Podcasts about Vars

Send us Fan MailPsalm 25:14 Die Here neem dié wat Hom dien, in sy vertroue en maak sy verbond aan hulle bekend. Daar is iets vreeslik lekker en aanloklik aan 'n geheim, nè? Om te wag dat iemand jou genoeg vertrou om een te deel, voel kompleet of jy op die drumpel van iets groots staan. Sodra jy deel word van daardie "binnekring", verander alles sommer dadelik. Gedurende die Tweede Wêreldoorlog was net 'n handjievol mense by Bletchley Park in Engeland vertrou met die oorlog se grootste geheim – die ontsyfering van Duitsland se Enigma-kodemasjien. Hulle was 'n klein, eksklusiewe groepie wat in die geheim gewerk het en die loop van die geskiedenis verander het.Geheime – die goeies altans – is presies so. Hulle het enorme krag om dinge te verander, maar nie almal weet daarvan nie. As jy daaroor dink, is dit juis wat 'n geheim 'n geheim maak.Psalm 25:14 sê: Die Here neem dié wat Hom dien, in sy vertroue en maak sy verbond aan hulle bekend.As jy die Here eer, is jy sy vriend. Hy vertrou jou met sy geheime en leer jou presies waarop jy in sy beloftes kan staatmaak.En in Christus word daardie waarheid selfs nog groter. Jesus het vir sy dissipels in Johannes 15:15 gesê: Ek noem julle vriende, omdat Ek alles wat Ek van my Vader gehoor het, aan julle bekend gemaak het.Deur ons geloof in Hom is ek en jy nie meer buitestanders nie. Ons is binnekringmense –welkom in die raadsaal van God Self. Dink net daaraan! Dit laat 'n mens se kop sommer draai.Moet dus nie tevrede wees met 'n geloof wat net op die oppervlak lê nie. Gee vandag 'n tree nader. Leef met ontsag vir Hom en ontdek die vreugde daarvan om God se vriend te wees - sy vennoot wat in sy binneste sirkel welkom is.Dit is Sy Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: [Blumira]: The company on Tuesday launched Hearth, a vendor-agnostic AI command center that Blumira says can intelligently reason across security tools and services an organization already uses. The platform is available in the Pax8 Marketplace, giving MSPs a unified interface to monitor and respond across multi-vendor environments. Read the announcement on Business Wire [Vistera]: The Vancouver-based company on Tuesday unveiled a professional services platform powered by Vero, a multi-agent orchestration layer that Vistera says brings legal, HR, and finance expertise to Canadian SMBs in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. Every output is reviewed by a senior Canadian-qualified professional before delivery, with outcomes priced at $700 each or through monthly plans. Learn more on Vistera [CrowdStrike]: Justin Bradley, senior alliances manager for MSSP aggregators at CrowdStrike, warned attendees at XChange August this week that the group behind Akira ransomware — referred to as Punk Spider — has increased attacks by 134 percent over the past year, specifically targeting SMBs through MSPs. The group buys VPN credentials on the dark web, uses MFA fatigue to gain access, and dumps Entra IDs before deploying ransomware. Read more on CRN [ConnectSecure]: The company on Tuesday added M365 Auto Remediation, AI-powered training assessments, and Patch 360 to its MSP platform, allowing providers to automatically remediate supported Microsoft 365 security findings across multiple tenants. Read more on Channel Dive [GTIA]: The Global Technology Industry Association warned at ChannelCon last week that customers are deploying AI faster than MSPs can deliver security and governance, and announced a new Managed Intelligence Alliance to develop standards and accreditations for AI services. Read more on Channel Dive [NetRise]: The company on August 3 launched its Discovery Partner Program to expand software supply chain security through MSSPs, VARs, and distributors. Read the announcement on PR Newswire [Verizon]: Channel chief and vice president of indirect partner sales Mark Tina is leaving the telecommunications company after 23 years to become vice president of national partner sales and distribution at health insurer Humana. Read more on Channel Dive Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Thursday, August 13, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Blumira on Tuesday launched Hearth, a vendor-agnostic AI command center that the company says can intelligently reason across security tools and services an organization already uses. According to Blumira, the platform is designed to unify visibility and response across the workspace without requiring a rip-and-replace approach, giving lean IT teams a single interface to monitor disparate tools. Hearth is available in the Pax8 Marketplace, positioning it for MSPs that provision through that platform. Blumira is pitching the offering as a way to reduce tool sprawl and alert fatigue for teams that lack enterprise-scale resources. A unified reasoning layer across multi-vendor stacks could cut down on the context-switching that slows incident response for Canadian MSPs, though the value will depend on integration depth and the accuracy of the AI-driven reasoning. Vistera on Tuesday unveiled a Canadian-built professional services platform powered by Vero, a multi-agent orchestration layer that the company says brings legal, HR, and finance expertise to small and medium-sized businesses at a predictable cost. The Vancouver-based company is targeting Canadian SMBs in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario with outcomes priced at $700 each or through monthly plans, a fraction of the typical hourly rates at large firms. According to Vistera, every output is reviewed and signed off by a senior Canadian-qualified professional before it reaches the client, with credential verification and regulatory standing checks built into the workflow. The platform handles intake, research, and preparation through AI agents while preserving human oversight for final judgment. Canadian MSPs should watch how this model lands, as it could create new partnership opportunities around SMB advisory services or introduce competitive pressure in the professional services space. CrowdStrike this week warned attendees at XChange August that prolific ransomware groups are specifically targeting MSPs and their SMB customers. According to Justin Bradley, senior alliances manager for MSSP aggregators at CrowdStrike, the group behind Akira ransomware — referred to as Punk Spider — has increased its attacks by 134 percent over the past year with an emphasis on SMBs. Bradley said the group’s typical strategy involves buying VPN credentials on the dark web, then using MFA fatigue to gain initial access, escalating privileges, and dumping Entra IDs before deploying ransomware. He also noted that CrowdStrike is tracking two break-off groups from Scattered Spider, dubbed Cordial Spider and Snarky Spider, which have been known to impersonate MSPs to trick customers into launching remote access tools. The intelligence underscores the urgency for Canadian MSPs to harden identity controls and monitor for MFA abuse, particularly as credential theft continues to fetch thousands of dollars on dark web markets. In Brief – ConnectSecure says its new M365 Auto Remediation tool lets MSPs approve and automatically apply fixes across multiple customers for supported Microsoft 365 security findings. The Global Technology Industry Association warns at ChannelCon that customers are deploying AI faster than MSPs can secure it, and says it is launching a Managed Intelligence Alliance to set standards for AI services. NetRise says its new Discovery Partner Program will expand software supply chain security through MSSPs, VARs, and distributors. Verizon confirms channel chief Mark Tina is leaving after 23 years to become vice president of national partner sales and distribution at Humana. Full details and links in the show notes or the blog post. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

Sanjib Sahoo, executive vice president and president of the Global Platform Group at Ingram Micro In this episode of In The Channel, we sit down with Sanjib Sahoo, EVP and President of the Global Platform Group at Ingram Micro, to unpack the “AI Revenue Intelligence” strategy that is currently driving the distributor’s record momentum. Sahoo discusses the evolution of the Xvantage platform from a digital infrastructure vision to a fully trained intelligence layer featuring over 400 proprietary models. A key highlight is the impact of the recently announced Xvantage Integration (XI) Hub and the MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server. Sahoo describes MCP as the “USB-C for AI,” allowing partners to securely connect their own AI agents—whether running on Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini—directly to Ingram Micro’s data mesh. Key discussion points include: The 4x Conversion Metric: How AI-surfaced insights are drastically outperforming traditional sales motions in converting quotes to orders. Democratizing AI: Why small MSPs are becoming the fastest adopters of the MCP Server to bypass complex, expensive ERP system integrations. Operational Efficiency: Real-world examples of partners saving 1,500 hours annually by reducing complex quoting cycles from days to mere seconds. The Human Shift: How the role of the Ingram associate is pivoting from transactional fulfillment to training algorithms and high-value solutioning. For partners looking to get started, Sahoo recommends visiting the Xvantage Developer Portal to explore how to “think big and act small” when it comes to AI adoption. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. Today, we’re joined by a man who’s effectively the architect of the modern digital Ingram Micro. Sanjib Sahoo is the EVP and president of the Global Platform Group at Ingram Micro and the visionary behind Xvantage. We’re coming off a week where Ingram reported record Q2 results, and Sanjib joins me to talk about why AI revenue intelligence is the engine behind those numbers. We dig into the recently launched XI Hub and MCP server—tools that are allowing even the smallest MSPs to connect their own AI assistants directly to Ingram’s data mesh. We talk about how this is saving early adopters up to 1,500 hours a year and why Sanjib thinks the industry is moving from a world of order takers to order makers. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Sanjib Sahoo. [MUSIC] Robert Dutt: Sanjib, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. Sanjib Sahoo: Absolutely, it’s a pleasure to be here. Robert Dutt: You guys just came off record Q2 results. A big part of that is the idea of what you guys are calling AI revenue intelligence. For the folks on the ground, what does that term actually mean? Is this about Ingram’s revenue, partner revenue, or sort of the intelligence sitting between those two fields? Sanjib Sahoo: Absolutely. If you look at it, intelligence is the key that connects the lifecycle in the channel. What we have been doing in the last year or couple of years is building functionality with Xvantage. But that is the infrastructure. What we have done is train our intelligence layer. All the models we have built—more than 400 models—and the intelligent integrations that we have built, it all added to that AI layer. Today, that AI layer goes out, looks at all the quotes, looks at multiple parameters, and then stack-ranks opportunities for our sales team to go and outreach our partners. It’s changing the sales motion where we are moving from order takers to order makers. That is converting at almost four times the rate that traditional distribution converted those quotes to orders. That actually has high-quality revenue. And most importantly, it is really giving us a way to close our cycles faster. That is that AI-led revenue—primarily intelligent revenue—that we are doing. Robert Dutt: That 4x number is pretty striking. You’ve been the architect of Xvantage since the beginning—it’s been your baby. Based on what you described, it’s safe to say we’ve gone from vision well into the momentum phase. I’m curious: what’s the biggest difference in the conversations you’re having with partners today versus, say, even the beginning of the year? Sanjib Sahoo: I think our partners are understanding more and more that this is not another platform or a tool for doing distribution better. This is a way for them to leverage that intelligence that Ingram Micro has from being in business for more than 45 years. It’s about leveraging insights to drive their business. Ultimately, where we want to move, Robert, is away from just selling products to selling outcomes by intelligence. I think more and more, that intelligence is the new relationship and value that we can create. The platform is immaterial; the experience is great, but the intelligence is what they need to drive operations. Robert Dutt: I’m curious how you have found the channel’s aptitude or ability—how is the channel prepared for this move towards intelligence? What is the biggest opportunity for the average MSP at this moment to jump on? Sanjib Sahoo: I think the channel is changing. The entire tech ecosystem is no longer linear. It’s more about solutioning, ecosystem orchestration, and demand gen. We need to scale the “long tail”—the small MSPs and the VARs—and that requires a lot of automation. Let me ask you a question. What is the operating system you have on your phone? You might know it’s iOS or Android, but you don’t know the exact version, right? Does it matter? No. But the operating system is what does the disk cleanup and the CPU optimization. Without that, it doesn’t work. We want Xvantage to be that agnostic operating system of the channel that solves all these complexities of SKU ingestion, billing, attaching, and reconciliation, powered by intelligence. This leads to our announcement about MCP. We have spent too much time on system integration; now we are connecting and combining intelligence. Robert Dutt: Let’s get into that. You’ve recently announced XI Hub and the MCP server layer. You guys have positioned this as “operationalizing AI” for the channel. In plain English, how do those two pieces work together to let an MSP connect their own AI to Ingram’s data? Sanjib Sahoo: Absolutely. If I’m a small MSP or an SMB, I don’t have a lot of IT budget. System integration takes a long time. But today, you can quickly write a quick agent or use your own LLMs. How do you connect that to an Xvantage or Ingram Micro without a massive integration? That is MCP. MCP is connecting intelligence to intelligence—agent to agent—versus system integration. It bypasses the complexity. I recently heard of a partner who got connected with MCP within an hour and is already driving value. Data helps you run the business, but intelligence helps you grow the business. Imagine if an MSP can get that constant intelligence from us for renewals or bundles—fulfillment happens as a byproduct, but intelligence is the value. Robert Dutt: You’ve described MCP as the “USB-C for AI.” Why was it important for Ingram to go through MCP and use an open standard like that, rather than building a “walled garden” approach? Sanjib Sahoo: Because a custom approach takes a long time. This is the fastest way to abstract your systems. Imagine you have ChatGPT or Claude and you connect it securely to Ingram Micro’s Xvantage to run your business. That’s amazing. We have architected it this way because ERPs can answer what, but they can’t answer why. Our architecture—with the real-time data mesh, AI Factory, and headless engines—really creates an environment where MCP can work much faster. Robert Dutt: If I’m an MSP and I’m plugging in an AI assistant to my business systems and to your live data, my first thoughts are going to be security and data leakage. How do the XI Hub and MCP server keep that data secure? Sanjib Sahoo: We have a lot of work going into security—data segregation, multiple protocols for how we expose data. We have different protocols for read versus write. We have been very careful about the details for obvious reasons, but there is a massive focus on security. Robert Dutt: You guys have talked about some incredible numbers—early adopters saving 1,500 hours annually and radically reducing quoting cycles. What was the partner doing manually that an MCP-connected assistant can do for them now? Sanjib Sahoo: They can get instant access to insights and figure out any question they have without needing to invest in extra OpEx or partners to do those activities. That saves them a lot of hours. But it’s also about growth. We see that Xvantage-integrated partners are doing much more business with us. It’s transactional efficiency and growth opportunities. Robert Dutt: When it comes to quoting, how is AI reducing the cycle? Is it fetching data faster or actually suggesting configurations? Sanjib Sahoo: MCP itself isn’t doing the quoting. We have worked hard to build a custom quoting engine in Xvantage as one of our headless engines. It takes complexity out and does the vendor integrations from config to order. MCP is just the pipe giving you the data from that engine. The complexity is solved by the Xvantage infrastructure; you’re just taking advantage of it by connecting with the MCP layer. Complex quotes that used to take days can now be done in minutes or seconds. Robert Dutt: Now that XI Hub and the MCP server are out there, what’s been the most unexpected or novel way that you’ve seen a partner use it? Sanjib Sahoo: I thought the big customers or the mid-market would lead, but I’m seeing a lot of traction with the “long tail”—small customers. It makes sense because they don’t have the budget to invest in heavy IT. They are connecting to MCP, looking at data, looking at renewals, and getting insights. Some are doing it in less than an hour. It really surprised me how this “relationship fabric” is giving them value through AI rather than just through sales calls. Robert Dutt: For those smaller partners—that 10-person MSP—what’s the on-ramp? How “AI-ready” do they need to be? Sanjib Sahoo: They can be ready pretty fast. There are so many models available. They know their own context, and if they plug into us, they can drive their business in a very different way. The XI Hub and MCP server are strategic components of a broader vision to democratize enterprise AI in the channel. The future of distribution is not just moving products; it’s about connecting intelligence across the tech value chain. Robert Dutt: You’ve talked about the move from “sell-in” to “sell-with.” Does this change the role of the Ingram associate or the account rep? If AI is doing the quoting, how does the human role shift? Sanjib Sahoo: There is always a human role. First, they are training the algorithms to make the intelligence better every day. Second, they can focus on being proactive rather than reactive. They focus on high-value, high-complexity solutioning with the customer rather than basic operations. We are focusing on the exceptions rather than transactional connectivity. Robert Dutt: You often talk about “mindset over skillset.” If a partner wants to capture this opportunity, what’s the one big mindset shift they need to make? Sanjib Sahoo: Think big and act small. Focus on the 60% chance to succeed versus the 40% chance to fail. AI is not perfect, but interacting with it every day makes it better. Data helps you run your business, but intelligence helps you grow it. We need our partners to move from instinct to intelligence. Robert Dutt: Looking at the rest of the year, what is the next big milestone for Xvantage? Sanjib Sahoo: The next “hub moment” will be about how we improve the intelligence every day to drive outcomes. We will always build features, but I want to celebrate intelligently operating this channel. We are moving from a platform for distribution to a platform company that does distribution. Robert Dutt: Last one. If I’m a partner who hasn’t yet looked at the Xvantage developer portal or XI Hub, where do I start? Sanjib Sahoo: You can Google the Xvantage Developer Portal or talk to your account manager. Some are figuring it out on their own, but we are there to help. Let’s work together to transform this industry. Robert Dutt: Brilliant. I appreciate you taking the time to walk us through this. Sanjib Sahoo: Absolutely, Robert. Thank you so much. Robert Dutt: There you have it, Sanjib Sahoo from Ingram Micro. I’d like to thank Sanjib for his time. It’s not often you get a peek under the hood of a platform handling four petabytes of data to see exactly how it’s changing the day-to-day life of the partner. The big takeaway for me was the 4x metric—AI-driven insights are converting at four times the rate of traditional sales motions. For the MSP, the message is clear: the long tail isn’t being left behind here. In fact, if you don’t have a massive IT budget, the MCP server might be your fastest way to operationalize AI without a developer team. I’d like to thank you for listening. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and most major directories. Ratings and reviews go a long way. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Send us Fan MailPsalm 27:14 Vertrou op die Here! Wees sterk en hou goeie moed! Ja, vertrou op die Here! Jy ken daardie tye wanneer jy desperaat gewag het dat dinge moet verander? Jy het gebid, maar dit het gevoel of die hemel swyg. Jy het werk gehard, maar niks het verander nie. Soos die wagtyd langer geword het, het jou hoop begin vervaag.Jane Grey Swisshelm, 'n Amerikaanse joernalis en aktivis uit die negentiende eeu, is gespot, stilgemaak en selfs gedreig oor haar kritiek oor slawerny en onreg. Tog het sy geweier om tou op te gooi. Sy het eerder vol hoop gewag dat God dinge sal regstel. Sy het geglo dat die waarheid belangrik is en dat God self vir sy saak sal opstaan. Na jare se gespook het haar stem die openbare mening oor slawerny verander. Goed, dit was haar situasie destyds. Maar wat van ons, vandag? Hoe wag 'n mens met hoop? Gister het ons in Psalm 27:4 gesien hoe ons begeertes verander wanneer ons ons verlustig in die Here; om die waarheid te sê, dit verander ons hele uitkyk op die lewe. Dit is die sleutel - om na God Self te smag. En vandag moedig Koning Dawid ons nog verder aan in:Psalm 27:14 Vertrou op die Here! Wees sterk en hou goeie moed! Ja, vertrou op die Here!Die Hebreeuse woord vir "wag" beteken nie sommer net om tyd te verdryf terwyl jy senuweeagtig aan jou naels kou nie. Dit beteken om met hoop te wag - om in afwagting vorentoe te beur: om oortuig te wees daarvan dat God se hulp op pad is.Terwyl hy deur vyande omring was, het Dawid geleer wat daardie soort hoop is; want dit vloei natuurlik voort uit 'n diep verlange na God Self. Dawid kon vertrou dat God sou ingryp – en God hét.En ek kan jou belowe, in Christus skyn daardie hoop op sy helderste. Die kruis het na duisternis gelyk, maar die opstanding was naby. Om met hoop op Jesus te wag, is nooit tevergeefs nie, want Hy is getrou. So, as jy jouself tans in God se "wagkamer" bevind, moenie moed verloor nie. Smag na God Self. Hou aan om op Jesus te vertrou. Dít is die plek waarvandaan sy moed en sy hoop sal vloei. Sy hulp is op pad – altyd presies betyds.Dit is God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailPsalm 27:4 Net een ding het ek van die Here gevra en dit sal ek najaag: dat ek my hele lewe lank in sy huis mag woon om sy goedheid te belewe en daaroor na te dink in sy tempel. Die lewe is nie altyd maanskyn en rose nie. Dinge tref ons van alle kante af – spanning en druk, verliese en teleurstellings wat ons nooit vir onsself sou gekies het nie. Bitterheid kan so maklik wortel skiet. Fanny Crosby, die blinde 19de-eeuse liedjieskrywer, is as baba weens 'n mediese fout van haar sig beroof. Sy kon maklik 'n bitter lewe gelei het en kwaad gewees het oor die onregverdigheid van haar omstandighede. Maar in plaas daarvan het sy in haar verlange na God gedraai. Uit haar intimiteit met Christus het sy meer as 8 000 lofgesange geskep - liedere van vreugde, vertroue en ander om sommer net die Here se teenwoordigheid te geniet. En dit is presies wat ons vandag nog nodig het. Sy het eenkeer gesê dat sy haar blindheid vir niks ter wêreld sou verruil nie, want daardeur het sy die skoonheid van Jesus duideliker gesien. Dit is die hartklop van Psalm 37. Ten spyte van Dawid se beproewings van beide voor en nadat hy koning van Israel geword het, skryf hy in:Psalm 27:4 Net een ding het ek van die Here gevra en dit sal ek najaag: dat ek my hele lewe lank in sy huis mag woon om sy goedheid te belewe en daaroor na te dink in sy tempel.Dit beteken nie dat ons dink dat God 'n outomatiese masjien is waarby jy net iets kan intik om te kry wat jy wil hê nie. Dit gaan oor intimiteit. Wanneer jy jou in God se teenwoordigheid verlustig en wanneer jy bo alles na Hom smag, verander jou prioriteite. Sy vreugde word jóú vreugde. Sy wil word jóú wil. En te midde van jou stryd verander dit alles.Dit vind sy diepste vervulling in Christus, omdat Hy die grootste onreg van alle tye aan die kruis gedra het. Maar, deur sy opstanding, bring Hy vir ons die diepste vreugde – 'n nuwe lewe in Hom.Moenie toelaat dat bitterheid oor die wêreld se onregverdigheid in jou hart wortel skiet nie. Kies vandag om jou in Christus te verlustig. Smag na sy teenwoordigheid, geniet sy intimiteit, en laat Hom toe om jou begeertes te herskep in iets wat blywend, pragtig en ewig is.Dit is God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Craig Patterson, global channel chief at Exabeam For years, SIEM has been one of those technologies that looked good in theory but was genuinely hard to build a profitable managed service around. Deal-by-deal discount negotiations, licensing structures built for enterprise resale rather than recurring managed services revenue, and no predictable floor on margin. For many MSPs, the math just never worked. Exabeam – the combined company formed from the merger of the original Exabeam and LogRhythm – is making a direct play to change that. Global channel chief Craig Patterson and senior director of service provider alliances Peter Stratis join In The Channel to walk through the new MSSP commercial framework inside the recently launched APEX Partner Program. Two new licensing pathways: a single-pool capacity model for high-volume, multi-tenant environments serving SMB and mid-market clients, and a federated subscription model that isolates customer environments for compliance and data sovereignty requirements. For Canadian MSSPs navigating PIPEDA, OSFI E-21, or Protected B, that second model is the one to pay close attention to. Peter Stratis, senior directof of server provider alliances at Exabeam The conversation also covers Sherpa, Exabeam’s new AI-powered partner enablement platform – a move away from the traditional LMS toward an always-on coaching tool that can join partner sales calls in real time – and Agent Behavior Analytics, Exabeam’s new capability for detecting malfunctioning, misaligned, and subverted AI agents inside customer environments, included at no additional cost. The standout line from Peter Stratis – who called this his first-ever podcast appearance – is the one worth writing down: “We treated our service providers like resellers, unfortunately.” The new framework is a direct acknowledgment of that history, and an attempt to rebuild the commercial relationship from the ground up. Read Full Transcript Robert Dutt: Hello and welcome to In The Channel from ChannelBuzz.ca, bringing news and information to the Canadian IT channel community for the last 16 years. I’m Robert Dutt, editor of ChannelBuzz.ca and your host for the show. If you’ve been in the channel for any length of time, you know that SIEM has always been one of those technologies that seems great in theory but has been genuinely hard to build a profitable managed service around. Licensing models that weren’t built for multi-tenancy, unpredictable costs, discount structures that made margin planning more of a guessing game than a business model. A lot of MSPs have looked at the security operations space and quietly backed away for exactly those reasons. Exabeam, the combined company that emerged out of the merger of Exabeam and LogRhythm, is making a direct play to change that. They have overhauled their channel program into what they’re calling the APEX Partner Program and at the centre of it is a new commercial framework built specifically for managed security service providers. Two distinct pathways: one for high-volume multi-tenant environments and one built with compliance and data sovereignty in mind. For Canadian MSPs navigating PIPEDA, OSFI E-21 and Protected B requirements, that second lane is worth paying close attention to. I’ve got two Exabeam executives here to walk us through it. Craig Patterson is Exabeam’s global channel chief and Peter Stratis is the senior director of service provider alliances, the person who’s been working directly with MSSPs to build this out from the ground up. Let’s get right into it. My chat with Craig Patterson and Peter Stratis. Gentlemen, thank you for taking the time. Craig Patterson: Thank you, Robert. Super excited to be on here with you today, my friend. Peter Stratis: Thank you. Robert Dutt: Craig, can you just kick us off with a quick version of where Exabeam sits right now? You know, you guys went through a significant merger with LogRhythm not that long ago. Now you’re pushing an updated partner program. For solution providers who maybe haven’t been following closely, what does the combined company look like from a channel perspective? Craig Patterson: The short answer, my friend, is that we’re sitting in an amazing place. We’re absolutely in a good place positioning to really drive value to our partner community. And so to give you a little more context around that, like you asked, we’ve spent the last 12 months really kind of rethinking, reimagining the whole partner ecosystem in a way to create value for all of our partners globally. And so there was a number of things we went through over the last 12 months. We spent a lot of time really going to this assessment loop, understanding everybody’s perspective. So we did that by having very strategic conversations with our top-tier partners. We did some survey work. We looked at the broad landscape in terms of the trends that the partners are really looking for in these modern channel programs. So all of that really became this assessment loop. The output of that is that really became the foundation for what we built here with APEX. And so with APEX, the Exabeam APEX Partner Program, what you have here is you have a program that’s really centered on value that’s really focused on solving a problem that exists in our market today around enablement. And so when you think about enablement today, I’ve written a lot of articles on this. Most enablement programs really don’t drive to the level of outcome that companies are looking to have. Outcomes like conversion rates, outcomes like time to first deal, outcome rates like retention rates, all these things. And so what we’ve done is we’ve really focused on enablement as the key catalyst to really drive value to our partners. And so with that, we’ve launched new enablement programs really with a focus on increasing their competency level so we can align to those outcomes we’re looking to have with our company’s operating plan. And so there’s a lot of thought that’s got into this. The short answer is we have a program that’s built on value. It aligns to where the market is going and what partners are really asking for. Robert Dutt: Peter, your title as senior director of service provider alliances is a pretty specific role. Can you tell us a little bit about what that looks like sort of on a day-to-day basis and the big problems that you’re focused on? Peter Stratis: Sure thing. Thanks, Robert. Well, I’ve been with Exabeam for about eight years now and service providers have always been a key component of not only our channel strategy, but our go-to-market and just from our net new revenue perspective. After our merger with LogRhythm, that actually continues and if anything, it’s only been more emphasized because both from an on-prem and from a cloud perspective, we see the MSSPs being a strong driver of that strategy of our go-to-market. So over the last eight years, we’ve seen that trend of not only on net new revenue, net new logos being a major part of our business, but then how do, to Craig’s point, how do we support them? To be quite honest, in the past, it was quite difficult. We really didn’t have any kind of structured pricing for these partners. It was, to say the least, it was more of a resale program that had some discounts tied to it. So through Craig’s efforts, through our whole surveys and our intent to really go after this market and treat them the way they should be treated, he mentioned that we did these surveys. We asked internally, what do you look for in a service provider partner? We asked externally what these partners were looking for from us. And that’s when in building the APEX Partner Program here at Exabeam, we also took into account what service providers would look for in a new partner program. So that’s everything from pricing to support. Craig mentioned enablement. Enablement is a huge part of that, where they felt in the past they were just lumped up as just a regular partner. Now we have supported APIs, documented APIs that most, if not all, of our partners are using as part of their foundation for their services. So we’ve really come a long way and continue actually to build upon that, as you’ll see throughout 2026 and beyond. Robert Dutt: Okay, let’s get into the framework itself. You guys positioned it at launch as solving commercial and operational friction for MSSPs. Curious, what did you hear that friction looked like in practice? What were MSSPs telling you was broken or was a big challenge? Craig Patterson: Yeah, so I’ll take a stab at this and I’ll let Peter give more context. So a lot of this came out during that assessment phase. Robert, we’re talking to the MSSPs globally. I’m like, what’s working? What’s not working? What would they like to see incorporated into the MSSP program 2.0? So a lot of the feedback we heard was really around the flexibility. Being able to have a license that is catering to all the customer demand they have beneath. So it’s really giving them the flexibility to buy that one license and carve it up as they see fit. And giving them more flexibility on the commercial terms. That was a lot of the commentary we heard. The other thing we heard was really they wanted more value as it leads to the enablement side. So obviously getting them enabled on the pre-sales side, but more importantly on the post-sales side. So they could actually drive those implementations, drive the management and really help those customers create a lot of value. And so I think those were kind of the big levers that I heard from those assessments. And then in practice, Peter can give you some more context in terms of how we’re putting all this together. Peter Stratis: Yeah, thanks Craig. A lot of what we heard from the service provider community in the past was friction. So when they’re trying to price out their services and our product and etc., they were seeing friction at onboarding. They were seeing friction in trying to predict their margin on deals. As mentioned, not airing any dirty laundry here. It was more like a resale program. So we gave discounts and there were very opportunistic discounts on a deal-by-deal basis. So they didn’t build predictable service models around it in the past. And then you always hear the buzzword, multi-tenancy. We kept on getting asked about our multi-tenant roadmaps, etc. We’re looking at this framework as a way of solving for that. We continue to make feature enhancements into the platform that will strive for that multi-tenancy. But the way we’re solving for it is by these two pathways. One is that single license, pooled capacity, data segregation model. And the other is that federated workflow that we announced where it’s more for, whether you’re within data sovereignty, if in different regions or just different use cases from a compliance perspective, whether it’s healthcare or finance, and you have to keep these environments isolated. We have a plan and we worked with our MSSPs specifically to have these kind of pathways. So we heard from our MSSPs and we actually developed these two pathways with them in mind. So they were in the design phase and in the rollout phase for both federated and the single pool capacity. Robert Dutt: The federated model is such an interesting one, I think, for the Canadian market, specifically data sovereignty, huge topic. And there are specific compliance requirements, PIPEDA, OSFI E-21, Protected B status. It means that a lot of Canadian MSSPs can’t just kind of throw everything into one pool. Was that the sort of thing that was explicitly on the radar when you built this out or a happy coincidence of the architecture and the feedback that you heard along the way? Peter Stratis: It’s actually a little of both, right? So it just so happened to be the maturity of our platform. Even from our Exabeam New Scale platform, we went from an on-prem hardware appliance way back in 2012, to our version 1.0 was a SaaS product, to our native cloud. It was always a single-tenant solution. So it worked well for certain service providers that had the capacity. They had their APIs and their own platforms that could manage this solution. As you heard more and more about multi-tenancy and the need for data sovereignty and all that, we still had a big part of our MSSPs were asking for this single license pooled capacity. So we structured it in a way where for midsize organizations or even some small, medium business, you still have that single pool capacity using data segregation. You lose some of the customization, but you could actually solve for a lot of those customers in that model. And then you have another plan with the federated. So the more mature MSSPs are running both models in some capacity. They could still run that single license for their SMB play. And then for either large enterprise or very compliance-driven customers that want those isolated environments, they have that flexibility. And that’s what we built a framework around. Obviously, that’s one point of feedback that sort of directly informed the framework. Robert Dutt: You guys have said that this whole thing was built, as you said, with direct collaboration with your MSSP partners rather than kind of coming down on high. I’m curious along with what you’ve touched on already, what actually changed as a result of going through that process? What did you go in thinking you’d build and how did it come out differently because of what partners told you along the way to building it? Craig Patterson: Yeah. So I think there’s a lot of things that have been addressed. Obviously, the packaging and the commercial aspects as Peter was describing, but think about some of the fundamental problems in terms of partners want this path to profitability, right? Really understanding how they can create margin. That was one thing. Another path is like, how do I become enabled with Exabeam? And how do I stay informed in terms of where you’re going? Another problem we wanted to solve. So I think it’s a lot around the financial aspects of doing business with us. A lot of it’s around becoming enabled, becoming more knowledgeable on all the new features and releases that we’re dropping. And so those were some of the big fundamentals that we wanted to solve in the APEX framework. And then beneath that, obviously, is the whole MSSP play. And that’s what Peter’s been talking about. So you can probably give a little more context on that. Peter Stratis: Yeah. As mentioned, there is no one-size-fits-all. So the feedback we were getting was obviously their security platform was important to them. Some of them had an in-house platform they built on their own. And there’s ways of differentiating. So basic SIEMs are just going after alert monitoring. So how can I differentiate my service if I’m a service provider? Well, there’s ways of going to market, but also there were things we needed to do in the back office from a platform perspective to make those possible. So making our behavioral analytics available in these models so they can actually differentiate their services. As I said, we have a history of actually adding features quarter-over-quarter, month-over-month. So that’s not stopping. We didn’t announce necessarily multi-tenancy to the world. We announced a commercial framework for that. So you’ll continue to see on a month-to-month, quarter-over-quarter basis, features added to support not only the commercial framework, but the underlying platform to make it easier for service providers to add that operational efficiency, to add those differentiators from a product portfolio as well. Robert Dutt: Let’s talk about the economics underneath there. You use the term predictable margins as a phrase that shows up in the messaging. SIEM has historically been a tough service to make money on. Licensing models that didn’t fit the managed services motion, unpredictable costs on data ingestion, those sorts of things. What specifically changes for an MSSP’s P&L under the framework? Craig Patterson: Yeah. So I think there’s really two components here. The first is the whole financial package associated to the MSSP partners. And the second is the discounting framework. And so let’s maybe start with the discounting framework. One of the observations that we made during this whole assessment phase was the vast majority, Robert, of all of our deals were flowing through this non-standard process, which means the discounts that were aligned to the traditional framework were not putting the MSSP partners in a position to actually transact. And so what we did is we went through and we re-looked at the discounting framework and sort of realigned it based upon our actual data points. We looked at the last 12, 24 months, the discounts that were being derived to actually transact. And we sort of rebuilt the entire discounting framework for our company in a way that really empowers the MSSP partners now to have enough discount to actually transact without going to this non-standard queue. So what does it mean? Well, we really kind of flipped the script. Instead of 80% being non-standard, we believe 80% will flow through the standard process now because we’ve built the discounts in a way to align with what the market is looking for. That’s kind of the key component number one. And then as it relates to the discounting side, we reimagined how those discounts are calculated. And so now you kind of have your standard program discount. So that’s based upon your tier. So top-tier MSSP partners get the highest level discount. The second is deal registration. Obviously, they put the deal reg in that ties to a discount. Those are both standard common things. But what’s new, which is what you care about. What is new? Well, we’ve aligned the third discount based to their competency level. And so we measure that based upon certifications. And so if you think back to those choose-your-own-adventure books as a kid, we’re really giving the partners their own choose-your-own-adventure. And if they want to drive to the highest level discount, well, simply, MSSP partners got to go take all of our certifications, pre-sales and post-sales, so they have the highest level of competency to drive our services in the market. And our thesis around that is partners that have higher certifications, they’re going to be more active, they’re going to be more interested, they’re going to drive more pipeline. And if we do this the right way, Robert, they’re actually going to convert at a higher percentage, we’re going to see shortened sales cycles, all of which align to the operating plan of our company. So it’s kind of those two fundamental things that were addressed through that process. And then I’m sure Peter can fill in the detail for you. Peter Stratis: Yeah, if I can actually elaborate on that. Thanks for that, Craig. And just some historical context, Robert, as mentioned in the past, we treated our service providers like resellers, unfortunately, so it was very deal-specific in terms of what they were getting on a deal-by-deal basis from a discount. So the economics of it was they really couldn’t rationalize their margin predictability on an overall services basis. And you know, different regions go to market different ways. In Europe, Asia, Latin America, predominantly, it’s all SIEM as a service and MSSP owns the license. In the Americas, both US and Canada, we saw a lot of proliferation in the past of customer-owned licenses. So the MSSP would resell the license, and consequently, just provide managed services wrap on top of that. Not only do we see more of that MSSP-owned model now where it’s SIEM as a service in the US and Canada. So it’s proliferated itself throughout all the regions. Now with these frameworks, we actually are able to build these economics, the margin predictability, as Craig mentioned, because now they know as a standard, what they’re going to be selling for. So especially as we do this federated model, and even the single license, you know what your price is across the board, you know what license you’re buying, you know what price you’re buying it for, you know, the more customers you add to these models, the more your profitability will increase as well. So it continues to grow from a pure profit play. Partners want to know what their margin would be as their customer licenses grow. And this is exactly what the framework did. Robert Dutt: This is sort of a broader question around MSP/MSSP distinctions as opposed to directly about the framework. But there’s a distinction worth drawing between an MSP trying to bolt a security practice onto the existing managed services business and the established MSSP who’s been at this for a year or who has built it up. Are those two different conversations for you? And if so, what are the different entry points and care-abouts? Peter Stratis: So it’s interesting, not only because of this announcement, even prior to it, the announcement of the APEX Partner Program here at Exabeam caused a lot of interest from partners and different kinds of partners. The traditional MSP, when inquiring, it was kind of hard when we were vetting them that they had no security practice of their own. So oftentimes they would actually outsource that security to an MSSP, to a classic MSSP, or maybe just resell services from those other organizations. We see that, we see a lot of interest from MSPs with that. And we see VARs or resellers come to us that want to build managed service practices as well. So we look at both of these in two different ways. One, how can we take care of these partner inquiries now, and then how can we grow with these organizations? So both MSPs and resellers that are interested in managed services now, our first inkling is to try to introduce them to our current managed service base. These people have the experience, they have the certifications, they have the technical knowledge. We’ve seen that move from a lot of MSP partners actually having channels of their own. So they actually sell their MDR or MSSP services through a channel of resellers or MSPs. But then if that’s our first step with these type of partnerships, then it’s like, how can we grow within your organization? How can we help you get the technical skills required? Because for a true MSP to have success, not only in SIEM, but just security as a service, you can’t just train one or two people, you need the 24-by-7 support, you need the tier one and tier two level of support services as well. So you have to grow your organization or outsource it to people that are already prepared to handle that. So that MSP play, we actually see it more and more going towards our current managed security service providers and getting that as a resource. Craig Patterson: Just to add a little more context to that too. So this actually becomes a very interesting point for the distributors worldwide as well. Because a lot of what they provide in terms of value is helping those MSPs in terms of deployment and management of the services. And so we’ve gone through the vetting process globally, looking at all of our distributors and we’ve handpicked our strategic distributors around the world. So if we have MSPs that want to come into the program, but they’re not ready on that post-sale side, well, guess what? That can become the role of the distributor. And secondarily, this is where the enablement really comes into play as well. And so that’s why we’ve built very specific paths on enablement, pre-sales and post-sales, where partners can choose their own adventure. “Hey, if I want to get going on the pre-sale side, well, guess what? I can simply resell.” Or, “Hey, I want to really start focusing on the post-sales services implementation.” I can start to take the enablement around those courses to become more of an expert to really give me those new capabilities. And so there’s a whole conversation around what we’re doing on enablement with our brand new Sherpa that’s really given a lot of these partners those capabilities. Robert Dutt: On the note of Sherpa, an AI-powered tool for partners, it’s essentially a virtual channel account manager in terms of enablement, onboarding, that sort of thing, especially for an MSSP who’s new to SIEM. How does it change the friction of getting started with Exabeam as their platform? Craig Patterson: You’re going to love this. You’re going to love this. So we’ve sort of reimagined all of the enablement. Again, when you look at traditional enablement, it’s like most enablement is built in these LMS platforms. Like, “Hey, partner, go log on to this LMS platform, get your certification, and then we expect you to actually know what the hell you’re doing.” Reality is that’s not what happens. They log on to the LMS platforms. They fast-forward as quickly as they can to the end. They turn the volume down. And then when the quiz comes, they use AI to answer the questions. And so they just find a way to get the certification. The reality is none of that helps them be better in life or actually raise their competency. And so that’s a problem we took on head-on with Sherpa. And so Sherpa was built in a way to really change the way partners learn with the whole goal of raising their competency level so they can be better on the market. And there was really like three use cases we were trying to solve with the emergence of Sherpa. The first is like you think about this global ecosystem that Peter and I have. We have 3000 partners. The partner ecosystem looks different. We have VARs. We have MSPs. We have MSSPs. We have distributors. We have the trusted advisor market as well. All of them have different needs in terms of where they are from a learning perspective. And so the first use case, Robert, is simply like a tool to be able to ask questions. What are the use cases? How do I position this? Why is SIEM or UEBA better than the competition? Just an always-on tool for partners to ask questions. And so that was kind of use case one. And then the cool thing around that is you think about the ecosystem being very global in nature. The other problem with LMS platforms is I’ve got partners in Japan. Well, that means the LMS platform they log on to needs to be able to talk to them in Japanese. And so the beauty with Sherpa, it does all the translation for us. And we’ve got 15 plus languages that are now live in Sherpa. Partners in Japan are talking to it. We got partners in India and all over the world really asking questions in terms of how we position our services. And that integration can be done by just logging on to our portal. You’ll see a bot pop up. They can just simply ask a question. It integrates in Teams, integrates in Slack. So that was use case number one. Use case number two was we reimagined the whole enablement certification platform. And so it’s a very dynamic learning experience. And so the way it happens is you log on, there’s a topic that you like, you click on that, you start learning, it asks you questions, it asks you to position services, and then you record your answer to how you’re actually positioning those services or the features. And it gives you feedback like, “Robert, you did really good on this aspect, but next time you should use this and this.” Or, “Robert, if you’re talking to a customer that’s in this vertical, you should talk about this use case because that’ll help resonate.” And so the whole certification process has been rebuilt and that’s the second use case. The third use case, this is a game changer. And this really goes to your question. And it’s an always-on coach. And so partners are now able to invite Sherpa to calls. And so as they’re having those conversations with customers, and the customer may say something or give them an objection, well, in the background, Sherpa will give them the answer to that objection and say, “Customer said this, talk to them about this.” Or, “Have you shared this new feature that was just released in the quarterly launch?” So it’s like this always-on coach, always-on assistant to really give them what they need. And then we’re putting it on this innovation roadmap. And so every single quarter, we’re launching new innovation in Sherpa. As an example, we’re now launching our LinkedIn integration. So if you’re an MSSP partner, you log on to Sherpa, you’re connected to LinkedIn, it’s going to ask you, if Sherpa can look through your network to find customers that may be a good fit for our services. And then it’ll say, “Okay, great. We found these contacts. Should we go ahead and write the campaign? Should we write a campaign that you can use to send to those customers in your ecosystem on LinkedIn?” And so quite honestly, I think we’re bleeding edge in terms of really being able to use AI and adopt AI in a way to drive good outcomes, well beyond where most companies are with their simple ChatGPT things like that. We’re actually driving outcomes. Robert Dutt: The rise of AI baked into the partner program and partner tools is a fascinating space for me to watch. And that certainly, you make a compelling case for the role of Sherpa there. That sounds really interesting. A quick one on the product side, not directly related here, but just out of curiosity, Exabeam just dropped Agent Behavior Analytics in your April release, sort of extending behavioral detection to AI agents, ChatGPT usage, Copilot activity, those kinds of things. For an MSSP looking to take this to market as a service, is it a new revenue line? Is it an upsell? Or is this sort of becoming table stakes that clients expect to see bundled into what you’re doing for them? Craig Patterson: I’m glad you asked. It was just recently at RSA, the conference, obviously AI is the buzzword, but what do you do with that? When we presented the agentic behavior analytics to a lot of our partners or potential new customers, the question that was often asked was, “Well, how much is this extra?” And that’s not how we license our product. So the behavior analytics has been part of our solution since our inception from our analytics model. So specific to AI, this is going to be, you could differentiate your service from other service providers by using this behavior analytics, but by no means is it an extra cost on the MSSP’s behalf. So they’re going into an organization that has a thousand users, human entities, and overnight they now have 10,000 non-human entities. We look at and model all of them using our analytics. So now you actually have at least a basis of what’s normal from a behavior standpoint for both non-human and human entities. So we really change the game, but haven’t changed the pricing along with it. So it comes naturally within our platform. So no change for me as a partner, but if I can find a way to upsell based on it, all the better. If not, I add additional features. Hopefully my customer is more happy. Peter Stratis: I was just going to say, if you look at the macro trends we’re seeing, this is the number one conversation that’s being had right now, especially like you look at the financial sector. Every single company is facing this problem. And so this really, not only does it give them a new use case to go after, I think it just makes the overall security services of Exabeam more relevant based upon what’s happening in the overall market, which all that makes the revenue stickier, makes those conversations more impactful that those MSSP partners are having. Craig Patterson: Yeah. Well, what I’m going to mention is operational efficiency and service differentiation is what’s key to our MSSPs and their success. So the license is foundational. And now that we’ve actually solved for being predictable from a margin perspective, how can they differentiate themselves, making them operationally efficient using automation, using our threat detection, and then also the service differentiation. And the other thing too, just thinking through this a little bit, I mean, there’s different AI agents that exist out there that are doing different things. You think about the malfunctioning agent, the one that’s just off base and it’s doing things that are just incorrect based upon the fundamentals or foundation of the AI agent. That’s one thing that gets addressed by looking at the abnormal behavior. The second is the misaligned agent, the ones that are pursuing goals in a way that could negatively impact the company. And that gets a little bit more scary. But really what gets scary is those subverted agents, the ones that have been hijacked that are actually causing harm. And so you think about all those different use cases that are happening, and that’s the beauty of what we just released is our new ABA, sort of creating this new category in the market. That’s really what our ABA is looking for, is all those different things that are happening, whether it’s misused, misaligned, or subverted. All that can be detected through this new agent behavior. Robert Dutt: Okay, last question for me. If I’m an MSP who’s been sitting on the sidelines, I’ve been thinking about them or are upgrading my security operations practice. What’s one thing that you wish I understood about the opportunity and the economics, but I probably don’t at this point? Peter Stratis: It’s all about how they actually start off. They’re interested in selling managed security, but they don’t know that they have to standardize their delivery model. They can’t make it where every customer is custom, because that’s when that price predictability goes away. So everything from onboarding to customizing your offering has to go away. You might be able to do it for a certain amount of customers, but you have to build a model that’s repeatable. Automation is going to be very important to that. And then finally, you could add optional add-ons, but you have to resist the temptation to over-customize everything. The great thing about what Craig has done with the APEX Partner Program and the way we built it out here at Exabeam is it supports all of this through all the enablement efforts. So Craig mentioned all the enablement built into the program, but then we have certification tracks. So we’ll help you along in that process. And we have everything from APIs and the use case and the scripts to help you automate that track for you to make it easier, but just don’t jump in and try to do a custom solution for each customer. Robert Dutt: Gentlemen, I thank you very much for your time. Once again, I appreciate your walking us through the commercial framework. Craig Patterson: Thank you, Robert. Appreciate it. Peter Stratis: Thank you, Robert. Robert Dutt: There you have it. Craig Patterson and Peter Stratis from Exabeam. I’d like to thank Craig and Peter for their time today. And a special note, this was Peter’s first podcast appearance. You never would have known it. A few things I’ll leave you with. First, if Peter’s candid admission landed for you — that Exabeam used to treat service providers like resellers with opportunistic deal-by-deal discounts that made it impossible to build a predictable margin — sit with that for a moment. Not unique to Exabeam. That was the industry. And it goes a long way to explaining why so many MSPs have struggled to make managed SIEM work as a business. The new framework is a direct attempt to fix that math. Two pathways: a single-pool capacity model that works well for SMB and mid-market clients, and a federated model that isolates environments for compliance-heavy customers. The discounting structure has been rebuilt from the data up with the goal of moving 80% of deals through a standard process. Up from what Craig described as the opposite of that. The Sherpa AI tool is worth watching closely, not just as a training platform replacement, but as an always-on coach that can actually sit in on partner sales calls and surface real-time objection handling. The LinkedIn integration is coming next, and it starts looking less like an LMS and more like a business development tool. And the closing advice I’ll leave you with is Peter’s. If you’re an MSP thinking about entering the security space, standardize your delivery model before you take on your first customer. Resist the urge to customize every environment. That’s exactly where price predictability and profitability goes away. Thanks as always for listening. In The Channel is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all the major podcast directories. If you’re finding value in the show, leave a rating or review. It goes a long way to helping other folks in the channel find us. Until next time, I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, and I’ll see you in the channel.

Send us Fan MailPsalm 51:12 Skep vir my 'n rein hart, o God, vernuwe my gees en maak my standvastig. Ons het almal al foute gemaak wat ons eerder sou wou uitwis. Jy het; ek het; keuses wat ons gemaak het en wens ons kon terugtrek. Maar hoe dikwels hou ons net aan om op dieselfde pad te loop - die een kompromie ná die ander - eerder as om te stop; om te draai en God om genade te smeek?Dit is presies wat met koning Dawid gebeur het. Hy het Batseba se skoonheid gesien, hy het haar begeer en hy het haar geneem. Ongeag die feit dat sy getroud was. Soos jy kan dink, was die gevolge verwoestend. Haar man, Uria, wat onskuldig was in die situasie, is vermoor. 'n Vrou se lewe is verwoes. 'n Koning se hart het verhard in sy rebellie teen God. En vir 'n tyd lank het Dawid aangegaan asof niks gebeur het nie. Klink dit vir jou bekend?God het die profeet Natan gestuur om Dawid tot sy sinne te bring. Dit was toe hy die verskriklikheid van sy dade verstaan het, dat Dawid vir God gevra het om hom te vergewe en hom rein te maak: Psalm 51:12: Skep vir my 'n rein hart, o God, vernuwe my gees en maak my standvastig.Dawid wou nie net vergifnis hê nie - hy wou sy verhouding met God herstel. Hy wou daardie vreugde van God se verlossing terughê. Die krag van sy Gees. Hy wou weer in gehoorsaamheid wandel.En dít is God se uitnodiging aan jou vandag. Jy hoef nie vasgevang te bly in kompromieë nie. Jy hoef nie aan te hou om te maak asof alles reg is nie. Jy kan nou dadelik omdraai en God vra om jou skoon te was. Jy kan Hom vra om jou met sy Gees te vul en om die skuldgevoelens en skaamte wat jou vernietig te verwyder en jou vreugde te herstel.Moenie wag nie. Moenie jou skuldgevoelens nog een dag langer dra nie. Jesus het gesterf sodat jy vergewe kan word. Vra God om jou vreugde te herstel en vir jou 'n gees te gee wat gewillig is om Hom te gehoorsaam.Dis God se Woord. Vars... vir jou... vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan Mail1 Petrus 5:7 Werp al julle bekommernisse op Hom, want Hy sorg vir julle. Stres. Druk. Spertye. Rekeninge. Kinders. Verhoudings. Gesondheid. Party dae voel dit of jy die hele wêreld op jou skouers dra. En dit maak nie saak hoe hard jy probeer nie, die vrag word net al hoe swaarder.Lê jy ook soms snags wakker en laat dieselfde probleem soos ‘n wysie, oor en oor in jou kop afspeel? Jy dink deur elke scenario, elke "wat as", en steeds … verander niks nie. Dis omdat jy niks bereik wanneer jy iets voos dink nie. Jy los nie jou probleme op nie. Dit steel net jou vrede.'n Sielkundige het hierdie proses waar jy iets toelaat om in jou te maal, met 'n wiegstoel vergelyk. Dit gee jou iets om te doen, maar dit bring jou nêrens nie. Dis presies hoe bekommernis is. Dit vreet jou energie op en steel jou vreugde, maar dit láát jou op dieselfde plek: vasgeval.So, wat is die antwoord? Hoe kom jy hierdeur?1 Petrus 5:7 Werp al julle bekommernisse op Hom, want Hy sorg vir julle.Jy hoef nie die gewig van daardie konstante ‘geestelike toertjies' te dra nie. Jy hoef jouself nie geestelik uit te put deur aan te hou om, soos 'n stukkende plaat, in dieselfde sirkels om-en-om te draai nie; maar in plaas daarvan kan jy dit oorgee - alles oorgee - aan die Een wat reeds weet hoe dit gaan eindig.En hier is die verskil: wanneer jy bid en jou vrese by God los, stap vrede by die deur in. Want jy probeer nie meer om môre se probleme in jou eie kop op te los nie. Jy vertrou dié God wat môre in sy hande hou.Jesus het die swaarste vrag van almal aan die kruis gedra: jou en my sonde. As Hy dít kon dra, kan Hy dít wat jy nou ervaar, ook dra. Jou stres. Jou vrees. Jou slapelose nagte. Hou op om in sirkels te loop. Bid. Gee dit aan Hom oor. En rus.Want dié God wat jou liefhet, is nie net in staat om jou laste te dra nie - Hy wíl dit doen. Dis Sy Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailJohannes 6:28-29 Hulle vra Hom toe: “Wat moet ons doen om te doen wat God van ons verlang?”En Jesus antwoord hulle: “Wat God van julle verlang, is dat julle moet glo in Hom wat Hy gestuur het.” Jy dink dalk dis 'n vreemde ding vir my om te sê, maar ek gaan dit in elk geval sê: godsdiens sal jou uitput. Jy sal jouself stokflou maak as jy reëls en rituele wil volg en dit sal boonop net skuldgevoelens veroorsaak. En wat is die waarheid? 'n Geloof wat op werke gebaseer is, is soos om op 'n trapmeul te hardloop – dit maak nie saak hoe hard jy werk nie, jy kom nêrens nie.Stel jou dit voor. Jy draf jouself poegaai by die gym, die sweet tap jou af, jou bene brand, jou hart jaag. En wanneer jy uiteindelik die "stop"-knoppie druk ... is jy nog presies op dieselfde plek. Nouja, dis presies hoe godsdiens sonder genade voel. Al die moeite, maar geen vordering nie.Luister nou na hierdie gesprek tussen Jesus en sy dissipels:Johannes 6:28-29: Hulle vra Hom toe: “Wat moet ons doen om te doen wat God van ons verlang?”En Jesus antwoord hulle: “Wat God van julle verlang, is dat julle moet glo in Hom wat Hy gestuur het.”Sien jy die kontras? Hulle wou 'n geestelike oefenprogram hê! Doen dít, moenie dát nie, tik die lysie af, betaal jou ledegeld. Maar Jesus trek ‘n streep daardeur en sê bloot: Dit gaan nie oor wat jy doen nie, maar dat jy in My glo.Geloof wat op genade berus, verskil radikaal van godsdiens wat op werke gebaseer is. Dit beteken jy klim van die trapmeul af en besef die grond onder jou voete is reeds stewig, omdat Christus die swaar werk aan die kruis gedoen het.Jesus het, net voordat Hy vir jou aan die kruis gesterf het gesê: Dit is volbring. Dit beteken dat jy nooit eers moet probeer om God se goedkeuring te verdien nie. Jesus het reeds die prys vir jou sonde betaal. Wanneer jy in Hom glo, is jy heeltemal vergewe. So, hier is die keuse: hou aan om jouself moeg te hardloop en nêrens te kom nie ... of stap in genade en loop saam met Jesus - vry, vergewe en geliefd.Dis God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Owner dependency is the quiet risk that caps valuations in IT services M&A. If every decision, client relationship, and process runs through the founder, buyers see a single point of failure and pay less for it. In this episode of Shoot the Moon, we break down how to get the business out of your head before you sell. We cover why buyers discount founder-run companies, what to document first, how AI has made process documentation far easier, and how a documented, transferable business can earn a higher multiple. This is core IT services M&A preparation, and it makes your company more valuable whether or not you ever go to market. CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro: Getting the business out of your head0:53 A job with employees, not a company2:36 Why buyers discount owner dependency6:29 Why IT services founders get stuck11:41 What to document first16:36 AI, repeatability, and productized services20:43 How documentation lifts enterprise value24:08 Building a culture of documentation27:45 The one thing to start this month KEY TAKEAWAYS • Owner dependency is concentration risk. When decisions bottleneck through the founder, buyers see a single point of failure and discount the price. • If the answer to everything is “ask the owner,” you own a job not a company. Continuity is what buyers pay for. • Start documenting where the customer sits: the sales motion first, then service delivery, followed by how you hire and develop people. Bring the team into the process. • AI has collapsed the cost of documentation. Capture the real process, optimize it, and build agents around it. • Documented, transferable businesses can earn higher multiples because buyers underwriting scale need a company they can integrate without depending on the founder. RESOURCES AND LINKS • Read more from Revenue Rocket: https://www.revenuerocket.com/blog/ • Value your business: https://www.revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator/ • Schedule a confidential conversation: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ • Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shoot-the-moon-with-revenue-rocket/id1478519505 • Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6y7u9KuOjaplhScHtINGZU • Explore more Shoot the Moon episodes: https://www.revenuerocket.com/series/shoot-the-moon/ • Visit Revenue Rocket: https://www.revenuerocket.com/ ABOUT REVENUE ROCKET Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity firms, cloud service providers, custom application development companies, and VARs. For more than 25 years, Revenue Rocket has helped founders grow, position, buy, and sell tech-enabled services firms. Thinking about your own exit? Schedule a confidential conversation with our team:https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ #MergersAndAcquisitions #ITServices #MSP #ShootTheMoon #RevenueRocket #ExitStrategy #FounderDependency #EnterpriseValue Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

Send us Fan MailJesaja 48:17 So sê die Here, jou Verlosser, die Heilige van Israel: Ek is die Here jou God wat jou onderrig tot jou beswil, wat jou lei op die pad waarop jy moet gaan Die lewe is vol mense wat vir jou wil sê wat om te doen - van base en politici tot beïnvloeders op sosiale media. Almal het raad en almal het ‘n plan vir jou lewe. Maar die groot vraag is: na wie luister jy regtig?As jongman was ek oortuig dat sukses die enigste doel in die lewe is. Ek moes ‘iemand' word. Ek wou iemand wees en al die luukse dinge, wat die adverteerders beweer my gelukkig sou maak, besit. Dit sal jou nie verras dat daardie gejaag na sukses dolleeg was nie; dat dit my amper verwoes het.Dit was dáár waar Jesus my kom red het.Jesaja 48:17 sê: So sê die Here, jou Verlosser, die Heilige van Israel: Ek is die Here jou God wat jou onderrig tot jou beswil, wat jou lei op die pad waarop jy moet gaan. Sien jy die verskil? God gee nie net raad nie. Hy leer jou wat regtig goed vir jou is. Hy manipuleer of mislei jou nie. Hy lei jou omdat Hy jou liefhet.In Christus kry hierdie leiding 'n gesig. Jesus het gesê: Ek is die weg en die waarheid en die lewe. Hy is nie net 'n gids nie - Hy is die pad self. Om Hom te volg, is nie 'n lys reëls nie. Dit beteken dat jy die Verlosser, wat vir jou gesterf het, toelaat om jou te lei. So, voordat jy na al die geraas luister, voordat jy toelaat dat slegte raad jou weer eens seermaak, stop eers. Luister fyn na wat God vir jou sê.Ek leer jou wat vir jou goed is. Ek lei jou op die pad wat jy moet loop.Dis God se Word. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailJakobus 3:13 Is daar 'n wyse en verstandige mens onder julle? Dan moet hy dit toon deur sy goeie gedrag en deur dade wat van nederigheid en wysheid getuig. Dis vreeslik maklik om met groot woorde of intelligente argumente slim te probeer klink. Maar ware wysheid gaan nie oor wat jy sê nie; dit gaan oor hoe jy leef. Ek was self nog altyd vinnig met 'n slim antwoord. Dit kan soms werk, maar dit kan ook vinnig arrogant en lelik oorkom. God moes al baie aan my werk om my te leer om sagter te wees en meer deernis te hê – en hy is nog steeds besig met my. Ja, my vriend, wysheid is baie meer as om bloot net slim te wees.Jakobus 3:13 sê: Is daar 'n wyse en verstandige mens onder julle? Dan moet hy dit toon deur sy goeie gedrag en deur dade wat van nederigheid en wysheid getuig.Die wêreld dink dalk wysheid gaan oor 'n hoë IK, sukses of invloed. Maar vir God lê ware wysheid in hoe jy leef: met 'n sagte hart en opregte nederigheid.Ons grootste voorbeeld van ware wysheid sien ons by Jesus. Hy het nie met 'n swaard en geweld Jerusalem binnegestorm om mense te oorheers nie; hy het nederig op 'n donkie die stad ingery. Hy het nie sy vyande vernietig nie, maar sy lewe vir hulle afgelê. In daardie nederigheid het hy vir ons gewys wat ware wysheid is – die wysheid van die kruis.So, as jy wil weet of jy regtig wys is, moenie kyk na hoe slim jy dink jy is nie. Kyk eerder na hoe nederig jy leef – want ware wysheid is altyd sagmoedig en ware wysheid lyk altyd soos Jesus.Dis God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

In IT services M&A, owner dependency is one of the biggest hidden discounts on your company's value. This episode shows how to build an owner optional firm that buyers pay a premium for without pretending leadership does not matter. Revenue Rocket kicks off a new Shoot the Moon masterclass on reducing founder dependency before a sale or recapitalization. We break down why buyers price owner dependency as concentration risk, what an owner-optional firm actually looks like, and the leadership layer, sales transfer, and key-employee retention strategies that protect your multiple. If you are thinking about an exit, this is the IT services M&A preparation that pays off long before you go to market. CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction: The owner-optional firm3:44 What owner dependency costs you at exit5:26 Replaceable, not optional10:06 The one-percenter salesperson problem13:40 The minimum leadership layer buyers expect18:29 Keeping your key people through a sale21:11 One move to make this quarter25:30 What is next in this masterclass series IN THIS EPISODE • Buyers price owner dependency as concentration risk, much like they treat a client representing 50% to 70% of revenue. • Owner-optional does not mean owner absent. No CEO is optional; the goal is to make critical roles replaceable. • The founder's sales role is usually the highest-value dependency to transfer first. • Buyers expect a real leadership layer, including finance, delivery, and technical depth beyond the founder. • Plan key-employee retention before the deal not during it. RESOURCES AND LINKS • Read more from Revenue Rocket: https://www.revenuerocket.com/blog/ • What is your firm worth? https://www.revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator/ • Schedule a confidential conversation: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ • Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shoot-the-moon-with-revenue-rocket/id1478519505 • Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6y7u9KuOjaplhScHtINGZU • Explore more Shoot the Moon episodes: https://www.revenuerocket.com/series/shoot-the-moon/ • Learn more about Revenue Rocket: https://www.revenuerocket.com/ ABOUT REVENUE ROCKET Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity firms, cloud service providers, custom application development companies, and VARs. For more than 25 years, Revenue Rocket has helped founders grow, position, buy, and sell tech-enabled services firms. Thinking about your own exit? Schedule a confidential conversation with our team:https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ #MergersAndAcquisitions #ITServices #MSP #ShootTheMoon #RevenueRocket #ExitStrategy #OwnerOptional #FounderDependency Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

Send us Fan MailFilippense 4:8  Ten slotte, broers en susters, vul julle gedagtes met alles wat waar, eerbaar, skoon, suiwer, lieflik en lofwaardig is. (NLV) Het jy al gesien hoe vinnig 'n mens vasgevang word in al die politieke stryery, die skinderstories op sosiale media of ander mense se foute? Jy kyk na die nuusopskrifte, lees die kommentaar onderaan en skud net jou kop. Voor jy jou oë uitvee, is jou vrede by die venster uit en voel jy sommer skoon benoud.C.S. Lewis het dit perfek beskryf in sy klassieke boek, The Screwtape Letters – 'n reeks denkbeeldige briewe waarin 'n senior demoon, Screwtape, sy nefie, Wormwood, touwys maak oor hoe om mense van God af weg te trek. Hier is 'n stukkie van daardie raad wat 'n mens nogal koue rillings gee:Laat 'n persoon eers sy liefde vir sy land, of sy strewe na vrede, as deel van sy geloof sien. Laat hom dan, omdat hy kant kies, glo dat dit die heel belangrikste deel van sy ‘godsdiens' is.Lei hom dan stap vir stap tot op 'n punt waar sy godsdiens bloot 'n hulpmiddel vir sy 'saak' word. Hy gebruik dan die Christelike geloof net vir die goeie argumente wat dit bied om sy kant van die saak te ondersteun.Dis presies die duiwel se plan: hy wil hê jy moet jou oë op alles daar buite hou, sodat jy nooit fokus op dit wat hier binne-in jou eie hart aangaan nie. Die apostel Paulus gee vir ons die regte raad vir die pad vorentoe:Filippense 4:8 sê: Ten slotte, broers en susters, vul julle gedagtes met alles wat waar, eerbaar, skoon, suiwer, lieflik en lofwaardig is. (NLV)Nouja, jy kan nie die hele wêreld beheer nie. Maar jy kan kies waarop jy jou gedagtes fokus. En wanneer jy op Christus fokus, dan heers sy vrede in jou hart. So, moenie hierdie week vir Screwtape laat wen nie. Weier om in konstante woede en frustrasie te leef. Vul eerder jou gedagtes met dit wat waar en rein is – en laat Jesus jou van binne-af nuut maak. Dis God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailGoeiedag aan al ons VARS-vriende. Ek is Jokkie Gauché en hier is VARSVANDAG se Eerste Nuusbrief vir Augustus.Soms is dit nodig dat ons tot stilstand kom, sodat die Here sy herstelwerk kan doen. Hier is die storie van een van ons luisteraars wat na 30 jaar in die polisiemag self in 'n baie donker gat beland het - en hoe die Here deur die werk van Christianityworks sy lewe handomkeer verander het:Waar ek na amper drie dekades in een van die moeilikste en gevaarlikste woonbuurtes gewerk het, het die emmers vol trauma uiteindelik oorgeloop. Die finale druppel was die tragiese dood van vier kollegas - waarvan drie onder my direkte bevel was. As bevelvoerder moes ek help met die nadoodse-ondersoeke en die begrafnisse.Dit het my emosioneel en geestelik totaal geknak.Ek het myself heeltemal van die wêreld afgesny. Ek was oortuig ek is 'n gevaar vir myself en die mense om my. Ek was fisies gedaan en geestelik besig om te sterf. Alhoewel ek as tiener al my hart vir die Here gegee het, erken ek vandag dat daardie 30 jaar in die polisiemag my eie "woestynjare" was waar ek die Here nie die regte plek in my lewe gegee het nie.Toe ek uiteindelik weens ernstige siekte moes aftree, het dit soos 'n krisis gevoel, maar dit was eintlik God se manier om vir my 'n splinternuwe begin te gee.Gedurende die jare van my herstelpad, het ek op 'n Christelike radiostasie afgekom wat Christianityworks se programme uitsaai. Die opregte liefde vir God, die ware getuienisse en die boodskappe van Berni Dymet het my dadelik diep getref. Dit het my lewe verander en my daaglikse anker geword. Jy kan ook vandag deel hê aan hierdie lewensveranderende werk. Deur jou gebede en 'n maandelikse of eenmalige bydrae tot die Suid-Afrikaanse bediening van Christianityworks, kan jy help om nog lewens te red. Ons VARS-boodskappe word tans daagliks oor meer as 20 radiostasies uitgesaai,  aan sowat 22 000 e-pos-intekenaars gestuur en is ook op potgooi beskikbaar. As die Here dit op jou hart lê om 'n finansiële bydrae te maak, sal dit ons help om ons begroting te laat klop en te verseker dat die Evangelie so verkondig word. Baie dankie vir ons vennootskap!Seënwense en mooi loop. Van Jokkie, Annelie en die VARS-spanSupport the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailJakobus 4:6 Maar die genade wat Hy gee, is nog groter. Daarom sê Hy: “God weerstaan hoogmoediges, maar aan nederiges gee Hy genade.” Trots is 'n skelm ding – dit bekruip jou ongemerk. Dis juis gevaarlik wanneer dinge goed gaan; wanneer mense vir jou hande klap, of wanneer jy daardie gevoel kry dat jy uiteindelik jou lewe uitgesorteer het. Maar hier is die ding: trots lieg vir jou. Sonder God se genade kan nie een van ons eers asemhaal nie.Charles Spurgeon het eenkeer gesê: Hoe meer genade ons ontvang, hoe minder sal ons van onsself dink, want genade – net soos lig – wys ons onreinheid. Dis ‘n kolskoot!As jy in 'n donker kamer instap, lyk alles dalk piekfyn. Maar sodra jy die lig aansit, sien jy skielik die stof, die krake en die gemors. Genade werk net so. Dit vlek ons foute oop... maar net sodat ons na dié Een toe kan hardloop wat ons kan skoonwas. Jakobus 4:6 sê: Maar die genade wat hy gee, is nog groter. Daarom sê hy: “God weerstaan hoogmoediges, maar aan nederiges gee hy genade.”Mense wat trots is, baklei teen die lig. Hulle bly eerder in die donker en maak asof alles reg is. Maar nederige mense laat toe dat God se genade hulle harte ondersoek. Hulle steek nie hulle swakhede weg nie. En wanneer jy nederig is, veroordeel God jou nie – hy oorlaai jou juis met sy goedheid.Wanneer ons ons eie ego en ons "ek-kan-self"-houding opsy skuif, maak ons plek vir sy genade om oor te neem.So, moenie bang wees vir die Lig nie. Laat sy genade vir jou wys hoe nodig jy Hom het. Want die God wat jou nederig maak, is ook die God wat jou heelmaak... en in Christus gee Hy vir jou baie meer genade as wat jy ooit kan dink of voor kan vra.Dis God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

IT services M&A is in one of its most active stretches in years. We explain how private equity defines the market, the platform and tuck-in roll-up strategy behind most deals, and how AI is separating premium platforms from commoditized providers. You will also hear which segments are hot, which are cooling, and the exact questions to ask when an investor calls. Timestamps & Chapters 0:00 – Why private equity keeps calling 1:13 – How we define the IT services market 4:11 – The long tail: ~50,000 firms and three channels 7:03 – Why PE targets IT services: growth and recurring revenue 12:31 – Predictability drives investment 13:48 – Platform and tuck-in roll-up strategy (the math) 16:32 – AI and the services-as-software shift 18:27 – Raising the bar: AI-enabled service delivery 24:06 – Go AI-first or fall behind 26:28 – Hot vs cooling segments (specialize, verticalize, productize) 29:13 – What to do when private equity calls 33:18 – Closing thoughts   Key Takeaways Predictable Cash Flows: Private equity favors IT services because recurring and repeat revenue make future cash flows highly predictable. The Roll-Up Strategy: The dominant model relies on buying a platform company around 5–7x EBITDA, scaling via tuck-ins, and exiting near 8–12x. The New Minimum: Recurring revenue above 50% used to impress investors—today, it is the bare minimum expectation. Market Temperature: Hot: Cybersecurity, AI & Machine Learning, regulated cloud, OT/industrial, and vertically focused MSPs. Cooling: Pure staffing and generalist break-fix providers. When PE Calls: Prepare beforehand: know your numbers inside out and engage a specialist M&A advisor.   Links & Resources Blog Post: Read the full article Valuation Tool: Free Valuation Calculator Schedule a Consultation: Book a confidential conversation Podcast: Listen on your favorite podcast platform Official Website: Revenue Rocket About Revenue Rocket Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity, cloud, custom application development, and VARs. #MergersAndAcquisitions #ITServices #MSP #ShootTheMoon #RevenueRocket #ExitStrategy #PrivateEquity#AIinITService Getting calls from private equity? Do not wing it. Schedule a confidential conversation with Revenue Rocket to understand your options and your value. Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

Dis Augustus en winderige toestande is amptelik hier. Vars suidelike tot suidwestelike winde sal vandeesweek na verwagting aanhou waai oor die noordelike en sentrale gebiede. Albertina Anderson, weervoorspeller van die Namibiese Meteorologiese Diens, sê aan Kosmos 94.1 Nuus dat veldbrande waarskynlik op plekke oor die noordelike en sentrale dele kan voorkom:

Send us Fan MailSpreuke 14:23 Harde werk bring beloning; om net te praat, bring gebrek. Maandae kan soms maar rof voel, nè? Die wekker gaan af, die hele week lê nog voor jou, en al wat jy wil doen, is om daardie "snooze"-knoppie te druk. Maar hier lê die knoop: hoe jy jou week begin, bepaal dikwels hoe jy hom gaan klaarmaak.Dit kan nogal moeilik wees om jouself op 'n Maandagoggend te motiveer om die week positief aan te pak. Maar dink vir 'n oomblik daaroor na: daar is iets edels en verrykend daaraan om ‘n uitdaging aan te pak en jou heel beste te gee, of hoe? ‘n Mens voel sommer goed wanneer jy die moeite doen om ‘n moeilike taak aan te pak; dis asof dit sommer sy eie beloning inhou.Dis seker hoekom Henry Ford op 'n slag gesê het: Kap jou eie hout, dan maak dit jou twee keer warm. Die eerste keer is wanneer jy die harde werk doen, en die tweede, wanneer jy die vrugte daarvan pluk. Dit geld vir vuurmaakhout; maar dit geld ook vir die lewe.Spreuke 14:23 sê: Harde werk bring beloning; om net te praat, bring gebrek.Daar is geen kortpaaie na 'n vrugbare lewe nie. Eindelose praatjies en drome kan nooit eenvoudige, getroue volharding vervang nie. Harde werk voel dalk nie altyd glansryk nie, maar God het dit so ontwerp dat dit ons seën - nie net deur dít wat ons daardeur bereik nie, maar deur hoe dit ons as mense vorm.Maar hier is die groter waarheid: In Christus is jou werk nooit verniet nie. Die apostel Paulus het eeue gelede geskryf dat alles wat ons ook al doen - in woord of in daad – moet ons vir die Here doen (Kolossense 3:17).Dit beteken jou Maandagoggend-e-posse; die verkeer waarin jy sit; daardie onbaatsugtige werkies wat jy uit liefde doen … kry nuwe betekenis wanneer jy dit vir Hom doen.So, moenie vandag net praat oor wat jy gaan doen nie. Spring aan die werk. Kap die hout. Werk hard. En laat God se liefde ín Christus, jou deur die week dra.Dis God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailJesaja 43:11-12 Ek, ja, Ek is die Here. Buiten My is daar niemand wat jou kan red nie. Ek het die verlossing aangekondig. Ek het eers gesê wat Ek gaan doen en julle toe gered. Geen vreemde god kon dit doen nie. Julle is getuies dat Ek die enigste God is, sê die Here. (NLV) Ons leef in 'n wêreld waar almal 'n 'oplossing' vir alles het. Politici belowe hulle gaan die ekonomie regruk en tegnologie maak asof dit enige probleem kan uitsorteer. Dan is daar ook nog die selfhelp-kenners wat sê hulle kan jou hele lewe verander as jy net húlle plan volg. Maar op die ou end stel almal van hulle 'n mens teleur.In 2008 het die wêreldwye finansiële krisis alles ontwrig. Banke het toegemaak en markte het heeltemal in duie gestort. Jare lank het mense geglo die stelsel sal hulle altyd veilig hou, maar in 'n kwessie van weke het triljoene dollars net verdwyn. Alles wat almal gedink het veilig is, was toe glad nie. Kyk wat sê die Here:Jesaja 43:11-12 Ek, ja, Ek is die Here. Buiten My is daar niemand wat jou kan red nie. Ek het die verlossing aangekondig. Ek het eers gesê wat Ek gaan doen en julle toe gered. Geen vreemde god kon dit doen nie. Julle is getuies dat Ek die enigste God is, sê die Here. (NLV)Dit klink taamlik duidelik, nè? Daar is net één God. Een Verlosser. Israel se geskiedenis is vol tye waar hulle agter ander gode aangehardloop het, net om aan die kortste ent te trek. En dan herinner God hulle: Dit was Ek. Dit was altyd ek.En toe - eeue later - het daardie waarheid vlees en bloed geword. Jesus is God se reddingsplan. Hy is ons Redder. Nie rykdom nie. Nie krag nie. Nie politiek nie. Net Christus Jesus ons Here.Ja, my vriend, ek kan jou verseker dat indien enige iemand anders, of iets anders waarin jy glo, jou nog nie al klaar in die steek gelaat het nie; dit jou eendag sal teleurstel. So wanneer alles om jou wankelrig voel, moenie jou vertroue in tydelike redders plaas nie. Plaas jou hoop waar dit hoort - in die enigste Een wat nooit faal nie: Jesus.Dit is God se Woord. Vars ... Vir jou... Vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailDeuteronomium 13:4 Volg maar net die Here jou God en eer Hom. Gehoorsaam sy gebooie, luister na sy stem en hou vas aan Hom. (NLV) Ek wens ek kon vir jou sê dat die lewe eenvoudig is. Maar dit is nie. Dis kompleks, dis chaoties, en die toekoms is allesbehalwe seker. Jy kan nie eers seker wees van môre of die volgende dag nie! Al wat ons het, is vandag. So, wat gaan jy daarmee doen?'n Paar jaar gelede het 'n navorsingspan ‘n aantal stappers, wat nie kompasse of GPS'e gehad het nie, in digte woude gevolg. Dit was merkwaardig dat byna elkeen van hulle in sirkels geloop het. Dis wat gebeur wanneer ons nie 'n vaste verwysingspunt het nie. Ons verloor almal ons pad – dit maak nie saak hoe hard ons probeer om reguit te loop nie.In hierdie onseker, komplekse en deurmekaar lewe is dit onmoontlik om op koers te bly as jy nie vir God as daardie lewensbelangrike verwysingspunt het nie. Deuteronomium 13:4 Volg maar net die Here jou God en eer Hom. Gehoorsaam sy gebooie, luister na sy stem en hou vas aan Hom. (NLV)Dit is nie ingewikkeld nie. Dis redelik eenvoudig. Dink aan die Israeliete wat op die punt was om 'n land vol afgode en heidene binne te gaan. God se opdrag aan hulle was eenvoudig: Moet nie afdwaal nie. Moet nie in sirkels rondloop nie. Hou julle oë op My.En kyk hoe eenvoudig is Jesus se opdrag: "Volg My." Nie onverskillig nie, nie passief en koud nie - maar met jou hele hart. Hy vra nie net vir ons Sondagoggende nie. Hy vra vir ons lewens.En hier is die goeie nuus. Ons hoef Hom nie in ons eie krag te volg nie. Dieselfde Gees wat Jesus uit die dood opgewek het, lei ons nou, bemagtig ons en hou ons op koers.So as jy afgedwaal het, draai om. Draai vinnig. Fokus jou oë weer op Jesus. Want net ín Hom sal jy reguit en gefokus kan loop.Dit is God se Woord. Vars ... Vir jou... Vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Revenue Rocket's Mike Harvath, Ryan Barnett, and Matt Lockhart break down the real reasons founders delay an exit, and why the safest-feeling choice is often the most expensive. This episode of Shoot the Moon covers the “one more year” trap, founder dependency, succession planning, derisking customer concentration and contracts, and why knowing your valuation is the first move in IT services M&A. If you run an MSP, MSSP, cloud, dev, or VAR business, this is the timing conversation to have before the market decides for you. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open and welcome 1:56 Why founders delay a sale (the “one more year” trap) 5:46 Run it forever, but stay ready to sell 6:26 Owner dependency and building a machine 12:27 What succession planning really looks like 16:07 Enjoy what you have built vs. the window to sell 21:30 De-risking: customer concentration and contracts 22:23 Know your number: the case for annual valuations 24:40 One move to make this week 28:45 Closing thoughts: have a plan KEY TAKEAWAYS ● Waiting one more year can lower value, not just raise it. You carry 100% of the downside. ● Buyers pay for a business that runs without you. Build the bench and reduce founder dependency. ● Real succession planning is documented and executable, not a someday idea. ● De-risk before you go to market: diversify clients, fix contract assignability, deepen the team. ● Know your number. An annual valuation is good corporate hygiene and a stage gate for timing. LINKS ● Blog post: [BLOG LINK] ● Valuation calculator: revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator ● Schedule a confidential conversation: [SCHEDULING LINK] ● Website: revenuerocket.com ABOUT REVENUE ROCKET Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity, cloud, custom application development, and VARs. HASHTAGS #MergersAndAcquisitions #ITServices #MSP #ShootTheMoon #RevenueRocket #ExitStrategy #SuccessionPlanning #BusinessValuation Thinking about your own timing? Schedule a confidential conversation with Revenue Rocket at revenuerocket.com/contact-us. Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

Send us Fan MailSpreuke 19:20-21 Luister na raad. Wees bereid om tereggewys te word sodat jy die res van jou lewe daardeur wysheid kan hê. 'n Mens kan hoeveel planne maak, maar op die ou einde gebeur wat die Here besluit het. (NLV) Het jy al ooit besef hoe hardkoppig ons kan wees? Ons spandeer ure om elke klein detail van ons "perfekte" toekoms uit te werk, amper asof ons die heelal met 'n lysie instruksies kan beheer en dan voel ons gefrustreed as dinge nie volgens ons plan verloop nie.Kom ons kyk na Steve Jobs. Op dertig is hy by Apple, die maatskappy wat hy self gestig het, afgedank. Volgens alle berigte was dit 'n vernederende ervaring. Maar jare later het hy erken dat sy ontslag hom vrygemaak het om meer kreatief te dink. Daardie terugslag het gelei tot sy ontwikkeling van Pixar, en sy uiteindelike terugkeer na Apple - waar hy die wêreld van tegnologie hervorm het. Wat na die einde van 'n belowende loopbaan gelyk het, was 'n noodsaaklike afspringplek na sukses. Dit is die perfekte voorbeeld van hoe ‘n oomblik van vernedering eintlik ‘n belangrike bousteen geword het.Spreuke 19:20-21 Luister na raad. Wees bereid om tereggewys te word sodat jy die res van jou lewe daardeur wysheid kan hê. 'n Mens kan hoeveel planne maak, maar op die ou einde gebeur wat die Here besluit het. (NLV)Wysheid beteken om toe te gee dat ons nie alles weet nie. Dit beteken om nederig genoeg te wees om te luister – na God se Woord, na godvrugtige raad en selfs na die dissipline wat seermaak. Uiteindelik is dit nie ons slim strategieë en sorgvuldig opgestelde planne wat die uitkoms bepaal nie. God se doelwitte seëvier. Altyd.In Christus sien ons daardie waarheid in die vlees. Mense het sy ondergang beplan. Judas het Hom verraai. Die leiers het teen Hom gedraai. Maar, deur die kruis en opstanding, het God se groter plan - ons verlossing - geseëvier.Beplan wys - dis die geheim. Maar moenie krampagtig aan jóú planne  vasklou nie, want uiteindelik is die enigste plan wat saakmaak, God s'n ... en daardie plan is Jesus.Dis sy Woord. Vars ... Vir jou... Vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailHebreërs 10:35-36 Moenie hierdie vertroue in God deur julle vingers laat glip nie. Dit hou vir julle 'n groot beloning in. Wat julle nodig het, is om te volhard sodat julle kan voortgaan om God se wil te gehoorsaam. Dan sal julle ontvang wat God beloof het. (NLV) Een van die moeilikste dinge om te doen, is om deur te druk wanneer jy so gedaan gesukkel is, dat jy voel jy moet handdoek ingooi. Dink mooi, wanneer was die laaste keer wat jy in die versoeking was om moed op te gee? In 1968, tydens die Olimpiese Spele in Mexikostad, het John Stephen Akhwari, 'n marathon atleet van Tanzanië, tydens deelname aan die spele, ‘n slegte val gehad en sy been beseer. Almal het verwag dat hy uit die wedloop sal wegstap, maar ure nadat die wenner verby die wenstreep was, het Akhwari strompelend die stadion binnegestap. Hy was bebloed en uitgeput, maar vasbeslote om die wedloop te voltooi. Toe hy gevra is waarom hy nie gestop het nie, het hy gesê: "My land het my nie 10 000 myl gestuur om die wedren te begin nie. Hulle het my 10 000 myl gestuur om dit klaar te maak."Dit is die krag van deursettingsvermoë. En dit is presies waarvan God hier praat:Hebreërs 10:35-36 Moenie hierdie vertroue in God deur julle vingers laat glip nie. Dit hou vir julle 'n groot beloning in. Wat julle nodig het, is om te volhard sodat julle kan voortgaan om God se wil te gehoorsaam. Dan sal julle ontvang wat God beloof het. (NLV)Keer op keer word ons deur terugslae getref. Ons geloof word deeglik getoets. En tog vra God ons nie net om ‘n taak te begin nie, maar om dit met moed, met geduld en met vertroue te voltooi.Dit gaan nie daaroor om op jou tande te kners en in jou eie krag deur te druk nie. Dit gaan daaroor om vas te hou aan Christus, wat reeds die wedloop vir ons vooruit gehardloop het. Hy het die kruis verduur. Hy het die skande en die pyn verduur. En nou regeer Hy in glorie.En dieselfde krag - dieselfde opstandingskrag - wat Hom uit die dood opgewek het, is vir jou beskikbaar, hier en nou, om jou tot die einde staande te hou. Moet dus nie moed opgee nie. Jou geloof in Jesus sal beloon word. Nie omdat jy sterk genoeg is nie, maar omdat Hy getrou genoeg is. In Hom is die wenstreep verseker, en die prys is ewig.Dit is God se Woord. Vars ... Vir jou... Vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

By Doug Green “Legacy out-of-band gets you in. Modern out-of-band should help you recover.” In this Technology Reseller News podcast, I speak with Todd Rychecky, President of Gearlinx, about how out-of-band management is evolving from a narrowly focused remote-access tool into a broader platform for network recovery, operational resilience and business continuity. Modern infrastructure is increasingly distributed across data centers, colocation facilities, branch offices, campus environments, edge locations and remote sites. When the primary network becomes unavailable, simply opening a console port may no longer be enough. Organizations need to know what equipment has been deployed, where it is located, whether it is reachable and what actions can be taken remotely to restore service. “The issue is not simply whether an engineer can reach a console,” Rychecky says. “It's more about whether they can reach the console and still manage their business.” Gearlinx combines secure out-of-band management, cellular connectivity, automation, centralized cloud visibility and lifecycle management into a unified network resilience platform. The goal is to help customers diagnose problems faster, reduce downtime and avoid costly truck rolls. The company's portfolio includes the NR4400 Network Resilience Platform for data center and high-density environments, along with Duckfone, a compact cellular connectivity device designed for edge and distributed locations. Both are brought together through ZERO, the Gearlinx centralized cloud-management platform. ZERO provides visibility into devices, locations, serial numbers, warranties, subscriptions and licensing information. That centralized approach addresses a common problem for enterprises and service providers: critical infrastructure information is often spread across spreadsheets, disconnected applications and separate vendor portals. Gearlinx is also approaching lifecycle management differently. Customers can select one-, three-, five- or seven-year licensing terms, allowing them to align technology investments with their own asset-depreciation and replacement schedules. Warranty coverage and subscriptions begin when equipment is activated through the cloud rather than when it is initially purchased. That can be particularly valuable for organizations that purchase equipment in volume and then deploy it gradually over several months. The platform also supports simplified co-terming, allowing customers and partners to bring licenses, warranties, support and software updates under a common renewal date. Rychecky says these capabilities represent the difference between basic network resilience and broader operational resilience. Operational resilience means giving IT teams the information and management tools they need before, during and after an outage—not simply providing an emergency connection to a console port. The solution is designed for organizations across manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, education, retail, AI infrastructure and other environments where downtime or dispatching a technician can be expensive. For resellers, VARs and MSPs, Gearlinx also creates an opportunity to move beyond a one-time hardware transaction. “Gearlinx enables partners to sell more than a console server,” Rychecky says. “It's an annualized recurring revenue business model for the reseller and decreases capital spending for the customer.” Partners can attach cloud-management licenses, cellular connectivity, managed services, lifecycle planning, support and legacy hardware-refresh programs. That creates ongoing customer engagement and recurring revenue instead of ending the relationship after the initial equipment sale. “It helps resellers lead the business continuity and operational resilience conversation—not just a networking hardware conversation,” Rychecky says. “Partners are not limited to selling a box. They can build an ongoing resilience practice around the customer.” One discovery question can help partners begin that conversation: When your production network is unavailable, how does your team access, diagnose and recover that location? Learn more at Gearlinx.com.

Vertical specialization is one of the most reliable ways to raise both growth and valuation in IT services M&A. In Episode 254 of Shoot the Moon, we break down how focusing on one or two industry verticals, and building the sales team to match, makes an IT services firm worth more to buyers. Most IT services firms start as generalists because it is the fastest path to revenue. But in a market where AI is commoditizing technical skill, domain expertise is what buyers and clients pay for. We cover why vertical focus shortens sales cycles and lifts valuation, how the hunter and farmer sales roles work, and how to compensate and hire for a vertical model. We close with three practical steps you can take this week to find and commit to the right vertical. CHAPTERS Timestamps are approximate and must be verified against the final edit. 0:00 Cold open and intro 4:05 Specialize, verticalize, productize: the framework 7:00 Why vertical expertise matters more in the age of AI 9:30 Why most IT services firms default to generalist 12:30 What verticalizing takes, and the payoff 16:50 The sales team: hunters, farmers, and support roles Revenue Rocket Consulting Group | Shoot the Moon Episode 254 20:40 Hiring for a vertical: fish where the fish are 24:10 Compensating hunters vs farmers 28:00 What buyers see: vertical focus and valuation 32:40 Where to start this week 35:30 Wrap-up KEY TAKEAWAYS  AI is commoditizing technical skill, so domain expertise is the differentiator buyers pay for.  A vertical focus shortens sales cycles, sharpens marketing, and tends to lift valuation.  Selling is a team sport: hunters win new logos, farmers grow accounts, with a handoff inside the first 12 months.  Concentrating in a vertical is a strength; depending on a few clients is a risk buyers discount.  Start by analyzing where your revenue already concentrates, then commit to a market you are passionate about. LINKS Blog: [BLOG LINK] Valuation calculator: revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator Schedule a confidential conversation: [SCHEDULING LINK] Listen on your favorite platform: [LINK] Website: revenuerocket.com ABOUT REVENUE ROCKET Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity, cloud, custom application development, and VARs. #MergersAndAcquisitions #ITServices #MSP #ShootTheMoon #RevenueRocket #ExitStrategy #VerticalSpecialization #HunterFarmer Thinking about your own growth or exit? Schedule a confidential conversation. Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

Send us Fan MailSpreuke 1:8-9 My seun, luister na wat jou pa jou leer. Moenie wat jou ma vir jou sê in die wind slaan nie. Wat jy by hulle leer, sal jou lewe met goedheid kroon en 'n versiering wees om jou nek. (NLV) Het jy opgemerk hoe die kleinste stukkies raad van jou ouers jou vir die res van die lewe bybly? Dit is ongelooflik hoe jy, wanneer iets dekades later gebeur, hulle amper kan hoor, asof hulle hier langs jou staan. 'n Dosent het op ‘n keer 'n groep top leiers gevra wat die grootste invloed op hulle gehad het: Was dit boeke, mentors, of opleiding? Byna almal het dieselfde gesê: "My ouers se stem in my kop." Hulle ouers se wysheid, was dikwels maar net eenvoudig; dikwels gewone stellings, wat hierdie uitstaande leiers gevorm het.Dit is presies waaroor die Boek van Spreuke in die Bybel gaan. Goddelike wysheid wat deur alledaagse stemme oorgedra is: Spreuke 1:8-9 My seun, luister na wat jou pa jou leer. Moenie wat jou ma vir jou sê in die wind slaan nie. Wat jy by hulle leer, sal jou lewe met goedheid kroon en 'n versiering wees om jou nek. (NLV)Sien jy, wysheid is nie abstrak nie. Dit kom na ons toe deur die gewone mense wat God in ons lewens plaas. Ouers. Vriende. Mentors. En uiteindelik kom dit perfek na ons toe deur Jesus, wat die wysheid van God in menslike vorm is.Salomo verwys hier na 'n kroon en 'n versiering - simbole van eer en prestasie. God se wysheid druk jou nie af nie. Dit lig jou op. Dit versier jou. Dit gee jou waardigheid. Dit laat jou skitter in 'n donker wêreld.Moet dus nie die stemme van wysheid rondom jou verag nie. Moenie teregwysing versmaai nie. Moenie die mense wat God gebruik om jou te vorm, ignoreer nie. En belangrikste van alles: luister na wat Jesus sê - want ín Hom is wysheid, nie net raad nie. Dis die lewe.Wanneer jy met sy wysheid optree, sien die wêreld iets anders in jou: God se heerlikheid wat deur jou in die alledaagse weerspieël word.Dit is God se Woord. Vars ... Vir jou... Vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Bitteres Fest | Almodóvars Rückkehr nach Spanien: Wie viel von sich selbst steckt in seinem neuen Film? Mit "Bitteres Fest" kommt der neue Film des bekannten spanischen Regisseur Pedro Almodovár am 30. Juli in Kino. Nach seiner ersten englischsprachigen Arbeit The Room Next Door kehrt er wieder nach Spanien zurück und präsentiert einen Metafilm über die Verantwortung von Künstler:innen. Wie sehr dürfen sich Filmschaffende von der Realität inspirieren und was macht das mit Betroffenen? Wie gelungen Almodovárs neustes Werk geworden ist und für welches Publikum Bitteres Fest perfekt geeignet ist, klären Lida und Johannes im Podcast. Viel Spaß mit der neuen Folge vom Tele-Stammtisch! Trailer Werdet Teil unserer Community und besucht unseren Discord-Server! Dort oder auch auf Instagram könnt ihr mit uns über Filme, Serien und vieles mehr sprechen. Website | Youtube | PayPal | BuyMeACoffee Großer Dank und Gruß für das Einsprechen unseres Intros geht raus an Engelbert von Nordhausen. Thank you very much to BASTIAN HAMMER for the orchestral part of the intro! I used the following sounds of freesound.org: 16mm Film Reel by bone666138 wilhelm_scream.wav by Syna-Max backspin.wav by il112 Crowd in a bar (LCR).wav by Leandros.Ntounis Short Crowd Cheer 2.flac by qubodup License (Copyright): Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Send us Fan MailEfesiërs 3:20 Hy moet geprys word – Hy wat mag het om deur die krag wat in ons werk, oneindig meer te doen as wat ons vra of dink om te vra. (NLV) Het jy al ooit een van daardie oomblikke gehad waar jy iets niksbeduidend probeer het, maar waar die uitkoms jou wildste drome oortref het? Ek het beslis!Toe ek destyds in die bediening van Christianityworks begin werk het, was die bediening in hopelose finansiële omstandighede. Dit was een van daardie situasies waar mense spottend sê: "die laaste een uit, skakel die ligte af". Ek het gebid - my vriend, ek het gebid - gebede wat vir my destyds soos groot, onbereikbare gebede gelyk het. Wat destyds onmoontlik gelyk het en vir my wanhopig of radeloos gelaat het, lyk nou in retrospek totaal onbenullig of nietig. Ja, wat eens ‘n berg was, was op die ou end net ‘n stoffie in die pad. Ons bid dikwels ‘klein' gebede, of hoe? Ons vergroot ons kanse op sukses, ons mik laag, want diep binne-in is ons nie seker of God regtig gaan luister nie. Maar kyk wat Paulus, uit die tronk geskryf het:Efesiërs 3:20 Hy moet geprys word – Hy wat mag het om deur die krag wat in ons werk, oneindig meer te doen as wat ons vra of dink om te vra. (NLV)Het jy dit gehoor? Baie; oneindig meer. Meer as wat jy kan vra. Ver meer as wat jy jou kan indink. Dit is nie wensdenkery nie. Dit is God se krag – sy opstandingskrag - wat deur Christus in ons werk.Beteken dit nou dat die lewe perfek gaan wees? Nee. Paulus het dit nie uit 'n strandstoel geskryf terwyl hy ystee met ‘n sambreeltjie deur ‘n strooitjie gesuig het nie. Hy was in die tronk vasgeketting. Maar selfs daar het hy geweet: God is steeds in staat om meer te doen.God gee meer genade, meer krag, meer heerlikheid deur Christus.So watter probleem jy ook al vandag in die gesig staar; moenie ‘klein' gebede bid nie. Moenie jou hoop beperk nie. Want dié God, wat Jesus uit die dood opgewek het, doen steeds meer as wat jy kan vra of jou kan indink. En Hy doen dit ín jou.Dis sy Woord. Vars ... Vir jou... Vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Selling an IT services company is far more likely to close and typically sells for about 20% more when you use a specialist M&A advisor instead of going it alone. Here is what the data shows and what an advisor actually does to improve the outcome. In this episode of Shoot the Moon, the Revenue Rocket team breaks down the real economics of IT services M&A: why most owner-led sales never close, how an advisor adds roughly 20% to the sale price, and what makes selling an MSP, cybersecurity, cloud, or software firm different. We cover pre-market preparation, competitive tension, and today's market including the silver tsunami of boomer-owned businesses now heading to market. If you are weighing an exit in 2027 or beyond, this is where to start. CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open and intro0:35 Do you really need an advisor to sell?3:00 What the data says: close rates and the ~20% premium6:15 Why deals die when founders go it alone10:45 The wrong-advisor trap12:00 How an advisor moves the numbers17:30 What makes IT services M&A different23:00 Market conditions and the silver tsunami27:00 The emotional side of selling29:00 What founders should do right now KEY TAKEAWAYS • Owner-led sales close under 10% of the time; top specialists close 80% to 95%. • An advisor adds roughly 20% to the sale price on average, with studies ranging from 6% to 25%. • In IT services, recurring revenue and a well-distributed client base drive value. • The silver tsunami of boomer-owned businesses—12 million firms representing $10 trillion in assets—is bringing a wave of supply to the market. • If you are considering an exit in 2027 or later, start a conversation now—not a commitment. LINKS • Value your firm: https://www.revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator/ • Schedule a confidential conversation: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ • Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shoot-the-moon-with-revenue-rocket/id1478519505 • Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6y7u9KuOjaplhScHtINGZU • Explore more episodes: https://www.revenuerocket.com/series/shoot-the-moon/ • Website: https://www.revenuerocket.com/ ABOUT REVENUE ROCKET Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity firms, cloud service providers, custom application development companies, and VARs. For more than 25 years, Revenue Rocket has helped founders grow, position, buy, and sell tech-enabled services firms. Thinking about an exit? Schedule a confidential conversation with our team:https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ #MergersAndAcquisitions #ITServices #MSP #ShootTheMoon #RevenueRocket #ExitStrategy #MandAAdvisor #SilverTsunami Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

Send us Fan MailJeremia 29:11 Ek weet wat Ek vir julle beplan, sê die Here: voorspoed en nie teenspoed nie; Ek wil vir julle 'n toekoms gee, 'n verwagting! Soms verloop die lewe nie soos jy wil hê dit moet nie. Jy beplan alles - jou loopbaan, jou gesin, jou aftree-droom - en dan, uit die bloute, gooi iets jou van koers af. Voor hy die gloeilamp uitgevind het, het Thomas Edison duisende mislukte eksperimente gehad. Joernaliste het hom gespot, Hoekom gaan  jy na soveel katastrofes aan om te probeer om die onmoontlike te doen? Sy antwoord was: Ek het nie gefaal nie. Ek het pas 10 000 maniere gevind wat nie gaan werk nie. Wat mense as mislukking beskou het ... het hy as deel van die plan gesien.Die Israeliete moes in die tyd van die Profeet Jeremia, ook moedeloos gevoel het. Hulle was ontwortel; hulle was uit hulle eie land verban; hulle het in Babilon, ver van die huis, ver van die tempel en ver van alles wat hulle voorheen sekuriteit gegee het, gewoon. Maar te midde van hulle pyn bemoedig God hulle:Jeremia 29:11Ek weet wat Ek vir julle beplan, sê die Here: voorspoed en nie teenspoed nie; Ek wil vir julle 'n toekoms gee, 'n verwagting!Dit was nie as 'n opwindende ‘Instagram-meme aan Israel geskryf nie. Dit is aan 'n gebroke, vervreemde volk geskryf. Ja, en ons weet dat Israel uiteindelik na die Beloofde Land terug is en dat God se belofte waar geword het. Hy het belowe dat sy goeie planne eendag vervul sou word - planne wat in Jesus tot vervulling gekom het.Weet jy dat jy ín Hom reeds die toekoms wat God belowe het, besit? Die Ewige Lewe. Vergifnis. Hoop wat nie van jou weggeneem kan word nie. So... Moenie paniekerig wees wanneer jou eie planne misluk nie. God se plan in Christus is steeds op koers. En sy plan is altyd goed.Dis sy Woord. Vars ... Vir jou... Vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan MailSpreuke 29:25 As jy vir mense bang is, kan jy in 'n strik beland, maar as jy jou vertroue in die Here stel, is jy veilig. Wat gaan die mense dink? Wat gaan hulle sê? Gaan ek hulle teleurstel? Is ek besig om mense in die steek te laat? As jy al ooit met hierdie vrae geworstel het, is jy nie die enigste een nie. Die vrees vir wat ander dink, praat nie net met jou nie - dit skree. Dit is 'n vrees wat al baie lewens verwoes het.Die superster-gimnas, Simone Biles, het tydens die 2021 Olimpiese Spele in Tokio, onder geweldige druk verkeer. Sy het ten spyte van die feit dat die hele wêreld se oë op haar was, almal geskok toe sy aan verskeie items onttrek het om haar geestesgesondheid te beskerm. Die kritici was vinnig om haar deursettingsvermoë te bevraagteken.Maar sy het nie voor hulle eise geswig nie - sy het geluister na wat sy geweet het, reg is. Sy het later gesê: Ek moes my trots opsy skuif. Ek moes doen wat reg is vir my en op my geestesgesondheid fokus. Dit is beslis nie swakheid nie. Dit is dapperheid.Spreuke 29:25: As jy vir mense bang is, kan jy in 'n strik beland, maar as jy jou vertroue in die Here stel, is jy veilig.Vrees vir ander mense is 'n strik. Dit lyk dalk na goedkeuring, maar dit word later 'n tronk. Jy begin lewe vir die ‘likes op Facebook' en jy werk jou gedaan om te voldoen aan ander se verwagtinge, in plaas daarvan om die pad van die waarheid wat God binne-in jou gesit het, te stap.As jy al so gevoel het, of as jy nou verstaan dat dit jou probleem is, is dit tyd om met nuwe oë na jouself te kyk. Om op God te vertrou - is waar jou regte krag begin. So word jy nie meer in elke moontlike rigting getrek nie, maar jy begin stewig staan, selfs wanneer mense jou nie verstaan nie.Simone Biles het nie almal tevrede gestel nie. Maar sy het iets beters gekies: integriteit, gesondheid en die waarheid. Vertroue in God bring innerlike vrede, nie mense se applous nie.So, hier is die vraag vir jou vandag: Lewe jy vir húlle, of vir Hóm?As jy vir mense bang is, kan jy in 'n strik beland, maar as jy jou vertroue in die Here stel, is jy veilig.Dit is God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag. Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

Send us Fan Mail1 Petrus 1:3 Alle eer aan die God en Vader van ons Here Jesus Christus, want sonder dat ons dit verdien, het Hy sy ontferming aan ons betoon deur die proses te begin wat op ons weergeboorte uitgeloop het. Nou het ons regtig hoop omdat Jesus Christus uit die dood opgestaan het. (NLV) Die lewe is onvoorspelbaar, nè? Maar weet jy, ‘n mens kan geweldig baie oorleef as jy hoop het. Maar vat daardie hoop weg - vat dit régtig weg - en jy hou op voort te beweeg. Jy hou op om te probeer. Jy hou op om om te gee. Hoop is nie sommer net iets wat "lekker is om te hê" nie. Dit is suurstof vir jou lewe.In 1952 het Florence Chadwick probeer om die 41 kilometer van die Kaliforniese kus na Catalina-eiland te swem. Halfpad deur het 'n dik mis opgesteek. Sy kon nie die kuslyn sien nie. Na 15 uur, uitgeput en gedisoriënteerd, het sy opgegee - net om uit te vind dat sy minder as 'n kilometer van die eindstreep af was.Later het sy gesê: Ek dink as ek die kus kon sien, sou ek dit gemaak het. Ek dink nie een van ons twyfel daaraan nie. Haar probleem was nie 'n gebrek aan uithouvermoë nie. Haar probleem was dat sy hoop verloor het.1 Petrus 1:3: Alle eer aan die God en Vader van ons Here Jesus Christus, want sonder dat ons dit verdien, het Hy sy ontferming aan ons betoon deur die proses te begin wat op ons weergeboorte uitgeloop het. Nou het ons regtig hoop omdat Jesus Christus uit die dood opgestaan het. (NLV)Hierdie is nie 'n mog-het-troffe tipe hoop nie. Dit is 'n lewende hoop - geankerd in iets wat reeds gebeur het: Jesus het opgestaan uit die dood. En dít … dít verander alles. Dit beteken dat dit nie saak maak hoe dik die mis word nie, die kus is werklik daar. Die eindstreep is daar. Jy verbeel jou dit nie net nie. Jy is nie net besig om te oorleef nie. Jy is op pad iewers heen.En daardie soort hoop is nie net vir wanneer jy eendag sterf nie - dis vir nou, terwyl jy lewe. Dit gee jou die moed om weer lief te hê, om weer te veg, om weer te glo. Jy kan aanhou lewe. Omdat Jesus leef, leef jou hoop ook.Dit is God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

In Episode 159 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy talks AI and payments with Travis Chrisman, President of Coastal Pay; Don Wilczynski, CEO of Merchant Rescue, powered by Tried & True Consulting; and Aidan Chau, Founder & CEO of Maple. “The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.  The RSPA is North America's largest community of VARs, software providers, vendors, and distributors in the retail, restaurant, and grocery verticals. The mission of the RSPA is to accelerate the success of its members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections. The organization offers member-to-member warm introductions, education, legal advice, industry advocacy, and other services to assist members with becoming and remaining successful. RSPA is most well-known for its signature events, RetailNOW and Inspire, which provide face-to-face learning and networking opportunities. Learn more by visiting www.GoRSPA.org.

Ett av våra mest uppskattade tränarsamtal nånsin kommer här som en liten sommarrepris! Det handlar såklart om Kim Hellberg. Idébäraren och förnyaren. Omtalad, omskriven och omtyckt. Varsågoda!

Frustrated with the use of VAR during this World Cup? You're not alone. Fortunately Zeff is on hand with some solutions - not little ticky-tacky stuff, no, big stuff, real big stuff, that can save VAR from itself.

In Episode 158 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy sits down with Andy Szanger, the Director of Strategic Industries at RSPA member CDW, to discuss his journey developing strategy, people, and leadership skills across an over three-decade retail technology career. “The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.  The RSPA is North America's largest community of VARs, software providers, vendors, and distributors in the retail, restaurant, and grocery verticals. The mission of the RSPA is to accelerate the success of its members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections. The organization offers member-to-member warm introductions, education, legal advice, industry advocacy, and other services to assist members with becoming and remaining successful. RSPA is most well-known for its signature events, RetailNOW and Inspire, which provide face-to-face learning and networking opportunities. Learn more by visiting www.GoRSPA.org. 

Jackson Larkin and Lois Schweigert break down Dan Purser MD's VARS antioxidant line — Validated, Absorbable, Reduced, and Stable. Learn how the VARS Triad works synergistically in the mitochondria to combat oxidative stress, reduce cytokines, and support recovery.Topics include:• The origin and science of VARS Glutathione, SOD from deep-sea algae, and new Catalase (Nrf2 activator)• Why many with fibromyalgia and homocysteine-related SNPs benefit• Dramatic improvements in workout recovery and chronic inflammation• The role of genetics, CMA testing, and ongoing protocol evolutionWhether you're new to the protocol or looking to understand how these powerful antioxidants work together, this episode delivers clear explanations and real-world results.Subscribe and leave a review — we appreciate your support!#VARS #Glutathione #Fibromyalgia #Antioxidants #PurserWellness

In Episode 157 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy sits down with Kathy Durfee, the CEO and Founder of systems integrator/managed services provider TechHouse, to discuss her 30-year leadership journey. Conversation topics include embracing “practical bravery,” teaching creative problem solving, and connecting your company mission to day-to-day activities. “The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.  The RSPA is North America's largest community of VARs, software providers, vendors, and distributors in the retail, restaurant, and grocery verticals. The mission of the RSPA is to accelerate the success of its members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections. The organization offers member-to-member warm introductions, education, legal advice, industry advocacy, and other services to assist members with becoming and remaining successful. RSPA is most well-known for its signature events, RetailNOW and Inspire, which provide face-to-face learning and networking opportunities. Learn more by visiting www.GoRSPA.org. 

In IT services M&A, depending on a single platform or channel partner is a valuation risk, not a strength. This episode breaks down what happens to your firm's value when a vendor changes its pricing, partner tiers, or lead flow, and what the most acquirable IT services firms do instead. Chapters (verify exact times against the final cut) 0:00 Cold open 0:30 Why channel partners matter, and why dependency is risky 3:30 Vendors act in their own interest first 8:00 The "$5M consultancy" problem: when the rules change overnight 11:30 Specialize or diversify? The verticalization hedge 17:30 When the leads dry up 20:00 The future partner role: final-mile and the "service garage" 23:30 "My partner program just changed": what to do first 27:30 What program changes mean for M&A and consolidation 34:00 Services as software: the opportunity ahead In this episode • Vendors optimize for vendors; partner programs have trended toward fewer partners and lower payouts for 20+ years • Buyers discount single-vendor dependency the way they discount customer concentration • Verticalized expertise naturally makes you multi-vendor and harder to disrupt • The durable partner role is implementation, integration, and ongoing service • Program upheaval accelerates consolidation; well-run, profitable firms stay attractive Links • Read more on our blog: https://www.revenuerocket.com/blog/ • What's your firm worth? Valuation calculator: https://www.revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator/ • Schedule a confidential conversation: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ • Listen to Shoot the Moon on your favorite platform: https://www.revenuerocket.com/podcast/ • More from Revenue Rocket: https://www.revenuerocket.com/ About Revenue Rocket — Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity, cloud, custom application development, and VARs. For 25+ years we have helped founders grow, position, and sell their firms. Thinking about your next move? Schedule a confidential conversation: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

In this heartfelt episode, Chantel Purser (Dan Purser MD's daughter), Denise Purser, and Lois Schweigert from End Fibro with Natural Options sit down for an honest conversation about living with fibromyalgia — and continuing to get better over many years.They share personal stories of severe flares, debilitating pain, and the practical tools that changed everything: the VARS Trio (Glutathione, SOD, and the powerful new Catalase), low-copper diet strategies, gradual strength training, and the mindset of consistency over perfection.You'll hear:How extra Catalase quickly resolved a bad flare (swollen hands, brain fog, dropping things)Why serving size matters on a low-copper diet and real-life food trigger experiencesBuilding muscle and recovering from workouts after years of painThe importance of intracellular CMA testing and genetic insightsNavigating setbacks, vacations, and still seeing ongoing progressWhether you're newly diagnosed, have been struggling for years, or support someone with chronic pain and inflammation, this episode is packed with hope, encouragement, and actionable advice from people who have lived it.June 2026 Anniversary Special$100 off Genetic Testing + CMA testing (deepest discount of the year). One lucky order placed this month will be fully reimbursed!

Your friend sold for a great multiple. PE pays more than strategics. Earnouts are a trap. Wait for the right market. You're too small to sell. Here's what's actually true. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 00:20 Welcome and Episode Setup 02:00 Myth 1: "My Friend Sold for X EBITDA, That's My Benchmark" 07:30 Myth 2: "PE Always Pays More" (Or "Strategics Always Win on Price") 13:00 Myth 3: "Earnouts Are a Trap" 18:30 Myth 4: "I Need to Wait for the Right Market Conditions" 24:00 Myth 5: "I'm Too Small to Sell" 28:30 The Common Thread and What to Do Instead ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE Podcast: https://www.revenuerocket.com/series/shoot-the-moon/ Website: https://www.revenuerocket.com Talk to us: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/revenue-rocket-consulting-group ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Revenue Rocket is the premier M&A advisor to IT services companies, helping owners in the lower middle market navigate sell-side and buy-side transactions with specialized expertise and hands-on deal management. Shoot the Moon is their weekly podcast covering M&A strategy, valuation, and growth for IT services leaders including MSPs, cybersecurity firms, cloud providers, VARs, and digital transformation companies. Listen to Shoot the Moon on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.Buy, sell, or grow your tech-enabled services firm with Revenue Rocket.

Most first acquisition offers are not the best offers. If a buyer has approached your MSP or IT services company out of the blue, this episode walks through how to evaluate that offer, what a letter of intent actually binds you to, and why bringing in an advisor before you sign protects both your price and your optionality.   CHAPTERS 0:00 Why most first offers are not the best offer 1:45 What changed: a seller's market and nonstop inbound offers 4:45 "I already have an offer" — what an LOI really binds you to 7:00 Why the first offer usually is not optimized 10:15 Mistakes founders make running their own deal 14:50 When to bring in an M&A advisor 18:00 Deal facilitation vs. a full sell-side process 22:00 Control vs. leverage: what an advisor actually does 24:15 The first thing to do when an offer lands 26:30 Wrap-up   KEY TAKEAWAYS Most first offers are not optimized. Without competitive tension, you usually leave price, terms, and strategic fit on the table. In an LOI, the no-shop clause is typically the only binding provision. The number can still move significantly in diligence. There are roughly 150 things to negotiate between LOI and close, from working capital to earnout structure to reps and warranties. "Deal facilitation" meets you where you already are  with a buyer or signed LOI, and helps you get to close at a lower scope than a full process. An advisor does not take control. They add leverage, while you make every final decision. Before you respond to any offer: don't engage emotionally, validate the buyer's credibility and certainty to close, and protect your optionality.   LINKS Read more on our blog: https://www.revenuerocket.com/blog/ Estimate your company's value with our Valuation Calculator: https://www.revenuerocket.com/valuation-calculator/ Schedule a confidential conversation: https://www.revenuerocket.com/contact-us/ Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shoot-the-moon-with-revenue-rocket/id1478519505 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6y7u9KuOjaplhScHtINGZU More episodes: https://www.revenuerocket.com/series/shoot-the-moon/ Website: https://www.revenuerocket.com   ABOUT REVENUE ROCKET Revenue Rocket is a sell-side and buy-side M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on IT services companies, including MSPs, cybersecurity, cloud, custom application development, and VARs. Based in Bloomington, Minnesota, the firm has advised technology and IT services founders on mergers, acquisitions, and exits for 25+ years.Shoot the Moon is hosted by Revenue Rocket partners Mike Harvath, Ryan Barnett, and Matt Lockhart.

Discover the power of the VARS Triad (also called the REDOX Triad)—Dr. Dan Purser MD's groundbreaking, patented antioxidant protocol featuring VARS Glutathione, VARS SOD, and VARS Catalase. In this live session, Dr. Purser breaks down what VARS stands for (Validated, Absorbable, Reduced, Stable), how this physician-designed trio supports your body's natural redox balance, quiets inflammation and cytokines at the root-cause level, and helps overcome genetic challenges like high homocysteine, oxidative stress, and related chronic issues. Perfect for anyone exploring advanced functional medicine and targeted supplementation.For more information about the VARS Triad, click here.

In Episode 156 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy sits down with Shiv Sundar, the Co-Founder of ISV Esper, to discuss his journey leading a company from its startup phase to over $100 million in investments with hundreds of customers, partners, and team members. “The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.  The RSPA is North America's largest community of VARs, software providers, vendors, and distributors in the retail, restaurant, and grocery verticals. The mission of the RSPA is to accelerate the success of its members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections. The organization offers member-to-member warm introductions, education, legal advice, industry advocacy, and other services to assist members with becoming and remaining successful. RSPA is most well-known for its signature events, RetailNOW and Inspire, which provide face-to-face learning and networking opportunities. Learn more by visiting www.GoRSPA.org.

In Episode 155 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy talks with RSPA General Counsel Atty. Jill Miller about contract landmines in today's reseller agreements, previewing her RetailNOW 2026 breakout session.  “The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.  The RSPA is North America's largest community of VARs, software providers, vendors, and distributors in the retail, restaurant, and grocery verticals. The mission of the RSPA is to accelerate the success of its members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections. The organization offers member-to-member warm introductions, education, legal advice, industry advocacy, and other services to assist members with becoming and remaining successful. RSPA is most well-known for its signature events, RetailNOW and Inspire, which provide face-to-face learning and networking opportunities. Learn more by visiting www.GoRSPA.org. 

A rendszerváltás első sűrű heteiről beszélgetünk: hol ér véget a transzparencia, és hol kezdődik az új politikai filmszínház? Mit mutatnak az új miniszterek, Magyar Péter varsói és bécsi útja, az uniós pénzekért tett első lépések, az alkotmánymódosítások, a kegyelmi akták nyilvánossága és a Fidesz látványos szétesése?Lakner Zoltán szerint most a „hosszú győzelmi pillanatot” éli az ország, de hamarosan kiderül: az új hatalom képes-e nemcsak bemutatni, hanem végig is vinni a jogállami helyreállítást.00:00 – Rendszerváltás első hete05:34 – Mit mutatnak az új miniszterek?09:31 – EU-pénzek, pótköltségvetés, üzemanyag: az első nagy kormányzati tesztek15:07 – KEKVA-k és Szuverenitásvédelmi Hivatal: jogállami helyreállítás vagy államosítás?29:25 – Varsó, Bécs, Brüsszel: visszatérés Európába és Közép-Európába38:49 – Nyolc év után vége: jó ötlet-e korlátozni a miniszterelnöki hatalmat?47:44 – Fidesz-összeomlás és a hosszú győzelmi pillanat51:07 – Kegyelmi akták: Novák, Varga és az Orbán-szál01:06:16 – Traumafeldolgozás és társadalmi szembenézésLegyél rendszeres támogató!https://cause.lundadonate.org/partizan/adomanyPartizán webshop:https://shop.partizan.hu/—Írj nekünk!Ha van egy sztorid, tipped vagy ötleted:szerkesztoseg@partizan.huBizalmas információ esetén:partizanbudapest@protonmail.com(Ahhoz, hogy titkosított módon tudj írni, regisztrálj te is egy protonmail-es címet.)Támogatások, események, webshop, egyéb ügyek:info@partizan.hu—Csatlakozz a Partizán közösségéhez, értesülj elsőként eseményeinkről, akcióinkról!https://csapat.partizanmedia.hu/forms/maradjunk-kapcsolatban—Legyél önkéntes!Csatlakozz a Partizán önkéntes csapatához:https://csapat.partizanmedia.hu/forms/csatlakozz-te-is-a-partizan-onkenteseihez—Iratkozz fel tematikus hírleveleinkre!Partizán Szerkesztőségi Hírlevélhttps://csapat.partizanmedia.hu/forms/iratkozz-fel-a-partizan-szerkesztoinek-hirlevelereHeti Feledyhttps://csapat.partizanmedia.hu/forms/partizan-heti-feledy

In Episode 154 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RSPA CEO Jim Roddy sits down with Mark Morgan, ScanSource's newly appointed President of Specialty Technologies, about channels in transition, companies in transition, and leaders in transition.  “The Trusted Advisor,” powered by the Retail Solutions Providers Association (RSPA), is an award-winning content series designed specifically for retail IT VARs and software providers. Our goal is to educate you on the topics of leadership, management, hiring, sales, and other small business best practices. For more insights, visit the RSPA blog at www.GoRSPA.org.  The RSPA is North America's largest community of VARs, software providers, vendors, and distributors in the retail, restaurant, and grocery verticals. The mission of the RSPA is to accelerate the success of its members in the retail technology ecosystem by providing knowledge and connections. The organization offers member-to-member warm introductions, education, legal advice, industry advocacy, and other services to assist members with becoming and remaining successful. RSPA is most well-known for its signature events, RetailNOW and Inspire, which provide face-to-face learning and networking opportunities. Learn more by visiting www.GoRSPA.org. 

This is episode 839. Read the complete transcription on the Sales Game Changers Podcast website. Watch the video of this podcast on YouTube here. The Sales Game Changers Podcast was recognized by YesWare as the top sales podcast. Read the announcement here. FeedSpot named the Sales Game Changers Podcast at a top 20 Sales Podcast and top 8 Sales Leadership Podcast! Subscribe to the Sales Game Changers Podcast now on Apple Podcasts! Purchase Fred Diamond's best-sellers Love, Hope, Lyme: What Family Members, Partners, and Friends Who Love a Chronic Lyme Survivor Need to Know and Insights for Sales Game Changers now! Today's show featured an interview with Corey Rooney, Director of Channel Partner Business Development at Carahsoft, and Federal Business Development and Marketing expert Robert Efrus   Find Corey on LinkedIn. Find Robert on LinkedIn. COREY'S ADVICE: "Avoid vague value statements, clearly itemize what the government's getting, and frame out in your response how it impacts their outcomes." ROBERT'S ADVICE: "The most important thing is to first understand the environment your customer is operating in, what the mission requirements are of their agency, what the priorities are of the current leadership, before you even have the conversation."

Master the Microsoft co-sell evolution today. Subscribe to our Newsletter:https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX:https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this deep-dive panel discussion, industry experts Erin Figer, Erika Irby, and Reis Barrie celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Microsoft Co-Sell program by dissecting its evolution from its 2016 inception to today's data-driven, outcome-focused landscape. The group explores the critical shift from transactional sales to modern, frictionless co-sell motions, emphasizing the importance of signals, intentionality, and building credibility with Microsoft field teams. Whether you are navigating the complexities of the marketplace, struggling with reseller enablement, or looking to integrate AI into your sales process, this conversation offers actionable insights to align your organization's go-to-market strategy with Microsoft's evolving priorities and achieve results. https://youtu.be/KV1MGSoyWbQ Key Takeaways Effective co-selling has shifted from autonomous, fragmented motions to a highly collaborative, data-driven approach essential for modern cloud GTM strategies. Credibility is the currency of partnership; without trust from vendors and customers, technical go-to-market motions will fail to produce long-term outcomes. The “REO” (Reseller Enablement Offering) model is an operational unlock for ISVs to go global and sell local without the friction of multi-party private offers. Integrating AI into CRM systems is vital for identifying total addressable market (TAM) signals and maintaining sales velocity. “Don’t automate a bad process” remains the cardinal rule; technology should be used to refine existing, successful motions, not to propagate inefficient ones. The human element—community, in-person events, and empathy—is a necessary differentiator in an increasingly digital, automated B2B landscape. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags Microsoft Azure, Co-sell evolution, Hyperscaler strategy, SMB partner investment, Cloud Marketplace, Veeam GTM, Partner Center alignment, Channel enablement, REO, Cloud consumption, ISV scaling, Go-to-market optimization, Partner-led growth, Azure consumption, Channel friction reduction, Outcome-driven sales, Microsoft ecosystem, Revenue acceleration, Partner alignment. Transcript Erin Figer Panel For Cut Out [00:00:00] Vince Menzione: So when we, so, uh, this all started ’cause I was trying to figure out what was next when I left Microsoft and I had this woman who was doing work, actually starting the co-selling process when we first started doing co-selling. And she was working with one of our partners and she was working with my team when I was at Microsoft. [00:00:17] And then I said, this lady knows a lot about this stuff. So I reached out, I left Microsoft, I said, I think we can help each other. Like, I think we’re gonna, I got these companies that I spoke at Microsoft’s conference. They’re like, can you come help us out? And we teamed up. And, uh, we’ve been friends and doing fun stuff ever since. [00:00:34] And she’s spoken at just about every event in some capacity or another, whether it was on stage or a workshop. Aaron Feiger. And then, uh, I, I found, I also, through Aaron, I met this other gentleman who had another company and he was doing amazing work with ISVs or SDCs, uh, Reese Barry from Carve. And then, uh, when I think we started up the event, I mean, Erica Irby came to one of our first events and spoke on stage. [00:00:58] I was like, yeah, this. The person knows what she’s doing. So I’ve asked the three of them to come up and kind of round out and end the day, but all three of ’em have a tremendous, uh, background in this whole process of co-selling go to market strategies. And I thought you, you can, I’m just giving it over to the three of you. [00:01:17] Erin Figer: I we don’t need [00:01:18] Vince Menzione: a, you don’t needer you don’t need a clicker and you, you know what you’re all gonna be talking about. But these are some really smart people about how to partner with Microsoft. So, yeah. No, thank you for having us. [00:01:27] Erin Figer: Um, hello. Hello. I think this is on. All right. So actually we’re gonna do an exercise. [00:01:32] Um, I want everyone to close their eyes. Close your eyes. Close your eyes. All right. I want you to think back to January of 2016. What were you doing? Where were you in your career? What company were you working for? What was going on in your Microsoft partnership in January of 2016? Okay, Erica, what was happening for you? [00:01:59] Erika Irby: So, uh, is this on? Sorry, I cannot tell. Um, I was at Veeam for the first time. We had just launched our first, uh, endpoint backup, uh, product in April of the previous year because nobody knew what cloud was yet, and people were scared. So we had to launch that product. And we had a relationship with Microsoft in a sense that about 20% of our business sat on Hyper V. [00:02:25] That equated to about, I think like around 90 ish million dollars, which at the time was incredible for us. But to Microsoft was, you know, like, who are you guys again? And, um, we begged and begged to have any type of communication with them. Events. Funding nothing. We did not know what Azure consumption was. [00:02:43] We didn’t have any of that information. And if somebody would’ve told me at that time that nine years later we would sign a five year contract with them and have multiple products dedicated to Microsoft, I would’ve been like, y’all are bananas. [00:02:58] Erin Figer: Reese, what were you doing in January of 2016? [00:03:00] Reis Barrie: Uh, let’s see, Jan, 2016, I was moving from Orlando, Florida to Seattle, Washington, uh, sight unseen with no place to stay. [00:03:10] Uh, to take a job at a place called Microsoft or Consulting Gig, a place called Microsoft. Um, kicking off some of the cool motions that we’re, uh, we’re gonna talk about today, I think. [00:03:20] Erin Figer: Does anybody know the significance of January, 2016 in the audience? Any takers? It was the launch of Cosell officially for Microsoft. [00:03:31] Congratulations. We’re celebrating 10 years of officially. Problematizing how you connect with the Microsoft sales organization in a programmatic at scale way. And try to build meaningful relationships. And I have been helping partners since the inception of Microsoft’s Cosell program. Um, I was on the partner side, Reese was on the inside. [00:03:59] You were at a partner. So we have all seen the evolution of Cosell across all three hyperscalers launching, you know, their co-sell initiatives. So I just wanted to take a moment to recognize. I didn’t know how many people realized that it’s been 10 years, it’s 10 year anniversary. I think it’s a big milestone. [00:04:15] Huge. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we, you know, when they launched it, I went, I was consulting for a startup outta Boston and we were trying to get Microsoft’s attention, competitor to fame, and I went to the business development guy and said, uh, do you, did you just see this program that Microsoft launched? I think we should include this in our branding strategy and we should use co-sell as a way to get our brand out to Microsoft and be able to tell our story of who we are and what we’re doing and that we’re in their accounts and they don’t even know it. [00:04:55] ’cause we’re the startup out of Boston who switched over from AWS to Microsoft. And we did, and I put every single opportunity in the system I could for the first six months, which was the last six months of their fiscal year. We go to partner of the, we go to, what was it called? Them WPCI think at the time. [00:05:13] Mm-hmm. Uh, in Vegas. And Nasuni won wins like all four wards worldwide. US Education, healthcare Partner of the year because I put 117 deals in the system and then it seeded Na Sunni’s Marketing for the next two years. ’cause Microsoft gave them tons of money and attention and we were off to the races. [00:05:35] Right. And then it was, can you repeat that? And we went and repeated it with Red Hat and Rubrik and Nintex and Quest and. I don’t know, lots more. But it was, it’s been fun journey co-selling. And it’s interesting to see now, um, how we continue 10 years later to evolve co-sell. And so Erica, what were some of the takeaways you had today listening to the conversation about how co-sell, how you’re modernizing and co-sell is changing inside your organization, especially now being a boomerang. [00:06:08] Erika Irby: Yeah, well we call it a Veeam ring ’cause everything a veer ring, everything has to start with with Veeam. Well, one thing I was gonna comment on, I think I’m sitting here thinking how wild is it that back in the day we actually had to define that co-sell was an action that, that, you know, partners and vendors needed to take or, and different vendors and alliances. [00:06:25] I mean, now we can’t even imagine going to market without, you know, that, that attach. But at the time, we were just very autonomous and everybody sold their own product and it, it took like this actual motion, um, to get us working together. But now look at us. I mean, this community is incredible. And we can also see this by, and even when AGU was mentioning earlier, all the bosses he had in his room, I mean. [00:06:47] How many people like know each other. I mean, this is like part of that, that ecosystem. But today, um, a couple of things I took away, and by the way, we want a lot of interactions, so we’re going to kind of throw it back out at you guys. But for me, um, outcomes came up repeatedly that was mentioned multiple times about outcomes. [00:07:04] Um, speed with intentionality. I think that was super critical. We have to go to market. There has to be a sense of urgency, but if we’re not intentional, it’s like, what are we doing? It’s just like a big mess. Um, and then credibility. And this is something I think is super important, regardless of, um, all of our emotions, all of our go to market, all of the, the things that we do, if we are not credible or not building trust with our vendors, our, our co-partners, our customers, we will never be successful. [00:07:35] Um, so those are the three main things that I took away from, from everybody talking today. And I, I thought, I mean, to me personally, I thought those were pretty powerful. [00:07:42] Yeah. [00:07:42] Erika Irby: So we’d love to hear. [00:07:43] Erin Figer: Yeah. And I know Reese, you have been doing a lot around outcomes and changing kind of the cosal, um, intention. [00:07:54] Reis Barrie: Yeah. The, uh, the, just thinking back to today, like that was like such a, it was really a, a big key theme of today. Like everyone talked about, whether it’s pivot of, of sales, partnership, um, even when you’re talking about AI and some of the, the, uh. POC discussions. So the live like type of stuff, everything was centered around that narrative. [00:08:17] And so, um, and it’s the same with, it’s the same with partnerships. It’s the same with your co-sell motion, same with your benefits utilization, um, and the way you’re utilizing partnerships. And so that’s, that’s a huge, huge component of, um, what I also took away from today. Um, and then somebody, I think it was Mark who said it that I’m gonna, I’m gonna steal this because the, the whole, um. [00:08:40] Near and dear to my heart of like, don’t, don’t scale automate ai, A-I-F-I-A bad process. Like as someone who deals with like, for the most part, bad processes, like day in and day out, um, and trying to refine them and improve them. Like, that’s one of the first things that we, uh, that we talk to partners about when it comes to their partnership and, and the processes they have in place. [00:09:03] So those are like two really big, just takeaways from [00:09:06] Erin Figer: Yeah. Nice. So we’re here to learn from each other, right? Like this is an ultimate partner community of learning from each other. So I’d really love to hear from the audience, like what are some of the things you’re doing in your cloud? Go to market approach and co-selling that you’re trying out. [00:09:23] Either you tried it, you failed fast, you learned from that, that you can share those lessons learned or like what’s working and how are you changing to be more outcome driven in your cloud go to market, uh, approach. Any takers in wanting to experience share? Great. Give that man a mic. [00:09:50] Audience Member: The SMB investments. Um, these, these new, I don’t know what they are. I partner accelerators, PBAs, uh, there’s kind of something going on in the SMB space where it just seems like they’re coming outta the woodwork to come help. On deals. I’ve never seen Microsoft really embrace the customer that they, the way they have in SMB in the cos sells. [00:10:10] I’m not sure if anybody else is seen that, but seems to be working. It’s two things. One, you at Data 60 [00:10:22] America. [00:10:54] I think, I think part of the rarity there is that. Typically you wouldn’t get a seller attached, right? They’re unmanaged that they’re kind of in the nobody cares category, but, [00:11:06] um. So Microsoft made a huge investment in the distribution space saying we’re gonna lean on distribution to help enable our 165,000 indirect resellers that we have as a business. And part of that enablement goes back to field sales alignment. So there’s these roles, ca roles called um, partner Solutions Sellers, PS. [00:11:30] And so they’re aligned by, um, solutions architecture, if you will, for Microsoft. So, or cloud solution area, whatever the new term, modern work, uh, or, uh, AI work, AI workforce, um, data and ai. And so they are there to help support your deal. So it’s, it’s a huge investment and one that I would just can say continue to advocate for it if you’re seeing success with it, because I mean, we’re heading into FY 27 planning for Microsoft. [00:11:58] So. Like there, there could be role changes. So I would say if it, if it’s helpful, like make sure you’re talking positively about it. [00:12:05] Reis Barrie: Yeah, yeah. Just to, to your point, like I, I’d say like, um, in the last six to 12 months, like that’s been a, a thing that’s like we’ve to go back and like, I mean we manage a portfolio of a couple dozen, dozen partners at this point, and so we’ve had to go back and rewrite some of our playbooks, reeducate some of. [00:12:26] Uh, some of the partnership folks that we use because, um, historically you kind of get into this like void of, you’re in partner center, you’re picking, you know, account alignment and it’s not managed. And so it’s like, okay, I expect to do nothing with this deal on the Microsoft side from a co-sell standpoint. [00:12:42] Um, but that’s kind of, that’s changed quite a bit, um, in the last six months where, um, it’s not like a, it’s hard to create, it’s hard to create processes and dependence around it ’cause it’s not like a guarantee that you’ll get, you get engagement, but. Uh, you see more eng engagement, more on more and more deals. [00:12:58] Um, and so we’ve had to go back and work with some of our partners to rewrite some of our, uh, deal sharing playbooks to account for, uh, things like that, which is, it’s super cool to see, frankly, um, to see engagement on these, like predominantly. [00:13:12] Erin Figer: So in that motion. So first off, for the folks that are on the other side of this black curtain by the food station, if you guys could please stop the conversation. [00:13:19] It’s really hard to pay attention to what’s going on in this room. Um. Thank you. Thank [00:13:25] Erika Irby: you for saying that. [00:13:26] Erin Figer: That was a great, that was a great, that’s a great point. And what I wanna talk about next is like in order to kind of continue to evolve the playbooks and they’re changing and people are changing, and priorities are changing, what are some of the signals that you guys are using internally in your organization, whether you’re building or buying, um, but would love to learn from all of you. [00:13:46] What kind of signals are you looking at to help you continue to like co-innovate, co-sell, co-market? Um, in your go-to market strategies? [00:13:58] Audience Member: Yeah, [00:13:58] Erin Figer: please. Um, [00:14:00] Audience Member: well, I’m, I’m, we’re building everything from scratch right now because we’re brand is integration. [00:14:39] Like having our, our engineer be able to interact with product [00:14:43] Erin Figer: engineer. [00:14:50] I’m gonna pick on trend ’cause I had just spent last week with them and Sanjay, I think like what you guys are building internally, um, using signals, building it into an AI agent. To help you understand your tam, you wanna share a little bit. [00:15:06] Audience Member: Happy to, and I’ll disclose. The first thing I did was hire Aaron Feiger to run my co-sell operations, uh, for the, for the second time. [00:15:12] It’s [00:15:13] Erin Figer: nice to be a GDI again [00:15:14] Audience Member: for the second, so well planted. Um, but honestly, like I can’t have an environment where I fail my sellers, like this process has to be frictionless in co-sell and marketplace operations. Or I lose trust in my own house, let alone in my channel and in my customer base. So. Uh, building that strong foundation is like job number one. [00:15:34] I’ve been, I spent a decade at Trend. I’m back, uh, five weeks on the job now. Um, but I’d say we’ve built a multi hundred million dollar cloud marketplace business thinking highly transactional. And what we’re trying to pivot to is a highly dated driven approach where we can look at any cloud in any region around the world, figure out roughly how many accounts they have. [00:15:57] Figure out what those customers are spending and things that we can protect from a cybersecurity standpoint, knowing that four or 5% of that total spend will be spent on cybersecurity, doing an overlap of where I have existing customers in that drawing a tam, overlapping that with my incumbent partners to get the Venn diagram of like, where’s my sweet spot to move this forward? [00:16:18] And then where’s my blast radius? So when I sit down with a guy leading France, or a person leading healthcare. I can have a really specific opportunity about how to leverage my cloud partnerships to accelerate deals and expand growth in a very surgical, data-driven, propensity driven way. And it like totally changes the conversation. [00:16:40] And the other thing we’ve done because you get a lot of pushback and when you’re working with Microsoft, uh, I was chatting with a few folks today, like if you’re in cybersecurity, it’s not easy. They got a 25 billion ish dollars cybersecurity business. So you gotta find your swim lanes. And the dialogue I have now internally with my sellers is a major League baseball analogy, which is, if you play major league baseball and if you hit the ball 30% of the time, you’re gonna go to this little thing called the Hall of Fame, right? [00:17:07] If you bat 300, if you’re in sales and Microsoft, or Amazon or whoever helps you, 30% of the time, you’re gonna go to this thing called President’s Club. That’s the difference between sitting at home in Ohio and sitting with your beach. You know, your, your toes in the sand. So it’s, we’re really trying to change. [00:17:25] Uh, one of the first things I ask my team is, what’s our brand promise to our sales leaders and our sales team? And if you don’t know that answer, you got a fricking problem. So you gotta get that. What’s your Brene Brown would call it? What’s your North Star? What are your values? Whatcha are you gonna deliver? [00:17:38] Right? So you gotta get that right and then you gotta be relentless in making it frictionless. And then you gotta hire Aaron Fier to run your co-sell. [00:17:46] Erin Figer: Okay? Okay. And so, I mean, I think like that’s a trend that I’m seeing across the partners that I’ve been working with is how they’re using data and doing more data driven, um, decision making and getting to their TAM faster so that as they start to then look at this pathway of, okay, now I’m trying to go to market, what. [00:18:11] Programs does Microsoft have or my other partners have that I can use to move me down that path faster. But getting that tam and feeling more confident about it, like, this is the group, this is the subgroup that I’m gonna start with until I see something that says, oh, I need to deviate and do something different. [00:18:30] Um, so I’m definitely seeing that trend. Like what are you seeing, uh, what are you guys doing at Vem? [00:18:35] Erika Irby: Um, so a couple different things. So like you were saying, we, we do leverage, um, AI more, uh, recently for New Deal Reg, um, automation. And we lit, literally just launched it this week. So this is the week that it’s exciting until the, someone tries to use it for the first time and then for. [00:18:52] Um, so I can’t wait to see my emails later, but, um, it, it’s, we’re seeing like that, that that movement, which is, uh, definitely good for that. We have a task force internally for marketing, so trying to figure out how we’re gonna, um, you know, leverage that, uh, um, internally. And I think that Veeam, you know, they, they have been on the forefront of technology for, for a while. [00:19:12] You know, they were the first with the. Virtual backup and, you know, all these things, you know, really trying to be ahead of the thing, ahead of the game. But, um, one thing I, I, I love how many people brought up the intentionality and the mindfulness because I think sometimes we can easily. Put out a whole bunch of tools. [00:19:28] I love that you called out the point about the bad processes, um, because it actually, I think, can just create more confusion, more of a mess, and that, um, really mindfulness will be so much more beneficial, you know, down the road for your partners, for your customers, for everybody that has to, you know, do that interaction business with you. [00:19:47] I did wanna call out that I thought it was lovely that you had a positive comment about Microsoft. I dunno if I, [00:19:53] Audience Member: yeah, [00:19:53] Erika Irby: I like rarely hear that. So like, awesome. I hope that does get back to Microsoft. I hope that they do, um, continue that. I’m sure their SMB is quite a bit bigger than maybe others, but that is a massive install base for, for Veeam as well. [00:20:07] And even though we’re driving and trying to push into the enterprise, protecting that install base is just absolutely critical for success. [00:20:15] Erin Figer: What about you race? [00:20:17] Reis Barrie: So if I’m looking at like signals, I, I think. Uh, I’ll focus on too, I think you mentioned, uh, the, the cycles of change at Microsoft. Like it used to be an annual thing and now it’s like a, then it was a half base thing, and then it was a, now it’s a quarterly thing basically. [00:20:30] Um, but there’s also like, there’s, there’s big signals and small signals, and so annually we still get like that, like the, the, the guiding direction so that we can align. How we talk about ourselves, how we talk about our partnership, how, how we enable our sellers and whatnot. And then we got a lot of programmatic shifts from a, from a quarter to quarter standpoint. [00:20:50] Um, and so focusing on the, like these, um, these signals so we can align our, our messaging and our frameworks to align with, with, with our partnership, um, is, is one thing that’s, you know, super, super important to keep, keep tabs on. Um, and the second one, I’ll, I’ll give, you’ll. Mention is more on the cus sorry, uh, customer side, but like the seller enablement. [00:21:15] And so how is your, on the marketplace side, how, how are your sellers talking to your customers about marketplace? Um, are they, are they bringing up earlier in the, in the qualifying discussions of how does the customer prefer to buy? Um, are there fire drills with two weeks to go, um, till the, till the deal closes and now the customer wants to go marketplace and, and no one knows how to do it? [00:21:37] Um, seen that way too many times. Um, and so, but how, how, like studying kind of the, uh, maturity of our sales org to see well, like where, where, where is our, our, where are our sellers competent to have this marketplace discussion? Um, because I often relate, like, this is kinda a silly analogy, but I, I, simple stuff works really, really well with me. [00:22:00] But I like, have you ever been to a farmer’s market and you’re like nervous to buy something? ’cause you don’t know if they take credit card. [00:22:07] Audience Member: Yeah. [00:22:07] Reis Barrie: And so like to me, I’m like, okay, well, like it’s the same thing with Marketplace to me. And so like, it’s, it’s the same concept of you want your customer to be able to buy, they want the way that they would like to buy. [00:22:19] Um, and you want the person that they’re interacting with to be able to, um, facilitate that, that transaction in, in a way that feels frictionless. Yeah. Right. Uh, and so that’s a lot. Like, those are the kind of, the really two deep signals, um, that we, we look at a lot. [00:22:37] Erika Irby: I wanna make a comment on the marketplace. [00:22:38] So I don’t know if anybody else is experiencing this, you know, Veeam being an ISV, we have a really strong traditional, traditional channel motion. So, to your point about how sellers are, are managing the marketplace, to be totally honest, we struggle on, um, that, because right now it feels like a deal that goes to the marketplace is taken away from a reseller, and that reseller loses out then on that upfront margin and. [00:23:06] Um, there’s not a clean path necessarily for, you know, just because the, the deal happened there. They really, they still need to maintain that because they’re the one pri providing the services. And somebody had brought up earlier that, um, A SMB customer will never be successful without a partner. And I, I totally agree with that, but it’s like that part is missing. [00:23:26] So we almost need like a mindset change. In the channel where the marketplace is just a route to market and how the customer receives the product. It shouldn’t totally matter because at the end of the day, the, they still have to provide the services. It’s like, I could go to Home Depot and purchase a bunch of pipe for my house, but can I install it a thousand percent? [00:23:49] No. I would destroy my house. I used to have to have a plumber. So I think there’s, we could help our channel by changing that mindset, and at the same time, we, we need the marketplace owners to, to provide the benefits so that it is still very attractive for those traditional. Partners to, to push their customers there or else I, I think we’re just gonna constantly have that strife. [00:24:11] Erin Figer: Yeah. Does anyone in the audience, has anyone in the audience activated REO with Microsoft? You have? Yeah. So how’s it, like, how’s it going? Yeah, there’s Bump. Yeah. [00:24:32] Audience Member: How that shifts making people more effective in their roles individually. So we’re early stage of it, but it’s, it’s been a good experience. [00:24:42] Erin Figer: Has it helped to kind of unlock some of that friction with the resellers and continuing to include them to get to the s and b customers? [00:24:49] Audience Member: Yeah, I think the, the challenge that we’re working through right now is, you know, Erica may have said it, but it’s. [00:24:56] It’s not just the, the view of the marketplace taking people out of the equation, it’s how do we use the marketplace for, for co-innovation to keep people in it. So if, if, if it’s gonna take three to five of, of us in this room to deliver that spectrum to innovation for the customer. Um, how do we use the marketplace as a force multiplier of bringing that together and making that transaction easy? [00:25:21] Yeah. If, if our consumers are more and more influenced by Instagram and TikTok Shop Now buttons, like my husband’s texting me about my stuff that showed up today, [00:25:31] Erika Irby: which is none of his business. [00:25:32] Audience Member: None of your business. That’s right. Just put it [00:25:36] Erika Irby: in my room. Thank you. [00:25:37] Audience Member: If people are, people as consumers in the, in the u, us consumer based economy is driving more and more people through like that social experience of purchasing, that is an area where I do think Microsoft could help us and we could help ourselves in marketing how that, how we leverage it to be a force multiplier versus another omnichannel. [00:25:58] Well, [00:25:58] Erin Figer: so on that note, how many of you have put a button on your website? Click to buy? Yeah, [00:26:02] Audience Member: that’s, that’s where I’m at with our marketing team. [00:26:04] Erin Figer: Right? [00:26:04] Audience Member: Yeah. That’s, I think, the next evolution for us in the, in the REO piece. [00:26:08] Erin Figer: Yeah. Yeah. [00:26:10] Audience Member: I, I don’t want it on our website. I want to, I want it on my Instagram, my LinkedIn, my TikTok reels. [00:26:15] That’s, we’re going to, sir, it’s coming next week at our sales kickoff. Yeah. [00:26:21] Erin Figer: Nice, nice. Anybody else? Uh, activated. REO [00:26:28] besides the, you know, RE speed wagon? Uh, it’s the Microsoft Reseller Enablement. Um, offering, so like you activate your resellers to just take your listing and be able to do a private offer so that you don’t have to do multi-party private offers anymore. Your resellers can just take the listing and sell it directly, and they don’t have to wait for you to send them the offer. [00:26:52] Then they have to go do, so it takes out some of the steps and that friction in the process streamlines it and it allows them to like. Add on and do their own pricing. And then the reseller, however you have your arrangement with that reseller, continues to pay you in the back end for, um, selling that through the marketplace. [00:27:11] Erika Irby: I think I’m going to have you come and do a webinar for our Veeam partners to, to help them with that, because to your point, I don’t, I don’t think it’s as prevalent yet. It’s, it hasn’t really caught on. [00:27:21] Erin Figer: Yeah. It’s been really an unlock of, I had a large, um, ISV that I helped. We implemented REO internally, so they have 34 marketplace offerings and they have this initiative. [00:27:36] They wanted to go global, sell local, and so they launched five more publishing accounts and they came to me and said, we need to replicate our catalog five times 34. And I was like, oh God, please, no. And luckily like two months later, Microsoft, like GAed, uh, REO, and I was like, here’s your answer. We’re not going to do that. [00:27:58] We’re going to enable each of your publishing accounts to be resellers of your quote unquote gold standard publishing account, and that we actually implemented REO as an internal mechanism for them to issue their own publishing accounts, to resell private offers in local currencies. Um, and that was really an operational unlock for them. [00:28:25] All right. Anybody you wanna ask a question to the audience? [00:28:29] Audience Member: Okay. I’ll just keep going. [00:28:32] Erin Figer: Um, all right. So what are some other, um, signals or ways that you guys are evolving the way you’re co-selling? Um, does anybody else have some experience shares that they want to, to share with the audience? We’ve got, we’re using data, uh, we’re using some ai, we’re helping us get to our audience faster. [00:28:51] I really loved work span, um, building in an AI tool inside your CRM system, um, so that you can get some of those signals. Any other signals that you guys are using, uh, to change the way you’re co-selling? [00:29:07] It’s quiet on [00:29:07] Reis Barrie: Maybe, maybe I’ll share one, but Yeah. Yeah. So, um, just when it comes to, like, for us, account alignment to me is like one of the most important things and consistently doing, uh, you know, account planning and account alignment against Microsoft their accounts. Um, now it’s a bit interesting ’cause you can include some s and b stuff in there. [00:29:27] Um, but also, uh, Jason you mentioned up there, the. Uh, marketplace rewards, having the propensity mapping. And so looking at not only from an account alignment, um, what Microsoft accounts are, we, um, you know, areas are we most penetrated in, but also of those accounts, which ones are already buying on marketplace. [00:29:47] Uh, maybe have a commitment to Microsoft in, in some way to help us just further, uh, further target and focus on, you know, if we have 500 opportunities that we’re trying to, um. I’m trying to work through, um, to Sanjay’s point, like what’s, what’s the 30% that I’m gonna get my batting average on? Um, and so that constant account alignment to us is like a, is a huge, huge signal, um, for us to focus on. [00:30:14] Um, and then you can even take it a layer deeper to identify, okay, well if I’m looking like, do I have density within Nina had the, the ou up here on the screen. So do I have densities with density within like specific. Uh, verticals or regions, um, or segments that I should maybe if I just focused on that one segment or one vertical, um, you know, then all of a sudden I, I’m super successful having an executive sponsorship in that, uh, in that ou, something like that. [00:30:44] Um, and, but that, that’s all starting with, um, the foundations of that being that consistent account alignment and leveraging some of the, some of the propensity stuff that Microsoft is, is providing. [00:30:56] Erin Figer: And then making sure you’re like bringing it back into your CRM and storing it so that you can continue to use that information ongoing. [00:31:03] And we’re trying to figure out how to embed more and more. [00:31:37] And are you integrating like. Microsoft and other partners into that data as well. It’s like, this is a great partner. Incorporate them at this point in the journey. Yeah, we um. [00:31:50] When [00:31:50] Audience Member: you’re in the process with, with Microsoft, we haven’t opened it up externally, so that’s our crawl, walk, run is we’re, we’re trying this out internally. Let’s see if we can work the bugs out, get the agents working, and then how do we now go to our MSP community and offer this up as an agent they can use within their sales team. [00:32:08] And on the end of. We’re still working in the middle, but front end profiling, it’s helping a ton, um, and giving us a lot of good intel that the sellers are driving through the agent on the back end. It’s, it’s giving us not, um, just propensity data, but what’s resonating. So if we launched 12 products this year and we trained sellers on. [00:32:28] What’s hitting, where’s my pipeline velocity coming from? Where’s my close rate coming from? So that every month when we have our sales town hall, it’s like, here’s the top three sales motions that are actually driving pipeline and fast to cash close rates. [00:32:42] Erin Figer: And I gotta imagine that helps you get to your differentiators. [00:32:45] Audience Member: Oh [00:32:45] Erin Figer: yeah. And refining your superpower story. [00:32:48] Audience Member: That’s right. That’s. Yeah, because it’s for, for our sales team. I mean, we were talking about it earlier, it’s all about simplification. There’s so many options, so much noise. It’s like, just go focus on these three things and this is where you’re gonna deliver impact and outcomes to your customer. [00:33:01] And if we’re doing that, we’re all winning. [00:33:03] Erika Irby: Yeah. I, I, um, just recently, this is why one of the coolest things that Veeam has done, we just launched this tool called, um, expansion iq, and it’s part of our command, the expand motion this year where we’re really. Upselling and cross-selling our, um, install base. [00:33:17] This tool takes all the partners individual propensity data, puts it against four solution plays that we think are the main plays, and then provides them, this is what you could be earning if you took this motion. And then from a marketing perspective, we provide them. And to do this, here’s your campaign. [00:33:37] Here’s your this, here’s your that. Step one, send this email. Like very, very, you know, just, uh, planned out. And I loved what Nina said earlier today when she shared that, um, org chart. Essentially with all the different, um, industry focuses we are driving. One of our go to market actions is a Microsoft healthcare campaign. [00:33:56] That is like very, very specific, but it’s helping our partners in that manner. Could they go to their own database and pull their own and do all this stuff? Of course. But for our sellers to go blink and then give them a report and be like, here it is. It makes it so much more relevant. And then the steps just, they just hand that to their marketing org and then they’re just off and running. [00:34:18] Going back into your team to say, Hey, we rolled out these 12 things, only three landing. You gotta go back to the drawing on the other side. Or We need more money for these three. Yeah, but let’s figure what’s not with customer [00:34:38] to record the. [00:34:47] Audience Member: A better, faster, uh, listening post for, uh, can I talk really loud? Um, it’s, it’s, it’s helped turning on a listening post for our engineering, our marketing, our service delivery organization that would’ve taken months or quarters to get spun up in an executive board meeting or something. Right now they get it real time every week. [00:35:09] Okay. [00:35:09] Erin Figer: So what I’m hearing, like the theme here is to really like. Understand your sales process. Also, your co-sell sales process that runs in parallel with that. And how do you continue to serve up the right data at the right time to help your people take the right next action to continue to drive those outcomes that you’re looking for, but then also using data to circle it back, to say what’s working, what’s not working, to continue to refine that whole motion. [00:35:43] Um, so if you’re not doing that, I think that’s a big aha moment and takeaway, uh, from today’s session or from here today is like, okay, am I really identifying all the opportunities in my process to involve data to help my people continue to drive outcomes? [00:36:04] Audience Member: You [00:36:04] Erin Figer: have a, [00:36:05] Audience Member: you have your head in up back there, Gary. [00:36:06] Yeah. I, I couldn’t tell if, uh, you were prompting me when you asked that question and I, I didn’t want to, you know, do a shameless plug for cloud, but I think everybody [00:36:15] Erin Figer: should shamelessly plug, plug away. [00:36:16] Audience Member: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, you brought up a mitt and, uh, the co-sell thing, but it, it does relate to what Reese had said about, um, you know, the being at the farmer’s market and. [00:36:26] Not sure what, you know, can I use a credit card or not? And I think that, um, or [00:36:30] Erin Figer: can I use Apple Pay? I still ask. I’m like, do you, do you accept Apple Pay? [00:36:32] Audience Member: Oh, yeah. Yeah. So it’s like, I think, uh, a lot of times you don’t understand the seller in that situation is not sure how to handle that conversation. So, and there’s not a lot of information about their, about that. [00:36:44] Like how to, when it comes to a seller talking about marketplace and asking about the commit. Because the commit obviously is one of the main drivers, right? 900 billion out there. And committed spend across all the hyperscalers. So how to actually bring that up with a customer and what if they don’t know, right? [00:37:05] So there’s a whole process that, you know, they, they need to be taught this. But the first thing that’s also come up multiple times is activating them also means how to engage them. So an approach there of how to engage your salespeople is critical because if salespeople aren’t in it, they’re nothing’s happening. [00:37:23] You’re not gonna do well with marketplace. And on the co-sell part, it’s kinda the same thing. The typical thing, and I remember talking to Aldo Desal about this at another Ultimate Partner event, but uh, you bring your salespeople into a call, like you set up a call with, with Microsoft and the seller comes in unprepared. [00:37:42] Typically they’re not sure what to say and it’s a little bit intimidating. How, how, how do I, you know, what do you do in this situation? Like, so you start talking about product ’cause that’s what you know, and it’s the last thing you want to do. You, you want to understand what they care about, like em stage and, and, uh, what’s your consumption story and what kind of MRR impact you’re gonna have. [00:38:03] So it’s, these things are just unusual topics for the salespeople to be prepared, uh, to talk about. But it’s critical if your salespeople are gonna be enabled that they can do that. So I think from a co-selling standpoint, that’s just what I want to mention. And by the way, we offered a tool that does that. [00:38:20] Erin Figer: Nice. Awesome. Thank you. Uh, I mean, I don’t know about you. Reese Cloud Atlas. Every time we helped an ISV with their cosell motion, we would say, okay, we’re ready to go share cos sells and drive introductions. Have you done your sales enablement? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ve enabled the sellers we have, and then we launch like the first batch of cos sells and then they immediately come back. [00:38:43] Stop, stop, stop. Don’t share any more deals, like we’re causing too much confusion. Uh, we didn’t do our sales enablement. Wow. Grace, [00:38:52] Reis Barrie: I mean, sound [00:38:53] Erin Figer: familiar? [00:38:53] Reis Barrie: It sounds very familiar. It sounds too familiar. Uh, P-T-S-D-A little bit there, but the, uh, sorry, [00:38:58] Erika Irby: but that’s why you guys have jobs. [00:39:00] Reis Barrie: Yes. Go on. It’s, it’s, um, but this, you know, I, I always come back to the, the concept of like, if we showed up to a Microsoft co-sell call the way we do to a customer call, like, oh. [00:39:14] Erin Figer: It, [00:39:14] Reis Barrie: it would, it would be night and day difference of the value you’d get outta your Microsoft partnership and co-sell. That’s all. It’s [00:39:20] Erin Figer: Well, [00:39:20] Reis Barrie: but I think people [00:39:21] Erin Figer: forget Microsoft is your customer too. [00:39:23] Reis Barrie: Yeah. [00:39:23] Erin Figer: They’re your partner, but you have to sell to before you can sell with and through. So you first gotta like master the sell to. [00:39:30] Reis Barrie: Yeah, a hundred percent. So there, there’s there like, and then to your point, [00:39:34] Erin Figer: it’s still true. 10 years later, people, it’s still true. Back to the fundamentals, right? [00:39:39] Reis Barrie: Yeah. It’s, [00:39:40] Erin Figer: yes. Go for it. [00:39:44] Audience Member: The, um, Microsoft being customer, right? So, and I love what you said about sem uh, alignment. So we actually made it a point, um, in our co-sell process, we have a validation checkpoint with Microsoft. If we build a co-sell packages, um, we are an si We’re not primarily ISV, but I think that’s shifting as well gradually. [00:40:10] And ESI kind of becoming a little bit of ISV. Um, so why it’s important, I think like Ree said, like you come up, you show up to co-sell call and you just pitch your services or say, well, let’s do account planning with this and that. Right? But what if it doesn’t work in the field? So that validation became critical for us, and I can tell you that now we have success stories that are actually proven based on that multifaceted feedback, uh, as to it’s one thing to build it. [00:40:46] Yeah. But is it useful for seller, for Microsoft sellers actually in the field? Can they actually position it and help clients to be more successful? Because that’s the ultimate goal. So that validation became, uh, an important checkpoint for us, uh, to make those packages repeatable and successful for customers at the end of the day. [00:41:06] So when we talk about signals, you absolutely right. It’s not just customer signals like we use ZoomInfo, we use all this data points, et cetera, but it’s also signals from the field because while Microsoft is a huge organization, they’re also very dynamic. On very regular basis, a lot of things changed. So taking those signals into account, uh, has created that, what we call like, more of a holistic approach for us, uh, to make it more meaningful. [00:41:33] So [00:41:34] Erin Figer: I like it. And you made it sticky by making it like a required point in the sales process? Absolutely. That everyone stops. Take a moment. [00:41:41] Audience Member: Yeah. [00:41:41] Erin Figer: And make sure that we’re all on the same page. [00:41:43] Audience Member: Yeah. And I think for us as si it’s even more critical. Like I, I, I think there is a lot more to happen in marketplace as, as, as much as we talk about it, but being in si I, we still kind of figure it out, like how Mark marketplace actually becomes a place of transaction for a size. [00:42:01] Yeah. So that’s why, you know, we’re passionate about packages and it’s not just a matter of publishing it and say, oh, it’s co-sell ready? Then what? Yeah. Right. So yeah, so, so that’s why that, that checkpoint is very important for us. So [00:42:16] Erin Figer: definitely, definitely. I think you ladies over here in the corner had some, some hands up, Michelle and, and the other Michelle, Michelle Squared. [00:42:26] Audience Member: Thank you. Michelle Squared. I like it. Um, so. I’ve been a little quiet because I wanna just give my background. So I’m a global VP of channels and alliances and, um, I think it’s a bit of this, uh, the movement, right? So I love your farmer’s market analogy so much. I’m gonna steal that. Thank you. But the reason is because you don’t know unless you’re gonna meet your partners where you are or meet your customers where they are in that journey. [00:42:53] So the first time that they’re selling whatever their goods or wares are, and somebody says, do you take Apple Pay? That’s a clue. And then when you hear it over and over again, you realize there’s a correlation that there’s a need in the market. So in In my life, all roads read to Romes, right? Reseller and VARs, OEM, alliances, MSPs, MSPs, ISVs System integrators. [00:43:17] And as a partner leader, you wouldn’t necessarily think marketplace is first because you feel like you’re going around your partners. But am I meeting my partners where they are in their journey and choosing to procure the way they want to procure? And I think that’s the notion that I have a lot of learning from this team and everyone in this room to understand how do we in a company. [00:43:38] Prescribe the right solution to, to meet our partners in that journey. And I’ll use, kind of circling back to the MSP space, PAX eight, one of Microsoft’s largest partners created a marketplace dedicated to MSPs. And while I was the global Channel chief of SonicWall, a lot of partners said to me, I like you. [00:43:56] I like your products, I like your firewall, but unless you’re on the park, PAX eight Marketplace, I’m not gonna buy from you because they make my life frictionless. And easier to do business with. And I think that’s the motion that every vendor in this room needs to understand is, are we truly meeting our partners where they are? [00:44:14] PS I work for Carrero DDoS Solutions and come to talk to me about that. Thank you. [00:44:18] Erika Irby: Well, and a Guo owes you some money for that commercial right there. [00:44:30] Audience Member: From, we’re actually community first. Um, as an MSP, even though we’re national, like we really focus in on community local touch. Um. Like you said, um, um, Southern seldom me in a southern way. Like that’s what we focus on. I’m your [00:44:45] Erin Figer: huckleberry. [00:44:46] Audience Member: I love that. Exactly. Um, and we’re seeing a ton of success with actual in-person events now. [00:44:53] Like the majority of our business is come in, leads are coming from that right now. And even though, like I, I truly believe in digital first motions, we need to be on Instagram and have that self-serve motion as the next generation comes up in our. Buying and transitioning to their kids or whatever that looks like. [00:45:14] Like we have to remember that there’s also a trend of tactile in person people first coming with it. And so like we, I, I feel like there, there has to be that motion engaged and I would love to hear your thoughts around how are vendors thinking about engaging in that community driven approach, not just the platform itself. [00:45:37] Erika Irby: Yeah, I, I personally also, this is hilarious ’cause we’re like best friends, so we can talk about this later, but, um, from a Veeam perspective, Michelle, um, we are seeing a resurgence in like these thought leadership type of events. And I think there’s, this is, this is sort of related, but just to, this is kind of how I think about this. [00:45:57] Um, Barnes and Noble’s business has like gone through the roof lately, and they are, they’re actually like opening more stores, which is bananas because at one point they were like going outta business because nobody wanted to go and like, touch a book or talk to somebody. But that is changing, thank God. [00:46:11] Right? That is like changing and people are actually like becoming more social because they’re missing this. Um, my kids’ generation refers to places like Barnes and Nobles as the third place. Like this magical place that exists where you can talk to a real human that’s not on your phone. Like it’s, it’s amazing. [00:46:28] But anyways, we’re, I think we’re starting to see this in marketing. We used to like pump everything out digitally, but after a while people get that form and they’re like, I am not putting my dang information in this form. And then your ability to capture that lead completely dissipates. All it is, is, is now an impression, which is. [00:46:47] Fairly worthless. You can have millions of them and nothing happens. So we are definitely investing more into, um, uh, live events, but also with the live streaming because then people can, they’re still watching it live. They still have to register for it. They knew they couldn’t make it. So I think that there’s definitely that digital aspect that’s super helpful. [00:47:05] But a purely digital, you will never make that connection. [00:47:10] Erin Figer: Yeah, I mean, I think. Unfortunately, COVID made us, you know, all do things digitally. But now that we’re past that, getting back to that multifaceted approach, I think if we think about what’s going on in the B2C world, lots of communities within communities, there’s whole company’s getting created, like women are bringing women together to do craft circles. [00:47:37] And literally. Okay. But like I did that digitally. That was pretty awesome. I was like three years. That shameless plug. No, I, no. But like then now there’s like companies that are actually like renting space, bringing people together, like crafting and while they’re doing the activity, um, if anyone’s ever done therapy, a therapist will say. [00:48:01] You know, if you wanna get your kids talking, get them coloring, like distract them and they will start to open up. And so you distract people with an activity and they start to open up. And what they really are, thrive, like what they really need is in this digital world where we’re getting so much information, we still need. [00:48:22] The next layer of filter to help us vet out and validate and confirm like our thinking or like our suspicions on things like, am I in the right going down the right path? Is this the right direction? So there’s still a human element that needs to be involved in that buyer journey, and you’re seeing that with these little micro communities inside communities. [00:48:45] Um, and so I’ve. I mean, I love micro communities inside of bigger communities. I’ve started two of them, three of them. So I, it definitely, like, we need still that in person, uh, interaction and I love seeing it coming back in our space. [00:49:04] Erika Irby: I, I was just thinking about ear, the, the previous panel and the, the topic came up about who can assist partners as they transition from that direct to CSP motion. [00:49:15] And I mean, yes, it, I think Microsoft plays a role there, but I think it would behoove Microsoft to invest in these communities and they would enable that change. Yeah, [00:49:26] Erin Figer: yeah, yeah. There is a person inside of Microsoft who has that remit, but she’s like one person, one person trying to do that. I was like, wow. [00:49:36] Okay. Grace, what are you seeing amongst your partners and also your perspective with working with Microsoft? [00:49:42] Reis Barrie: Yeah, yeah. Um. There’s a really good, uh, the frontier study, the work like door work study that they did, um, which talks really heavily about just like in this, you know, post 20, you know, 2020 culture, how like the amount of busyness has just increased in an insane amount and how a, a really strong use case for AI is to buybacks from that time essentially, um, for us to, you know, return back to a, a normal state and I think social creatures, right? [00:50:10] And so, um, in this. I run a fully remote company, which is like a blessing and also like really interesting to try to create a really strong culture within people that are, you know, 13 times zones apart times. Um, and so it’s uh, it’s a really interesting thing and coming together and, um, into an in-person space or a place here or a place where you can actually talk to your customers, talk to, um. [00:50:39] Step away from that, like that busy day to day where like, I, I can’t even fit a 15 minute break in to grab lunch. You know, days like how much, supposed to find 15 minutes to just have a, a casual conversation and these types of events, which I’m sure Vince is cheering back there that we’re talking about this right now. [00:50:57] But the, uh, but these type of events, they let you decompress from that day and they let you kind of just have these really important conversations that, you know, bring us back to just being humans To me. [00:51:10] Erin Figer: And being human and co-selling with each other. And on that note, we’re 44 seconds over. Yeah, we’ll give it back to Vince, [00:51:18] Reis Barrie: but we were plugging Vince’s events, so I think we’re okay. [00:51:21] Vince Menzione: We One more question. We have one more question from, sorry. Oh yeah. [00:51:23] Reis Barrie: It’s [00:51:23] Audience Member: maybe more a, a shared just as we’re talking [00:51:25] Vince Menzione: by the clip, right. [00:51:27] Audience Member: And to compliment everything that you guys have been talking about around co-sell and. Getting ready in line with Microsoft to speak to the customer and speaking. So the signals that we’re going after are on the actual conversations that are happening in the conversation. [00:51:41] So aside from all the planning, which I agree on, we’re building agents to hear what’s going on on the calls with Microsoft, on the calls with customer, and grab those actual signals. Are we answering the questions in the right way? What types of questions are coming back to us that we weren’t able to answer. [00:51:58] Maybe we forgot some information that we planned on and thought about can we signal and provide that feedback to the user, the seller, or whatnot on the call. And so as we’re doing this, ’cause we’re in the communication space, so we have some self-interest here ’cause that’s sort of the future of our business. [00:52:12] But it’s a really interesting opportunity for us to grab these signals to improve how we’re selling with our customers, how our partners are selling with our customers, with Microsoft. It’s just an interesting way with everything that’s going on full circle, we’re trying to complete that sort of sales journey with AI and, and grab those signals and keep getting better all the time. [00:52:32] Erin Figer: Yeah, I love that. And I think it’s like the ongoing balance of people, process and technology and how do you continue to keep the human in the loop? It, as we continue to introduce and evolve AI and use of data in our companies is like continuing to be mindful about the human in the loop. Um, part of that journey. [00:52:54] So thank you all. [00:52:55] Vince Menzione: Very cool. Great conversation. [00:52:56] Erin Figer: Thanks for all the audience engagement. We appreciate it. [00:52:59] Vince Menzione: Co-selling the house, co-selling the house. [00:53:02] Audience Member: Thank you, Vince. [00:53:02] Vince Menzione: Thank you. And I remember that January, 2016. Yes.