MSPWorld Fall 2013 is now underway and already we are seeing great sharing of ideas and willingness to collaborate with one another. This morning's sessions have involved BYOD, achieving managed services success, and mitigating risk in managed services. As always, the real action is taking place in the hallways and networking lounge where MSPs and vendors alike are meeting and building relationships. Here are some of the topics that were discussed.
Private Cloud - There was a lot of interest and discussion around private cloud, especially how MSPs can incorporate and finance private cloud offerings.
BYOD - BYOD has been an important topic for a few MSPWorld events now and we are making some progress. A few mobile device management companies were present and the discussions were about how MSPs can best protect customers while also allowing users the benefit of BYOD.
Sales - This was the most surprising session for me since we had quite a few panelists and audience members who said that cold calling is actually working. To be more specific, warm calling is what works according to the MSPs who were at MSPWorld. The act of cold calling does not by itself work that well. However, warm calling, or calling in conjunction with other touch points with the customer, does seem to be an effective lead generation and sales tactic.
Navigating the new channel - The IT channel is changing. MSPs and vendors alike have to relearn the new rules that are dictating how channel companies interact with one another. Cloud has played a big role in changing how the IT channel works these days and most MSPs realize now that these new rules are here to stay.
MSPWorld is all about the relationships and it was no different this time. Mature and new MSPs alike were present and the amount of information shared was impressive. MSPWorld Spring 2014 is our next stop and we hope to see everyone there!
