Purpose of Partnerships

OwnWebNow
2 Comments

Since I’m entitled to only one good post a month I won’t bore you with the extended details of just how dedicated we are at OWN to helping our partners become successful and profitable in IT. But today we launched the most significant upgrade to the Offsite Backup product that Own Web Now only sells through our partners and does so at cost. Yeah, you read that right.

Why?

Because there are many products that OWN as a business sells in our consulting and project engagements and even through our partners that people pay a nice premium for my team to have nice wages, latest software, kickass hardware and access to everything they need to do their jobs. Plus the Buy-Vlad-A-Ferrari-In-Every-Color fund that is near and dear to my heart.

And sometimes, out of the size and underutilization on our network we are able to create special offerings that are not key to our business or to our profitability but they can be used by our partners to create immensely profitable lines of business.

I look at it as a little perk for the people that could easily just nitpick the cheapest or best solutions but still come to us for everything and trust that even if we are not the #1 on the block, we will still work very hard for them and for their clients.

So some of my partners lost accounts to the competition which supposedly had a better archiving solution and wasn’t limited by the old LiveArchive’s 7 day rolling start. My partners brought this to me, I felt the pain and we did something. So with ExchangeDefender 4.0 we opened up a virtual can of whopass in terms of archiving, teaming up with Microsoft, SuperMicro and Western Digital to deliver 1 year of archiving. Free. Yes, FREE. My partners now have a leg up on everyone in the market, not to mention the shot in the arm in profitability that nobody can match.

Now we are doing the same with backups. Lot’s of people want to be in the backup space, but they are pure-play backup providers and they just don’t have the network infrastructure experience OWN does – so they have to implement things like dedicated hardware purchases, long term support contracts, tie-ins with other products. One even goes out to cripple their software so that you can only backup a fraction locally compared to what you get to upload to the cloud.

Today, we finished network upgrades to our offsite backup. Our existing clients will keep the same cost structure, grandfathered, for all existing and upcoming account. In case you’re curious, that’s $1/GB offsite backup and $6/mo/agent (which can be installed on multiple PCs in the same organization).

Is this some shabby USB hard drive we’re reselling? No, it’s an enterprise-class redundant storage array, backed with two replication grids in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Oh, and for our EU partners we’ve built the same product in Europe between UK and Neatherlands so you can take advantage of the backups at the same price, with the cloud redundancy and without the fear of the USA Patriot Act.

Oh, and if you’re a Shockey Monkey or ConnectWise user, you might want to keep your ears clean around the 18th of the month for yet another announcement in this gig. In October the Autotask kids will get the same treat. 🙂

Competition…. smoked. And we don’t even compete in this solution portfolio!

I like it Vlad, but….

…. but do you have to sound like such a self-righteous asshole?

In a nutshell, fuck yes.

I realize very few of you reading this blog actually work for me or work with me as partners and don’t get to feed off the same energy that I instill in my company and in our relationships with the people that really want to work with us.

That, to me, is what partnerships are all about.

It’s not about paying lip service.

It’s not about a logo.

It’s not about a long term contract.

It’s about businesses recognizing the assholes in this business who are willing to work hard to make each other profitable. Folks around the world use our Hosted Exchange, ExchangeDefender, SharePoint, Web Hosting, PSA, Offsite Backup and other solutions every day. They help their clients solve problems and tell them just who they trust with the data.

And at the end of the day, all of my partners could just say – screw Vlad, it’s all about me and my bag of toys – but many, many, many, many don’t.

And when you’ve got my back like that….. there is no extent to which we won’t use our competitive advantage to give you an edge.

That may offend the sensibilities for some, or their religious dogma or their sense of purpose. Tough. I run a business, not a church or a hug group, and if you’re on that same page there is a way to remain competitive in the technology space.

As my buddy Erick would say, thats how I roll.

P.S. Ok, so the exuberance is partially due to the new backup software… but most of it is due to the September #’s that I just got. I am || close to doing the mexican hat dance and throw money in the air.

The Joy of IT

Vladville
1 Comment

Now the fact that I’m blogging this at 5 AM probably ought to be funny enough but sometimes hearing others admit that they suck is equally entertaining. Overheard earlier tonight in the NOC chatroom:

“It’s amazing how it takes 4x as long when you don’t know what you’re doing…”

“Why, are you still stabbing in the dark through the forums hoping to find someone as dumb as you are..?”

“Aha… I have defeated it!!! No.. wait.. it just stopped responding.. #@$%”

“Who wrote this @#%@%, it’s like clipart code for programmers… this one even has line numbers in the source!!”

“This masterpiece has “Made in India” written all over it….”

I can’t share which clients we were helping with the above are but sometimes it seems like it’s a miracle that the Internet works at all… 

Shockey Monkey 2.1 Upgrade This Weekend

Shockey Monkey
2 Comments

Just a courtesy update on what’s going on at the House of Monkey: This weekend we are rolling out an upgrade version 2.1 which has some significant changes in it that you might want to be aware of:

  • Import/Export functionality for the entire database. We are exporting data in an XML-based format and allowing direct import. So if something in the database isn’t quite up to your liking and you wish to adjust it you’ll be able to with any XML editor available.
  • Reporting. The new reporting engine is online and provides Executive Report, Open Support Request Summary, Support Request Detail Summary, Billable Time Summary and Employee Timesheet Summary. These are designed with business in mind, not a braindead paper killer in mind. Each is intended for a specific purpose and specific personnel – some are for clients, some are for you, some are for your workers and some are for the accountant. These templates are granular and FAST so you can opt to select anything you want included in the report at the time it is rendered – and the speed at which it renders them is pretty phenomenal too.
  • Accounting. Revised accounting to allow for granular ticket billing. This way if a ticket is spread over multiple billing periods it’s updates can be billed over multiple invoices. Good for projects or people that want to get paid NOW. Accounting also brings the timesheet summary (so you know how much to pay your staff and your contractors)
  • Upgraded E-mail Connector. Email connector now allows for the full communication through email only without logging into the portal at all. You’d have to be suicidal to enable this but it was demanded a lot so here it is.

Bug fixes: rounding functions now work properly, email notifications have been fixed as well as the time zone mess. Issues with the disable user functions have been fixed as well as a service creation system.

Next on the schedule is the web service API and enhancements to calendars and tasks in the portal. We are still looking for the invoice syntax for Office Accounting to enable direct imports of accounting data into Office Accounting. If anyone has that available please let me know.

P.S. We are down to the last 200 portals to activate, so if you aren’t in this you will be in over the weekend.

Best blog you are not reading

Awesome
6 Comments

Ok, before I point you over there, I have to offer up a disclaimer: I AM NOT THAT DUDE. But whoever he (or she) is, I love the style:

http://smbheckler.wordpress.com/

Blogs with profanities, gotta love them. The tagline is “sbs heckler” and for the subtitle you’ll have to click through.

Maybe there is hope for SMB blogging yet.

Well, so much for that MSP idea…

IT Business
Comments Off on Well, so much for that MSP idea…

Buying the new Dell mini laptop and got prompted to sign up for the Dell’s managed services. See if you can top this:

“This service covers your household — all family members and all Dell-branded consumer devices under warranty (excludes purchases from retailers and Employee Purchase Programs). Your call will be answered in 2 minutes or less on average. Request telephone appointments with your favorite team members and receive follow-up from the same team members you talked with!

[add $99/year]”

61DEB66B-DB09-46A4-B8CA-1211C77612AC

But wait, an MSP does a lot more than just answer phone calls, even if none can do it for $99/year/PC, especially not 24/7. You also work on infrastructure, help with the system setup, viruses, spyware, etc. Don’t worry, Dell is prepared to kick ass there too:

“We’ve got you covered! If you need help getting started we are here for you 24/7! Dell on Call phone technicians are available around the clock.

On Call Services 30 Days [add $49]

On Call Services 13 months [add $149 or $2/month]

PHONE-BASED SUPPORT TO:

Set Up Your System

Help You Go Wireless

Hook Up Your Email/Internet

Remove Spyware and Virus

Connect Your Gear and More”

9-4-2008 12-00-20 PM

Seems like this would be a place to write the eulogy, except there really isn’t much nice stuff that can be said for people that chose to stay at the bottom.

Pessimistic Redemption

Vladville
3 Comments

Is pessimism a requirement for the CEO role?

There are really three ways I talk about my business and I believe they are all valid and without conflict with one another. I believe in what we do – so I do all I can to motivate my team and keep on pushing them forward. I believe in our products and services and the feedback + growth are stronger and more positive than ever in the history of the company – so I tell the same to our potential customers and partners. Then there is that third component – the direction – which seems to be solely on my shoulders to conceptualize, design and help implement. And not a day goes by without me wondering just how much we suck and how many balls we drop. That is what drives me day to day, the hatred of everything we do wrong and packed notepads of planned enhancements and improvements. Every day I walk out of my office with one less problem on my shoulders. To me, that’s my purpose here, to keep on making things better so that everyone benefits from my team to our customers.

And with that, I am particularly disappointed with what I’ve done with Vladville in 2008 so far. Vladville, SMB Buddy, Shockey Monkey, SBS Show & Co all need a lot more TLC than I’ve given them and frankly so do you. So hopefully in the next few weeks, and for the rest of 2008, I will redeem myself a little.

Chrome: Oh yee of little faith..

Google, Microsoft
7 Comments

It would appear quite a few of you took offense at me uninstalling the “open” browser being developed by Google. The revolutionary new thinking, announced in a comic, apparently deserves far more praise than “It’s fast, now, how do I uninstall this?” according to some.

So, here is where I stand on all this, but I think this picture really sums it up:

chrome

Which is all fair and cool Brian, who hasn’t taken a shot at Microsoft to advance their agenda, but with all due respect as of late Google is more of a Microsoft than Microsoft seems to be. Not only does Google not seem to have the followthrough to seriously challenge Microsoft on anything, it’s solutions tend to be second rate ad collecting meme’s that hardly gather the attention beyond the Web 2.0 fanboy segment that signs up for a service the day it’s announced and never comes back again.

I know that “being open” is supposed to appeal to me as a consumer, in contrast to the evil closed deals of Microsoft, but if we are being open about all this can you take a moment and explain to me how a browser being built by an advertising company is going to help me bypass the more annoying and intrusive ads all over the place?

Google appears to have done in ten years what took Microsoft 30 years to do: gain irrelevance through series of meme’s and wars on the fronts it has no resources to fight. Pretty soon people will stop paying attention to these stunts. We do like to cheer for gladiators to kill one another, but if all they do is dance around and only protect their turf there is not much entertainment value to it all.

How many years has it been since Google opened the IM world with Google Talk? You can find dozens of examples of the same – if they can’t serve ads with it, it dies. So how earth-shattering is the Google Chrome? What revolutionary new features does it bring to the table that matter to people significantly? New Javascript engine? Process isolation for tabs? I’d love to know.

What do I love about Chrome? The same thing I love about Microsoft Online:

The more time these big guys waste in a pissing match of dominance, trying to be left alone on the stage to render the soliloquy even Shakespeare would be proud of, it seems like lately it’s all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

These missteps by the large software powerhouses are making it possible for the tiny fish like my little software company to grow and be profitable by listening to what the customers want. The more time the giants waste fighting each other in a fruitless jealousy over who is going to be #1, the more time people like me have to take the money off the table and to the bank.

So it’s not that I have anything against Google. It’s just that I already have Firefox and that’s good enough for me.

Is that Chrome on your Monkey?

ExchangeDefender, Shockey Monkey
2 Comments

Just a heads up, we’ve put Google’s new Chrome Browser through it’s paces and according to everyone that has checked so far, all Shockey Monkey functions work and render properly. The RMM component was not tested as it requires ActiveX but that’s not generally available to the public either. Ditto for OWN as well as ExchangeDefender.

Our official policy at Own Web Now Corp is that we do not, under any circumstances, support any beta software. So this one is very much YMMV case, if you like it use it – as far as we can tell it works.

Gotta hand it to Google, it’s fast. Almost feels faster than Safari.

Now, back to uninstall it…

The Dog Ate My Reporting

Shockey Monkey
1 Comment

I feel like Bart Simpson trying to lie about why his homework isn’t ready to turn in.

photo I have been working pretty hard on the reports tab of Shockey Monkey and bug fixes all day. The good news is that all the outstanding bugs have been fixed, including the unreported ones I found while fixing other bugs. So great news there.

On the other hand, reports didn’t play out as well. I got them done, but I’ve been told by everyone that has looked at them so far that they are “weak” at best and “totally unpresentable to any client, even pro-bono” at worst. This came from the people that actually like me and are using the product for free so it’s hard to discount that kind of comment. Bah. I’m redoing the style sheets and formatting a little to make it seem like less of a pile of junk, I will update you on the progress tomorrow night.

P.S. The email connector bugs have been shaken out, you can now do 100% of your support via email if you choose to without ever logging into the portal. The billing exports have also been fractionalized allowing you to bill the support request granularly per-request, so if a ticket is split between multiple billing periods it can be broken up over multiple invoices. The executive report and other metric-bearing reports are also getting printable charts, the implementation of which I am not 100% certain off but will be after the morning meeting.

Labor Day Presents: SM Reports

Shockey Monkey
1 Comment

Monday is Labor Day, but it’s also the first of the month.

And first of the month brings the new upgrade to Shockey Monkey as I’ve pretty much committed the team to doing monthly updates to all the bugs and new features. As we’re actually about to allow people to give us money and sponsor the project we also need to kick up the production quality a bit. So starting this Monday, big new feature is reports:

8-30-2008 4-07-09 PM

Just a teaser post of course, I’ll show some more in depth stuff on Monday/Tuesday.

Funny thing about Shockey Monkey reporting, I have received a ton of kicks in the balls and bitching over the “missing” reports but only one person (and I’ll name her: Amy Babinchak) has stepped up with the mockups and drawings and sample data to stick into the said reports. If you want to see things in the software folks you’ve got to draw them up and recommend them in. Just saying “I want reports” doesn’t cut it, you have to contribute something meaningful for the entire community to benefit.

Monday 1st, see ya. Have a wonderful weekend.