The Difference

Posted: 6:44 am
July 2, 2009
OwnWebNow, Vladville
3 Comments

A few weeks ago a buddy of mine asked an open ended question: What makes you different? In a market where change is constant and companies range from deadbeats to broke to $30 billion a quarter, how are you positioning yourself and your company for success? Almost everyone has their one word or tagline if you will, as do I, but for a moment I’ll ignore the BS one I use for marketing and share the real one. I don’t happen to be immensely proud of it:

“Persistent ability to fail and try again.”

It doesn’t look good on a shirt. Or a company mission statement. Or as an introduction to a new client. However, looking back and looking forward, every step in the evolution of my company involved my brain crack slamming the wall at 200 mph, looking back at the carnage and finding a way to move it forward.

People are so afraid of failure that they absolutely, totally, positively have to be right. About everything. Ten years in the past, ten years in the future. And in their quest to be so sure and so positive and so firm in what they are doing, they are paralyzed. They never give themselves a chance to do anything and grow beyond where they are. Some are OK with being stuck in the rut and they treasure the life without change or challenge. Eventually, as with almost everything, they fail as well and move on. Look at the carnage in the IT industry over the past few years, look at the hundred year old financial firms that folded last year, look at governments, empires… everyone fails.

The key difference for me is that as the sky is falling down, I am learning all that I did wrong and how we got to the point that we’re at. Then I work to eliminate those mistakes and just try again.

Which brings me to the monkey wrangling circus. How do you train the people around you? Pass on all the great knowledge you’ve amassed and sit there in disappointment as they never live up to your expectations or their own potential? Or throw them in the fire and see if they burn or start coming up with ways not to be in that situation again?

PIC-0170

So now that you know a little more about me, I need a favor. This is a room in our new office in downtown Orlando. What you are looking at is a shell of a few hundred square feet that we have absolutely no plans for. After Nicole and I hook up the Garage Band and reenact the scene from Risky Business we are a bit out of ideas. This office already has a room set aside for the video studio and there is even a podcast studio (foam padded broom closet that 2 obese geeks can fit in with a box of chocolate rolls, a 16 piece bucket and a mic).

So, what can we do with this room to help out our community and better serve the people we work with? I’d love your input. One thing is for sure though: the first few things we try we’ll fail at.

Ideas and comments welcome, or email vlad@vladville.com

ConnectWise swallows up HTG

Posted: 12:20 am
July 1, 2009
IT Culture
14 Comments

Congrats to Arnie and the team for taking over HTG Partner Groups; Yeah, yeah, strategic partnership sounds better in a press release but when you force software and invoices down the entire organization it’s pretty obvious what happened. You can read about it here (Peer Power), and listen to Arnie and Arlin here (MSP Mentor). 

Moves like this, that close doors to the competition and force solutions, are almost exclusively bad. However, to those of us familiar with the HTG process and mission, this makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels. Arlin has blogged recently about the change over at HTG and how important it will be to have the process implementation shared between peers so that metrics and best practices can be shared and implemented – getting the same reports and intelligence can expose problems and present opportunities much faster. Doing so with a single PSA, that has a significant revenue number on the line in pleasing it’s members, creates a nice VIP role.

Two big questions remain to be answered and I think only the time will tell:

1) Now that ConnectWise controls the PSA solution behind the HTG peer members, what incentive does ConnectWise have to improve and compete on price and features? Given the ConnectWise community commitment they have made as of late with their user groups, it should be interesting to see the features that come out of it tailored specifically for the peer environments.

2) What happens to the people using Autotask and other PSA solutions? That seems to be pretty clear. Make no mistake, there is a significant business behind the membership dues, sponsors, events and so on – so any bets on how quickly we’ll see someone seize the opportunity to launch a peer group organization based on Autotask as the core?

Next year is going to be very interesting indeed. What this move makes painfully clear is that the wave of consolidation is about to hit the IT Solution Provider space very quickly as margins get pressed and big players enter the market (Dell, HP, Microsoft & Co.) The smaller players in the field seem to have no other choice than to look much bigger than they really are through resource / peer groups and networks in order to compete. Having a software capable of supporting and facilitating this networking is pretty much critical.

Disclosure: My employer (Own Web Now / ExchangeDefender) sponsors HTG, ConnectWise and Autotask.

Blogyear in Review

Posted: 4:58 pm
June 28, 2009
Vladville
3 Comments

Last week of the quarter, half and fiscal year for Vlad Media, Inc aka Vladville.com. Time for a look back:

Financially, vladville.com (the Google ads) made more money than two average crackheads working the McDonalds drivethrough. I don’t want to gloat but I am sure University of Florida would proudly display my 25% income bracket I make as a professional writer. And a terrible, terrible insult comic. 🙂 Florida alums get paid!

Last years agenda was to talk more about business development and maturity, simply because this blog is nothing if not the venting grounds for things that piss me off during the day and I have nobody I can talk to. Karl meditates. Dave drinks. I blog.

The Economy

What a terrible time to pick to talk about business, right as the confidence in financial markets tanks, financial mismanagement / theft / fraud runs rampant by everyone from the bank teller stealing the bank pens to Bush and Obama, people lose their jobs and the iconic businesses that built this great country simply go under over the weekend.

As bad as it was, if you were smart, this was probably the best time you’ve had in business. It’s certainly the story at ExchangeDefender and Own Web Now. Yes, we had several lines of business get massacred, but the new lines of business propelled us to the highest financial records in the history of the company. I have heard the same from many of you reading this blog, good job!

Looking back, for many this was a trying time. Time to prove you’ve got your s$#% together. Nowhere was this more true than in the ExchangeDefender world – nearly all the partners that didn’t go out of business actually grew in the same space!

The Vapor, The Cloud, The NBT

Last year we announced “Lucy’s Sail” which included series of projects we launched to help partners compete with Microsoft and Google’s assault onto the SMB channel. At the same time I became The Public Enemy #1 for saying that we won’t sell SBS 2008 and a year later OWN has not sold a single seat. I can tell you from talks with many of our partners that even those that had high hopes for SBS didn’t fare much better. It’s just a sign of the times, technology is no longer seen as an investment or expertise and with so many tech layoffs a career in technology has never been more uncertain.

This is a debate that will go on until the last CIS graduate, last VAR, last MSP and computer repair shop left standing. Personally, if I had some great future insight I’d probably be selling research reports. As I said to someone today, I’d rather be dead wrong and paid than be right and broke. It is one of my bigger disappointments among my colleagues and peers, the incessant need to debate the future while ignoring what’s going on today. Today is when people are ready to cut the check, take the money. Until Vegas starts booking odds on the survival of a given computing technology I’ll just keep on growing the company in the direction of people waving their cash at me. Slimy Vendor Whoring at it’s finest.

So… What do you do?

Oh has this changed in the last 12 months or what? I used to get two answers in the past: 1) I write software or 2) I keep it running. You were either a developer or in charge of IT. But as the basics of computing got simpler (iPhone, Mac) and more affordable (as in free: Google, Facebook, Gmail, Netbooks) we’ve seen the premium and respect for technology skills plummet.

These days I talk to people who are anything but the two noted above. Even some of my dearest friends that have worked with me for over a decade have radically changed and diversified their technology service. To be fair (many, many, many) many others have also closed shop for good in the face of financial climate and technical obsoletion. 

The iNotMicrosoft

Tough year for Microsoft. Much tougher than I ever thought it would ever be. Microsoft is still the company that I have always looked up to and likely always will – but man this year hurt in so many ways. Too many to even discuss but I’ve certainly covered them through the year.

One thing I did not see coming is the iPhone domination. Even with the full Blackberry recovery, iPhone just pwned Microsoft in every possible way. They also brought their friends in Google and Facebook and once it became apparent that a computer network can run stuff not made by Microsoft the doors were blown wide open. Almost in spite of all the money Microsoft spent on marketing, it’s competitors are just out-innovating them.

Then the layoffs. Ooof. 

The Year Ahead

About the only nice thing you can say about this economic cycle is that it has washed out a lot of pretenders and humbled a lot of business owners to consider the fundamentals: What does the client want?

Therein we find the first great challenge for the new year: Pricing pressure. Nobody is buying. And when nobody is buying, it’s haggling time. The price for IT should drop a lot (a lot more than it already has) but we’ll make more because we’ll have more clients and higher level work commands a higher pay. We are experimenting with some marketing ideas now but suffice to say it will be the #1 thing going forward.

C-c-c-changes. Yes, virus filtering will always be necessary, but it’s heck of a lot easier to stay protected than it used to be. Apply this to virtually everything you know: All the services you provide now will still be necessary and in demand: you just won’t be able to make a living doing it. Doubt that? See thousands of people who thought they could do what they were doing before, now firmly engaged in the sales roles offering 2 apple pies for $1 with your happy meal.

Tighter circle. As my buddy Karl just wrote, get ready to compete with everyone. When the #1 thing becomes your marketing effort and not your technical skill (because you technical skill can be replaced by the 1st or 2nd result in Google) then a lot of the technology peer corrodery tends to go up in flames. Good news is, organizations like ExchangeDefender/OWN, MSPU, SMB Books and so on are still channel champions and will pay to get people together. But trust a peer for impartial advice? Don’t leave your house without your Amex.

At the end of the day, all we’ve got is our money and our relationships. The world is changing and the money is out there for those willing to work hard enough to take it. As always, thanks for reading this blog and sending your opinions to vlad@vladville.com.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Palm Pre and Exchange, so far

Posted: 7:33 am
June 27, 2009
Exchange
1 Comment

palmpre Recently Sprint started offering Palm Pre device, touting a revolutionary new WebOS and integration with social networking. Initially, this device was described by it’s funding partners as an iPhone Killer and has certainly attracted it’s fair amount of attention for it’s very cool feature set. But how about using it in business, with Exchange?

The Setup

Click here for Sprint Interactive Setup Guides. Sprint also offers a very handy interactive setup for Exchange, just click on each step and it will highlight the part to click on. (Exchange Setup). For ExchangeDefender purposes:

1. Tap the Email icon on the Quick Launch.

2. Note: If you have already set up an email account and want to add another one, tap the Email applications menu > Preferences & Accounts > Scroll Down > Add an Account, before following these instructions.

Enter in the your Microsoft Exchange email. For this example, press J to prompt one to fill in.

3. Tap the Password field and type in the corresponding password. Here, press 0 to prompt one to fill in.

4. Tap Sign In.

5. Tap the MAIL TYPE field then tap Exchange (EAS).

6. Verify the information in the other fields and change the info as needed based on the information you obtained from your email provider or system administrator. Server names are either donald or daisy or scrooge or huey or duey or … In support.ownwebnow.com click on Service Manager > Exchange Hosting and click on the Info tag for any of the accounts you require information for. You will need the full server name as well as the domain name (which is the OWN NT domain name, not your fully qualified domain name like yourcompany.com)

7. Once the information is complete, tap Sign In.

8. Once setup is complete, you can exit the application by first pressing the Center button.

9. Click the animated arrow to simulate throwing the card off the top of the screen, to close the application.

The Security Gotcha

There are several factors you need to consider when deploying Palm Pre in business with Exchange. Namely, the Exchange Remote Device Wipe feature is not present at the moment so you will not be able to wipe the device from your Exchange Outlook Web Access. There is an alternative however, Palm Pre supports SMS wipe:

“Enhance security by remotely erasing data from your device if it gets lost or stolen without the need for IT support regardless of what email system you are using.”

Disclaimer: “Remote erase deletes all data from your phone including files stored using USB drive mode. Remote erase command sent via SMS and must be received by activated phone within 24 hours. Wireless coverage area only. Requires data services at additional cost.”

The SMS message must be received by the device within 24 hours in order to wipe the device. If someone steals your device, powers it down for at least 24 hours, you will not be able to remotely wipe it.

This restriction may cause you to consider storing sensitive data on your device and is a good cause for establishing other security policies like a complex device password, keeping a limited amount of data on the phone, etc.

Other Exchange Security Considerations and Exchange requirements

Palm Pre does not support ActiveSync Security policies, so if you have a firmly defined security policy in Exchange before allowing ActiveSync (such as PIN requirements) you will have to set those manually on the device before attempting the first sync. From Palm:

“Palm understands that some business customers need support for specific Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies. We are working to develop support for EAS PIN and password enforcement, as well as EAS remote wipe, for webOS and hope to announce these new features within the next 60 days. We will deliver the features through our over-the-air update system, which Palm has already started using to bring new updates to Pre users as they become available. Until then, Palm Pre customers can enable a PIN or password directly on a device, and can also remotely wipe a device via a Palm profile. Palm profiles can be managed by Pre users at palmws.com.”

As of firmware 1.0.3, Palm Pre can connect to an Exchange server without using SSL. This is an optional upgrade so if your server does not have SSL support installed you will have to either install a certificate or upgrade to this firmware:

Note: None of the ExchangeDefender servers allow plain text / non-SSL connections. All connections require encryption.

Special gotcha for SBS 2003 users and the SSL Certificate issue: If you use the self-signed certificate automatically generated by CEICW, Palm Pre will attempt to connect to the CN for the .internal host, not the public domain name.

Furthermore, advanced EAS functionality started with Exchange 2003 SP2 so to get the most out of your device you will need to upgrade. The build number for Exchange 2003 SP2 is 7638.2

Conclusion

While Palm Pre supports Exchange to an extent, it is primarily designed as a consumer device and currently does not support the basic security policies required for safe business use. While HTML email, push mail and Exchange sync will work, make sure you consider the security tradeoffs.

Needless to say, the consumer appeal of webOS and Palm Pre will make Palm Pre show up in corporate world just as the iPhone did. Start preparing your network and educating your users now.

Travel Plans this Quarter

Posted: 3:19 pm
June 23, 2009
Events
3 Comments

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….

When it’s over (seriously, it’s time to let go)

Posted: 6:38 am
June 23, 2009
Gaypile
7 Comments

Folks have been trying to sucker me into this debate that started yesterday with CRN about “the cloud” and how to find a profitable way to it (I believe the title was “Running behind the train you’ve missed and why your sales # isn’t ringing anymore.”)  Everyone from CRN to Joe @ VAR Guy and the endless stream of shameless opportunistic weasels elsewhere are now entering the debate on a conversation that for the most part ENDED nearly three years ago at WPC 2006 with Kevin Turner.

I feel there is some value in encouraging the channel to change when it becomes threatened by technological evolution. My body of work, however ugly, is a reflection of that.

I, however, see no value in shamelessly cheerleading it to the grave. But hey, we all need hope in despair, so by all means you’re free to continue to be delusional if it makes you feel better.

So what’s changed to start this debate over the cloud again? Nothing, really. VARs  started losing money and clients to the cloud, like they were told they would, and now they are ready to pay attention and form a strategy for the cloud. Too late.

A friend of mine writes a blog in which she spends 10% of her time bashing the cloud solutions (many of which she actually uses/plays with) and the other 90% of her time demonstrating why DIY “on-premise” IT Management is about as much fun as doing your own root canal. And all while all her key vendors including Microsoft and Intuit are sending her a clear message – IT’S OVER – she persists to question it. Good news for her is that she has a real job – but the VAR? Not for long I’m afraid.

One of the more vocal folks about the change has been my buddy Karl (smbbooks.com) who last night wrote: “I want to sell that client a new PC every three years until one of us dies.” I (heart) Karl. But what Karl gets, and many others don’t, is that business survival requires change, which was the topic of that post to begin with. What made money yesterday isn’t making money today. The customer has changed the preference.

Does this mean the death of the VAR world? Of course not. In my humble opinion, it’s been dead for at least 2 years and the economic collapse just accelerated the inevitable.

The only bright news for the VAR industry is that there is plenty of work out there painting and putting up drywall in all the forclosure properties.

What about the IT Solution Providers aka “VAR with a business plan not stuck in 2002”? They are doing quite well as far as I can tell. As I’ve written here over, and over, and over, and yes even again today – business is about fulfilling the market demand. So people don’t want to pay for Vista. Or antispyware. Or email. So what if they don’t want a new computer – there is so much money to be made optimizing processes, improving security, mobility, remote access, business continuity, business intelligence. You can focus on that – or sit in a webcast with other defunct businesses trying to get on top of the trend they already missed.

Focus on what the clients want. It doesn’t matter what you want, you’re in the business for the sole purpose of making money. Either get comfortable with that or grab a paintbrush.

Bittersweet WPC

Posted: 8:29 pm
June 19, 2009
Microsoft
Comments Off on Bittersweet WPC

Earlier today the team wrapped up our Microsoft WPC plans and agenda. We will be sponsoring the event that I’ve traditionally made my biggest deals at. Microsoft WPC used to be THE event to meet big decision makers, spec out new vendors, work with peers and learn from the best in business.

This year we will be sponsoring WPC for the very first time, coming to it as a stronger and more profitable company than we’ve ever been, with the record growth to boot a very promising future.

Yet, this event will be very bittersweet. Despite the record amount of business we do with Microsoft, they have never been a more irrelevant part of our business future. Our of all our key relationships, we work with Microsoft the least yet send them the most money. Between Dell, HP, Autotask, AhSay, Sophos, ConnectWise and Microsoft, I have the least bit of a working relationship with Microsoft. I’m simply a consumer of their goods.

As someone who has built a company trying to emulate Microsoft’s success in the approach with the partners, I have to admit I’m sad with the direction they have taken the company. I have to admit, even though they are now competition, that I am even more disappointed that it’s not working. Last year I posted a very (appropriate or profane, you be the judge) picture of what Microsoft did to it’s partner base – and by all accounts it’s done more to alienate people from Microsoft and make it less popular than ever before.

As a partner and as a stock holder, I am disappointed.

As a sponsor and a business man, I’m moving forward with Microsoft looking for the win. However, when relationships become “just business” people soon only look at the numbers.

This is a good, albeit tragic, thing to pay attention to no matter where you are in your business maturity: there is a reason why people work with you. If you don’t nurture the very reason people work with you, they will consider your competition even if they don’t win “the feature spec battle.”

1-way PSA “Automation”

Posted: 8:55 am
June 16, 2009
Shockey Monkey
Comments Off on 1-way PSA “Automation”

So earlier yesterday we were going over our launch plans for our PSA integrations and one of the API’s just doesn’t have the same level of functionality to create and manage contracts and companies remotely. And as I mentioned here, if I do something for one group and not the other the holy war ensues.

So here is the problem we are trying to address: Most of OWN’s services are subscription based and the quantity of subscriptions can vary from month to month because the only way you can make money in services is by giving the end user full control to add / remove / modify services when and how they please. This creates an awesome income effect, until the last of the month when you have to reconcile the accounts between us and your PSA.

Now, you could just enter the service changes into your PSA as OWN notifies you of new services and changes. And I’m the bunny Vlad that makes the cookies.

The So-so-solution…

Yesterday we talked this over and we just can’t find a way to make it happen with a 2-way sync as we do in the other PSA integration.

So I coined a new phrase: 1-way automation. It works like this:

Just tell them to create all the contracts manually. When a new contract is created, we’ll just automate our side of notifying them to create a contract so we can update and modify it remotely.

You call it a crappy email alert. I’ll call it 1-way automation 😉

Now obviously that still falls into the category of “your job is so worthless it could be done by a retarded monkey” so it’s a no-go. We also have no proactive way of running a kick-start script as we do with the other PSA.

So the only thing we got left is screen macro playback. This is the software used in software testing where you can record case scenarios and the software moves the mouse, fills in input fields, scrolls down, fills pages, does stuff in sequence. We can automate creation of a macro that would go through your software, locate company, locate appropriate tabs, create products and services and notes – so we can then automatically sync them via API.

If this were the only way to shave off what is at least 2 hours a month in double data entry, would you do it? Got a better idea? Please voice all your comments and ideas to your OWN/ExchangeDefender Partner Account Manager (not me, please don’t bother as I’m not touching the @vladville.com email until next week as previously noted)

We’re still planning as next Monday being the launch day for all our PSA integrations, 1-way or otherwise 😉

What I had meant to say is….

Posted: 8:41 am
June 11, 2009
Vladville
Comments Off on What I had meant to say is….

So I mentioned I was going to be a bit silent on the blog for two weeks previously, but that apparently also means “let’s email Vlad for comment” 😉

I appreciate the love, don’t get me wrong, and I enjoy the Vladville character and all the entertainment it brings to those that follow it, but the Vlad that worked 20+ hour days and did more for others than for himself died on Oct 8th, 2006. Today I have a wife, a kid, a dog and over 200 babies that cry for attention / training / paychecks / direction / inspiration every day.

So, give me the two weeks… please. I promise you will enjoy what OWN is putting together for you.

Out for 2 weeks

Posted: 10:26 pm
June 7, 2009
Vladville
1 Comment

I will be out of the office over the next 2 weeks and will not be available a lot on the phone until after the Microsoft WPC in July. While I’m out you can count on the Orlando and Beverly Hills offices to take care of your every need.

As for me, thanks to many of you, I have a new house and am helping coordinate all the upgrades. After that, I am giving all my time to the ExchangeDefender dev team, reviewing the launch plans for the new line of business and a few other things.