Dec 2007

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:07 PM

SMB Partner Community - December 2007/January 2008

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Nurturing Relationships!This month’s cover story by Marc Harrison is about driving relationships - in simple

terms, business development. “The Little Partner that Roared,” highlights how trulyengaging with other businesses that synergize with your own can create an alliance ofmany opportunities. Every day we are presented a chance to reach out and make newconnections as well as nurture existing relationships, not just with partners, but also withclients. Trying to capture that spirit, this SMBPC issue will commence a series of six articleswritten by Eric Steinberg on being a managed service provider (MSP), to help you make theright decisions. Please notice that with this issue we are starting to move SMBPC articles tothe Web in the effort to save trees and fossil fuels. So look forward to more articles by goingto www.smbnation.com/smbarticles.htm - see you there!

DEC 2007/JAN 2008 | Vol. 2 � Issue 4

PUBLISHED BYSMB Nation, Inc.

Bainbridge Island, Washington

Harry Brelsford, PublisherEditorial Staff

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Beatrice MulzerEDITOR Barbara Wallace

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSMikael Nyström, Sweden

LAYOUT Al AlarakhiaCOVER ART DIRECTOR Michael Young

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSMark Mulvany, Ireland

Diego Salato, ItalyNick Pieters, Belgium

Leen Kleijwegt, NetherlandsAndy Wendel, GermanyDean Calvert, Australia

Steven Teiger, IsraelSuresh Ramani, IndiaStuart Raj, Indonesia

Shelagh Harrop, South AfricaDana Epp, CanadaKen Thoreson, USAAnne Stanton, USA

BUSINESS STAFFHarry Brelsford, CEO

Beatrice Mulzer, Vice PresidentCyndi Moody, Director,

WW OperationsJennifer Hall, Event Coordinator

SaraLiz Klinedinst, MarketingPrograms Manager

SMB Nation, Inc.PO Box 10179

Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 USA

Telephone: 360-779-1140Fax: 360-779-1140

E-mail: [email protected]

© Copyright 2007 SMB Nation Inc.All Rights Reserved

Please contact us for reprints andreproduction of content.

ISSN 1933-8899

SMBPartnerCommunity

William F. Hunt IIOctober 28, 1956 – October 17, 2007

Bill Hunt, a well-known and well-lovedmember of our SBS Community, passed awaysuddenly in October, a day after attending andpresenting at the Chicago SBS Users GroupDisaster Recovery/Business ContinuityConference. Bill was a veteran SBSer and hadattended several SMB Nation Conferences. Heappeared on the cover of last month’s issue.

A native of Biloxi, Mississippi, Bill joinedthe U.S. Navy after high school in 1976,attained Petty Officer rank with a Top Secretclearance, and spent most of his Navy career

managing technical teams working on nuclear submarine electronic systems.Bill left the Navy in 1981 and joined a consulting firm called (ironically) SBSInc. that was subsequently purchased by MCI. Bill traveled the U.S.,troubleshooting and supporting complex telephone, electronic and securitysystems at large organizations, government facilities and universities as anMCI Technical Sales Specialist.

Following the MCI/Worldcom corporate implosion in 1999-2000, Bill startedWHIT Systems, Inc., a Chicago-based consultancy, which specialized in SmallBusiness Server solutions for SMB clients. As he successfully built that practice,he became closely involved with other Chicago consultants and participated inmany joint projects. He was an early supporter of and major contributor to theChicago SMB consulting community, and was a key “go-to” technical resourcefor his many friends and colleagues in the Chicago SBS Users Group and thenational SBS community.

Bill is survived by his wife, Paula, and six-year-old daughter, Gracie, as wellas three adult children: Brian, Christine, and Katherine; and two grandchildren.Members of the Chicago SBS Users Group have directed contributions for Gracie'seducation to: The William F. Hunt Memorial Fund, c/o MB Financial Bank, 15 EastProspect Avenue, Mount Prospect, IL 60056.

EDITORIALBy Beatrice Mulzer, Executive Editor

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SMB Partner Community - December 2007/January 2008 www.smbnation.com Page 5

COVER STORY

efore you read this article, do a Web search on thekeywords “Marc Harrison Silicon East” and brieflybrowse the results. You might quickly conclude that we

were a very large IT provider, widely recognized for the volumeand quality of work we do. But the fact is we are actually a smallboutique shop serving small and medium sized business’s ITneeds, doing excellent work for both our clients and vendors.And this little secret has been a key to our success.

Look back on the last 24 years of my company’s existence; Iguess that I had a knack for subconsciously understanding thatgreat vendor relations led to recognition, which led to PR, whichled to clients and business. For many years I’ve nurtured greatrelationships not only with our clients, but our vendors as well.And I’ve found that in many ways we’ve been rewarded forworking closely with vendors who are strategic to our businessand success. By way of example I’d like to give you some ideas ofrelationships we’ve nurtured and the great results we’ve enjoyed.

Back in 2002 I was invited to join Microsoft’s SmallBusiness Server Channel Advisory Council. I learned later thatI had been invited simply because I had offered unsolicited,but solid, feedback to this product group about SBS and waysto make the product better. The meeting in Redmond wasgreat, it gave me the opportunity to provide even morefeedback, as well as learn about the upcoming SBS 2003product. In addition, I was able to meet many of the SBSproduct managers and developers. As a direct result we wereasked to participate in the Rapid Adoption Program (RAP) forSBS 2003, which supported us in installing beta versions of SBS2003 at several of our clients. I carefully nominated clients thatI felt not only could benefit from the product, but also had agood business story to tell – which proved essential for casestudy and video consideration. The SBS RAP program wentfabulously, and I ended up being quoted in Fortune Small

B

Business, as well as a Forbes study. One of our clients waswritten up in a Microsoft Case Study, and the story was socompelling that a film crew flew out from Redmond tocomplete a video. If this weren’t enough, while all of this washappening, the launch of Office 2003 was ramping up, and wewere asked to extend our RAP participation to include Office.Of course we did, and yet another Case Study resulted.

In Redmond during 2003, I advocated the creation of somesort of small business designation for Partners like us who hadexpertise with SBS, but were not yet at the Certified Partnerlevel. As you might have guessed, this resulted a few years laterin the Small Business Specialist program. What was great for us isthat we were asked to help formulate the course requirementsfor this track, and even received a contract from Microsoft todevelop some of the initial 70-282 exam questions.

Back in Redmond again in 2004, I heard a most compellingpresentation about Windows Mobile and, combined with SBS,what opportunities it offered. Now today, we all understandthat Windows Mobile and Exchange-based wireless sync havechanged the way we, and our clients, do business. But 3+ yearsago this wasn’t so apparent. But I had a hunch this was a gamechanger, and we jumped on the mobility bandwagon big-time.No one asked us to do this, but in hindsight it was a great move.Not only did we do well with many device deployments, butMicrosoft’s PR engine took notice, and there I was again beinginterviewed for magazine articles and yet another case study.And believe me, when a big company PR agency wants to giveyou some PR, you’re getting something that money (at least inreasonable amounts) just can’t buy.

In 2005 we were accepted into the Windows VistaTechnology Adoption Program. This TAP program allowed us totrain on Vista very early, deploy the product to several customersnearly one year before product release, and begin talking to the

Get the Silicon East (SEI) Case Study Facts atwww.silicon-east.com/ontheweb.html

RoaredThe Little

Partner that

by Marc Harrison, Silicon East Inc.

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM

www.smbnation.com SMB Partner Community - December 2007/January 2008

press about our positive impressions. Most importantly, we havebeen able to succeed with Vista, and hopefully are viewed as asuccessful role model by and for other Partners.

During the summer of 2006 at a CompTIA event, I heardmy first presentation about Intel’s upcoming vPro technology.I recognized immediately that vPro could change the nature ofour industry. I immediately began reaching out to Intel toexpress our extreme interest in getting on board with vPro inany and every way possible, as early as possible. I can onlysurmise that Intel took a good look at the track record of workwe had done with Microsoft, and decided that we’d be a goodsmall business Partner to work with. Intel reached out to meand asked us to join their vPro Pilot Program. They werewilling to subsidize several of our clients’ hardwarepurchases, and we agreed to provide not only client support,but real, in-depth feedback to Intel, in the form of weeklyconference calls, as to our experiences and impressionsworking with vPro (we learned later this helped tosignificantly shape the vPro small business rollout). Theproject turned out to be a home run for us. Intel developed aCase Study and video around one of our clients and featuredit on their small business Web site. They also referred to ourwork in a small business ad campaign for the last few months,

which led to a press event that I was asked to participate in.And for us, most importantly, my hunch about vPro provedcorrect. We got on board with technology ahead of everyoneelse, and have been deploying 100% vPro-enabledworkstations for over one year. vPro’s remote managementcapabilities now allow us to do much of our work off site andoff hours. As a result, we’ve established a network operationscenter in Israel, tapping both the talent pool and timedifference to our great advantage.

As you can see, working with our key vendors on acontinuous and high profile basis has simply become part ofwho we are and what we do. Some say it’s in our DNA. I’dlike to relate just one more story to you, as perhaps the bestexample of pulling this all together. Early in 2006 one of ourgreat clients, Pinnacle Companies, a homebuilder,approached us with an exciting opportunity. They had beenasked by ABC Television’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition totear down and rebuild a home for a severely handicappedfamily. Pinnacle’s vision was to use technology to make thisfamily’s quality of life as high as possible. Pinnacle asked meto be the technology coordinator for the entire project, andasked Silicon East to be the technology integrator – all, ofcourse, on a volunteer basis. Needless to say, we rose to thechallenge and very successfully completed the project, asbeautifully reported in the August, 2006 issue of SMB PartnerCommunity magazine. But the behind-the-scenes story I’d liketo tell here is about how we rallied our vendors to donate andhelp with this project. We approached Microsoft, Intel, HP,and SonicWall for their help. Microsoft’s Accessibility Grouprecommended, donated, and even purchased a huge amountof assistive technology, and also provided volumes of theirextraordinary expertise to us. Intel donated PCs,motherboards, processors and numerous other components.HP donated laptops for the entire family. SonicWall gave us aPRO-series firewall, as well as network design expertise thatproved extremely helpful, especially after the project wascompleted and needed to be remotely managed.

Watch the video on Vista, a modeling agency andSEI http://tinyurl.com/3aqvpq

See the Intel vPro video with SEI and AtlanticRealty at http://tinyurl.com/38rpbf

Marc and Sam of Silicon East (SEI), ready to install the PRO-series firewall donated by SonicWall.

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Whom do you partnerwith? We partner with allour technical vendors andwe have been verypurposeful and selectivewith whom we alignourselves. When selectinga vendor we take theapproach that says wewant to find a vendor thatis going to be a strategicbusiness partner, not justsomeone to supply us apiece of hardware or

software. We have done this with all our vendors but Iwould say the deepest relationships are with HP, Microsoft,Cisco, and Ingram Micro. For the purposes of today’sarticle, I will focus predominantly on our relationship withMicrosoft.

Why was it worth the time to develop the relationship? AsI mentioned above, we are looking for strategic businesspartners in our vendors. The hardware or software that webuy from our vendors is really just a small piece of thepuzzle. We are really looking for vendors who produce agreat product and also offer quality technical support,training on new products, and sales and marketingresources. These are all things that we think our vendors,including Microsoft, do very well. When you aggregate allthese benefits that are available, it becomes verycompelling to invest the time to develop theserelationships.

Did it impact your business bottom line/improve customerservice? There are many benefits to the bottom line when itcomes to partnering. There are the obvious benefitsassociated with the Partner program, such as internal uselicensing and free technical support cases, that are

available to Partners. There are other benefits that take theform of technical and sales training, co-branded marketingefforts, marketing dollars to plan and execute campaignsand events, access to the Microsoft Across America Truck,and the list goes on!

Why you would recommend that other Partners developclose ties? Navigating the Partner channel is nearlyimpossible if you try to go it alone. Developing deeprelationships within Microsoft will help you know whatprograms and benefits are available to you. Most of thesebenefits are available to you today at no charge! ManyPartners don’t take advantage of the benefits that areavailable to them, and by not doing so are leaving dollarson the table. Your vendors want you to partner and theyreward the Partners who choose to participate.

Is there any particular success story or any additionalcomments you would like to make? We just got donesponsoring a technology event in conjunction with ourlocal chamber of commerce. Through support from ourvendors we were able to bring a tremendous amount oftechnical resources to the table that would otherwise beunavailable in Central Nebraska. For example, werequested the Microsoft MSAM Truck through MicrosoftPartner Events and were successful in bringing this hugeattraction to the tech expo. Having the MSAM at the eventwas of great benefit to Intellicom. It it let our customers andprospects know that we have a deep relationship with ourvendors and introduced them to emerging technology. Inaddition, we were able to request a speaker from Microsoftto come out and present at the tech expo on Server 2008 andVista. The speaker was great and we had over 60 currentcustomers and prospects sit in on the Server 2008 demo,which helped us create interest in the latest build of Serverprior to the public launch. The best thing about theseexamples is that they we both available to Intellicom, free ofcharge, through the Partner program!

Bryan Kuntz, VP ofOperations, Intellicom

All of our vendors participated in a Technology Daypress event that gave them, us, and the Makeover local andnational press coverage. And the huge success of the projectcemented great relationships between all participants thatextend to this day.

If you asked me for advice, I would say look foropportunities to deploy new technologies that appearpromising to your business. Deploy them in “interesting”situations that could lead to compelling stories and, mostimportantly, make sure your vendor knows what you are doing!This simple formula has produced spectacular results for us,and can for you as well. Finally, one more tip from myexperience. Once you start to get some PR exposure, make sureyou actively leverage the contacts you make in the press.Editors and reporters are always looking for that insightfulcomment from one of us to include in their story. Let them knowwhat areas you feel you can comment upon authoritatively, and

they will call. And as your level of PR grows, make sure you letyour clients and vendors know about who in our industry hasrecognized your efforts and excellent work. Everyone wants topartner with a winner, and the people we do business with areno exception! �

Marc is founder and President of SiliconEast, a Microsoft Certified partner andSmall Business Specialist based in centralNew Jersey. Silicon East is a full-service ITprovider for small and medium business,and also provides comprehensive managedservices to its clients. 2008 will markSilicon East’s 25th year in business. Marc isalso featured in SMB Nation’s book

Making It Big In Small Business.

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SO, YOU WANTTO BE AN MSP

by Eric Steinberg

hy do I love the MSP model? I first stumbled upon theidea of providing a fixed fee service in 1988. I found mybusiness struggling to make it with the peaks and valleys

of project work. Out of necessity, I came up with the idea of offeringmy clients a fixed fee network administration service. It consisted ofall the work - adding users, resetting passwords, etc., that I wasdoing when I wasn’t installing or upgrading networks. The mathwas simple - 20 clients at $1,000 bucks a month and we had ourbasic nut covered. This worked pretty well but was seriouslyhampered by technology. Fast forward 15 years and I would havebeen an MSP.

This is the first in a series of articles about the trials andtribulations of becoming an MSP. This article will provide a 50,000foot view of what being an MSP is. Future articles will go into manyof these areas in greater detail and hopefully assist you in creatinga road map to your MSP business.

Let’s start with the definition of Managed Services. There areabout as many different definitions for Managed Services orManaged Services Providers (MSP) as there are people willing totalk to you about it. So, let me suggest a framework around whichall Managed Services are, or should be, designed. ManagedServices consist of one or more services that are pre-scheduled,proactive, ongoing, billed under a long-term contract at a fixed andscalable rate based on a per unit fee that is measured by an SLA(Service Level Agreement), and delivered both remotely and onsite.

Wow, now that was a mouthfull! But with that it’s critical thatyou understand that being an MSP is not something you do, it issomething you are. Everything you do is processed through theMSP model, and while you can transition to it, at the end you are a“pure play MSP.” That is, if you want to be successful. Now, don’tthink that installing hardware and software, customizingapplications and building solutions will stop. Not in the least - these“projects” will continue. They are just bundled into your MSP price.And, yes, there will always be a place for project-based work likecustomizing an application, but these projects become secondary toyour primary MSP offerings. They are after-market add-ons if youwill. So why would you want to become an MSP?

You want to become an MSP because of REOCCURRINGREVENUE. Or do you like starting over every month at zero and,no matter how big your organization is, having to face the challengeof closing enough business to break even and then make a profit?Now, many of you may believe that you have that wired. After all,you’ve got people on support contracts right? But what are thosecontracts based on? Billable hours. Billable hours only scale withmore billable people. MSP services scale based on billableprocedures, procedures which that are pre-scheduled andproactive. The core strategy of the MSP model is what I like to callthe fitness club model. In order to be profitable, you must build asystem that will enable you to ensure that you can generate fees inexcess of the number of people hours you have in a day, week,month, etc. Fitness clubs can only handle a few hundred people atany given time, yet have thousands of members, and each and

W every one of them pays a monthly fee. Some may never even comein, but they still pay their bill every month. You goal is to neverhave it break, costing you less time and money, and bill at a rate thatis cheaper for your client and more profitable for you. This isaccomplished through the art and science of processes.

Now there are lots of other advantages to becoming an MSP,i.e. differentiation, business valuation to support your exit strategyso you can retire someday, profitability and the list goes on, but itall starts with what reoccurring revenue will do for your business.I’ll expand on these other areas in upcoming articles

By now I hope that I’ve convinced you that you want to be anMSP. But, are you willing to make the changes to your businessmodel and become an MSP? Well, let’s look at the core componentsof an MSP business.• Determine your service offerings• Price your offerings• Build the process and procedures required to deliver your

offerings• Market and sell your offerings• Grow and scale your businessSee, it’s simple. Yeah, right. Let’s dig into these a bit.

MSP OfferingsFirst, what are you going to do? Are you going to simply build

an MSP business that does remote monitoring and managementand continue with your project-based work? Are you going toinclude HaaS (Hardware as a service, read equipment leasing) orSaaS (Software as a service, generally supported by financingprograms from the vendor, or you can try to get a third party lease)into the mix? Are you going look at building a turnkey, verticalmarket bundle which includes everything else I’ve mentioned? Areyou going to specialize in security, printing, CRM? As you can see,those five simple steps get very intricate.

The easiest MSP business to go into is an infrastructure-focusedbusiness, similar to the project-based business you have now, thatprovides monitoring and management of your clients’ networkdevices. There are several vendors who will sell you a turnkeysystem to do this (the subject of an upcoming article on vendor andproduct selection) or you can go “open” source and put your ownutilities together. But, remember, don’t get caught up in thetechnology. That isn’t what being a successful MSP is about (we’lllook at this when we discuss marketing and sales in just a bit). Whilethis is the easiest business to go into, it is also the most likely tobecome a commodity the soonest. So while it is the logical place tostart, you’re going to want to expand your services long term.

Pricing Here’s a hot potato. How do you price your offerings? Did you

notice that I put pricing before building your processes? And howcan you price something before you determine your costs? Well,taking your costs and marking them up is old school. Don’t get mewrong, I’m not saying that you don’t want to know whether you’re

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM

making a profit, but you’ve got to start with what price point(s) willsell and work from there. Otherwise, you might create a processthat’s so expensive that once you mark it up no one will buy it. Soon to pricing.

Do you sell it by the user, by the device, by the server, by theapplication or by the desktop? The rule here is KISS (Keep it simple,stupid). It is this one rule that will determine how easy, or difficult,your MSP services are to sell. Once you’ve determined the “Units”you will sell in, you must price them. And, I’m sorry, the answer tothis is, it depends. It depends on your clients, your offerings andyour location. There is some analysis that needs to take place herethat I can’t begin to do justice to, but you must take the time to lookat what you can get for your MSP offerings.

Processes and Procedures All system integrators are custom builders by nature. All MSPs

are production builders by necessity. If you attempt to custom buildeach of your MSP solutions, you are on a very short road to a verytall cliff. Success here is all about systematic repeatability. You’vegot to start off simple and grow. How simple? Start with a singleoffering. From there, over time, you can expand. By starting with asingle offering, you can get all the kinks worked out. You need totake your offering and beta test it. And like anyone beta testing aproduct, you test it with that special group of clients you have. Youknow them. The ones that you can say, “Hey we got this newservice that we think will improve your systems reliability, increaseyour production and lower your costs.” You want them to be yourguinea pigs. You know exactly which clients you can approach.Start with a small group of not more than six. As you get thingsworked out you will grow from there until you feel confident inrolling it out to all your current, and then prospective, clients.Expect this process to take six to 12 months before you get any ideasof expanding your single offering. At this point, you’ll have a goodidea of what else to offer, how to sell it and whom to target.

Marketing and Sales I come from a school of thought where marketing is deciding

what you put on the cart, and selling is everything required to getit off the cart. So let’s get the stuff off the cart! This is major decisionpoint for you, for if you are not willing to follow some basicprinciples, you will not build a successful MSP business.

Successfully selling your MSP offerings has nothing to do withtechnology.

Let me repeat that!

SUCCESSFULLY SELLING YOUR MSP OFFERINGS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH TECHNOLOGY.

The person who you will sell to a) Doesn’t care about technology, b) Wants to focus on her business as this is how she makes a living, c) Would love his computers to “just work,” like a telephone, and d) Needs to be shown a business case that justifies signing up for

your services. And this isn’t a multiple choice question.

So what is your value proposition? Put yourself in your clients’shoes. What are their hot buttons? It might be the fact that they nowhave predictable costs. Or is it reliability and productivity? Thesystem becomes transparent through proactive monitoring andmanagement, which will lead to better system reliability andperformance, which will result in increased user productivity. Is it thatthey only have to make a single call for all their computer needs andissues? You become the single and only point of contact necessary forall computer-related issues whether you sold the technology to them

or not. Whether you actually provide the service or not. This iscommonly referred to as vendor management. And finally, you aretheir trusted advisor. You assist them, as a contact CIO, in strategicallyleveraging their IT resources to help their company succeed. Does thislook like what you’re doing now? Is it what your competition isdoing? See how this creates an incredible competitive advantage foryou? See how it’s an enticing business proposition for your client?

Clearly this is a more sophisticated approach than simplybeing their “computer guy,” regardless of how technically skilledyou are. I can tell you from experience that what SMB businessmanagement wants is someone who can talk to them in theirlanguage. Technical ability is a given. You want them to invite youinto their planning sessions when computers and technology are onthe agenda. Do this and you will win their hearts and mind. Youwill be their trusted advisor. You will own the client.

Growth and ScalabilityTaking your business forward successfully will be a function of

everything discussed here. Let’s take a moment to look at the keydifference between a project-based business and an MSP business.Project-based business is “a la carte” and MSP business is a“Complete Dinner.” To successfully scale your business you have tobe the master of process and procedure. You have to makeeverything you do repeatable. Don’t succumb to thinking, “Can’twe just add this?” (At the same price of course.) Over time you willbe able to become more flexible, but this flexibility is not a functionof custom building MSP solutions, it is a function of feature thatyou can “bolt” on, services that seamlessly flow through yourexisting processes and procedures. Remember, the minute youdisrupt this flow you’ll bleed profit. So, as I outlined, you will startwith a single “dinner” then add a second and third and so on untilyou have a variety of choices. Next, you can look at how tosubstitute a milk shake for a soda. And just like at a restaurant, eachsubstitute will add to the price. The picture below illustrates the20,000 foot view of this. Expect this process to take at least twoyears to accomplish, but at the end it will be more than worth it.

This concludes your 50,000 foot overview of what it takes totransform your business from the peaks and valleys of the project-based business you’re in now to the rewards of the reoccurringrevenue model of being an MSP. Next time we’ll get closer to someof the course issues or actually designing and pricing your firstoffering. �

Eric Steinberg is a principle Consultant atThe Boundless Group, a firm that workswith both vendors and resellers looking toenter or expand their presence in the MSPmarket. He is also the creator of the popularseminar series, MSP Smart-The CompleteStep-by-Step Guide to Succeeding in theMSP Market. Eric can be reached [email protected].


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ood Lord! Can you believe that the 2008 USAPresidential primaries are starting? Between YouTubedebates on CNN, cash calls from candidates seeking

moola and dinner-time calls at home from pollsters, it is nothingless than an exciting election year, with Democrats hoping toregain the White House (possibly with a Clinton).

One technique used by pollsters that is controversial ispush polling. Here the poll taker asks leading questions of thelistener. An example might be, “If I told you giving driverslicenses to illegal aliens increases the crime rate, what wouldyou think about giving drivers licenses to undocumentedforeign workers?” We are on the cusp of our largest, biggest andbest survey of the year (our annual salary survey going live inearly December), and I want to assure you that we strive to havestatistically neutral questions that allow us to obtain yourhonest opinions. Furthermore, we have expanded the scope ofthis year’s salary survey beyond basic age, education,geographic, demographic and income questions. I sought inputfrom the community ecosystem about what questions I couldadd to better survey the sentiments of the community and allow you to better profile yourself. It all starts atwww.smbnation.com. Look for next month’s magazine to haverich coverage on this topic.

Meanwhile back at home, let’s discuss Microsoft HomeServer. Our current poll allowed us to understand what you, theSmall Business Specialist and SMB channel Partner, think aboutthe new Home Server. Here are the results:

Do you intend to resell and deploy Home Server to customers?Yes 63.6%No 36.4%

Harry’s take: Excellent early MO!

Is Home Server a channel play? That is – should Home Serverbe sold via channel Partners, or is it a retail play?Channel play: 54.5%Retail play: 45.5%

Harry’s take: I hope this convinces Microsoft Redmond to incentivizethe SMB channel to roll this baby out.

In the next 12 months, how many copies of Home Server do youplan to sell and/or deploy? Zero: 36.4%1-5: 45.5%6-10: 18.2%11-25: 026+: 0

Harry’s take: Some mixed signals here. Classic bell curve landing inthe 1-5 category but that skewing to zero is spooky scary!

Heard On the StreetAs always, we travel the globe seeking out opinionated

SBSers and we typically do not have to look far. Here are somecomments from the attendees at recent ASCII Groupworkshops on both the east and west coasts of the USA.

Zach Mesel, Wooden SpoonTechnologies, Inc,Santa Rosa, CA“SBS2003 clients have been keeping me sobusy, I haven't had a moment to check outHome Server.”

Scott Barlow, Reflexion“I’m excited about Windows Home Serverand as a consumer, I can’t wait to get itconfigured in my home. There is a hugemarket out there for an easy to configurehome backup and media sharing solution,and those who operate a SOHO businesscan now afford an appliance-like serverwith built-in internal redundancy.”

Ken Granger, Solution Provider at Arranging Pixels,Orlando, Florida“Home Server is probably not a thread toselling SBS since it doesn’t have SBS orExchange.”

Scott Cayouette, Small Business Specialist, IPW Networks, Pompano Beach, Florida“Home Server is a wonderful product thatis going to do a lot of great things for thehome market for small business. I will beselling it in conjunction with SBS tosmaller clients, or as an extension to SBS

but not instead of. They complement each other. SBS hasExchange and remote connectivity, Home Server is a great way toback up laptops and home machines that are not on the network.”

GPush Polling and Our Annual Salary Survey

Perceptionsby Harry Brelsford

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM


SMBPC: Tell us how Exclaimer came into existence.Rick Robertson: Exclaimer was originally spun out of DCSL, aMicrosoft Small Business Partner in the UK. In 2004, DCSLmerged with a company that I owned to form the global businessthat is Exclaimer today.

In 2001, DCSL was asked by its accounting and legal firm toprovide a solution to add some additional email functionality totheir Microsoft Exchange server. After searching the Web andfinding nothing available, DCSL decided to write the applicationitself. The initial development timeline was expected to be twoweeks, but it in fact took several months to develop an earlyversion of the product.

After successfully delivering the basic solution to the legalfirm, we realized there was a keen interest in the product amongour customer base, so the team that designed Lotus Organizerwas brought in to professionally design and code the solution. Wenamed the product Exclaimer because of its initial ability tocentrally disclaim mail. We then made it available on the Web todetermine the global requirement for this new tool we haddeveloped that extended the functionality of Microsoft Exchange.Almost immediately, the first order arrived and the businessreally has not slowed since. Our first orders were mostly from theSMB sector until a well-known financial services corporation with90,000 employees bought Exclaimer, proving that our softwarecould scale from a five-employee SBS shop to any size ofenterprise. Our largest deployment so far is 140,000 users.

As of today, we have over 24 million end users of oursoftware, which represents over 1 billion emails a day going outthrough Exclaimer.

SMBPC: At first look it appears that Exclaimer is an Enterprise-levelsolution.We’re kind of curious about how Exclaimer SBS Suite is doingin the SMB marketplace.Rick Robertson: In the beginning, we were only selling to SBS andSMB customers and we simply scaled the application to theEnterprise level to meet the many needs of that sector. As we gotdeeper and deeper into the business, attended the SMB Nationevent, and met many of the resellers in the SBS and SMB space, weknew we could do something special in this market.

As DCSL is also reseller in this space it became clear to us thatthe solution had to be a utility that could easily be added to anySBS server in the world and should include the full functionalityof our solutions for a single fee that the client could easily andquickly decide upon.

Today, our SBS clients receive the Exclaimer Mail Utilitysolution, which now includes email disclaiming, email branding,a full-function email archiving solution, a business grade anti-spam solution, a mail store compression ability and added autoresponding functionality. A free trial ensures that the suite meetsthe users’ needs before they decide to purchase the solution. Forlarger SMBs that are using the Exchange Standard and Enterpriseservers, the pricing model changes to a per-seat basis, outlined indetail on our Web site. The SMB space is clearly our largest sectorof business.

SMBPC: What made you interested in serving the SMB space?Rick Robertson: Our interest in the SMB space was decided for usbecause the majority of the orders on our Web site were comingfrom SMBs. We did not make a conscious decision to go after theSMB space, it happened as a result of a worldwide push by

lawmakers to introduce legislation that had to be complied withwhen sending email. Almost daily there are new laws emergingthat dictate how email is sent, with what information and withwhat disclaimers, where the disclaimers should be placed, howlong you must keep all your business emails and how youforensically store your email.

SMBPC: You just launched Mail Utilities 2007. Can you tell us aboutthe enhancements to your flagship product?Rick Robertson: Designed specifically for Exchange 2007environments, Exclaimer Mail Utilities 2007 allows organizationsto execute a host of powerful mail features at the server level,ensuring compliance with corporate-wide policies andprocedures. It provides the ability to add disclaimers andsignatures to outgoing email, take advantage of industry-leadinganti-spam technology, establish auto-responder messages fromany email address, perform email blocking and redirectionfunctions, and perform a wide range of automated actions via apowerful rules engine.

SMBPC: What will Exclaimer have in store for 2008?Rick Robertson: We have a busy year planned, with enhancementsand new capabilities scheduled for release. The newest version ofExclaimer Archiver will be released in early 2008. Our rules enginethat allows our clients and our resellers to easily configure thesystem to easily meet all their needs is also being updated withmany new capabilities and features. In the latter part of the year, wewill introduce industry-specific mail applications for verticals likefinancial services, insurance, legal, and healthcare.

Read more about Exclaimer atwww.smbnation.com/smbarticles.htm

SMBPC Channel Insider by Beatrice Mulzer

Exclaimer’s President, Rick Robertson, still loves to work tradeshowsand engage personally with Partners.

Rick Robertson Facts:My business philosophy is: Total Customer Satisfaction.

The person I admire most: Bill Gates.

If I could, I’d be a: Race Car Driver.

I’m so sick of: Going through security at airports.

Current book I am reading: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

I wish I knew how to: Increase the number of hours in a day.

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM

New Toolkit: Develop, Deploy Custom Solutions Learn how to build your

business by selling anddeploying feature-rich portalsand collaborative workspaces

using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Small Business Server2003 R2. The toolkit includes Partner best practices, acomprehensive guide (“cookbook”) to processes from salesthrough delivery, technical data and documentation, andmarketing tools, including demos and scripts.https://partner.microsoft.com/wsskit.

Announcing ATLSBS!Olivier Havette of The Net Doctor and Rick Butler of Agility

IT Solutions are proud to announce the formation of a newAtlanta-based User Group for Resellers of Microsoft’s SmallBusiness Server, the ATLSBS User Group! The goal of this neworganization is to promote stronger relationships between fellowSmall Business IT Consultants - consultants who typically supportclients using Small Business Server as the core of their IT setup.

ATLSBS will be hosting monthly meetings held on the firstWednesday of every month, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m..Location: The Net Doctor office, located at 1990 Defoor Avenue,located just NW of the Howell Mill Road exit off of I-75 in NWAtlanta. Call 678-702-5500 for more information.

Mobile Device Manager 2008 Available in the second

quarter of 2008, System CenterMobile Device Manager 2008 willprovide organizations with

enhanced on-device security and over-the-air policy enforcement.It allows IT professionals to more easily manage phones withinthe organization, offering instant remote device wipe andproviding security enhanced behind-the-firewall access to mobile users among other new features. Go tohttp://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/mobiledevicemanager/default.mspx for more information.

Congratulations Ron! TS2 veteran Ron Grattopp is being

recognized as a true SBSC program advocatethrough his continued championing of theMCP exam prep webcast series. He receivedthe SBSC Star awards for his continuingefforts in driving program success anddelivering training webcasts. Ron’scontinued prioritization in this area is atestament to the commitment he has to thisimportant SBSC Partner community.

Congratulations, Ron, and we look forward to your next webcastseries in 2008!

Technology Watch

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM


Tech Corner

any years ago I came across a product called“What’s Up.” It was a “Let’s-ping-the-machine-if-see-it’s-alive,” product. I used it at a couple of

customer sites and they were very pleased to see the greencheck box change to red after someone had turned the serveroff. You know, “Ooooh, Amazing!” And it was great. Well,kind of. The problem was that we got all these nice alarms (iteven had an alarm-sound) when servers were already down.It’s better to know which servers are dead than to go into tothe server room and guess. Right! Another customer used anapplication from a large IT company. It was very nice, veryslick, and VERY expensive and it was only marginally better.It could always tell me, “The server does not work anymore.”So, did that help me avoid any problems? It could send analert to a user, instead of me having to tell users, “Sorry, wedon’t know what’s wrong,” it could actually tell what waswrong, but it didn’t help me or the users to eliminate theproblem. This solution was also reactive.

All that has changed since a couple of years back, todaywith Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and System CenterOperations Manager 2007, we can be proactive. But theseapplications and solutions are expensive and not that easy toset up and configure, and that’s where System CenterEssentials (SCE) fits perfectly.

System Center Essentials is based on two differentcomponents. The major part is the System Center OperationsManager 2007 and the second part is Windows Server UpdateServices (WSUS). There is a little tweak to WSUS (using somenew APIs) that make it possible to distribute applications andnot just patches. That makes System Center Essentials aperfect friend for small and midsize business. One importantitem to note is that it has a remote connection built upon thefamous Remote Web Workplace included in Small BusinessServer (SBS). The difference is that it’s NOT designed forremote users but for remote operators, and that could be youas a Microsoft Partner. The whole idea here is that thecustomer uses System Center Essentials locally and that aMicrosoft Partner manages the customer from a Network

Operation Center. The nice thing is that Partners can managemore than just one customer and since System CenterEssentials is going to be a part of Essential Business Server(Codename “Centro”) and also the next version of SmallBusiness Server (Codename “Cougar”). You may want tothink about this for a short while. It’s a really good way tocentrally monitor and manage all the computers, hardware,software, patches etc. Now you know a little bit about SystemCenter Essentials, referred to as SCE by Microsoft internally.

Let’s Get StartedIf you want to get a feel for SCE go to

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sce/bb684924.aspx, theSystem Center Essentials Tech Center. Microsoft has “pre-installed” VHDs available for download. Just join it to yourdomain and configure it. There are online LABS that you canplay with and 90-day trial software. But before you get yourfingers dirty let me tell you a little bit about what to expect.SCE has to be part of a domain and you can’t run more thenone SCE installation in one domain. You need memory (a lot).There is an SP1 for SCE that will “ease” up the memory loadand the disk IO load a bit, but right now it’s a memoryhungry app. It requires 1 GB of RAM but 2 GB makes SCEhappy. Disk space required is about 20 GB and the CPUshould be at least 2 GHz. SCE uses SQL2005 Express as thedatabase engine which will be installed automatically. SCE isvery “automatic” in a very broad spectrum and aims for ITgeneralists to be able to install and work with it. In theconsole you will always see links to videos showing you howto manage different tasks. SCE runs on Windows Server 2003and on top of Small Business Server 2003. Not many thinkyou can do that, but it’s a supported platform. Beforeinstalling it on Small Business Server, be sure to have lots ofmemory, CPU and Disk IO to feed SCE its desired resources.

The product installation is straightforward and basicallythere are three areas to configure - Product Features,Computers and Devices that you want to manage, andUpdate Settings.

by Mikael Nyström

M

System Center Essentialsor How to Light up IT

Visit the System Center Essentials Wikihttp://sce.editme.com/ - a community Wiki

maintained by the SCE MVP Community andMicrosoft Product Group.

Need to know how to configure the ISA2004 Firewall for SCE in the

SBS 2003 Premium version?Visit http://sce.editme.com/sbs2003premium.

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM

Let’s start with the first one, the wizard is almost “fun” torun through. The questions are like, “Do you want me tocreate a policy that will fix everything?” I mean, how manywill actually say, No, I don’t think so? Well, the first wizardwill configure Proxy, the GPO, Firewall exceptions on allcomputers, Remote Assistance, Agentless Error Monitoring(AEM), Error Forwarding, a Scheduled Discovery that will“hunt” computers and devices for you, and the absolutelybest thing, the Morning Mail (its called “Daily HealthReport,” but I have never heard anyone call it that, except inmarketing messages). The Morning Mail is a mail messagethat gives you an overview over almost everything in theenvironment. It is one single page that gives theadministrator a good start every morning, stating what to doand what to take care of.

When the three areas (product features, computer anddevices, update settings) are configured, the system is“almost” up and running. The only thing that you need tokeep in mind is that the first wizard creates a GPO and it willtake about 90 minutes before it “hits” the computers; sobefore running wizard number two you should wait.

Done With Setup,Time to WorkThe wizards have done their job and now it’s time see

what we can use SCE for. Let’s start with some of thereporting capabilities that we have. There are many reportsyou can pick here, and the first one I will show you is theMorning Mail report, or the Health report. It shows anoverview over all systems that are monitored - hardware,software, status and other things that you need to know.Below you can see a sample of the Morning Mail.

Find the rest of the article and screenshots athttp://www.smbnation.com/SMBarticles.htm

Mikael Nyström is a Microsoft MVP in Windows Server –Setup/Deployment. He is active in the Swedish SBS communityand newsgroups. Mikael is a trainer and seminar speaker. Heworks on large network solutions involving Virtual Server, MOM,SMS, BDD, Exchange, and collaboration solutions. But in hisheart there is a Small Business Server.You can reach Mikael at [email protected]

Page 18 www.smbnation.com SMB Partner Community - December 2007/January 2008

System Center Essentials configuration screen after initial installation.

Selecting the Policy Type for computer management.

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM


Dec 2007 12/8/07 3:46 PM


hile I was on vacation this summer (contrary tobelief, we do get to take vacations at Microsoftfrom time to time), I had the opportunity to

work with a Small Business in my area to set up their newoffice. Upon moving to their new facility, they found outthat they were outside the distance from the Telco tosubscribe to a DSL service as they’d done in the past. Totheir surprise, the only service available besides a dialupservice was a T1 offering at over $400 a month, which wasoutside their budget.

As I was researching ISPs online from my wirelessaircard (Verizon) in my laptop, they asked me if a wirelesscard solution might work for their business. The company’sowner contacted their cellular service provider (AT&T) andordered a PCMCIA wireless card to test. Unfortunately, thelocation of their building was in the bottom of a valley andjust as their cell phone reception was poor, so was thesignal on the Sierra Wireless aircard. After spending overtwo hours on the phone with AT&T customer service they decided to use an external antenna and possibly asignal booster. The technician suggested contactingWPSAntennas (www.wpsantennas.com) to help me builda package for the office and I took his advice.

I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed with thelevel of service I received from the product specialist atWPSAntennas. Not only did they answer my questions,they helped me build the most cost-effective solutionpossible for my friend’s business. Once the Yagi antennaand wiring showed up, it only took a couple of mountingbrackets and a couple of poles to get the antenna in placeand a 1.5 MB download was running smoothly from thewireless card. Of course, this wasn’t the end of the installbecause the next question that came up was, “How can Ishare this connection with everyone in the office?” Thisanswer was quickly resolved by a visit to DLink’s Web siteand ordering a DIR-451 3G Mobile Router. It took longer tomount the router to the wall than it did to get it configuredand broadcasting a WPA signal. The entire investment onthe Small Business’s behalf for the antenna, router, wiringand brackets was under $600, and the aircard services wasless that $50 a month. They recouped their cost for thisinvestment in the first three months of use and have beenthanking me ever since. Hopefully, a solution like this maysave your customers some time and heartache too.

To learn more about Charles, TS2 Seminars andMicrosoft solutions, visit www.ts2seminars.com.

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Upcoming Live Events:

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Leveraging Cellular Broadband for Small Businesses – Creativity Can Save You a Bundle!

Dec 2007 12/5/07 9:08 PM

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Dec 2007

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Transcript of Dec 2007