Amy Hodge, Senior Community Consultant from ConnectWise chats with Aaron Booker from Varvid about the value of SMB VoIP and Channel Partners Shows in Las Vegas March 3 2010.
Amy mentions the surprise some of their customers experienced that ConnectWise was at these shows.
She explains that ConnectWise can be utilized by many different IT segments, and answers the questions “What is a Professional Service Automation (PSA)?” and “How can I make money with it?”
Matt Makowicz of Ambition Consulting based in New Jersey and author of “A Guide to Selling Managed Services” talks to Aaron Booker from Varvid about the continuing convergence of traditional Telecom with IT. He brings up interesting points about how it is easier for IT firms to make suggestions about Telecom, than Telecom firms making suggestions about IT.
Makowicz also comments that it’s heartening to see the growing cooperation between the two industries- IT and Telecom, and that they both have a lot to learn and benefit from one another.
Aaron Booker of Varvid speaks with Jay Murgalia from Base2. Base2 NC is a Microsoft Small Business Certified small network integrator based in New Bern North Carolina and is excited to be able to move his firm into integrating customers Telecom needs with their IT. This show is Muraglia’s first SMB Nation event, and gives Jay and his peers the opportunity to efficiently evaluate and get to know the variety of vendors in the VoIP space, as well as learn more about the technology out there. Jay is excited to attend other SMB VoIP events and hopes to make the SMB Nation Spring 2010 event in New York.
Aaron Booker from Varvid speaks with Jim Willingham of Datahouse. Datahouse is a 25 year old diversified solution provider headquartered in Birmingham Alabama and focuses on such diverse specialties as retail pharmacy solutions, ERP, CRM and security/surveillance, as well as being a Microsoft Partner.
Jim was recommended to SMB VoIP Las Vegas by a trusted vendor, Sonicwall, the previous week and the timing was perfect, as Willingham’s firm has been considering moving more into VoIP solutions for their existing customers.
Ted is the Director of Channel Marketing for Sonicwall and confirms the synergy of VoIP and Security for VARs and existing Sonicwall partners. Many existing Sonicwall partners are growing into the convergence of LANs, VoIP and the increased security requirements of having all of these services on one network. Hulsy was speaking with Aaron Booker of Varvid.com at the SMB VoIP and Channel Partners show March 3, 2010 in Las Vegas.
Charles Keating, VP of the West Sound Technology Association (WSTA) was a featured speaker at the ITEC 2009 Conference in Seattle. Here he shares a little background of this unique group that focuses on IT professionals doing business on the west side of Puget Sound in Washington State with Varvid.com. WSTA was formed “to increase public awareness of the availability and quality of local technology professionals, and to serve technology professionals both at a general level of interest and in specialized technology fields” on the West Side of Puget Sound, including the Olympic Peninsula.
Keating said even though the peninsula is separated by Seattle by relatively short ferry rides, the logistical challenges posed by transportation makes their members and members’ clients look to a more convenient, local organization to engage with rather than trying to ‘commute’ by ferry to the big city. Keating’s ‘day job’ is President of Keating Consulting Service (KCS), an IT consulting firm he founded in Illinois in 1983 and moved to Bremerton WA several years ago. Charles holds several Microsoft MCP certifications and KCS has clients in all industries/sectors, Business, Government, Educational and ranging in size from Fortune100 to SMB.
Tom McGee from Smart Technology Group talks with Aaron Booker of Varvid about VoIP interactions. They do some stuff with Microsoft Response Point work in the mobility space with Windows Phone as well as working with Blackberry. He finds that many telephony guys don’t know much about Ethernet networking so it’s good for them to partner with VARs. Tom also talks about his speaking opportunities at conferences. They are an Apple partner as well.
Aaron Booker from Varvid speaks with Andrew Sage, Vice President of Worldwide Small Business Sales and Worldwide Channels speaks with Aaron Booker at SMB Nation 2009 Las Vegas. He mentions three things that Cisco always want to make part of the conversation with their community of partners: Profitability, Portfolio, and Support.
NGT and Response Point on varvid.com
Julie Buchanan (Marketing Manager) and John Guillaume (Senior VP for Product & Marketing) spoke to VARvid.com about the Response Point platform and some of the partner opportunities that are available with New Global Telecom (NGT) because of the SIP integration in the Response Point SP1 software upgrade. You can learn more about the NGT offering by emailing responsepoint@ngt.com
