Randomized Services as a Security Precaution

Posted: 11:16 am
December 27, 2009
IT Business
2 Comments

The other day a muslim terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who was on a no fly list failed to blow up a flight to Detroit. He successfully sent the panic and travel standards back to Fall of 2001.

This is a business post. Apologies in advance to my Vladville fans who were expecting a rant 🙂

What ensued is an combo of outrage, despair and conflicting coverage of processes and procedures that are in place for flights:

  • “You will not be allowed to use bathrooms or gadgets during the last hour of your flight”
  • “You will not be allowed to bring more than 1 hand item on board”
  • “You will be required to check your baggage”
  • “There is a different set of policies TSA follows for domestic and international flights”
  • “There is a different set of policies TSA is advising the airlines and it’s clients”

Oh my.

What TSA is actually doing here is creating a randomized security protocol so that the would-be-terrorist-hopeful could not efficiently execute their plans.

Every time I get upset at the way I’m being treated I look at the way we treat our clients. Are we doing the same? What have (many) past mistakes taught us about efficiency, standardization, protocols and consistency?

Here are a few takeaways:

  1. Every time expectations and deliverables are changed, the overwhelming result is negative – clients that got disappointed by the change are 10x louder than the ones that got a benefit and are silently content.
  2. Every time deliverable parameters are changed, dozens of other processes used in the service delivery had to change and the finesse of executing a new process takes a performance hit. In simple words: Monkey’s aren’t experts at pealing a banana in new ways.
  3. Conflict from point #2 generates confusion and increases workload on the entire organization and the overall system. The client is upset. The staff is confused. The management is unsure how it all failed.
  4. No matter how insignificant the change, or how great the communication: your message will not be received correctly by a large share of your audience.

The biggest message here is that focus should always be to get the basics done right and vigorously address every instance in which you fail. Because everyone (staff, clients) is aware of what the core values and basic deliverables are, there is no argument over what failed – so we all share a responsibility in resolving it to the mutual benefit.

Merry Christmas

Posted: 1:54 pm
December 26, 2009
Vladville
1 Comment

IMG_0274

 

I hope Santa got you what you wanted and that the holidays are peaceful and joyful.

Looking forward to 2010!

Something from Santa Vlad

Posted: 2:28 am
December 25, 2009
Uncategorized
Comments Off on Something from Santa Vlad

Merry Christmas.

We’re nearly at the end of 2009 and I wanted to give a present that so many have asked for over the past year. To be honest, it is long overdue and given my road schedule somewhat embarrassing that it took so long. But here it is:

Cell Phone:

(407) 536 – VLAD

IMG_0255

Powered by Google Voice.

This is the cell phone number that you can reach me at, directly, from 10 AM to 10 PM. Through the years I’ve aggressively supported the IT Service Provider industry (and at times some in the industry didn’t want to hear it) and my company has profited from that attitude handily – because when you have a big mouth people tend to hold nothing back. Our new business model, and nearly all of our relationships in the industry, have been built on the ability to discuss strategy and collectively build something great on feedback, trial and error, experiments and generally social stuff.

In 2009, I’m ashamed to admit, reaching me has been almost impossible unless you have my cell phone number and catch me between meetings. Now you have a solution for at least half of that problem 🙂

On the bright side, I’ve spent 2009 on the road learning what solutions will push MSPs in 2010 and beyond and have spent all of my in-office with my staff trying to guide us in the right direction. With the launch of ExchangeDefender 5 and the death of nickel-and-dime pricing model you’re starting to see the results.

In 2010, I want to step it up a notch. What we’ve built may not be perfect but I believe that by being open and accessible we can minimize any pain points that come up by giving you a straight connection to the very top.

SLA: Generally accessible 10 AM – 10 PM. SLA response within 24 business hours (during conferences or product launches when I’m generally blocked from the outside world entirely). Phone calls are screened automatically, all texts and voicemails are logged and stored on third party (external system) and do not have a confidentiality guarantees of any kind. Calls may be screened and reviewed by Own Web Now Corp staff and you may receive a phone call directly from a member of Own Web Now staff if I feel that they are able to quickly assist you with the issue. I will follow up all calls.

Keep in mind, this is still 2009 and just the continuation of the message I’ve delivered you all year: We stand behind our s#$%. When you trust us with your business you know exactly who stands behind it and I’m not hard to find.

In 2010, I intend for OWN to blow you away with what we’ve got going on. I’ve been hinting that huge things are ahead for ExchangeDefender MSPs. Every time I post on this blog and tell folks they need to work with us, the response is in triple and sometimes quadruple numbers. I have no words to express how much that means to me and justifies everything I do in this business.

So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and thank you from the bottom of my heart, pocket and the Vlad’s Ferrari Found – taking the beatings over the ExchangeDefender stuff while we were building ExchangeDefender 5 was tough to take at times, the talent has been an issue, virtually everything here had to grow up and it was tough. Thank you for pushing me, around the clock, and sticking with us. I can’t even convey the joy that I get from the constant stream of “thank you” and “wow” messages I am getting now. And the VFF is doing better than ever so thanks for that to.

From my family, everyone at Own Web Now Corp and all the ExchangeDefender SPAM filtering rackmounts…. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays!

It’s not all about blocking

Posted: 9:26 pm
December 22, 2009
ExchangeDefender
4 Comments

photo There is a very thin line between an idiot and an innovator. The difference between the two is that one can make money off his idiotic ideas. That is not neccessarily a crude joke, multimillion dollar ventures have been built on the ability to fix a simple problem that most people wouldn’t even consider an issue because the very notion seems ridiculous to their day to day life. Yet, for every nonsensical idea, there is a Snugli and a Sham Wow and a countless trail of Billy Mays promotions.

Here is how we come up with ours. It all starts with me standing in front of 25’ of whiteboard drawing up some concept and trying to figure how many people listening to me are considering changing careers. “Wait, this monkey is in charge of the future of this product?”

Step 1: Describing The Problem

Before I get to that, if you’re one of those folks that think that getting an email SPAM report every day is a good service to your clients, go back to what you were doing.

Since the very first release of ExchangeDefender, we’ve had a concept that a SPAM we quarantine from the user stays in our portal in an encrypted quarantine and the only way to get to it is to release the junk mail, wait for it to come into your Outlook, figure out if it’s SPAM or not and continue business.

This certainly worked well.

Fast forward a decade.

Web browsers are now capable of delivering a better mail experience than desktop software (subject to opinion) so why are we still stuck with this concept of having to blindly release messages, wait for them to show up and dodge 5 other antispam components in our infrastucture, open them and create a response? Because there is no other way.

But what if you could preview the message, access all it’s contents and even reply to it with just 1 click? Right in the browser?

Spam-Wow!

Please don’t sue me. I promise this is not the name of the product 🙂

There is now something new in the ExchangeDefender quarantine lists. Now your SPAM listings include a conspicuous envelope with a magnifying lens next to each SPAM message. Click on it, and in realtime, you are presented with that message straight from our database.

spam-screen1

You can review the entire message, scroll around and determine what it is. We’re 99.999% confident that it’s junk. But just in case that this message is NOT SPAM and you’re knowingly let some company piledrive 5 messages a second informing you of their Christmas spirit…

… wouldn’t it be nice to be able to reply to it right there? I mean, why release and wait for it if all that’s necessary is a one line response to keep the conversation going?

spam-screen2

Notice the tabs on the top. The Reply tab is there just for that. If this is a legitimate message that needs to be followed up on, SPAM filtering should not get in a way. It should allow you to immediately reply to the message.

spam-screen3

Maybe the message should be delivered to your mailbox, maybe a copy should be delivered (or maybe you don’t have a choice if the compliance bit is enabled), maybe the sender should be on a whitelist?

Whatever the case, ExchangeDefender now let’s you be more efficient.

Notes: The ExchangeDefender logo, phone number and the URL are completely replaceable with your own logo and address. The entire chain of communication is encrypted.

But call in the next 70 days and all of this, could be yours for just 75 cents per mailbox. But wait! We’ll even include enterprise grade SPAM filtering across multiple data centers. Business continuity, you’ve got it. Web request filtering – it’s free. Web sharing? Well, if you promise to tell a friend, we’ll even send you this compliance archive product with eDiscovery! Ok, you’ve got me – you get encryption for free too. Call me now for your free trial!

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. 🙂

Seriously, this is our creative process. Most of what I do in the field with clients and partners is try to eliminate the notion of “impossible” if it yields to better productivity and profitability. ExchangeDefender 5 is littered with these examples which is why our business has skyrocketed with it’s launch. I hope to bring you items like this one every month, but the key to all this is sharing what is really pissing you off so we can solve it through software.

So… Feedback. Comments are open as is my Inbox, let me know.

SPAM Show 15: Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

Posted: 12:53 am
December 22, 2009
IT Business
Comments Off on SPAM Show 15: Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!

delorean1Dating back to the good ol’ SBS Show, we’ve always gotten together at the end of the year, poured some eggnog and looked towards the future. 2010 will be no different. This Wednesday, Mr Erick Simpson, Mr Karl Palachuk and me will be getting into our Delorean, kicking it up to 88 mph and we’re taking you along.

Yeah. We’re that cool. Hoverboard over the pond cool. And yes, we’re bringing back the 2010 World Almanac… and we’re reading the IT Solution Provider pages out loud!

SPAM Show #15 – Live!

https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/167456256

8 AM PST – 11 AM EST; Registration required.

 

Last week we broadcast what is perhaps the funniest IT provider webcast ever made. It featured my partner Alex Rogers and we talked about our School of Southern Charm and Proper Lady Behavior. Due to distortion, it sounded like there were some vulgar words in it, so we won’t rebroadcast that one. However, if you’d like to hear Alex’s wonderful wife, Monique Rogers, SPAM Show #14 is available for download. There is a trick: You need to be our partner. Ok, not really, but you do need to be our fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ExchangeDefender and download it and the other 14 hours at any time. We’re changing this in 2010 as well so tune in for that as well.

Look forward to talking to you, taking your feedback, highlighting your thoughts and opinions during the webcast and more. Can’t make it? Get registered for it now and I’ll email you the download link (won’t be available through the usual channels since it will be live)

My name is Vlad, I’m the CEO, and my job is to empty this bag of tshirts and stuff it with your money.

Posted: 3:22 am
December 18, 2009
Uncategorized
4 Comments

Hi again, from 30,000 ft again, flying back home. I love Los Angeles, I love the climate, the spots, the energy and the feeling of endless opportunity and people struggling to make it. But I married someone that I love far more than all that put together, so whenever I leave my little quiet village, it recharges my batteries and drives me even harder. Since Sunday AM, I’ve clocked 11 hrs of sleep and am currently on a redeye flight with wifi.. and I’m happy.

One of the most fulfilling moments of this week was meeting and hanging out the people that absolutely love this blog.

Listen, I know it’s been a tough year for many of you – and I’ve tried my best to put on an act that entertains you and cheers you up. It’s been a fantastic year for us, I know from conversations that some of that enthusiasm and energy has rubbed off on you and made you push harder and become more successful as a result of it.

Most of all, thank you for taking the blog for what it is – a venue for fun. For me, hopefully for you. I’ve met so many of you that read the blog and do business with Own Web Now and ExchangeDefender despite (or maybe in spite) of the stuff you see here.

I got to spend the last few days with some very close friends I have in this business and I can tell you that we extend this level of effort because we care and we want to push this industry forward. There is a reason I hit the road and you aren’t only seeing the sales drones and marketing popups.

The day you no longer see me blog, post jokes on Facebook, throw pot shots on Twitter, go out and hang out with people regardless of what their “lead quality” happens to be and the podcasts and webcasts die… is the day that Own Web Now Corp ceases to exist because you’ll know that I’ve moved on.

To those of you that see and feel that in everything I do, that work with us, that keep pushing me directly… thank you.

My mind is racing with 10,000 ideas and agenda points that I’ve accumulated over the last week, all of which I will sum up and tie together over the next 5 hours of flight, but for now I just wanted to thank you for your attention.

Santa Haas and 9 Cloud Deer bring you: 12 Values for MSPs

Posted: 4:45 pm
December 15, 2009
IT Business
Comments Off on Santa Haas and 9 Cloud Deer bring you: 12 Values for MSPs

Disclaimer: This is going to be filthy. You’ve been warned. 🙂 It’s our final webcast of the year and all four letter words must go!

Twas the night before fiscal closing,
and all through the MSP facility,
not an agreement had been signed,
not even remote monitoring.
Don’t worry, it’s not over,
There’s a light at the end,
With the help of your friends,
Alex from CharTec,
and Own web Now’s very own Vlad…

Register now for this live event December 16th at 12:00PST

I’ll be visiting my friends at CharTec tomorrow and we figure we’d record the lunch talk. Tune in, learn a little about what’s driving the profitability in the market. Nothing that you haven’t read on this blog before but if you can’t reed good, this one is for u.

Flying on the river of excuses

Posted: 9:22 pm
December 14, 2009
IT Business, Vladville
1 Comment

Earlier this morning I battled fog, two accident delays, leaving one of my bags at home and general sleepiness on my way to the airport. I made it on time, and proceeded to spend the next 50 minutes in line as I missed my flight. I got an hours worth of reflecting on how I could fail so bad – trip with potentially millions of dollars on the line, arranged and booked weeks in advance – all blown because I didn’t pack a carryon.

Suffice to say, I got my faith and my work ethic tested. On my drive back to work today I played all the easy ways I could potentially hold my meetings without leaving town. Fourteen hours of travel for what is likely less than 8 hours of meetings. Welcome to the top of the inverted time productivity pyramid.

The Easy Button

The easiest thing I could have done is gone home and figured out a way to do this over the Internet. But 13 hours later, I am typing this blog post about 30,000 ft over the Gulf of Mexico on my way to LAX. I have one thing I’d like to say: you have to keep on fighting.

Keep Fighting

Every day you wake up, you have a choice. Work hard or take it easy. This morning I didn’t have to wake up at 4. I didn’t have to fight the traffic. I didn’t have to stay in line. I didn’t have to stand in the second line. I certainly didn’t have to stay in the third line after they told me I missed my flight. I didn’t have to make the flight today, or at all. I could have gone home to scrub the brake dust off my new Michelin P0’s. But I went to work. I worked all day. And after this brief break, I will put in about 4 hours of work before I get to Los Angeles. I don’t have to do this, I have a pretty good life – but I have a pretty good life because I do this. It’s just who I am. I don’t know of anyone that is successful and doesn’t have the same work ethic. So if you disagree, you and The 4 Hour Workweek can kiss my big black ass.

…

I have spent the past three weeks talking to partners exclusively. I have been there to encourage, educate, motivate and direct people on how they can take what we’ve created and build it into a virtual cloud goldmine. One overwhelming impression that I’m left with is that most of the people will not make it: and I base that on the endless excuses I got for why things aren’t going the way they should. And in almost every case, they claimed it was not their fault! The amount of bull I have been subjected to would get a 15 year old smacked off the chair in a guidance counselors office for failing PE, I don’t even know the relative translation of that for the grown men and women that drive the small business engine of the world. Here are some of the choice ones:

“Nobody is buying anything until the first”

Are you friggin kidding me? Who are you selling technology solutions to? Welfare recipients? Are they paying for monitoring with food stamps? Everyone is buying, every day. Do you really want to waste my time trying to excuse yourself for leaving money on the table and not asking for the close today?

One day I hope to become successful enough to just turn people away because it’s not the right time of the month/day/year to have a sales call.

“We are taking December off”

Oh yeah, how was 2009? Well, good that you’re rewarding that type of a success with some hard earned time off so you can start fresh on January 1st.. when they are going to be solicited by everyone else on earth.

This type of behavior infuriates me, especially in the SMB sector. Listen: the only time of the year that you will get a sit or an ear of a decision maker in the midmarket is now. Now that they are likely at the home office. Now that they are at parties. Now that they are in a good and cheerful mood. Now is the time to call. The rest of the year you will have the pleasure of talking to their voicemail or their receptionist as you sink to the bottom of the “annoying salesperson” pile.

Think about it: Would you hire someone that took an entire month off?

“We are going to do that in 2010”

Let me say this very slowly and eloquently so that I don’t confuse you with big words: Nothing will change on January 1st. Nothing that is in your favor at least. If you are not able to get your message across tomorrow, you will not be able to get it across next month or next year. It’s really quite as simple as that. You (probably) aren’t an executive at a billion dollar company – don’t act like one. What are you doing this week? Getting a head start on filling out your 10K because you’re not going to move your business one inch forward until Dec 31st?

Every day is an opportunity to do something great.

It’s not easy.

I get a lot of flack about the Always be Pimping moto but right now I am 30,000 feet above ground arranging two webinars for Wednesday, one that got organized two hours ago while I was going through the airport security. Every day is an opportunity to get to the next level. And it’s something that’s been driving me for the past 12 years.

Do likewise.

Social Overload

Posted: 1:54 am
December 10, 2009
Vladville
3 Comments

Earlier this week (which has been a 60 hour workweek already somehow) I got called out for not being “out there enough” and “Vladville doesn’t have enough raunchy stuff anymore” and my favorite “now I don’t have anyone to keep me on my toes.”

Now allow me to quickly address these. First of all, I’m still an ass. Last night we launched ExchangeDefender 5. Today we celebrated:

photo

Now the other p.. well that’s not that simple.

Here is the gods honest truth folks: The fundamentals of running and building a sustainable business have not changed in decades. Yes, the devil is in the details, but if you need a hug group and a guidance counselor to keep your s@#% together that should be a huge sign that you’re not cut out to run a business. There are really a very limited number of posts I can write on Vladville to communicate that. Hurts your feelings? Sorry. There are companies out there that would love to help bleed you dry to the point of inevitability, I don’t have the time for that.

I work with real entrepreneurs all day (and night) long. I apologize if my Vladville activity has taken a hit as a result of business success but these days (when I’m not humping alligators in parks) I spend a lot of time in webcasts, conference calls and responding to emails. You know all of those posts that say “We crushed another quarter, record revenue record profits, gimme my Ferrari” – that doesn’t just happen. We work damn hard at it.

So if Vladville isn’t really cutting it for you, here are some other places to find me:

www.facebook.com/ExchangeDefender

Twitter: @vladmazek

Facebook: vlad@vladville.com

There are so many things I want to say, but so little battery life. Tomorrow I’m doing a lunch & learn in West Palm Beach, then off to Cali next week for the final leg of the “Shockey Monkey” tour.

What do you want for Christmas? Seriously.

Open letter to <Backspace>

Posted: 12:17 am
December 4, 2009
OwnWebNow
Comments Off on Open letter to <Backspace>

I just deleted a rather long blog post.. here is the bottom line folks: we’re as open and happy to create integrations that will make you successful. We’ve spent a ton of money developing stuff on our own and will continue to do so – so when you see something available with one company but not another – take it up with the provider of that software, not me/OWN. Not getting anywhere? Switch! Seriously.

I don’t have the time for the drama anymore and I’m not getting in the middle or discussion either – I have my own product line to manage. My response from now on will be sending you a coupon to a competitive solution that has the features you’re looking for – but I will not break the law, contracts or agreements we have in place.

End.. of.. conversation.