Why I don’t like the term Trusted Advisor

In a previous review of SMB Nation 2014 I alluded to the fact that I believe many people are struggling with the concept of MSP (Managed service Provider) and how it operates in the new cloud world. I also stated that I don’t believe the MSP mantra being pushed by so many vendors makes sense any more. It has allowed too to become locked into doing things the old way and that is a huge risk in todays technology world.

One of the most common terms you hear in the technology world, especially in the SMB space is ‘trusted advisor’. The claim is that you need to be a ‘trusted advisor’ for your customers and so on. I disagree.

The reason I disagree is that, to me at least, being a ‘trusted advisor’ means being reactive. It means waiting for your customer to come to you and ask about this or that. You know what? By then they have probably almost made up their minds as to whatever they are considering. They are simply running it past you to either see if there are any major oversights they have made or looking for you to do it cheaper. In todays world, being reactive is not something you want to be.

A more appropriate model for an SMB reseller today is the concept of a ‘virtual Chief Information Officer (CIO)’. This means that you you proactively search out solutions for clients, work out what fits and then present it to them, hopefully before they even realise they need it.

Let me give an example. Many resellers come to me and say they are confused by the plethora of Office 365 plans that are available. There are simply too many options to consider. My argument is that for nearly every customer I know of, the Enterprise E3 suite is the best option. Sure, it isn’t the cheapest but it has the most features, most flexibility and how many customers never have need for change over time? Agility is far more important in technology than price.

When I offer this in regards to the E3 plan being superior the next response from the reseller is that it is too expensive and customers will never go for that. Here is the crux of my argument around being a ‘virtual CIO’. You as a reseller need to DEMONSTRATE the value of the E3 plans to the business. You as a reseller need to KNOW what it includes, what options it has the business can use today and what options they will need in the FUTURE. If the customer then elects to go cheaper that is their decision not yours. I would be hard pressed to find someone whom I have shown the value of E3 who wouldn’t consider it. However, for that to be successful means I have to act far more like part of their business by understanding their needs now an into the future.

As a ‘virtual CIO’ you are looking ahead. As a ‘virtual CIO’ you are PART of their business not standing off on the side simply providing comment. It is kind of the difference between being a coach standing on the sidelines and the captain on the field making the plays. Luckily, being a ‘virtual CIO’ allows you to be a captain/coach in my books, while a trusted advisor is simply a coach and we all know that what happens on the field is very different from what seems to happen from the side lines.

I would also suggest that if you have customers then you are already ‘trusted’ for if your weren’t they wouldn’t have hired you. So if you follow the traditional ‘trusted advisor’ model all you are doing is providing advice which really doesn’t add a huge amount of value. Today’s reseller needs to be more involved in the customers business. They need to bring their skills and expertise to bear in a manner that allow them anticipate what the business needs.

I would therefore suggest to you that when you hear the term ‘trusted advisor’ being bandied around by anyone, that they are in fact living in the past. See if what they offer can be translated to being a ‘virtual CIO’. If it can’t, then I’d be suggesting that it doesn’t provide a whole lot of value for your reseller business in the new world of technology.

Returning to my SMB Nation 2014 review, I think that to be successful you need to look for new business models that challenge contemporary ones like being an MSP. If the old models work in the new world, great, but don’t be afraid to challenge them and see if they really do. Those that are not willing to accept what others say ‘works’ and find their own path through education will prosper, the rest will be lead like lambs to the slaughter in my books.

Image courtesy of Janak Dharmasena at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Brisbane Office 365 and Azure training

A little while ago I announced a kickstarter project to get some Office 365 and Azure training happening in Brisbane in November. I am happy to announce that thanks to some very supportive Brisbane people that training is now proceeding.

The confirmed details are thus:

Location

THE SEBEL BRISBANE
95 CHARLOTTE STREET
BRISBANE QLD 4000

Times

Friday 7th of November 2014 – Office 365
Saturday 8th of November 2014 – Azure

Registrations

You can attend either or both days. The cost per day is $375 ex and you can sign up at:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ciaops/product/499878.php

The course will include all meals, course notes, etc

Content

I am now in the process of putting together the content and agenda but I’d love to hear from anyone (attending or not) as to what topics they believe should be included in these courses. Email me directly (director@ciaops.com) with your suggestions.

I look forward to seeing everyone on the day.

Review of Office 365 Nation 2014

Although I am still recovering from the jet lag, my vision has cleared enough now that I can pen my thoughts on Office 365 Nation 2014 recently held in Seattle.

The event was put together by Harry Brelsford and in another way is really SMB Nation 2014, however this time the theme has been ‘rebooted’ to focus on Office 365 and the cloud.

The first thing I must do is thank Harry for the opportunity to conduct four formal and one informal session. You can download the slides from the my formal presentations here:

T106 – Coming to grips with SharePoint

T107 – The Business of Yammer

T108 – Level up with PowerShell for Office 365

T109 – Lync the red headed step child

unfortunately, there are no slides for my informal Azure session as it was mostly demos and actually went for over two hours! Thanks to all who stayed late to listen to my thoughts.

The next thing I need to do is thank everyone who attended my sessions. The first two were quite late at night, which after a long day, I appreciate you coming along and being an enthusiastic and attentive audience. I also appreciate all the great feedback and questions received in all sessions. And I really appreciate that you laughed at my jokes, corny as they were!

One of the high points of the conference for me was the number of people coming up to me in the hallways letting me know that they read my blog and perhaps a particular post I wrote had helped them. Publishing a blog can be lonely at times, sure you get blog comments but it is so fulfilling for me as a content creator to actually have someone say that what I have created has actually helped them face to face. It makes the whole creation process worthwhile and gives me the energy to continue doing the blog regularly and improving the quality and depth of what it contains.

With over two thirds of attendees attending SMB Nation for the first time it was brought home to me how many are still struggling to find their feet in this new cloud world. Everyone in attendance appreciates the cloud is here and that Office 365 is a great option but they are struggling with how to integrate that into a successful and profitable business for themselves.

The biggest reason for this struggle in my option is that fact that most vendors are still pushing the ‘Managed Service Provider’ (MSP) mantra which I believe doesn’t make a great of sense in this cloud-first world for many. It can play a part, but these days it is only a small part in a cloud business. However it seems to me that too many people have become too locked into things only working in that MSP way and from where I sit, the world is now a very different place.

In saying that, I’d really like to see business models and ideas come to the forefront that challenge that traditional notion so much so that I think I’ll post a few articles on business very soon, so stay tuned for that.

In short, I believe the path to success in many ways requires a completely new way of thinking. You don’t have to totally abandon your existing business model but you do need to challenge it. You do need to start thinking outside the box and challenge the conventions to find what works best for your business. This is where most struggle I believe. They are trying to put the round peg of the way they have always done things into the square hole that is cloud services. So to provide more light on that I promise to do some follow up posts focused on business for people.

I think that this conference had a some very high quality speakers and none more so then Tom Moen from Microsoft. I am so glad I attended his sessions and got to meet the man. I learned a lot about technology and presentation techniques from him. That alone made my whole trip worthwhile.

Of course the real value in these conferences is the hallway networking, sitting down with peers over breakfast, a coffee, dinner or a drink. It was fantastic to catch up with old acquaintances and past SMB Nation attendees. However, it was also fantastic to make so many new connections and talk with others whom I had never met before about their business and the challenges of the cloud. This is also where I learnt a lot and I appreciate every one of those interactions.

So in summary, it was a long way to travel but a real benefit for myself. I thoroughly enjoying presenting my sessions and listening to some other outstanding ones. However, most of all I enjoyed the peer to peer networking and the opportunity to be at the kick off for many along a journey to successful cloud consulting.

My hope is that Harry’s event becomes the pivotal one for SMB cloud resellers as it was for SBS resellers all those years ago, because there really isn’t anything I have seen that speaks specifically to the SMB IT reseller in the cloud space now. These are the people that manage technology for the gigantic number of small businesses out there that power the economy. If SMB’s can grow then the economy as a whole grows and everyone benefits. For that to happen SMB IT resellers need to retool their skill portfolio and a focused conference like this provides no better way to achieve that. So if you haven’t jumped on board the Office 365 Nation train, then I’d recommend it is time you did.

Well done Harry. Well done SMB Nation team. Well done everyone who attended. I’m keen to come back next year and I hope I’ll get the nod to speak again.

Getting Started with SharePoint Online Tutorial Template

I am happy to announce the release of a new product from the CIAOPS. This one is called Getting Started With SharePoint Online Tutorial Template. It can be purchased from:

http://www.ciaops.com/publications

This is a SharePoint template that can be downloaded and installed on any Office 365 plan that includes SharePoint Online. This product will help your business learn about the different features of SharePoint Online by actually using it. There are over 20 lessons that users can work through to increase their knowledge.

The product includes:
– 3.5 hours of video lessons
– Links to over 30 additional content web sites
– Over 250 pages of downloadable documentation (excluding free version)
– Easy to install, customise, extend and update
– Premium edition permits editing/re-branding of content
– Annual Maintenance provides free updates of all content for 1 year

This product is aimed at users who have never used SharePoint Online and want to learn more. Download the User Guide for more details or watch the video.

You can download the free version to see what the product looks like. The free version excludes any downloadable content.

The Standard version includes videos streamed from YouTube which may contain advertising. This however, keeps the download size small and reduces the impact on the SharePoint site as well as bandwidth.

The Premium version includes the same content as the Standard version but you will receive all the source videos and documents as a separate download. The Premium version permits you to modify this content to suit your business needs. It also permits you to re-brand this content and make it available directly to your customers.

Please note you are not permitted to resell or give away this product.

There is also an Annual maintenance option that provides 12 months of free upgrades to both the template and content for Premium purchases. This ensures you always have the most recent and up to date version available as Office 365 changes.

Finally there is also free version you can download and install, however this version does not contain any content but includes all the links and the structure so it could be used as a starting point to build your own solution. Please note, there is no support provided withe free version.

Using this template will provide your business with an easy option to create a learning portal in your SharePoint Online environment. Your users can learn about SharePoint Online while actually using it, which is the best method to achieve fast adoption of the product.

Blogging with SharePoint Online

I’ve written before about how important I believe blogging is. You can find some previous articles at:

Blogging for Business

Your blog is your living resume

The above video is also another great insight from management gurus Seth Godin and Tom Peters as to why blogging is so critical today.

What you may not realize is that SharePoint Online allows you to publish to blogs via a number of different methods. So what I’ll do over the next few posts is cover off all the details about that.

The first option that is available to you with SharePoint Online is to create a blog site in a Team Site. Remember, that a Team Site is designed for multiple people to work together and share different types of information together. A Team Site blog is a great way to capture information and ideas from all people working on the project and make it easy to share.

So to create a Team Site blog you’ll firstly, navigate to the Team Site you wish to the blog to appear beneath. With SharePoint Online a blog is created as a sub site.

You’ll also need to have the rights to create sub sites in SharePoint Online but if you do, select the Site Contents link from the Quick Launch Menu on the left hand side.

This will take you to the area where you can see all the apps you have installed into the SharePoint Team Site as well as add more.

Down the bottom of the window you will find a heading Subsites as well as link to create a new subsite. Select this to continue.

Much like creating a standard subsite you’ll be asked to complete the site Title and Description as well as the site URL suffix.

Now to get all the blogging abilities you need to select the Blog template option under the Collaboration tab in the Template Selection area as shown above.

You can then make any further changes to the desired blog site, scroll down and press the Create button.

In a matter of moments you should see the new blog site shown in the window.

You can now use the Blog tools options on the right hand side to interact with the blog site via the browser.

For example, if you select the option to Create a post you will see the screen above where you are able to enter blog post information directly via a browser with all the standard editing tools available by the SharePoint Ribbon Menu at the top. This includes the ability to change formatting as well as:

inserting a variety of items such as tables, images, videos, links, files by selecting the Insert ribbon tab. There is also the option to directly embed HTML code.

When you have finished editing your post you simply press the Publish button at the bottom of the screen. You will be returned to the home page of the site and your post should now be visible as shown above.

So that’s really al there is to creating a blog site for a Team Site in SharePoint Online and getting up and running. In the next few posts I’ll share some tips and tricks about how to more effectively use the blog that you have just created here so stay tuned.

Being busy is an excuse for being unfocused

We all have stuff we need to get done, yet why do most people never seem to free themselves from the cycle of always being busy? The simple reason is they are not focused.
The world is divided up into stuff we like doing and stuff we don’t. The problem is that much of the stuff that actually needs to be done we don’t enjoy so we don’t do it. We find excuses to put it on the back burner while we go off and do something more enjoyable but far less important.
Thus, the stuff that should be getting done continues to pile up and eventually the chickens come home to roost and we have no choice but to actually do it. However, rather than now being able to select the when we do the task we simply have to throw our next available free time at the task due to its urgency.
We thus, no longer, have the choice of how we allot our precious time, it simply HAS to be allocated to get the task done. This is what people mean when they say they are busy. They are saying that they have to throw their available time allocations immediately at tasks they typically have not focused on or completed that can no longer be avoided. In short, they are no longer masters of their own time.
If you ask people what their most precious resource is, few will nominate time. That is why they use it so frivolously. They don’t value it and that is a fatal mistake. Why? Because time is something you never get back once it is consumed. No one can get more time and we all have a limited amount of time but worst of all, no one has any idea how much time they do have on this earth. So why the hell do people throw it away so casually?
They do so because they are unfocused. Because they haven’t created a plan to achieve their goals. Because they don’t value their time. If you begin to value your time as the most precious finite resource you have I’m pretty sure you’ll become laser focused on what you need to achieve. Try it and see.

One percent of one percent

I was recently involved in a marketing presentation for SMB businesses. Some great tools where covered that would really help to automate marketing for any business. But, you know what? They are totally useless without two simple precursors.
I remember a public speaker who once offered the whole audience the opportunity to contact him for assistance with the topic he was discussing (and it happened to be marketing). When questioned about why he made such an offer, his reply was that in his experience less than one percent of people actually took up his offer. Thus he felt very safe in making it. Even when people are all fired up after they walk out the door they rarely do anything.
However, let’s say that you are fired up enough after leaving the marketing discussion to actually do something, the next hurdle you face is that you need to something consistently. Again, I would contend that less than one percent of that one percent actually take action and do so consistently.
Now the positive here is that if you, one, do something and two, do it consistently you are going to be more successful than 10,000 of your peers (i.e one percent of one percent).
These two little things are the reasons why so many businesses never reach their potential. Most take no action, even after paying money to learn about what to do as well as how to do it. The few that do simply don’t keeping doing it but in the meantime spend a fortune on all these tools that they think they ‘will’ use. They generally give up far to quickly because they don’t see results immediately.
So by all means go out and see what tools and techniques are available but reconcile yourself to the fact that unless you take action and do so consistently such tools are simply wasted. However, if you do take consistent action you are going to be so far ahead of just about every business. You will be the one percent of the one percent and your chances of success will skyrocket.
Success is more about consistency than anything else.