Agenda at a Glance

The Managed services and cloud landscape is changing, almost on a daily basis. What used to be common practice can change in the blink of an eye. Participate in a live discussion with other cloud and MSP leaders to collaborate, share information, and participate in leading this important profession through the coming challenges in order to exploit the opportunities of the next few years.

Ye olde marketing and advertising campaigns don’t cut it anymore. People don’t make purchasing judgments based off of display ads in magazines or cold calls. Are you still using these tactics to recruit new customers or partners? If so, your marketing stinks.

There are quick and easy ways to unstink it, though. Go where the people are. Help them address their concerns, even if they don’t deal with you specifically. Show them you’re an expert without shouting at them, “I’m an expert!”

You don’t become the big man on campus by wearing a t-shirt that says “I’m the big man on campus.” You earn that title by being there when other folks need you, by taking that extra step to help someone get their job done, by giving someone the advice they need without expecting anything in return. In short, you’ve got to be awesome and work your ass off.

Adam Sell will chat about how managed service providers can be awesome and unstink their marketing. The suggestions will revolve around effective social media etiquette, creative and modern marketing approaches, and identifying and strategizing for the proper marketplace.

More and more IT companies have shifted toward a managed service focus, selling similar services, often using literally the same hardware and software as the competition. This has created pricing pressures and pushed our industry towards commoditization.

How can you push back against commoditization other than through price cutting?

Differentiation is the best defense against commoditization, but differentiation doesn’t just happen, it needs to be a deliberate and ongoing initiative. In this presentation, Peter will discuss the techniques that he has used at companies he has successfully led through periods of tremendous growth. Subjects covered will include strategic planning, customer survey techniques, and how to engage your entire company in the process. The emphasis will be on practical tips and techniques that can be duplicated at companies of any size, but are particularly useful for companies that are growing (or want to grow) and with less than fifty employees.

2012 will offer more opportunities for the MSP industry as companies continue to outsource their IT needs. Learn the "secrets" to successful MSP M&A transactions. Whether you plan to buy or sell your business in 2012 or in later years, you must attend this free workshop to learn how not to get burned, how to prepare your business to maximize its sale value, and how to reduce risk when buying an MSP.

Attendees of this session will leave with:

• Valuation Metrics for Managed Services
• Keys to Increasing the Value of Customer Contracts
• What Buyers Look For in Your Agreements With Partners and Employees
• How to Cash in on Your Brand and Other Intellectual Property
• Increasing Your Sale Price Through Prudent Risk Management
• The Role of Real Estate Leases When Selling a Managed Services Practice
• Common Deal Structures for Equity and Debt Financing for Acquisitions

By defined and documenting your company’s sales process, you create a powerful tool that enables you to

? Sell more efficiently
? Estimate the revenue and return on investment (ROI) of your marketing campaigns
? See which stages take the most time and find ways to move prospects forward
? Create better collateral and tools
? Improve your campaigns
? Maximize your close rates

Many companies fall short of truly establishing a process for sales, especially because many sales processes focus more on the seller’s needs and behaviors instead of those of the buyer! “Winging it” is often the default approach to sales calls and sales process.

The speakers have extensive experience of developing successful sales process, programs and teams in today’s environment of thin funding, scarce resources and crazy busy buyers. Their approaches to measurement and refinement have yielded significant business growth, even in the recent recession. Their company, Ntirety, has fully embraced “Sales 2.0” technology and principals, all of which they will share with you in an interactive session.

Have you been looking for a way to differentiate and market your MSP?

Do you know about the new MSPAlliance Unified Certification Standard (UCS) for Cloud and Managed Service Providers?

Have you wondered what the difference is between SAS 70 and its replacement SSAE 16?

In this session we will walk you through the different types of certifications available in the market today and which certification is right for different type of companies. A panel of MSPAlliance members that recently completed both the UCS Level II Certification and SSAE 16 (SAS 70) audit will discuss the process of getting ready for and completing the audits. They will answer questions about the “true” cost to their companies and best practices for moving forward. The audience will also get to ask their questions to our panel. Certifications are all over the cloud. Make sure you complete the one that makes the most sense for your company and your customers.

Mobility is now strategic to the enterprise—the question today is not whether an enterprise is going mobile, but rather how many employees and which applications and services can be mobilized in what timeframe in the most effective manner. Managed mobility solutions are particularly well suited for cloud-based delivery to enterprises. This makes cloud-delivered managed mobility services a great opportunity for MSPs—as long as they can remove some of the initial barriers to entering this rapidly developing market.

This session will discuss the ways in which the enterprise mobility landscape is changing and why managed mobility solutions—particularly mobile device management (MDM) solutions—are particularly well suited for cloud-based delivery by MSPs. The rate of change in mobile, the complexity and fragmentation of mobile device types, platforms and operating systems, the specific wireless standards and technologies that require specific competencies—these are some of the factors driving enterprises to a cloud deployment model for managed mobility services.

The session will go on to outline both the general and specific capabilities enterprises are looking for in cloud-based managed mobility solutions and how MDM can become a key component in driving up adoption of these solutions. Finally, the session will highlight the specific tactics and deployment options that MSPs can employ to remove any final barriers to adoption and delivery of cloud-based solutions that support enterprises as they “go mobile”.

There is a lot of buzz about channel partners selling cloud services. However, without good compensation packages and selling strategy development many are staying out of that product market. Additionally, the cloud presents many technical and operational hurdles to channel partners, but these can be overcome with the better solutions that are now available.

This presentation will walk through these topics and several others to give Channel Partners a stronger understanding of the services and compensations packages available. It will also offer them successful strategies for selling the cloud so that they can earn more money.

There is no “one size fits all” approach for resellers going to the cloud, as many options are available to meet their business' size and scope. Whatever approach is chosen to bring cloud services into their solution arsenal, it must be a program that enables them to remain focused on their business and core offerings.

Attendees will leave the presentation with answers to the following questions.

Why channel partners need to be selling infrastructure as a service (IaaS)?

How do I develop a strategy for selling cloud services?

What should I expect for compensation and how does the break down work?

How do I choose the Cloud Service Provider that fits best with their business model?

What does it mean it “SaaS-ify” your solutions? It means offering your solutions on a SaaS Platform so you can exceed your customers’ expectations, tap into new markets, generate additional revenue, and offer value-add solutions to your clients. You will walk away from this session knowing:
- What market opportunities are out there
- How you can tap into those opportunities
- Best practices for transitioning into a SaaS environment
- Key questions you should ask yourself to meet and exceed you and your clients objectives
This is a must attend session if you want to provide SaaS-based solutions or if you want to relook at the way you are currently offering your SaaS solutions.

Most MSPs don't get a sense of their corporate valuation until they are already engaged in the M&A or funding process. Don’t wait until the very end, start today and implement these easy to follow steps to greatly improve the value of your IT services practice.

This session will not only look at characteristics that impact MSP valuations, it will outline simple changes you can implement to see fast results. Attend this session and see your value skyrocket!

Turn a regulatory barrier-to-entry into a market differentiator and lead generator for your managed services organization. Although the media is focusing on information security and privacy concerns, for some industries, the security game is old hat. Healthcare (HIPAA/HITECH), financial services (GLBA), and government services (FIMSA) companies have been subject to information security regulations for nearly a decade.

As a managed services provider, you likely understand that information security requirements for your customers become requirements for you. But once an MSP becomes compliant under a regulatory framework, what was once a barrier to entering the market, now becomes a strength for your organization. Learn what is necessary to evaluate your organization’s readiness for compliance under HIPAA/HITECH, GLBA, SOX, and FIMSA, and how you can turn your eventual compliance into a tool to driving business and growth.

11:10 - 11:25am - Sciencelogic - "Navigating the Cloud… Are you Flying Blind?

11:35 - 11:50am - Intronis - "Building a Recurring Revenue Stream with Cloud Backup"

12:00 - 12:15pm - Mformation - "Enterprise Mobile Device Management"

12:25 - 12:40pm - Spam Soap - "Saas Security & Risk Management - Best Practice Threat Management Solutions for the MSP"

12:50 - 1:05pm - Bit Defender - "CRN Security Product of the Year is Now in the Cloud… Perfect for MSPs!"

1:15 - 1:30pm - Autonomy

1:40 - 1:55pm - NetComp Communications Group, Inc. - "The Cloud Via Mobility"

2:05 - 2:20pm - Rpath - "App Logistics for the Cloud: Take the Chaos out of Application Delivery"

2:30 - 2:45pm - Go Grid - "Turn As A Service into Gold: Monetizing the Cloud Pyramid"

2:55 - 3:10pm - VAR Dynamics - "SaaS-isfaction:  How To Launch Your Own Branded SaaS in One Day"

3:20 - 3:35pm - Awareness Technologies - "Revolutionary All In One Cloud Based Insider Threat Prevention Solution"

Get the inside scoop on the managed services industry from the two people in the world that have probably gathered more intelligence in the managed services industry than anyone else. MSPAlliance Co-Founders, Charles and Celia Weaver, will share this inside intelligence and provide an honest and unabashed assessment of where they see the industry going in 2012.

These critical insights look at trends that are surefire signs of business success or failure. Even companies who thought their business was on track have discovered that they only had 6 months to “live” unless they course corrected. Learn the trends to watch around cash flow and expense trends along with insights about some of the averages we see in the MSP industry.