Making a big bet on IT

Among other things, listening to Newmark told us that you should focus on your core talents. Newmark, by his own words, is not a great manager. In fact, his exact words were “I kinda suck as a manager” so his day-to-day role at craiglist is as a customer service rep where he answers to the customer service lead. Interesting concept. And if people in IT ever needed a lesson in the extreme power of the Internet, this was it. From starting a hobby with an email list for friends to let them know what was happening in the San Francisco Bay area, the growth has been phenomenal.

With a number of afternoon break-out sessions presented by sponsors, partners and employees, there was no shortage of information and tips on how to improve your Managed Services business.

So far, things had been going well. A great mixture of information and entertainment was present. The highlight of the event though was yet to come. After the cocktail reception on Monday night, an entire room had been set up as a casino. This was the smartest move I have ever seen from a conference organiser. Real dealers, real croupiers, real tables were set up. A real poker tournament was set up. Most importantly, fake chips were used. As a terrible gambler, I loved the concept. I lost thousands of dollars of fake chips during the night. I had a great time – along with everyone else – and we all left convinced that it was better to lose all that fake money than use our real money in one of the 183 casinos in Vegas.

Of course, the most important part of any conference is what happens after the official sessions when the attendees talk together over a few beverages. With the large spread of attendees from across the world and no-one feeling like they are in direct competition with each other, I found that attendees were more forthcoming than usual about their business models. Business ideas were discussed, revenue discussed, even different marketing methods were laid bare for other attendees to comment on, critique and copy. I would suggest that every attendee at the conference walked away from the after hours sessions with at least two additional ideas to take back
to their business.

After a late night on Monday, Tuesday morning started off a little hazy. Mark Sutherland, Kaseya president, presented a technical session followed by a Q&A with the founders, Sutherland and Paul Wong. Here the new Kaseya User State Management was outlined in greater detail.

This new module delivers an automated desktop migration solution and enables the definition and deployment of group profiles. With the world continuing to think Green, it also provides the tools to further integrate power management policies and comes into its own when used with Intel vPro. Kaseya purchased Versora in June 2007 and has leveraged technology acquired through that purchase and integrated it into the Kaseya framework.

Again the information supplied was forthright and accurate and there was a great degree of openness during the Q&A session. You get the impression that Kaseya is not one to sit on their hands or pat themselves on the back.

After lunch on Tuesday the highlight breakout session for me was the future of the Intel vPro technology, presented by Kevin Havre from Intel. You can read as much as you like about new technologies, but when you see information presented by passionate people at the forefront of technology companies, it inspires you in a way that only a personal presentation can.

The information-packed conference officially finished on Tuesday evening, but another night of informal networking and information gathering added to the overall value for all attendees.

From an Australian perspective, we are certainly 12 months behind where US resellers and the US market is at in relation to Managed Services. But if you want to gain a small insight into what is happening in the IT world, talking to US resellers gives you a clear snapshot of where we are headed.