MSP

Live MSP Blog: TruMethods Schnizzfest 2016 Day 2

Bob Penland, CTO, TruMetods
Bob Penland
Gary Pica, CEO, TruMethods

Several hundred managed services providers (MSPs) have reconvened this morning for TruMethods Schnizzfest 2016, Day 2. MSPs are sharing the best ideas for business management, technology automation and monthly recurring revenues (MRR) CEO Gary Pica and CTO Bob Penland are kicking things off now. Here's the minute by minute update...

First, a little background from Day 1:

Opening Keynote: You Are What You Tolerate

  • You are what you tolerate: A message from Tony Robbins. If you tolerate bad surroundings and bad days instead of changing the situation, you're training yourself to be less happy.
  • You're the average of the top 5 people you spend the most time with. Think about that. Does your inner circle contain the right five people?

Best Ideas Shared by MSPs: Honorable Mentions

  • "A Game Night at the Office" from Eric Rieger, Webit: When stress levels rise at the office, a game night at the office help employees to decompress and reconnect.
  • "Sales Meeting Note Transcript" from Jerry Sheehan, SynchronetUse Evernote the moment you're back in your car and before you get back to the office. No texts. No emails.
  • "Measure Excess Reactive Hours" from Eric Hobbs, Technology Associates: How many excess hours of reactive support is your business offering, and which specific customers are causing all of that reactive support?
  • "Smoke Breaks" from Mike Painter, Business Data Systems: Not for actual smoking. Instead, employees take 10-minute walks to clear their heads and/or discuss key ideas with peers.
  • "Automated Workstation Rollout" from Keith Barthold, DKBBarthold described challenges for provisioning workstations. He actually documented 72 pages of steps to eliminate 60 percent of the time involved in provisioning.
  • "Implement ACH to Get Paid" from (alas, we missed the name of the idea submitter because of a browser crash). Automated Clearing House (ACH) is an electronic network for financial transactions in the United States. Adopt ACH with your customers to get paid on time every month.

Best Idea From MSPs: Winners

  • Second Runner Up - Mike Shackelford, Nomad Technology Group: "Actually Implement TruMethods." The key point... If MSPs actually implement TruMethods best practices, profits and monthly recurring revenues (MRR) will rise.
  • First Runner Up - Shane Naugher, DaZZee Integrations: "Quarterly Mock Sales Meetings." This is more for the technology team rather than the sales team -- so that the entire team hears the sales pitch. Idea From MSPs: Winner.
  • Winner - Ray Sweeney, Premier Technology Solutions: "vCIO Hive Mind:" Sweeney is taking steps to make sure his vCIO employees are shifting customer conversations from tech talk toward business talk. The vCIOs meet privately to discuss their specific customers, and each customer's business focus, business needs and more. Technology discussion is avoided.

Virtual CIOs: Really?

Keep checking back for updates from about 8:15 a.m. ET to about 11:30 a.m. ET for live blog updates on MSP business building, life building and more.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.