March 20, 2006
regular visitors to the funcave should already be acquainted with mastermind…aka amy luby…aka the head enchilada of mobitech.
for those who don’t know…mobitech might as well be writing the book on managed services…all from their underground bunker in omaha, nebraska.
if you have any interest in managed services, and want to hear from someone who is actually successful at it…as opposed to some random nimrod whose idea of managed services would be better described as mangled services…
well listen up…because your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy is about to make your fracking day!
mobitech will be kicking off a managed services workshop tour in june.
and yes…for all you cheap asses…the workshops are free, thanks to the fact that mobitech’s tour is being sponsored by level platforms and autotask, two of the tools mobitech uses every day.
however…this won’t be a buy this tool…poof!…you’re a managed service provider kind of b.s. session tho.
the mobitech army will be offering a 360 degree view about what it takes to get into the managed services game…and to actually be successful at it.
expect to hear topics like:
- what are the stages in moving into a managed service model?
- how do I sell managed services?
- how do I construct my service level agreements?
- who wants these services?
- what or who is my competition and how are they doing managed services?
- what are the pitfalls to avoid?
mastermind will be joined by her partners-in-crime…
the comedian…aka steve luby
and
the server nazi…aka chad gross
your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy cannot emphasize enough how much he personally believes that anyone who claims to be serious about being a consultant in the smb it space should do whatever it takes to get to the workshop closest to them.
yours truly will be at the atlanta stop…no matter what.
hope to see you there!
|| posted by chris under community, it pro, travel || comments (0) ||
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March 19, 2006
regular visitors to the funcave know that a couple of weeks ago, the official soldering iron of justice got set to flambe for a while.
the reason?
one of my clients was contacted by someone claiming to be from microsoft, who then proceeded to:
- ask them probing questions about their network
- press them for details about quoted project cost amounts from us
- offer to have another consultant quote that same work for them
yours truly was able to validate fairly quickly…from the partner resource desk…that the contact did, in fact, originate from microsoft.
based on the questions that were asked, the contact seemed to be using information that had been included in an entry submission for this client to the recent tech makeover promotion targeting small business, which is still active.
needless to say, the initial report submitted here at the funcave…which was subsequently picked up here and here…got the attention of the mothership pretty quickly.
your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy would like to point out that the reaction was both swift and professional from some very high-placed folks in both the us partner program and the us small biz group (thanks to margo and eric, respectively) and particularly from shelley, the program manager for the tech makeover promotion.
from the moment we first spoke on the phone to the time at which shelley had the info on the exact campaign and had initiated contact with that campaign’s team was less than 4 hours.
the upshot to all this which is…
your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy has been about 95% satisfied that the client contact did not originate from anyone associated with the tech makeover promotion.
for someone as paranoid as yours truly…that’s as close to 100% as it’ll get.
what hasn’t changed, however…no matter what group it originated from…
contact with one of my clients was initiated by microsoft, unbeknownst to me.
that has been 100% verified as fact…by multiple sources.
as such…
you can bet money that any initiative/promo/whatever in the future which would involve your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy submitting any information about any of his clients/prospects/whatever to the mothership…
anything like that will get a big pass here at the funcave.
|| posted by chris under mothership, rant || comments (1) ||
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March 18, 2006
and that was…the directions to the event location were totally fracked.
i’m not talking a little bit off either.
try…5 miles away, on the other side of a fracking mountain!
in fact, the exact directions being given to registered attendees basically led to a dead-end cul-de-sac in the middle of a plat development from hell.
google maps, which was how your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy had gotten his directions, wasn’t any better…since i ended up at the same spot.
seriously…if i never see brewster road again in my entire lifetime…it won’t be long enough.
|| posted by chris under community, mothership, travel || comments (1) ||
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March 18, 2006
that’s right…yours truly was once again the cameo partner at a microsoft connections event.
held a week ago in trussville…your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy got to talk about how my firm implemented small business server for one of our customers.
all in all…a pretty good day.
first of all, the connections presenter, lara, was super-friendly and supportive…even if she kinda looks like she wants to kick me in the face right here.
lara did a superb job at presenting the customer-targeted material. one of our clients was in attendance, and remarked how much they got out of attending.
your friendly neighborhood happyfunboy wasn’t sure how well our case study would go, since ms changed it to a q&a format, and you just never know how “canned” that kind of presentation will sound.
it seemed to come across very well tho. i was able to talk fairly in-depth about sbs and how it was the key to the overwhelming success of the project.
the difference in interest in us among attendees was like night and day after the case study. before then…very few people were all that interested in talking to us. afterwards, we were pretty busy chatting with folks at the breaks.
even better, the client who was presented in our case study was in attendance…and at lunch afterwards remarked how they had kinda forgotten about what bad shape their systems were in before they got our firm involved.
if there was anything i’d change about the connections format…it would be to have the case study earlier. not just because it would garner us more time after piquing the interest of attendees, but also because it would get sbs front and center much faster.
right after connections, ms held a ts2 event. stephen, the ts2 presenter, was also fantastic. he was very generous with his time, and let yours truly not only mention the smb/sbs user group i lead, but also talk briefly about sbs show to the attendees.
stephen also did a great job at continuing thoughout the event to generate interest in the social meeting our user group was holding later that evening.
even with some really bad weather in the area, we managed to draw 9 folks to the social meeting, 6 of whom were new & prospective members. lara and stephen joined us later, as did shawn, one of the gulf states sms&p pams.
thanks to the interest we were able to generate from those events, our user group added 15 new members last week, a 66% increase in the size of our fledgling group!
like i said before…a good day.
|| posted by chris under community, mothership, travel || comments (2) ||
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March 17, 2006
feel that chill in the air, here at the funcave?
that can only mean one thing…hell has officially frozen over.
that’s right…the unthinkable has happened…
my parents, at long last, are on a high-speed internet connection.
so…mom & dad…
welcome to the 21st century!
now i guess i’ll have to stop with the flintstones cracks, huh?
nah…
|| posted by chris under nostalgia, shoutout || comments (0) ||
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