Managed Services is not about Technology

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by Richard Tubb

Autodesk Conference Season is (phew!) over: This past quarter offered so many popular IT Conferences that it would have been quite easy to spend all your time visiting one conference after another. With the GFI Max Worldwide Conferences, Autotask Community Live!, VMWorld, the CompTIA EMEA Conference, CRN Channel Conference and IP Expo plus many others - it becomes hard to keep track of all the news that is important to your MSP business. Here are the 3 top stories I think you won't want to miss out on.

The Managed Service Imperative: The keynote presentation at the GFI Max European Conference in London featured Chris Gonsalves-- Vice-President at The 2112 Group-- sharing how the world has changed for MSP's. I felt that the biggest takeaway from Gonsalves presentation was his statement that Managed Services is not about Technology [Tweet This] "That isn’t what we do any more" shared Gonsalves. "It’s about delivering results. It’s about taking the burden from your clients.” Gonsalves also touched upon the need for MSP's to build recurring revenue and looked at his view on the future of Managed Services. Take 3 minutes to read my article on Chris Gonsalves' keynote which includes a video interview I recorded with Gonsalves after his presentation.

Technology for its own sake is merely interesting: Said Autotask CEO Mark Cattini in his keynote at Autotask Community Live! 2013 in Barcelona. "The reason you deploy a mobile solution is to increase satisfaction. The reason you use Big Data is to improve profitability. The reason you deploy Cloud is to improve productivity" Cattini explained. I'd agree. For too long the IT industry has focused on features rather than benefits. Is your MSP business talking in the language clients understand? Also at the event, Autotask announced their bold and modern new User Interface (UI) and Cattini had some very interesting insights into the future of mobile devices. Take 2 minutes to read the headlines coming out of Autotask Community Live! 2013.

Storage + Server: I also attended VMWorld in Barcelona where I sat down with the VP of WD (formerly known as Western Digital) Tom Gallivan. WD are moving into the SMB Server market with an interesting concept they call "Storage plus Server". Imagine a NAS device that can also run Line of Business (LoB) applications plus more. It's something I can see a lot of your SMB clients being interested in. Take 90 seconds to read my thoughts on Storage + Server and consider adding my video interview with WD VP Tom Gallivan to your YouTube "Watch Later" list for when you're next between meetings.

Richard Tubb works with MSPs to help them focus on what is important, free up their time and make more money. You don't have to do it alone any more! Follow Richard Tubb on Google+ or Twitter (@Tubblog) and for free MSP training articles directly via email, subscribe to Tubblog.