Hurry, price to rise soon

I am proud to say that the Cloud Business Blueprint community is fast approaching its second anniversary. I’d firstly like to take the opportunity to thank every existing Cloud Business Blueprint community member. Without you Cloud Business Blueprint wouldn’t be the success that it is.

Since it started out, we have kept adding more content for community members. The above screen shot shows you that we currently have over 150 videos available for community members to view on demand. That’s over 4.5GB of video footage available to help community members learn more about both the technical and business aspects of being a modern cloud provider.

But the information doesn’t stop there, we have a members forums where we answer both business and technical answers. It is place where other cloud resellers can share their challenges and help other members of the community through their experience.

Inside the Cloud Business Blueprint Community is also a raft of documentation, whitepapers and re-brandable content you can take and use with your own customers, all included in the monthly subscription price.

With all this success we are now looking to take the Cloud Business Blueprint community to the next level. This, combined with the significant amount of content that is now part of the community, means that we’ll soon be raising the entry price. However, if you subscribe before the price increase in November you’ll remain on the old rate for the life of your subscription.

Remember, there is no long term commitment, you can cancel at any time without question but I’m confident once you see all the content that is available and the new stuff that we are constantly adding you’ll realise how much time it is going to save you building your business and resolving technical issues.

You’d be hard pressed to find another dedicated environment like this that specifically brings together the best cloud providers from around the world and allows them to build their technical skills, business knowledge and share with others from all around the globe.

If you like the free content that I provide in various places and want to support the work that I do and gain access to the premium content I provide, then the Cloud Business Blueprint community is for you. Remember, join now to lock in the existing subscription price before he increase with no commitments. You can sign up today at:

http://www.cloudbusinessblueprint.com/members-sign-up/

I look forward to welcoming you inside the Cloud Business Blueprint community as we move into our third year.

Skill up or fade away. It’s that simple

One of the most common flaws I see with resellers and their cloud strategy is that they themselves simply don’t use the solutions they are attempting to sell their customers. That firstly limits their opportunities, secondly it limits their revenue and thirdly is raises questions in the clients mind (rightly or wrongly) as to whether they really know IT.

Let’s take Office 365 for example. Here SharePoint is clearly one of the most important pieces of the solution. SharePoint has been around since before 2000 and has been included will all versions of Small Business Server since 2003. Yet, most resellers literally have zero knowledge on the product. This lack of knowledge is exposed when they try and implement a product like Office 365 because SharePoint Teams Sites and OneDrive for Business are central to the Office 365 storage solution.

To truly understand a product like Office 365 you need to use it and use it as part of your business, every day. This of course means making an investment in learning and directly implementing the product. Yes, there may be other industry solutions out there that can solve a business need but can you re-bundle that specific product knowledge and sell it to clients? You can with SharePoint, Yammer, Skype for Business and so on.

Even if you don’t go the Office 365 route, what about products like Mailchimp, IFTTT, Evernote, Zapier, YouTube, Facebook, Bascamp and so on? The list is endless. Most IT Pros and resellers I come across are still wondering why paper flyers aren’t flooding them with business and are yet to implement social media for themselves. They are using the same technology they have been using for years because they are familiar with it, not because it makes them more productive, simple because it is what is familiar. In today’s exponential technological age that is a very dangerous place to be.

By experiencing the challenges in implementing and developing new solutions for yourself you get a much better understanding of how to craft something that can solves real world business problems, which In the end is what IT pros and resellers should be getting paid for. Simply buying an off the shelf, industry solution may improve your own business but it doesn’t expand any opportunity outside your business does it really? However, using something like SharePoint to solve an internal business challenge has an impact inside and outside the business because SharePoint is a now such a common platform.

Simply maintaining the IT status quo won’t cut it any more, IT pros and resellers have to be able to solve real business needs for their customers. In many cases this means implementing customised solutions, and that means development work. This may even mean some coding! Shock horror! However, the concept of the dominance of software in IT is not new, Marc Andreessen highlighted it back in 2011 when he wrote:

Why Software Is Eating The World

My observation is that this is where most IT Pros and resellers fall down, they don’t have the development skills. Yet a skill is something that can be learned, it is does not have any restrictions that prevents an IT Pro or reseller actually learning it, except in their own minds.

Cloud platforms like Office 365 provide a raft of tools for solving many business problems. However, they are not something that is just installed, they are tools to be used in crafting a solution. It is in this crafting that the real revenue opportunity lies, yet most IT Pros and resellers remain oblivious to this fact. Like the customers they support, they have the tools they need to solve their business challenges and generate additional revenue, yet many choose to ignore them because they are not willing to invest in the skills required. I’m not saying it doesn’t involve effort. I’m not saying it won’t be challenging. What I’m saying is that unless you are aiming to play in the high volume transaction game, you really don’t have any choice any more.

Therefore, because IT Pros and resellers are not skilling up on the platforms they are selling, their customers are using and discovering these same resources for themselves and building the required skills independent of their IT Pro or reseller. This is therefore fast relegating the IT Pro and resellers to work that is easily commoditised or automated, which in the end spells redundancy for them. Don’t believe in the ‘Uberisation’ of IT? Not doing so would be another fatal mistake.

Let me use you my own example here. Many IT Pros and resellers scoff at me when I tell then I use a spreadsheet to run the finances of my business, however that is because they assume that I’m using a spreadsheet in the same rudimentary manner they would (probably just summing up cells). They have no comprehension of the sophistication and automation that I have built into my financial spreadsheets. They have no comprehension of the advanced skills training that provides me in a product that is probably on the desktop of every business user. Those skills therefore give me the confidence, experience and opportunity to provide a raft of Excel services to customers for which I generate revenue. Sure, I could use an off the shelf accounting package but the opportunity benefits I deride from using Excel to an advanced level far outweigh and cost saving an accounting package may provide.

What you can achieve with Excel along is mind blowing but let me ask you, do you use Pivot Tables? Named ranges? Table lookups? Macros? I have found few who do and that’s therefore the opportunity I’ve identified I can fill and make money in the process. Now extend that opportunity out to products like SharePoint, Yammer, Power BI, Skype for Business and so on. The more I use each of these, the more I learn, the more I improve the way I do business but critically the more opportunity I have to resell those skills. Don’t even get me started on the Azure opportunities IT Pros and resellers are missing out on.

Most IT Pros and resellers have free access to all the products they provides to customers internally but yet few ever embrace them, yet alone implement them. In today’s fast paced markets this allows customers to surpass those who are supposed to know and once that happens, why do you need IT Pros and resellers? Simple, you don’t, and that’s what I see happening today.

Use it or lose it should be your mantra if you are an IT Pro or reseller. Skill up or fade away. It’s that simple.

Setting Partner of record in Office 365

A little while ago I wrote a post on how to set the partner of record in Office 365.

Since then, the Office 365 billing interface has changed so here’s an updated tutorial on how to set the partner of record in Office 365 tenant.

You’ll firstly need to login to the Office 365 web portal as an administrator with the appropriate rights.

Once you have logged onto the web console navigate to the Office 365 admin center using the app launcher. Towards the middle of this menu you will find a heading Billing which you will need to expand.

Below the Billing heading you should find an option Subscriptions which you need to select.

Now what actually appears here depends on what licenses you have in the Office 365 tenant but at first glance of the above screen shot the location to enter your partner of record is no very obvious. You may see a link in the lower right but in this case you don’t see anything.

You need to select the More Actions pull down in the top left as shown above. When you do this a menu will appear.

In this menu option you will find the option Add partner of record.

Selecting this will slide an options screen from the right hand side of the page as shown above.

You can then enter you Microsoft Partner ID in that field and select the Check ID button.

if you have completed all the partner pre-requisites you should see that your organisation has been located and is displayed in all green indicating everything is good.

You now need to go to the bottom of this slide and Save the changes and apply that partner to this tenant.

When you do that, administrators in the tenant will be sent a confirmation email like that shown above indicating that a new partner of record has been set.

Remember, what you see in the subscriptions area may vary depending on what licenses have been added to the tenant. Some licenses don’t support partner of record (i.e. Open). However, hopefully this makes it easy for you to set partner of record on those subscriptions that support it so you can start receiving commissions.

Good corporate culture is always about the Team

One of the topics of late that I have heard a lot of discussion about is how to develop a good corporate culture. There are plenty of books and resources out there that give you all sorts of explanations and suggestions about developing a great corporate culture, however my experience is that they rarely do. To me what works is far simpler than what most of these detail.

Good culture is all simply about ‘the team’. This means developing an ethos around the fact that the individuals must grow to focus on the needs of their team mates above their own. Successfully developed, this means that as each individual puts the team first so the team puts the individual first leaving none wanting. It provides the security that you know your team mates are always there. It provides the commitment that the individual must also be there for the team.

Building a culture around being a good member of the ‘team’ means developing people who are able to lead and be lead when required without hesitation. It also means being able to support and provide support when required again without hesitation. This focus on the collective good above the individual builds bonds that are extremely strong, resilient and accomplish much more than a group of individuals could. Most importantly it builds trust, a foundation sorely missing in most organisations.

The development of a true ‘team’ culture provides a sense of belonging and being part of something bigger, something more important that any individual need. It provides a sense of pride, espirit d’corp that can in many cases rival family bonds. Your team mates are your family, they are your friends, they are your confidants, they will be there when you need them just as you must be there for them, without question, without judgment and without reservation. Everyone wants to be part of a true team culture but creating this takes work.

Developing a good team relies on shared experiences, good and bad, for it is through these shared experiences that team members come to understand and appreciate their own strengths and weaknesses along with those in their team. The strength of the team is that they compensate for the weakness of each other so deficiencies are minimised. Their combination provides the strength and the support for members to excel beyond their own limitations. They strive to excel for the team, not for themselves. They strive to not let their team mates down because they know this is exactly what their team mates are doing for them.

Developing good corporate culture is not difficult. It is about focusing on developing a true ‘team’ approach within a business, which in essence fosters the devotion of individual to their team mates above themselves. So how do you foster such a devotion and focus on the team? Good leadership, that’s how. Good leaders inspire a team approach and promote trust. Good leaders are the ones who stand up first for the team, they lead by example and through their actions they inspire the best in those around them. Good leadership is not an ability, it is a skill. It can be learned. It can be developed.

Good corporate culture is straight forward, finding good leaders is tough. Good leaders are the ones who do for others and the greater good naturally without looking for something in return. They are the ones you need to develop a truly great culture but sadly in today’s narcissistic world these true leaders are few and far between. Thus, if you want a good culture, recruit and develop the best leaders. Not managers. Leaders. Find those who are about others first because without them there is no trust or foundation for a good team. Once you have these individuals the development of the successful team will be so much easier. However, never forget, good corporate culture is always all about ‘the team’ first and foremost.

I suggest you have a look at this talk by Simon Sinek to understand more about good leadership that is such a critical part of developing good teams and thus good corporate culture.

Need to Know podcast–Episode 89

In this episode I speak with SMB IT rockstar Karl Palachuk, famous for his books, presentations and being an all round good guy. We chat about the IT Pro business and the IT community in general and where things are headed in the future with technology and those that support it. I’ve been on Karl’s podcast many times, now is my chance to reverse the roles.

You’ll also find some news and updates on Windows 10 and Office 365 as usual in this episode, so sit back and enjoy Mr Karl Palachuk.

You can listen to this episode at:

http://ciaops.podbean.com/e/episode-89-karl-palachuk/

or subscribe to this and all episodes in iTunes at:

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/ciaops-need-to-know-podcasts/id406891445?mt=2

The podcast is also available on Stitcher at:

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ciaops/need-to-know-podcast?refid=stpr

Don’t forget to give the show a rating as well as send me any feedback or suggestions you may have for the show. I’m also on the hunt for some co-presenters so if you are interested on being a regular part of the show please contact me.

Resources

Connect Windows 10 to Azure AD

Sway now generally available

Office 365 new round up

Jeff Alexander on Windows 10 – Episode 1

Jeff Alexander on Windows 10 – Episode 2

Karl Palachuk