etc. Some, such as Best Buy for Business, have trained MCP, MCSE professionals on staff and provide support for setup, ongoing maintenance, troubleshooting, server configuration, network design. Those have also been quoted as “out to destroy” the VAR.

The details are in the mud

According to the presentation, Microsoft is working very hard to connect a retailer with the SBSC. While they were quite vague on the details, as is to be expected for a partnership that has not been announced yet, there is a plan to help retailer and SBSC form a successful partnership through referrals. There is also an idea that the small business prefers to buy local through a retailer and that the SBSC can order from the retailer and have the equipment drop-shipped to the customer.

Vlad’s Opinion: You have to admire Microsoft for trying. Thanks, but no thanks. We’re not about to help out an already aggressive and antagonistic local competitor get established in the local market as a service firm.  

The big disappointment

Disappointment and amazement all at once – the response during Q&A was simply amazing. Microsoft had just outlined the death of the VAR and outright replacement of one of the core functions that powers the SBSC – and the outrage that followed? There was no outrage. Partners were slightly suspicious judging by the questions but most of the questions were about how to partner with retailers.

Basically, sheep are going to partner with the wolf.

But you don’t have to take it from me…

Here are some of the comments from the community regarding the Microsoft retail strategy. Their full commentary is available in a public Yahoo SmallBizIT group.

Amy Babinchak writes:

Did no one find offense in being compared to a carpet installer? That statement alone sums up the whole program. You, SBSC, are as valuable to us as Counter Top installers are to Home Depot. They assume that all SBSC are single person struggling firms looking to make a quick buck installing PC’s for $50. I’m sure that they’ll find plenty of them but are the ranks of SBSC that lowly?

Henry Craven writes:

I think MS is showing it’s true colours here…

It now answers the question of WHY MS started the SBSCs and pushed to get the Core of 3000+

To sell them to the retailers. – This is their pay back.
“Here, – you sell our Licensing and server products – not just our desktop consumer software and we’ll provide you with a seed core of installers and support people.”.

They learned from the success of SBS that once the product had reached a good rep and market penetration via support from the small ITs they could then sell it to the OEMs as a DIY that the “community” would support. It’s just a variation on that..

Here in Aus they were pushing for a doubling of the SBSCs ( which has been pulled back a bit ) and will do another round of Free Exams. With the added SharePoint as a qualifier I daresay that if they don’t get the numbers, they will actually -lower- the bar rather than raise to enhance the credibility of the cert and settle for fewer but more qualified members.

Microsoft say differently, but I strongly suspect that the “Evangelists”
just drink the Kool-Aid and don’t look to the Bigger strategy and what is driving it.

So are the SBSCs just fodder to a marketing plan … I’d stake my soul on it.

—
H.

Interestingly enough MS asked the MVPs to attend at a range of retail stores to promote Vista at the launch – under the guise of Community Support.
I’m highly disappointed at those who fell for it. – it had nothing to do with Community Support just free Booth Dollies to add credibility for the Retailers. Smart move on Microsoft’s part and again, an example of MS delivering to the Retailers so that they will sell more MS product.

Matthew Weaver writes:

I agree.  My first thought was “well, new business can’t be bad” – but to those of us that are not struggling (I’d wager the majority here) – what a slap in the face.  I can’t imagine being stuck in a 3-way relationship with a vendor and client could be very profitable, the large vendor would doubtlessly have control.

Amy Luby writes:

I was pretty disappointed myself.  The pointy questions that Vlad references below were not answered.  Telling me that retailers aren’t asking Microsoft’s permission to start providing services does not answer the question which is – What is Microsoft going to do to avoid alienating its SMB Partners?  So, by not answering the question, what they are really saying is they (Microsoft) are not going to do anything to avoid alienating their SMB Partners.  The fact that there were partners on this conference call actually believing that this Retail initiative is good for your business just boggles my mind.  But, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what really happens.  This call was nothing but spin really because Rex (was that his name?) said they were working on deals with retailers, but couldn’t share details.  So, why did we have this call?  No answers were really provided.

James D. Maher writes:

I feel that Microsoft is giving retail a “boost”, and I wish they’d instead spend that money on marketing SBSC – which I really believe would serve the clients better.  But it’s easy to see why they’re favoring the retailers (if those AMI statistics are credible).  It IS a bit annoying to be considered like a countertop installer, but I don’t expect a retailer to understand (though I wish MS would at least TRY).

Vlad, I think you pointed out in a recent blog that we aren’t really partners with MS anyway.  Today’s seminar seemed to illustrate that point.

I did spend a few minutes (constantly brushing the chip off my
shoulder) trying to imagine how I could make a realtionship with a retailer work.  I can’t really come up with anything I’m interested in pursuing.

For us, nothing is likely to change.  We’ll still recommend and sell MS, because its the best available for our clients.  We’ll still buy parts and pieces from retailers when its convenient.  We’ll still pursue our own marketing and make our own way.

But, hey, maybe if the retailers do a boatload of advertising it will raise SMB awareness.  “A rising tide . . . ” and all that.

Oscar Barriuso writes:

Anyone here familiar with the Onforce platform ?  The Big Box retailers have, and are already contracting through this platform to meet their workforce needs.  And like Amy said, the average price per ticket from CompUSA is $50.

Yes that’s right $50 per work order, Who wouldn’t jump all over a MOBO replacement for $50?

I now know why MSFT has been pushing hard to get it’s SBSC numbers up. There’s got to be someone amongst our numbers willing to whore themselves out, for the cheapest trick.

Allen StClair writes:

Sorry for being so dumb, but can somebody explain what they are upset about? Are you upset that Microsoft wants to sell its products through the retail chains? There’s got to be something more I’m missing…

I can personally say that Microsoft has provided me with far more free, useful, market research and product guidance than any other vendor.

Do you really expect Microsoft to build your customer base for you?
The whole purpose of running a business is for YOU to acquire and retain YOUR customers. You can’t expect your vendors to do it for you.

You are responsible for your actions. The technology world changes quickly. If you don’t change with it, you will go out of business.
The most important asset you have is your relationships with your customers. If your relationship with your customers is so weak that that Microsoft’s retail push is a problem for you, then you better take a look at your business practices.

Art Bigler writes:

Well, I certainly didn’t fall for it “hook, line, and sinker”.  I’m not exectly sure how to respond to what was (and was not) said during the session.  My initial response was that Microsoft was running the flag up the pole and waiting to see who would salute it.

I have feelings all over the place about this and they include many of those already stated here, both positive and negative.  I think that, given the information supplied, that there may be both good and bad aspects to this whole thing.  The fact is: the devil is in the details, and there weren’t many details presented.

I just don’t see how a big box vendor is going to be able to analyze the business needs and transform them into a viable solution.  The types of people they have on the sales floor do not, in general, include anybody with any industry specific skills.

James Barrett writes:

I saw 5 Staples ads within an hour all directed right at the Small Business. One was pretty insulting using a similar character to SNL’s Nick Burns “The Computer Guy”. The ad used a rude, sloppy, teenage Geek more interested in playing games than fixing business tech  problems appears to be what MS thinks most SBSC’s must be from what I’m hearing about this webcast. I’ve not been able to listen yet as I registered to hear the recording but so far no email from MS as to where the recording is.

The conclusion

I think the Microsoft presenter said it best: Retailers did not ask for our permission to enter..

Retailers don’t care much about VARs. VAR, as big as it is in the mind of a small company, is an insiginificant and dispersed entity carrying no significant sales or loyalty. Retailers are not out to kill the VAR, they are out to kill Dell, HP, IBM and others by providing local support, service and sales. Retailers are about sales, service brings in more sales and a more loyal customer that will buy more.

Microsoft is out to sell more software. They are using the retail channel to sell more software and sell the platform instead of just the box. Good for them.

Retail is serious. Do not buy into the notion that this is a joke, a flash in the pan, an unskilled force. Harry Breslford bragged less than two years ago about selling 1,000 copies of his SBSC training guide to Best Buy. They are serious. They need the time to train the workforce, time to get the experience, time to establish themselves.

So the conclusion is here to be written by you: Will you help retailers put you out of business?

Sorry for the short notice, just got this from Jessica Emmons, my PCM (yep, another SBSC perk for those of you that claim there aren’t any):

There have been lots of questions about Comp USA and other retail outlets from many of you.  If you’re interested in hearing about Microsoft’s Retail strategy and what it means for you as an SBSC partner, don’t miss this afternoon’s webcast with Eric Ligman and Rex Bloesser, US Director of Retail Development for SMS&P.  The session will be held on 2/6/07 at 4:30pm ET, and if you want to attend, you can register here.

Given the unrest, I think if you’re an SBSC and have a concern you need to be in this webcast. If you aren’t an SBSC… well, don’t worry, this is probably the least of your concerns.

It’s been a busy week. I got a lot of email/queries about my posts of the pending doom of the SMB IT Consultant. That is not what I said but frankly it’s foolish to believe that it’s nothing but bright skies ahead for SMB Consultant, IT specialist, SBSer, etc. So here is the natural progression as I see it:

• 1. Most consultants I’ve met in this business worked in IT for larger companies and got disenfranchised.
• 2. Most of those realized they could make the same amount of money working half the hours.
• 3. Most are thinking Geek Squad, et al is not really competition.
• 4. #3 will slowly put #2 out of business. The remainder of this email is about this point.

Defining The Market
Regardless of what you think of Geek Squad competence you have to be willing to accept that most of our SMB peers are not very skilled. Susan calls them “muffin eaters” and I think they make up about 75% of the TS2 audience – the box builder, spyware specialist, *.*Power User, etc. Basically, a low end workstation technician, some have a niche but most do not.

Whose competitor are they?
So these folks that are working 2-3 days a week and bringing in $25-45,000 and likely living paycheck-to-paycheck are probably a client or two away from being out of business. It is their turf that is being attacked by Geek Squad. For example, Bell South DSL installation is now covered by Geek Squad, which automatically gets foot in the door with SOHO. Keeping in mind that the biggest pain point of an SMB consultant is the marketing, exposure and business growth the Geek Squad & Co are immediately and directly impacting their jobs: network provisioning, spyware and virus removal, OS reinstallations, etc. “Your friendly neighborhood computer guy” is being replaced by Geek Squad.

What to do, what to do..
As “Your friendly neighborhood computer guy” finds his market dwindling he hangs on to his bigger clients. Sooner than later, he will take a job with the first one that will offer him one as he’ll have a steady paycheck and not have to worry about business.

The end game
This is where the bigger VARs and established IT companies have a lot to worry about. As Geek Squad drives smaller players out of the market and into employment by 10+ desktop firms, the higher profile IT firms now face another gatekeeper. Because this gatekeeper has a known salary it may be more difficult for the business owner to sign off on higher end work. Moreso, as the gatekeeper is concerned for his job he is likely to oppose any external assistance. This has been the nature of SMB/IT for years.

Are they really your competition?
So is Geek Squad direct competition to most of us? No, they are not. But by eliminating the lower tiers and shifting them into the SMB “IT Guys” at drastic discounts the available market of SMBs willing to make another large commitment (as in buying managed services on top of their “IT guy’s” salary) is eventually going to shrink as well. All at the time that there are major retail providers coming into the SMB, as all software vendors are dumbing down their products to make setup and maintenance easier, and even that bottom tier in retail is getting stronger.

So I hope we can once and for all put to death the questions like “But are they really your competition? Do you really want the business that they are getting? If they aren’t good now they will never learn because they are teenagers?” and realize that there is a bigger picture here that is being painted by the commoditization of our industry and the only hope to survive is to provide a consistent and reliable service at a more than a reasonable rate to keep customers from being interested in an employee, Geek Squad, or a competitor to begin with. So it’s not all doom and gloom, but if you can’t plan a really long term out and think that you can just slightly change what you’re doing now like you did in the past… as this market matures further…. well… my daily plaxo updates from former partners puts the odds against you.

Not to be outdone by Geek Squad, Firedog, Staples, Mac stores, Microsoft bCentral (UK) and every two indians with enough juice on a credit card to register a domain name….. CompUSA is entering Managed Services.

This is somewhat significant becuase CompUSA always relied on their local list of IT consultants to do on-site computer work referrals. I found this gem at the exit of the local CompUSA store today:

Need help? $30 will get you a single incident, $50 will get you unlimited help for about three months. That’s a bargain, don’t you think?

To the gaypile!

I was told by many of you that I needed to add this category.

The concept of the gay-pile is the genius of South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker. South Park, for those of you not from US, is a popular adult cartoon that has made its staple on American society by calling out common hypocracies and stereotypes of our proud country.

Goobacks, episode 806 of South Park, addresses inability of large groups of people to handle change. The residents of South Park decide that the best way for them to combat change is to “go gay” and eliminate the possibility of future occuring because they would effectively end the human race.

Reaction to changes in the IT world are similar. At the first sign of things changing, people who have chosen a career that is on the very edge of revolutionizing communications as we know it have a hard time adapting. Instead, they come with the most ridiculous theories, empty threats and unlikely prognosis no sane person would ever make.

This category will be dedicated to posts on the topic of IT people having a hard time comprehending the reality of the IT business.