“Best Of” Awards Announced from SMB Nation

It’s been a long day of meetings in Redmond with groups like BPOS and I have just returned home to my beloved Bainbridge Island. Before I turn down, I need to write one more very important blog! This is the list of “Best of” winners at the just-completed SMB Nation Fall Conference (Oct 2-4, 2009, Las Vegas). Methodology you ask? I have this answer. The attendees voted with their own free will on the ballot. UN observers insured a fair outcome. The people have spoken and the election has been certified.

So here are the results followed by numerous follow-up comments:

Best of Show : Calyptix & ConnectWise (tie)

Best Hardware Product: Datto

Best Software Product: Reflexion

Best Service Product: Symform

Most Promising New Product: Symform

And now the PR blitz:

Charlotte tech firm Calyptix earns ‘Best of Show’

Calyptix Security, an Internet security firm based in Charlotte, recently won “Best in Show” honors at the seventh annual SMB Nation Fall Conference in Las Vegas.

Charlotte-based Calyptix received the award after voting by the nearly 700 attendees, beating 60 other vendors, including powerhouses Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Calyptix, founded in Charlotte and based in the University City area, develops Internet security products designed specifically for small businesses. The trade show featured companies from across the nation that offer technology to aid small and midsized businesses.

“This recognition is a tremendous honor for our team,” says Ben Yarbrough, Calyptix chief executive. “For 18 months, we have worked extremely hard to build a security solution specifically for small businesses. This recognition by our target audience validates that our solution hits the mark.”

SMB Nation, the organization that hosted the event, helps educate small and midsized businesses on technology issues. It boasts a following of more than 30,000 information-technology professionals worldwide.

Its fall conference, the organization’s signature event, was held Oct. 2-4 in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel & Casino

Reflexion Wins “Best Software Product” at SMB Nation Fall Conference

WOBURN, Mass. –(Business Wire)– Reflexion Networks, Inc. received the award for Best Software Product at the SMB Nation Fall Conference last week in Las Vegas. SMB Nation is one of the leading communities of IT solution providers dedicated to addressing the technology needs of small and mid-size businesses. SMB Nation members serve as the “trusted IT advisors” for their clients, helping them utilize technology to operate more efficiently, compete more effectively, and grow their businesses.

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This is Reflexion’s second recent award from the IT industry’s top solution provider organizations. In August, Reflexion was recognized as Vendor of the Year by The ASCII Group, the oldest and largest independent community of IT solution providers in the world.
Scott Barlow, Reflexion’s Vice President of Sales and Product Management, accepted the award from Harry Brelsford, Chief of the SMB Nation Tribe, as members are known. “Reflexion is dedicated to helping IT solution providers bring the compelling benefits of hosted services to their clients of all sizes around the world,” said Barlow. “With Reflexion’s services, our partners protect their clients with the same capabilities used by large enterprises, but at an affordable monthly price.” “SMB Nation members are keenly focused on vendor capabilities and business practices,” said Harry Brelsford. “By delivering top quality hosted services exclusively through the reseller channel, Reflexion has earned the trust of solution providers, and hence was independently voted the Best Software Product award by attendees at SMB Nation Fall09.” About Reflexion Networks Reflexion Networks provides a suite of hosted services for email and Web security, email archiving, e-discovery, and recovery, and business continuity. The company’s hosted services are sold exclusively through a worldwide network of IT solution providers, supporting over 5,000 customers in 45 countries. For more information, please visit http://www.reflexion.net.

Symform Honored by SMB Nation

Selected in two categories for Best of Show Awards

SMB Nation 2009 Fall Conference

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Symform, Inc. (www.symform.com), a developer of online storage services for disaster recovery, announced today that it has been honored in two categories by SMB Nation. Symform was named “Best Service Product” and “Most Promising New Product.” The winners of the various awards were chosen by more than 800 representatives from leading IT Service Providers attending the SMB Nation 2009 Fall Conference in Las Vegas.

Founded in 1999, SMB Nation conferences and events bring forward-thinking IT Service Providers, technologies, and vendors together to inspire new opportunities in the SMB space. Being THE information source for SMB technologists and Small Business Specialists worldwide, SMB Nation delivers complete business solutions to help its members better manage their businesses, stay abreast of new technologies, and provide on-going education.

“As pioneers of backup and disaster recovery solutions, we are thrilled to be recognized as a company that exemplifies innovation and success potential,” said Praerit Garg, CEO and co-founder of Symform. “It is especially pleasing to know that this was a ‘People’s Choice’ process with the nominations and votes coming from the members of SMB Nation.”

The Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud^TM enables small businesses to implement a backup and disaster recovery solution that is more secure and ten times cheaper than traditional online backup services. The company was founded on the realization that millions of small businesses have computers with an excess of inexpensive storage capacity, power running 24×7, and unlimited Internet bandwidth – especially nights and weekends. The Symform team has developed software that aggregates this relatively unreliable and untrusted capacity over the Internet and transforms it into a secure and reliable global storage system. The heart of Symform’s software is a proprietary technology called RAID-96.^TM

“The people have spoken and they recognize Symform as a progressive and disruptive technology that warrants serious consideration by the SMB channel,” said Harry Brelsford, President and CEO of SMB Nation. “I’m delighted to see Symform driving success with innovation in a recovering economy. The people clearly applaud that.”

“Winning both prestigious awards at this focused industry event showcases the importance of the Symform solution to small and mid-market MSPs and IT consultants,” said Dana Guppy, CEO of First Mile Services. “Disaster recovery solutions that lower client anxiety and allow them to sleep well are rarely associated with an affordable price. Implement Symform soon before your competition does!”

About Symform

Symform, a privately held company based in Seattle, is developing cost-effective solutions to large-scale distributed data management problems. Symform is dedicated to the belief that technology products built on the cooperative, decentralized principles underlying the Internet are inherently more affordable, dependable, scalable, and sustainable than centralized data-center-based alternatives. www.symform.com.

Symform, Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud, and RAID-96 are trademarks of Symform, Inc. References to other companies and their products acknowledge the trademarks owned by their respective companies and are for reference purposes only.

Datto Awarded ?Best Hardware Product? by SMB Nation

WILTON, Conn – Datto Inc., the leading provider of on and off-site
backup and disaster recovery solutions, was named ?Best Hardware
Product? at the seventh annual SMB Nation Fall Conference in Las
Vegas. The ?Best of? winners were chosen by more than 800 conference
attendees, including Managed Service Providers, IT professionals, and
SMB consultants.

Datto was founded in 2007 and moved to channel-only sales in June
2009. ?This is a tremendous honor, with Datto being new to the
channel,? says Katie Braband, Vice President of Business Development
for Datto. ?It is a direct reflection of our commitment to our
partners and the channel. Thank you to the SMB Nation attendees for
choosing us and to the many Datto Resale Partners who have implemented
our solutions into their businesses.?

About Datto:

Datto Inc. is the leading provider of hardware-based on and off-site
backup and disaster recovery solutions. Founded in 2007, Datto is a
channel-only company changing the way MSPs and VARs deliver complete
business continuity. Datto?s offerings range from small data storage
systems to large, enterprise-class business continuity solutions.
Easy and affordable pricing, no recovery or incidental fees, generous
upgrade plans, and US-based technical support are just a few ways
Datto is changing the Channel.

Here some the Fed $$$ starting Oct 1st – just ask gloStream

My goodness! The Fed fiscal year starts in 72-hours and massive $$$ will hit the system. SMB consultants can immediately benefit by providing solutions in the medical sector. One such scenario is that of CCR (Detroit, MI) who sells and implements the gloStream solution. This solution is for SMB-sized medical clinics.

The CCR boys – Curt and Joe – will be on stage during my How To Get Stimulus Funding speech and speak towards their use of gloStream.

And we thank gloStream for being an exhibitor at SMB Nation Fall 2009 (Oct 2-4, Las Vegas).

THANKS!

cheers…harrybbbb

Harry Brelsford

CEO, SMB Nation

http://www.smbnation.com

THANK YOU for sponsoring our COMMUNITY!

A Hearty THANK YOU to our sponsors for supporting the SMB technology community!

Leading small and medium business (SMB) conference for channel partners, resellers, VARs, consultants, supported by over 60+ leading technology vendors: Cisco, Microsoft, Zenith Infotech, more

For_Immediate_Release:

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(Free-Press-Release.com) September 27, 2009 —

Over 60 leading technology companies sponsoring 7th Annual SMB Nation Fall Conference, Las Vegas, October 2-4

Final sponsorship roster released

SMB Nation announced its final sponsorship list for the fast approaching 7th Annual SMB Nation Fall Conference, October 2-4 at the Historic Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Over 500 small and medium business (SMB) technology consultants and resellers (aka “Geeks”) will descend on “Vegas” for this community confab hosted by long-time best-selling technology author Harry Brelsford. This conference has moved from Seattle to Las Vegas in order to have a broader SMB technology conversation including social media, hosted Internet solutions, data networking, VoIP, virtualization and “BusinessSpeak” topics on how to be a computer consultant

. The launch on Windows 7 into the channel partner community will be a specific highlight for the event. Several other sponsors such as Cisco and Zenith Infosystems will have new announcements to share.

Attendees are typically experienced “computer guys and gals” who serve small and medium-sized businesses for a living. The attendees are known in the industry as channel partners, resellers, VARs, consultants, break-fix repair people, technicians and managed services providers. Speakers are industry experts included published authors, MVPs, gurus, thought leaders and influencers.

“Everyone at SMB Nation is extremely grateful for the overwhelming support expressed by the small and medium business (SMB) vendor and sponsor community for our event.” Expressed Harry Brelsford, CEO at SMB Nation. “It underscores a basic fact about the now-arrived economic recovery. These sponsors are INVESTING RIGHT NOW to harvest tomorrow! Personally I think everyone should engage in this strategy now.”

7th Annual SMB Nation Fall Sponsors

Platinum
Cisco
Microsoft
Zenith Infotech

Gold
Autotask
Blackberry
ConnectWise
Intel
LogMeIn
SonicWall

Silver
Avaya
Google
HP
IBM
itControl Suite

Bronze
AVG
Backup Assist
Citrix
CompTIA
D&H
e-Folder
GFI
Kaseya
Sophos
StorageCraft
TrendMicro

Exhibitor
8KMiles
AntFarm
ASCII
Calyptix
ChannelPro SMB Magazine
Cloud Services Depot
CMS Products
CRU-Dataport – Sponsor
CyberRoam
Datto
Doyenz
Farstone
FaxBack
Flashecom
glostream
HeroWare
High-Reply
Interwork Technologies
Iomega, an EMC Company
IT Career Pro
Kerio
Labtech
Level Platforms
Levono
Meraki
MSP Partners
NASBA
Panda Security
Prowess – Smart Deploy
Reflexion Networks
Robin Robins
SMB Books
SMB Photo
SMBTN
SoftLayer
SpamSoap
Speakeasy
Symform
Telephonation – SMB VoIP
Thycotic
SMB , Cisco , Microsoft , Zenith Infotech , Google , HP , IBM , Autotask , Blackberry , Connectwise , Intel

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For more information:

12715 Miller Road NE, #202, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 1-888-SMB-NAT1, http://www.smbnation.com

Over 125 ways to Whack Weasels at SMB Nation Fall09 – Keynote announced…

Many SMB Nation tribe members now from my writings that I grew up in Alaska. Alaska is kinda like a cold Florida with mountains in this sense => it’s as far away as you can get (OK – Hawaii qualifies too). Being a distant US outpost, Alaska is where a lot of interesting characters “end up” in life.

So imagine my surprise when I met author Wayne Turmel at the Chicago airport last winter to talk business. He looks and likes like an Alaskan – his “125 Quotes for Whacking Weasels” is an off-beat gonzo book that is an enjoyable read. On theserious-side, Wayne is an accomplished subject matter expert (SME) on conducting GREAT WEBINARS for driving business development (he is the president at greatwebmeetings.com). In fact – we have retained Wayne as part of our “webinar” package at SMB Nation for clients. But back to the silly-side, the host of the “Cranky Middle Manager Show”had a first career as a stand-up comic in the brutal Chicago market!

So all those credentials, mixed up in keynote stew, make Wayne the obvious selection to kick-off the 7th annual SMB Nation Fall09 Conference early on October 2nd (Friday) at The Riv in Las Vegas. He’s the right blend of morning coffee to jolt you awake, get you excited and actually delvir some robust content!

See ya there….harrybbbb

Harry Brelsford

CEO, SMB Nation

http://www.smbnation.com

PS – How did I meet Wayne? Via a social media tool called LikedIn. Wayne if a fellow member of the SMB Professionals Group. Link with me and I’ll tell you more!

Kernan to deliver “How To Create Successful Vendor Relationships” at SMB Nation Fall 2009

G’day folks – I’m just starting to wrap up a long week of support Harry Jr’s cycling efforts at US Nationals in Bend, OR and head back to Seattle. His efforts were strong as a 10YO and we’ll be back next year.

But back to business. I’m thrilled to announce another academic speaker at our 7th annual fall show (SMB Nation, Oct 2-4, Las Vegas). Here are the details:

BS202: HOW TO CREATE SUCCESSFUL VENDOR RELATIONSHIPS
The “Secret” to Working with Vendor Partners
Speaker: James Kernan

• A 100-day “baby-step” action plan for solidifying key vendor relationships; follow this plan and you’ll have vendors throwing cash at you for marketing.
• How to get vendors to “slip” you new accounts and opportunities that other resellers don’t even know about.
• Web site linking; how to use your web site to automatically secure new customers at your vendor’s expense.
• How to get vendors to cheerfully pay for AND promote your events and trade shows to their top clients.
• A proven “tiered” formula for determining who your top partners are and allocating your time and focus accordingly.
• Informative vendor panel to educate you on “best practices” to negotiating and working successfully with vendors

Brelsford’s revised Geekonmics Speech

Hiya folks! Quick blog post to let you know I am madly revising my Geekonomics speech for the SMB Nation Fall Conference (October 2-4, 2009, Las Vegas). Here are the details:

BS101: Geekonomics! Your SMB Countercyclical Opportunities
Speaker: Harry Brelsford

Yes – it is possible to survive and thrive during tough times. The key is to identify specific viable opportunities. Enjoy Harry’s often humorous presentation on top opportunities that are countercyclical in nature. These industries are historically underserved and technology hungry. This fast paced speech starts with Slumdog Millionaire and ends with “sinners.” Presented in a “photo essay” format that is a great break from traditional PowerPoint slide deck presentations. Based on the SMB PC magazine cover story with the same name by Harry (Issue 3-4, 1Q2009). This speech has been updated with new opportunities and includes references from Harry’s forthcoming “Geekonomics” book and SMB in-depth salary survey results!

Road Kill Along the Highway of Life – A New SMB Song from Harryb

So where oh where have I been?

Shortly before the 4th of July weekend, I narrowed my razor sharp focus right at the 30th annual 202-mile Seattle to Portland (STP) ride that occurred on July 11-12, 2009. It was great to feel the competitive urge of days gone by (OK – let’s call if yesteryear for those of us who were high school hero’s and college jocks). I ramped up, tapered down and even carbo loaded the night before the big ride.

My strategy in bicycling is not unlike my strategy in business: slow starts and fast finishes. I’d rather pass folks at the end versus be passed. It’s just a personal preference (not necessarily right or wrong) and you may differ (my wife does on this strategy).

The first day of the STP was fantastic. We rode 130 miles down to Vader WA to get a jump on the ultra-distance. Started at 530AM and finished at 630PM. That was a good day and you can see my crossing milepost 100 in the photo.

Riding STRONG at Mile 100 and turing up the pace!

Day two started at 7AM with a wee-bit of rain/moisture but there we only 70-miles to complete! with about 40 miles remaining, my wife and I attached to a paceline of US Navy/Marines from the nearby Kitsap-county Bangor Subase (Silverdal, WA). Man – those military dude are FIT and we were CRUISING at about 18-MPH.

Then I have sad news to report. At mile 180, I was in 6th position in the paceline and my wife was in position seven. Rider five (#5) reacted to a rapid paceline “adjustment” to avoid something ahead and he jack-knifed in front of me. I reacted by going into a tuck and roll manueavr and “roll” into the pack wreck.

The good news is that I did not let go of my handle bars else I would have posssibly had a broken wrist and/or collar bone. Just ask Levi who dropped out of the Tour de France about that!

So I’m really nothing more than bumps, brusies and sprained left knee. I’m working from my home office and my capable stuff is “running the company” as they say. You will see me return to regular blogging. I missed you!

BTW – how did your month go?

cheers…harrybbbbb

PS – don’t forget I have my big fall show coming up: SMB Nation Fall 2009, Las Vegas, October 2-4, 2009. Hope you’ll join our 7th annual – big fun gang!

#smbnation

SMB Nation Virtual Spring Show – Wednesday, June 10th

It’s HERE! SMB Nation Spring Virtual Conference!

We are introducing a presentation paradigm that is especially well-suited for the SMB with our virtual conference. Turns out, that virtual conferences are gaining mindshare in the technology and business community, as witnessed by this excellent article in INC magazine: [http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/sales-and-marketing-nice-meeting-your-avatar.html]
Block out time to visit our SMB Nation Spring conference this Wednesday, June 10^th from 8AM PDT to 4:00PM PDT (UTC-7) for LIVE DAY! So here is the “411” of information for you regarding this hip happening event!

Sign-up for the complimentary online conferrence HERE

Content!

• Are You Essential Business Server 2008 Secrets (Greg Starks, Steve Bourne) Customers outgrowing SBS?  Larger opportunities knocking at your door?  Come find out what Essential Business Server 2008 is all about.  Learn how it is positioned vs. SBS and how it will help you simplify managing a multi-server environment.  Discover what hardware you will need to sell with EBS, how to plan for shared storage solutions, and insights into deployment methods.  Be ready!
• Creating, Selling and Funding Managed Services (Eric G Steinberg) During a jam packed and entertaining 90 minute presentation, Eric will take you through the step-by-step process of selecting and delivering each component necessary to build a winning, recession and competitor proof MSP practice.  Next you will learn how to successfully attracted and engage with new and existing clients through a systematic process of professional solution selling techniques.  Finally, Eric will provide you with a series of effective and creative ways to finance your new MSP practice.
• Total Small Business Management Using OneNote 2007 (Todd Colbeck) This class will discuss how to add 25% or more in new revenues to any small business (including your own) using Microsoft OneNote 2007.   One Note 2007 is to a business owner, what a palette of paints is to an artist. Everything the artist needs to paint his picture is on the palate. It is up to him how to blend the colors and apply them to the canvas. Every feature a business owner needs to execute a business plan is in OneNote 2007, it is up to him how to blend the features to create his dream business. A lot of lip service has been given to the paperless office; OneNote 2007 is a paperless office! In this class we will discuss:

1. A brief review of the features in OneNote 2007.
2. Customized templates and applications for running the business of a Microsoft Small Business Specialist.
3. How to customize and apply the templates for improving the businesses of your customers, regardless of their vertical.

• We will be going extremely deep on greatly improving the sales and marketing cycle using OneNote 2007. We will also discuss how to use its collaboration features to reduce workflow time by 15 to 25% in most businesses and sometimes more.
• OneNote 2007 is always a great tool to create a WOW from your current customers and create competitive advantage for yourself when winning new customers. This class will help position you as an expert for all areas of concern to a small business owner in addition to technology.
• NOTE: To view the speakers, please go to the back of the trade show hall and visit the lecture screens (shown below). Remember to navigate using your ARROW KEYS!

Time for bona fide content lectures!

This is the academic lecture area that launches the video lectures!

• LIVE CONTENT!
  • HP 9:00-9:30AM PDT Windows Server Foundation: Building a valid infrastructure foundation with HP ProLiant. Registration link https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/236773209
  • Symantec 12:00-12:30PM PDT ALL-IN-ONE, EASY TO MANAGE PROTECTION FOR YOUR BUSINESS. Did you know that antivirus is not enough? Registration Link https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/247843800
  • Intronis 2:00-2:30PM PDT Securing your data with online backup and recovery. Registration Link https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/613123024

Speakers!

Steve Bourne – Steve Bourne is a Program Manager with the Windows Essential Business Server team. He has worked on multiple v1 server products during his 8 years with Microsoft. Steve joined the EBS team at the beginning of the v1 product cycle, and was for responsible for areas including OEM relationships, virtualization, performance, and Base SKUs

Todd Colbeck – Todd Colbeck, MBA, is an industry   veteran and business coach. He specializes in helping business owners grow their practice by increasing client loyalty and getting clients to actively promote their business. He uses OneNote 2007 extensively in his own practice. He coaches every business owner he works with on using OneNote to massively increase revenues and reduce workflow time in their business.

Eric Steinberg – The idea of providing fixed fee network administration services became the obvious choice for Eric and his regular clients back in 1986.  Though hampered by technical limitations, it provide critical to the success of his “bootstrapped” business.  Eric was then tapped by Microsoft as one of the first 25 MCSEs in Windows NT 3.1.  Combining his technical and business knowledge he provided a CIO perspective for early adopters.  As head of professional services for Citrix’s largest specialty distributor he shifted his focus to the virtualization revolution.  There, he developed a series of presentations that demonstrated its business value.  Today he focuses on developing MSP solutions for clients and is involved in a start-up company that delivers the first true peer-to-peer SMB social lending network.

Greg Starks – SMB Solutions Program Manager, Hewlett-Packard. Greg has been with HP and Compaq for over 20 years, contributing in the areas of electrical and software engineering, IT management, solution architecture and technical marketing. He is now part of a new team driving SMB Strategy and GTM for the Industry Standard Server division. Greg has presented at 10 SMB Nation events and contributed technical content, including TechTalk videos for Harry’s 2005 – 2007 worldwide workshop tours. He holds MCSE and MCDBA certifications and is a graduate of Purdue University with Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering Technology.

Sponsors (Visit the cool booths to learn more)

1. AllenPort

2. StorageCraft

3. Aastra

4. Lenovo

5. Windows Home Server

6. MSP Partners

7. TotalTel

8. Untangle

9. MG Technology Group

10. LabTech Software

11. Trend Micro

12. CRU Data Port

13. eset

14. Kaseya

15. Symantec

16. AVG

17. NETGEAR

18. Level Platforms

19. Symform

20. AutoTask

21. HP

22. Highly Reliable Systems

23. Lightwave Consulting Group

24. D & H Distributors

25. Wesbell Technologies

26. TBA

27. Intronis

28. Interwork

29. Doyenz

30. CompuVault

31. eFolder

32. Reflexion

33. Zenith

34. Virtual Administrator

35. Windows Mobile

36. Microsoft Action Pack (MAPs)

How To Attend

To attend the SMB Nation Spring virtual conference NOW, click HERE [http://smbnation.com/Events/SMBNationSpring09/VirtualSpring2009/tabid/257/Default.aspx] and complete the following procedure.

1. Complete the alias field and select your gender as seen in Figure 1. Hit your ENTER key when your cursor is in the Alias text field.

Figure 1

Give yourself a name, gender and hit ENTER.

1. Complete the identity page seen in Figure 2 with core demographic information and select Submit.

Figure 2

Standard Stuff – tell us about you!

1. Welcome to SMB Nation Spring- Virtual! You are looking at the ESET, Kaseya and Symantec booth. Basic show floor navigation is easy using ARROW KEYS (now your mouse. For example, to move UP, use the UP ARROW KEY (typically found on the lower right of a QWERTY keyboard).

Figure 3

Over 30 booths await your visit in the Marketplace Expo Hall. Really cool!

BEST PRACTICE: Also join our TweetUp on Twtvite this Wednesday as well: http://twtvite.com/m4bntu

Click HERE to attend the SMB Nation Spring VTS on June 10th

Biz Dev Job at SMB Nation – Bainbridge Island

Business Development (Bainbridge Island)

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Reply to: job-tvjxb-1211954514@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}
Date: 2009-06-08, 3:14PM PDT

Description:
Using a consultative approach to sales, the Business Development position will provide outstanding customer service to our vendor/partners, while driving sales through strong customer relationships and proactive account management. The Business Development position is responsible for the management of client relationships – from prospect identification and sale of media and marketing packages, through to their execution. The Business Development position will also work to assist project teams with the successful completion of media and events projects: on time and on budget.

The ideal candidate must be energetic, proactive, highly organized, is able to multi-task and possesses strong communication skills. The ability to represent SMB Nation with the highest levels of professionalism in public is paramount.

Responsibilities:

Sales Management
• Daily monitoring of various news alerts, press releases and/or product announcements in order to identify possible new business prospects
• New Business Development, including prospect identification, distribution of media kit(s)/marketing materials and sale of media and marketing programs in the SMBPC Magazine, online at http://www.smbnation.com and sponsorships/exhibitor space/special programs for various events
• Proactive account management of existing vendor/partners relationships, including sale of media and marketing programs in the SMBPC Magazine, online at http://www.smbnation.com and sponsorships/exhibitor space/special programs for various events
• Development of custom promotional programs for vendor/partners, including the research of each potential vendor/partners’ interests, needs, key competitors and current marketing initiatives
• Identify SMB Nation prospects/clients that are ideal for cross branding partnerships
• Work with CEO and other internal teams to integrate marketing strategies, ensuring a consistent marketing “message” is conveyed
• Ensure that SMB Nation content hosted on clients’ websites is presented according to SMB Nation Brand/Usage guidelines

Administration
• Make and document 100+ outbound phone calls per week to prospective clients
• Obtain annual/monthly sales quotas as set by management
• Utilize the NetSuite SFA and Marketing functions to their greatest potential
• Measure advertising campaign and sponsorship performance to ensure that vendor/partners’ goals are met and recommend campaign optimization tactics therein
• Provide monthly review of marketing and sales efforts to both SMB Nations’ vendor/partners and internally to SMB Nations’ Management Team(s), detailing success on goals, other accomplishments and challenges
• Drafting sales contracts, insertion orders and other sales and marketing related documents
• Write and submit RFP’s for print and online media campaigns
• Manage online advertising and magazine advertising inventory
• Manage sponsorship/exhibitor space/special programs inventory for various events
• Facilitate invoice management
• Traveling to various conferences, workshops and tradeshows, including booth duty in SMB Nation booth

Requirements:
• Must be extremely organized and detail-oriented
• Self-motivated, excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong project management skills; flexibility to manage and maintain multiple projects
• Willing to go the extra mile to meet deadlines and achieve results
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in advertising sales/marketing coordination
• Solid PC skills, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Adobe
• Previous success in a deadline driven environment
• Overnight travel required

About SMB Nation:
SMB Nation is a publishing and events company, targeted at the Microsoft Small Business Specialist (SBS) community. SMB Nation spreads the knowledge of SMB technology trends through its books, magazine, online services, conferences and world-wide seminars and workshops. As an active participant in the technology community, SMB Nation has a long history of advocacy and evangelism.

The company was founded in 1999 as Matthew\Brelsford Associates and became SMB Nation in early 2003, to promote the books and consulting services of Harry Brelsford, the author of a successful series of books written for Microsoft’s global Small Business Specialist community and IT consultants, and a popular conference speaker on Microsoft-centric SMB consulting.

Today, SMB Nation conferences, seminars and workshops bring forward-thinking IT consultants, technologies and vendors together, sparking new opportunities in the SMB space. Being THE information source for SMB technologists and Small Business Specialists worldwide, SMB Nation delivers complete business solutions to help them better manage their business, technological and marketing needs. Whether it’s delivered in print, online, or in person, everything SMB Nation produces reflects our unshakeable belief in the power of information to spur a profitable global community.

Go to http://www.smbnation.com for more information

Say What? IBM Plucking Off MS Small Business Server Partners?

I’m a bit concerned with the undertone developing in the SMB technology community where many Microsoft partners privately express to me that the Microsoft Program has gone 80/20. That is, the focus is on select elite upper-caste SMB partners and their peers (typically upper-middle class males – this is the top 20%) that bring in 80% of the licensing revenue. Engaging in an 80/20 strategy is fraught with issues including creating opportunities for your competitors.

Surely there is some SMB ISV out there that wants the 80% whom I like to call our SMB Nation tribal members aka Joe the Plmbers with greater ethnic economic diversity?

That SMB ISV is IBM with its Lotus Foundations product and today it is reporting it is plucking off MS small business partners at an alarming rate of over 200 per month.

Below you will find the press release from IBM in its unchanged entire format. Note that over the summer I will be testing Lotus Foundations side-by-side with SBS 2008 and writing an article on my findings for release at my 7th SMB Nation Fall conference in Las Vegas (October 2-4, 2009).

Submitted for your approval:

200+ Microsoft Partners Per Month Flocking to Sell IBM Lotus Foundations Appliance

ARMONK, N.Y. — June 4, 2009 — Facing waning demand for Microsoft products, more than 1,000 Microsoft Business Partners have already signed up to sell IBM Lotus Foundations (www.ibm.com/lotus/foundations) “office-in-a-box” appliance for small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the first five months of 2009.

According to Microsoft Business Partners, sales of Microsoft’s Small Business Server (SBS) software bundle have stagnated due to lack of innovation and partner dissatisfaction with their inability to add solutions and services. Microsoft partners are looking for an alternative that provides SMBs with more collaboration computing power for less money and more reliability in these challenging economic times.

“Lotus Foundations is a complete, cost-effective solution that easily scales as a business grows. When you add users, you know exactly what it will cost and the functionality you’ll get,” said Bernie Leung of Mesa Technology. “With Microsoft SBS, you always have to worry about what additional licenses you will have to purchase – the SQL client is just one example.”

In addition, some Microsoft partners have expressed disenchantment with Microsoft’s new strategy of battling Linux encroachment in the SMB market by offering a skeletal version of Windows Server. Named “Microsoft Foundation Windows Server,” it can be positioned as a loss leader to up-sell customers a variety of other Microsoft products. Seeing rising customer demand for lower cost, more secure and open source alternatives, many Microsoft partners are looking to sell Linux-based solutions.

IBM Lotus Foundations provides all the hardware and software needed for a business to get up and running and grow exponentially without incurring any upgrade costs. The IBM product enables businesses to move to a single platform for all their IT needs, a stark contrast to Microsoft SBS, where additional software from Microsoft, as well as hardware and software from third parties must be purchased.

“And with Lotus Symphony, we don’t have to pay for Microsoft Office. Most importantly, Lotus Foundations is simple to use and easy maintain. It eliminates the expense of having a full-time IT expert on staff,” said Jose Lopez Gonzalez, CEO, Lopez y Cortina, an insurance provider in Monterrey, Mexico.

“If you sell servers to small business or non-profit organizations and you want one that has everything they need to run their network in one box that is extremely easy to manage, you owe it to yourself to look at the Lotus Foundations appliance,” said David Lawrence, President, Smart Technology Enablers.

IBM Lotus Foundations is designed to simplify the IT experience for small businesses. Before Lotus Foundations, small businesses were stuck with the many hassles and technology pains associated with traditional IT solutions.

IBM Lotus Foundations provides SMBs with positive change from the status-quo

New IBM clients such as Lopez y Cortina, Murak & Associates LLC and Calvary Baptist Academy are indicative of many small businesses in North America and around the world. For these organizations, who lack the luxury of dedicated IT personnel, keeping expenses in check is a top priority. As such, these companies are looking for ways to make dealing with technology easier.

Business partners too are looking for more effective methods to drive their business and support their customer base, and many have found that Lotus Foundations is the answer. The following are comments made by a sample of IBM clients and partners who have signed up for Lotus Foundations in the past five months.

“Lotus Foundations….dramatically improved our email platform. And instead of using disparate software, every user has the same comprehensive solutions, creating a common experience and standardized security and back-up protection across the company.” — Jose Lopez Gonzalez, CEO, Lopez y Cortina.

“For us, collaboration is paramount. With the VPN and file sharing features in Lotus Foundations, our consultants around the world can access information just as if they are in the office. And with this solution, we know our data is safe. The backup process is completely automated. It’s one less thing for us to worry about.” — Gerry Murak. Principal, Murak & Associates.

“Our IT setup consisted of a series of old desktop computers. Our file management system consisted of information stored on CDs, disks and hard copies of important documents. We needed a system to help centralize and simplify our file storage, but we didn’t have a huge budget. Lotus Foundations enabled us to implement a complete data storage system and stay within budget. And as an added savings, the included Lotus Symphony software enables us to cut all future costs tied to buying and upgrading Microsoft Office licenses.” — Kathy Rutledge, teacher, Calvary Baptist Academy.

“With Lotus Foundations, we were able to get a more complete solution and cut our costs significantly. The full year cost of our Lotus Foundations environment is equivalent to what we paid for only about one-and-a-half months with our SBS solution. That means we can spend more money on developing solutions that help our customers improve the way they do business.” — Dr. Tim Miller of EnVision.

“Lotus Foundations is like a giant aspirin for the IT headaches that plague business owners every day.” — Greg Gould of GDomino.

“The Lotus Foundations server is a wonderful device – the ease of install and configuration makes getting right to work a quick job. For the money, we could not have come close to finding this functionality anywhere else – enterprise quality in a small business box.” — Robert Thresher, owner, Thresher Enterprise Systems.

“With Lotus Foundation remote management, we have eliminated 50% of the support travel time allowing us to grow our Managed Service Provider division. As a result, we have grown sales and our customer base by 80% in the year 2008. With all the technology opportunities today, we are seeing a large number of customers looking for long term solutions outside of Microsoft, and Lotus Foundations and IBM Symphony are two great alternatives that offer small business organizations an IT solution that grows as their business grows – and adds value without taking away from their bottom line.” — James Sulfare, Solinkit, LLC.

“Lotus Foundations allows us to service our more than 100 different clients remotely. In fact, of all of the clients we’ve serviced that have IBM servers running the Lotus Foundations, we’ve only ever met two face-to-face. Lotus Foundation’s ease of setup and management allows us to ship out an unconfigured unit to our client. Upon receiving the unit, I have frequently instructed over the phone, the secretary — with zero computer experience – on the setup and configuration of the unit,” said Hari Boukis, owner, Advertising Magic.

“We chose Lotus Foundations from IBM for its high availability and ease of maintainability. Lotus Foundations also helps companies keep costs down do to its reliability, all-in-one office software suite, ease of use and maintainability. Additionally, since our solution is Windows-based, the ability to run Windows applications alongside Linux applications makes the Foundations environment a complete SMB solution.” — Jim Abraham, Managing Partner, Line Fifty Software.

For more information about IBM Lotus Foundations, visit www.ibm.com/lotus/foundations.

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Respectly – your fellow “Joe The Plumber” in SMB.

cheers…harrybbbb

CEO | SMB Nation

Co-author: Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Blueprint