Podcasts about Vars

Send us Fan MailSpreuke 29:2 As 'n gelowige die mag oorneem, juig die mense. As slegte mense aan bewind kom, kla die volk. (DB) Dis deesdae moeilik om te weet watter nuus om te glo, nie waar nie? Baie van die inhoud van die media, wat voorheen hoofsaaklik betroubare joernalistiek weerspieël het, het in opruiende propaganda verval. Om dit net erger te maak, word ons gebombardeer deur die sosiale media-algoritmes wat baie mense in ‘n draaikolk van samesweringsteorieë intrek.Tydens die Rwandese volksmoord van 1994 het die media 'n verwoestende rol gespeel in die aanhitsing en versterking van die geweld. Die staatsgesteunde radio, televisie en gedrukte media het haatpropaganda uitgesaai en gedruk. Tutsi's is as "kakkerlakke" bestempel en daar is openlik gesê hulle moet vernietig word.Daardeur is aanvalle gekoördineer, wegkruipplekke onthul en gewone burgers aangemoedig om die vyand dood te maak. Eerder as om inligting te gee, het die media aktief volksmoord aangevuur en woorde in wapens omskep. Mense het die media geglo en daarop gereageer. Dit het byna 'n miljoen lewens in net 100 dae gekos. Dit is wat gebeur wanneer die skrikwekkende krag van propaganda sonder morele beperking gebruik word. Drie millennia gelede het Salomo die volgende geskryf:Spreuke 29:2 As 'n gelowige die mag oorneem, juig die mense. As slegte mense aan bewind kom, kla die volk. (DB)Daar word gesê dat die mense gewoonlik die regerings kry wat hulle verdien. Ek weet nie, maar watter regeringstelsel jy ook al onder leef, wees versigtig; wees baie versigtig oor wie jy ondersteun; wat jy kies om te glo, of te verwerp; en wat jy kies om te sê.Wat is ons plig? Ons werk is om die regverdiges te help om gesag te kry sodat die mense bly kan wees ... nie om blindelings die propaganda wat ons nuus en sosiale media vir ons opdis, te glo en na te boots nie.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 MailPsalm 119:29-32 Keer dat ek leuens vertel en op 'n oneerlike manier leef. Skryf u wet diep in my hart. Doen goed aan my. Ek het gekies om op u pad te stap, dis die pad na die lewe toe. U voorskrifte is soos padwysers; dit wys my hoe om te leef. Here, ek hou vas aan elke woord wat U sê. Moenie dat ek U ooit in die steek laat nie. Ek is gretig om elke dag op u pad te stap, want U maak my lewe vol met u goedheid. (DB) Het jy al ooit soos 'n bedrieër gevoel? Dis nogal ontstellend om te weet dat dié persoon wat mense dink jy is, nie is wie jy werklik is nie! Hulle sal ontnugter wees om te ontdek dat jy ook soms twyfel, dat jy ook donker gedagtes het wat binne-in jou rondmaal.Ferdinand Waldo Demara was gedurende die vorige eeu bekend as die Groot Bedrieër. Hy het homself op ‘n kol voorgedoen as 'n monnik, toe ‘n sielkundige, toe ‘n tronkbewaarder en toe selfs as ‘n chirurg - alles sonder enige kwalifikasies. Tydens die Koreaanse Oorlog het hy groot operasies aan boord van 'n Kanadese oorlogskip uitgevoer deur die vorige aand mediese handboeke te memoriseer.Hy is in die openbaar geprys as 'n heldhaftige dokter wat lewens red. Maar agter die skerms was dit alles 'n leuen. Hy het gesê hy wou "die mensdom dien", maar hy het instellings en individue voortdurend mislei en dikwels lewens in gevaar gestel. Sy sjarme het 'n diep agterbaksheid bedek. Sy uiterlike beeld was dié van eerbaarheid; hy het so edel en bekwaam voorgekom, maar dit was alles op bedrog gebou. Kyk wat bid die psalmis in: Psalm 119:29-32 Keer dat ek leuens vertel en op 'n oneerlike manier leef. Skryf u wet diep in my hart. Doen goed aan my. Ek het gekies om op u pad te stap, dis die pad na die lewe toe. U voorskrifte is soos padwysers; dit wys my hoe om te leef. Here, ek hou vas aan elke woord wat U sê. Moenie dat ek U ooit in die steek laat nie. Ek is gretig om elke dag op u pad te stap, want U maak my lewe vol met u goedheid. (DB)"Om reëls te volg" is nie deesdae gewild nie, nè? Maar hoe meer jy die Woord van God jou laat beïnvloed; hoe meer jy toelaat dat sy goedheid jou gids is; hoe minder van 'n bedrieër word jy. Jy ontwikkel ‘n dors om jou Bybel te lees en jy ontwikkel die begeerte om meer en meer soos Jesus te word.Moenie 'n bedrieër wees nie.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 MailMatteus 16:13-16 Toe Jesus in die streke van Sesarea-Filippi kom, het Hy vir sy dissipels gevra: “Wie, sê die mense, is die Seun van die mens?” Hulle antwoord: “Party sê Johannes die Doper, party Elia, party Jeremia of een van die profete.” “Maar julle,” het Hy gevra, “wie, sê julle, is Ek?” Simon Petrus het geantwoord: “U is die Christus, die Seun van die lewende God.” Ons sien deesdae hoe oneerlike en onbetroubare verslaggewers dikwels bekende mense se karakters in die media wanvoorstel. Ons word blootgestel aan glanspersone se openbare beeld. Poets hulle sy beeld, of bestempel hulle hom as die grootste skarminkel bekend? Maar dan is daar die werklike persoon, wat waarskynlik net ‘n gewone mens soos ek en jy is. Dit is geensins 'n nuwe probleem nie. Jesus het op sy dag, ‘n groot opskudding veroorsaak. Mense was verward. Hulle kon nie vir hulself besluit wie Hy werklik was nie.Matteus 16:13-16 Toe Jesus in die streke van Sesarea-Filippi kom, het Hy vir sy dissipels gevra: “Wie, sê die mense, is die Seun van die mens?” Hulle antwoord: “Party sê Johannes die Doper, party Elia, party Jeremia of een van die profete.” “Maar julle,” het Hy gevra, “wie, sê julle, is Ek?” Simon Petrus het geantwoord: “U is die Christus, die Seun van die lewende God.”Sesarea Filippi was 'n heidense streek bekend vir sy aanbidding van 'n hele aantal gode. Dit gee ons konteks vir die agterdog van die mense. Hulle was gewoond aan die afgode en die heidense Romeinse heerskappy rondom hulle. Die Jode het ‘n Messias verwag. Hulle ‘n profeet verwag, wat hulle uit hulle vreeslike omstandighede gaan bevry. Ander mense het Jesus gesien as ‘n opstoker; ander as ‘n wonderwerker. Maar Jesus vra sy dissipels vir hulle persoonlike oortuigings.Wanneer Petrus sonder huiwering sê - “U is die Christus, die Seun van die lewende God”- is dit nie ‘n bloot intellektuele antwoord nie. Soos Jesus self later bevestig, is dit ‘n Gees-geopenbaarde waarheid. Ware geloof is 'n geskenk en 'n openbaring. In vandag se kultuur van botsende opinies en valse gode in ‘n wêreld van vervalle moraliteit en steeds groeiende verdeeldheid, word ware geloof gebou op hierdie belydenis: dat Jesus die Verlosser van die wêreld is. Die enigste Verlosser van die wêreld is.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 MailPsalm 56:9,10 U het my ellende raakgesien. U het my trane opgevang. U het dit opgeskryf in u boek. Die dag dat ek na U roep om hulp, val my vyande terug. Dat God aan my kant is, weet ek beslis. (NLV) Volgens opnames bid tussen die helfte en driekwart van alle mense in tye van persoonlike krisis - of hulle nou gelowiges is of nie. Wat sê dit vir jou?Gebed is vir my goud werd. Ek het al self te veel kragtige antwoorde op gebed gehad, om te wag totdat ek 'n krisis beleef, voordat ek bid - om nie eens te praat van die vrede en vreugde wat ek ervaar wanneer ek met die Here praat nie.Van tyd tot tyd beleef ons almal krisisse wat ons in ons broek laat bewe; wat ons harte breek en bitter trane laat stort. Maar te midde van teëspoed, het ek en so baie ander mense wat werklik ons vertroue in Jesus gestel het, gevind, dat ons te midde van die dreigende storm 'n wonderlike vrede beleef. Ons word oorweldig met die vaste wete dat God met ons is. Hier is Dawid se gebed in:Psalm 56:9,10 U het my ellende raakgesien. U het my trane opgevang. U het dit opgeskryf in u boek. Die dag dat ek na U roep om hulp, val my vyande terug. Dat God aan my kant is, weet ek beslis. (NLV)Die bekende prediker, Charles Spurgeon, het diep lyding en depressie geken, en tog het hy vurig aan God vasgeklou: “Ek het geleer,” het hy gesê, “om die golf te soen wat my teen die Rots van die Eeue gooi.” Ons vertaal dit as “kus die roede.” Dit beteken om pynlike beproewinge (die golwe) te omhels, want dit dwing jou om op Christus (die Rots van die Eeue) te vertrou, en krag in God te vind, eerder as om omstandighede te weerstaan.Spurgeon ontken nie die golf nie - die pyn en die trane nie -maar hy sien in daardie einste lyding die Hand van 'n getroue God wat Hom nader trek. Dit maak nie saak wat jou omstandighede, jou trane, en jou pyn is nie … God is met 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

Send us Fan MailPsalm 112:4-5 Vir die opregte skyn die ligte midde van die duisternis. Hy is genadig, barmhartig en getrou. Dit gaan goed met die mens wat vrygewig is en uitleen, wat sy sake in billikheid bedryf. (NLV) Vind jy ook dat mense al hoe meer gewetenloos word? Hoe gereeld sien jy groot finansieringsinstellings, soos banke, wat hulself met warm, gesinsvriendelike advertensies uitbeeld om nuwe kliënte te lok? Maar wat gebeur, die eerste keer wat iemand sukkel om hul terugbetalings op hul huis te maak? Hulle verkoop die huis onder hulle uit. En ons weet, dis nie net die banke wat skuldig is nie.Kom ons praat van 'n groot gewetenlose bedryf waar die slim ouens al die slenters en slagysters ken om die gewone ou mee te verlei. Rentekoerse is baie hoog, kontrakte is noukeurig en waterdig opgestel; en pasop - die fynskrif is waar hulle werklike wins lê.Maar dan is daar een firma wat anders werk. Hulle verhoog nie rentekoerse op kwesbare kliënte se lenings nie. Hulle plaas nie onnodige druk op die klein outjie nie. In plaas daarvan, bied hulle billike terme. Hulle gee genade as dit moet, en ly af en toe self verlies. Hulle kliënte vertrou hulle.Die ander ouens in die bedryf lag hulle uit en sê: Kyk maar, sulke ouens speel voor jy jou oë kan uitvee, bankrot. Maar dan kom die gevreesde ineenstorting. Markte val. Krediet droog op. Kliënte kan nie hulle verpligtinge nakom nie. En die bloedsuiers? Hulle is paniekerig. Elkeen is besig om sy eie bas te red – hulle dagvaar; hulle spook; hulle stort in duie.Maar hier is die verrassing - daardie een firma na wie daar so minagtend gekyk is! Die een wat genade betoon het! Dis die een na wie kliënte hardloop. Want in die donker onthou mense wie die lig gehad het.Psalm 112:4-5 Vir die opregte skyn die lig te midde van die duisternis. Hy is genadig, barmhartig en getrou. Dit gaan goed met die mens wat vrygewig is en uitleen, wat sy sake in billikheid bedryf. (NLV)Ja, ons weet dat dinge soms moeilik is. En die versoeking is altyd daar om eerste jou eie nes reg te skrop; om daardie maklike wit leuen te vertel. Hoekom nie? Wie gaan dit agterkom?Maar wat ook al jou omstandighede is, wat ook al jou rol is, bestuur jou sake met integriteit, want ... Dit gaan goed met die mens wat vrygewig is en uitleen, wat sy sake in billikheid bedryf.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 MailJakobus 1:19-20 My geliefde broers en susters, wees altyd gou om te luister, nie te gou om te praat nie, en nie te gou om kwaad te word nie. As jy kwaad is, kan jy nie doen wat God wil hê. (NLV) Terwyl daar soveel verdeeldheid in die samelewing is, voel jy soms dat almal praat, maar niemand luister nie. En, kom ons vra mekaar om eerlik te wees: doen jy nie dikwels dieselfde ding nie? Die enigste rede waarom ons stilbly, is net om te dink aan wat om volgende te sê, nie om te luister nie, en ook nie om te probeer verstaan wat die ander persoon sê nie. Pleit jy skuldig?Jane Addams was gedurende die 19de en vroeë 20ste eeue 'n pionier van sosiale hervorming in Chicago. Sy het haar daarop toegespits om brûe tussen die rykes en die armes te bou. In 'n tyd van intense arbeidsonrus en klassekonflik het sy besluit om nie dadelik kant te kies nie. In plaas daarvan het sy saam met industriële werkers en welgestelde sakeleiers gesit en aandagtig na albei groepe se standpunte geluister, selfs toe beide kante haar wantrou het.Sy het geglo dat wanneer ‘n mens ernstig en opreg luister, jy die siklusse van geweld en wraakgevoelens kon breek. Alhoewel sy nie al die geweld kon stop nie, het haar benadering genesing en blywende verandering in plaaslike gemeenskappe gebring. Sy het 'n vredemaker geword deur stadig te wees om te praat en vinnig om te luister, en mense se opinie en hul menswaardigheid te respekteer.Jakobus 1:19 - 20 My geliefde broers en susters, wees altyd gou om te luister, nie te gou om te praat nie, en nie te gou om kwaad te word nie. As jy kwaad is, kan jy nie doen wat God wil hê. (NLV)‘n Mens hoef nie geniaal wees om dit te verstaan nie, nè? Soos die kliniese sielkundige en skrywer, dr. Henry Cloud, dit stel: soveel konflik verdwyn wanneer iemand voel dat hy “gehoor” word. Julle moet ander mense 'n kans gee om te sê wat hulle op die hart het. Luister rustig na hulle sonder om hulle te wil doodpraat, sodat die storm stilgemaak kan word voordat dit selfs begin.Wees gou om te luister, stadig om te praat en stadig om toornig te word. Moenie jou vererg nie, want as jy jou humeur verloor, kan jy mos nie meer daarop ingestel wees om te doen wat God wil hê nie!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 MailJakobus 3:16-17 want waar jaloesie en selfsugtige ambisie is, dáár sal jy ook wanorde en allerhande gemene dade kry. Maar die wysheid wat van Bo kom, is in die eerste plek suiwer. Verder is dit vredeliewend, inskiklik, bedagsaam. Dit is bereid om ontferming te betoon, en het goeie gevolge. Dit diskrimineer nooit en is altyd opreg. (NLV) Wat is jou definisie van wysheid? Iemand wat jy ontmoet, kan ongelooflik slim en suksesvol wees, maar jy kyk net een keer na hom en binne ongeveer drie sekondes kom jy tot die gevolgtrekking dat jy hom nooit as "wys" sou bestempel nie. In die 1950's en vroeë 60's het Dag Hammarskjöld, ‘n Sweedse diplomaat, as die Sekretaris-Generaal van die Verenigde Nasies gedien. In 'n wêreld vol Koue Oorlog-spanning, jaloesie en politieke valsheid, het Hammarskjöld stilweg 'n ander soort leierskap gehad. Hy was gekenmerk deur nederigheid, vaste morele beginsels en 'n diep persoonlike geloof in God.Sy lewe is deur tye van afsondering, gebed en diens, eerder as ambisie of magsvertoon, gekenmerk. Sy joernaal, Markings, het 'n lewe onthul wat nie deur ego nie, maar deur oorgawe, gekenmerk is.Terwyl sy tydgenote na politieke mag gehunker het, het hy vrede begeer - en hy is bestempel as ‘n nederige krag vir geregtigheid en versoening. Hy is, op ‘n missie om ‘n wapenstilstand in die Kongo te onderhandel, in 'n geheimsinnige vliegtuigongeluk dood. Hy het 'n bonatuurlike, goddelike soort wysheid gehad. Na sy dood is hy met ‘n Nobel Vredesprys geëer en bestempel as die grootste staatsman van die vorige eeu.Jakobus 3:16-17 want waar jaloesie en selfsugtige ambisie is, dáár sal jy ook wanorde en allerhande gemene dade kry. Maar die wysheid wat van Bo kom, is in die eerste plek suiwer. Verder is dit vredeliewend, inskiklik, bedagsaam. Dit is bereid om ontferming te betoon, en het goeie gevolge. Dit diskrimineer nooit en is altyd opreg. (NLV)My vriend, ware wysheid word bewys deur hoe jy leef, nie wat jy bereik nie. Wysheid is om te weet hoe om God se waarheid toe te pas en hoe om daardie waarheid uit te leef. En mense is honger daarvoor. Wees wys; bonatuurlik wys ... goddelik wys.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 2:3-6 indien jy na insig in die alledaagse lewe smag en meer kennis begeer oor hoe om te leef, indien jy heeltyd hierna soek soos 'n mens na kosbare silwer of na skatte soek, sal jy die Here se liefde begin verstaan. Jy sal weet hoe om wys en gelukkig te leef. Onthou egter net een saak: wysheid om reg te leef kom net van die Here af. Kennis en insig is net by Hom te kry. (DB) Wanneer ons by die punt kom waar ons glo dat ons alles weet, is daar een ding seker: ons is regtig te onnosel om te weet wat ons nie weet nie! Ons is so verblind deur ons eie opgeblase sin van ons eie slimmigheid, dat ons blind is vir die feit dat ons minder as niks weet nie. En kom ons wees eerlik, ons is almal al deur so ‘n vernederende proses.Die meeste van ons het daardie een ding waarin ons regtig uitblink; daardie een ding waarin ons beter is as die meeste mense rondom ons. Miskien is jy een van daardie mense wat, anders as ek, intuïtief aanvoel hoe ander voel? Dit is dus maklik vir jou om minagtend na iemand anders te kyk wat nie dieselfde talent as jy het nie en te dink: Wat is fout met hom? Ek is soveel beter as hy!Ek kan so vinnig soos die wind skryf. Ek kan komplekse idees bymekaarbring en dit op 'n eenvoudige maar boeiende manier verduidelik. Hoe maklik is dit dan nie vir my, om met my neus in die lug na ander te kyk wat sukkel om vlot te skryf?Wanneer ons so optree, vertroebel ons trots ons oordeel en ons weet mos hoogmoed kom tot ‘n val. So, hier is God se alternatief:Spreuke 2:3-6 ...indien jy na insig in die alledaagse lewe smag en meer kennis begeer oor hoe om te leef, indien jy heeltyd hierna soek soos 'n mens na kosbare silwer of na skatte soek, sal jy die Here se liefde begin verstaan. Jy sal weet hoe om wys en gelukkig te leef. Onthou egter net een saak: wysheid om reg te leef kom net van die Here af. Kennis en insig is net by Hom te kry. (DB)Slim mense gee slim antwoorde, maar wyse mense vra slim vrae. Hulle is nederig, hulle is leerbaar, en dit is presies wat God van ons verwag. Vra Hom om vir jou kennis en wysheid te gee.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 3:5-8 Vertrou volkome op die Here en moenie op jou eie insigte staatmaak nie. Ken Hom in alles wat jy doen en Hy sal jou die regte pad laat loop. Moenie dink jy het die wysheid in pag nie, dien die Here en vermy wat sleg is: dit is die geneesmiddel vir jou, die verkwikking vir jou liggaam. Selfontdekking is deesdae baie gewild. Ek moet myself ken en nie skaam wees oor wie ek werklik is nie. Ja, dis reg... Kyk om jou rond. Hoe goed werk al daardie introspeksie vir ons in hierdie toenemend selfbehepte, narsistiese wêreld waarin ons leef?Die Griekse filosoof, Aristoteles, het beweer dat om jouself te ken, die begin van alle wysheid is. Inderdaad! Die bekende leuse "Ken jouself" is in die Tempel van Apollo in Delphi gegraveer. Sokrates en Plato was ook groot aanhangers van hierdie denkpatroon.So, wat het daardie antieke geskiedenis vandag met ons te doen? Wel, daar is 'n multi-miljard dollar, globale selfhelpbedryf wat gewortel is in hierdie idee van selfontdekking; in die idee dat jy jou eie oplossing is; dat jy reeds alles wat jy nodig het, binne-in jou het - jy hoef dit net te ontsluit. Eindelose gereedskap, boeke, kursusse en afrigting is alles ontwerp om jou te help om "jou ware self te ontdek."Maar hoe dieper jy in hierdie bodemlose put van introspeksie afdaal, hoe dieper sink jy in subjektiewe selfgesentreerdheid. Sien jy ook hoe dit alles om die eie-ek draai?God se plan is net mooi die teenoorgestelde:Spreuke 3:5-8 Vertrou volkome op die Here en moenie op jou eie insigte staatmaak nie. Ken Hom in alles wat jy doen en Hy sal jou die regte pad laat loop. Moenie dink jy het die wysheid in pag nie, dien die Here en vermy wat sleg is: dit is die geneesmiddel vir jou, die verkwikking vir jou liggaam.Nou-ja, dis korrek om selfbewus te wees, maar ek praat van mense wat oorboord gaan; mense wat glo dat ware wysheid bekom word deur na binne te kyk. Nee, my vriend, wysheid kom van om op te kyk. Vertrou volkome op die Here en moenie op jou eie insigte staatmaak nie. Ken Hom in alles wat jy doen en Hy sal jou die regte pad laat loop.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 MailDaniël 3:17-18 Ons het ons God vir wie ons dien. Hy het die mag om ons te red uit die brandende oond, en Hy sal ons ook red uit u mag. Selfs as Hy dit nie doen nie, moet u weet dat ons u god nie sal dien nie, die goue beeld wat u laat oprig het, nie sal aanbid nie.” In tye van uiterse teëspoed moet ons elkeen besluit: Sal ek aanhou om op God te vertrou ... of moet ek maar opgee? En, laat ons dit duidelik stel, dis een van die moeilikste besluite wat jy ooit sal moet neem. Die skrywer, ‘n opregte gelowige, John White, vertel hoe hy, sy vrou en baba seuntjie, van die VSA na Bolivia moes vlieg. Hy moes, as gevolg van ander verpligtinge, ‘n later vlug haal. Hy het 'n nare voorgevoel gehad dat sy gesin tydens die vlug as gevolg van ‘n vliegtuigongeluk gaan sterf; maar hy het dit nie met sy vrou bespreek nie. Nadat sy gesin opgestyg het, het hy gevoelens van vrees, skaamte, skuld en naarheid ervaar. Bewend het hy gebid. En God het hom geantwoord deur te vra: Wat is fout? Kan jy my nie vertrou nie? Ja, ek sal U vertrou as U hulle veilig aan my teruggee.En as ek hulle nie teruggee nie, sal jy ophou om my te vertrou? Kan jy hulle nie aan my toevertrou in die dood sowel as die lewe nie?In geloof het White geantwoord: Ek sal u wil doen; wat dit vir my, of vir hulle, ook al mag kos. Ek sal U vertrou. Hulle vliegtuig het inderdaad neergestort en almal aan boord is dood. Maar sy vrou het ook 'n ongerustheid in haar hart gehad en besluit om haar vlug te onderbreek. Sy was nie op die laaste been van die vlug aan boord toe die tragedie plaasgevind het nie. Na die tyd het John gesê: Ek sou getreur het indien hulle dood was. Maar ek sou nie spyt gewees het oor my besluit om ten volle op Christus te vertrou nie.Kyk wat Sadrag, Mesag en Abednego vir koning Nebukadnesar gesê het:Daniël 3:17-18 Ons het ons God vir wie ons dien. Hy het die mag om ons te red uit die brandende oond, en Hy sal ons ook red uit u mag. Selfs as Hy dit nie doen nie, moet u weet dat ons u god nie sal dien nie, die goue beeld wat u laat oprig het, nie sal aanbid nie.My vriend, vertrou op God .. in jou donkerste uur; selfs al hang die uitkoms in die weegskaal; selfs al gebeur die ergste. Vertrou op God. 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 MailJesaja 43:2 As jy deur water moet gaan, is Ek by jou, deur riviere, hulle sal jou nie wegspoel nie; as jy deur vuur moet gaan, sal dit jou nie skroei nie die vlamme sal jou nie brand nie, Met my werk by Christianityworks, bring ek baie tyd op vliegtuie deur. En wanneer daardie groot passasiersstralers op die aanloopbaan afrol om gereed te maak om te vertrek, verbaas dit my altyd hoe die loodse hulle in die lug kry. Met my gereelde vlugte in gedagte, kan jy jou voorstel dat ek nogal ontsteld was om te lees dat kommersiële stralers gemiddeld een keer per jaar deur weerlig getref word. Sjoe!Ja, dis werklik kommerwekkend om daaraan te dink wanneer jy en 'n paar honderd ander mense, op 12 000 meter in die middel van nêrens, deur die lug vlieg. Maar hier is die goeie nuus:Wanneer 'n vliegtuig deur weerlig getref word, sterf mense nie, want die vliegtuig is ontwerp om dit te hanteer. Die buitenste laag van die vliegtuig word van goeie geleiers, soos aluminium gemaak, wat die elektriese lading toelaat om óm die buitekant te beweeg en, gewoonlik deur die stert, veilig weg te vloei. Sensitiewe elektronika word afgeskerm en brandstofstelsels word ook vir veiligheidsredes beskerm. Vliegtuie word natuurlik gereeld getoets om hulle veilig te hou. Weerlig wat die vliegtuig tref, is skouspelagtig om te sien, maar dit is selde gevaarlik en dit gebeur meestal sonder dat die passasiers dit eers agterkom. En as ingenieurs sulke besondere dinge soos vliegtuie kan ontwerp, dan kan jy mos dink dat God 'n plan sal hê vir situasies waar die storms van die lewe ons tref! Kyk wat sê Hy in:Jesaja 43:2 As jy deur water moet gaan, is Ek by jou, deur riviere, hulle sal jou nie wegspoel nie; as jy deur vuur moet gaan, sal dit jou nie skroei nie die vlamme sal jou nie brand nie,Niemand van ons is onsterflik nie; nie een van ons nie. Maar deur elke beproewing, deur elke storm, deur elke vloed, deur elke vuur ... is God by ons totdat Hy ons veilig huis toe bring. Moenie bekommerd wees nie, moenie vrees nie, want God is by jou waar jy ook al mag gaan!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 MailPsalm 139:13-14 U self het my diepste wese gemaak, my in die moederskoot gevorm. Ek loof U omdat U my so besonder wonderlik gemaak het. U werke is wonderbaar, ek weet dit alte goed! (NLV) Ek wonder of ons ooit werklik besef hoeveel van die dinge wat ons as vanselfsprekend aanvaar, eintlik wonderwerke is wat elke minuut van elke dag gebeur. Dinge wat, as ons werklik daaroor nadink, nie slegs die manier waarop ons die wêreld sien nie, maar ook die wyse waarop ons onsself sien, sal verander.So, kom ons kyk na jou. Het jy geweet dat jy 99.999% leë ruimte is? Wag, laat ek verduidelik: Atome bestaan uit 'n uiters klein, digte kern en word omring deur ‘n relatief groot volume elektrone, wat beteken materie is eintlik leë ruimte. As al die leë spasie in die atome van 'n menslike liggaam verwyder sou word, sou die oorblywende materie omtrent so groot soos 'n stoffie wees, hoewel dit steeds sy volle massa behou. Die leë spasie beteken nie die liggaam is "niks" nie; dit is 'n funksie van elektromagnetiese kragte en kwantummeganika, nie vaste materie nie. So ja, maak dit sin? Vaste materie is meestal glad nie solied nie. Wat ons as "solied" ervaar, is eintlik die gevolg van onsigbare kragte, nie fisiese kontak nie.Dus bestaan ek en jy amper geheel en al uit leë ruimte. Ongelooflik nè? Kyk hoe die psalmis die Here loof in: Psalm 139:13-14 U self het my diepste wese gemaak, my in die moederskoot gevorm. Ek loof U omdat U my so besonder wonderlik gemaak het. U werke is wonderbaar, ek weet dit alte goed! (NLV)Wanneer jy terugstaan en in die spieël na jouself kyk, is dit absoluut wonderlik hoe God jou met die hand gemaak het; hoe kompleks, hoe ingewikkeld, hoe wonderlik jy eintlik is … veral wanneer jy besef dat jy 99.999% leë ruimte is!Soos Hans Christian Anderson, die skrywer van die sprokies wat ons as kinders gelees het, opgemerk het: Die hele wêreld is 'n reeks wonderwerke. Maar ons het so gewoond geraak daaraan dat ons dit gewone dinge noem.So, moet asseblief nooit vergeet dat jy die sprekende voorbeeld van ‘n wonderwerk is nie; want jy is op 'n baie gekompliseerde en wonderbaarlike manier gemaak.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 MailGoeiemôre aan al ons VARS-vriende. Ek is Jokkie Gauché en hier is VARSVANDAG se Eerste Nuusbrief vir die Junie. Ag nee, hier kom dit! Hulle vra seker vir geld...  Vandag is 'n bietjie anders. Ons wil jou vandag uitnooi na 'n dieper vennootskap met die VARS-familie — 'n vennootskap waar jou gebede, bemoediging en ondersteuning help om die hoop van Jesus elke dag oor die luggolwe te dra. Hierdie bediening word nie deur een stem alleen gebou nie.  In 1 Korintiërs 3:6-7 lees ons:Ek het geplant, Apollos het natgegooi, maar dit is God wat laat groei het. Elkeen van ons het 'n rol om te speel. Sommige plant, sommige gooi nat, sommige bid, sommige bemoedig, en sommige gee - maar uiteindelik is dit God wat die transformasie in mense se harte teweegbring. Deur die radio en media het ons die voorreg om die Evangelie te deel met mense wat dalk nooit by 'n kerk sal instap nie, maar wat die hoop, bemoediging en waarheid van God se Woord desperaat nodig het. Ons het onlangs hierdie boodskap van 'n lojale luisteraar ontvang: “Ek het my werk verloor en ontvang net 'n pensioen. Ek kan nie met 'n finansiële bydrae help nie, maar ek sal voortgaan om te bid vir seën en uitbreiding van VARS.”  Wat 'n pragtige herinnering dat hierdie vennootskap nie slegs finansieel gemeet word nie. Gebed is kragtig. Bemoediging maak ‘n verskil. Getrouheid is deurslaggewend. Ons is opgewonde om Bianca De Sousa by die VARS-familie te verwelkom. Bianca sluit by ons aan om ons verhoudings met radiostasies uit te bou en nog meer luisteraars met Jesus se boodskap te bereik. Bid asseblief saam vir die Here Jesus se wysheid, krag en guns oor haar lewe en hierdie nuwe taak. Wil Jy 'n Vennoot van VARS Word? As die Here dit op jou hart lê om die bediening finansieel te ondersteun; sal jou bydrae ons help om voort te gaan om inspirerende, praktiese Bybelwaarhede oor die luggolwe te deel. Ons bankbesonderhede verskyn hieronder. Ons wil jou veral bedank vir jou getroue gebede en bemoediging. Dit is 'n voorreg om hierdie reis saam met jou aan te pak. Saam dra ons die hoop van Jesus oor die luggolwe, een luisteraar op 'n slag. Seënwense en mooi loopVan 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 Mail1 Petrus 4:10 God het aan elkeen van julle uitsonderlike talente gegee. Moenie dink dit is julle wat so goed is nie. Nee, dit is God wat eintlik so goed vir julle is. Daarom moet julle julle talente gebruik om ander te help. (DB) Weet jy hoekom ek van jou hou? Ek is mal oor die feit dat jy so anders as ek is. Jou motivering is heeltemal anders en jy het ander vermoëns wat in jou DNS ingebed is. Jy het ook unieke ervarings deurgemaak, wat jou gevorm het. Ongelukkig is daar baie mense wat hul gawes en hul vermoëns met ander vergelyk en hulself as minderwaardig beskou. Maar dis 'n groot fout!Tydens die Kubaanse Missielkrisis van 1962, was Vasily Arkhipov tweede in bevel op 'n Sowjet-duikboot gewapen met kernwapens. Omdat hulle geglo het dat die oorlog reeds uitgebreek het, het die bemanning alles gereed gekry om ‘n kernwapen te lanseer. Twee senior offisiere het dit goedgekeur - maar die Sowjet-protokol het drie vereis. Arkhipov was die enigste een wat geweier het. Hy het daarop aangedring om na die oppervlak te kom en op bevele te wag.Hy was nie die offisier met die hoogste rang aan boord nie, ook nie 'n politikus of wetenskaplike nie - net 'n gedissiplineerde vlootoffisier met die morele moed van sy oortuiging en die vermoë om kalm te bly onder druk. Sy selfbeheersing, wat deur sommige mense as ‘n swakheid beskou is en deur sy mede offisiere as vrees bestempel is, het die wêreld van vernietiging gered.1 Petrus 4:10 God het aan elkeen van julle uitsonderlike talente gegee. Moenie dink dit is julle wat so goed is nie. Nee, dit is God wat eintlik so goed vir julle is. Daarom moet julle julle talente gebruik om ander te help. (DB)Kom ons sê jy is Vasily in daardie duikboot. Die spanning loop hoog. Jou kaptein beveel jou om te gehoorsaam. Hoe belangrik beskou jy jou vermoë om op daardie oomblik kalm te bly? Jy het natuurlike gawes en vermoëns ontvang wat diegene rondom jou nie het nie. En die taak wat God jou gegee het, is om dit te gebruik; al is dit oënskynlik onbeduidend vir jou. Ons het jou nodig. Reik uit en gee dít, wat jy ontvang het, asseblief aan na die volgende persoon!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 MailHebreërs 9:27-28 'n Mens is bestem om net een maal te sterf, en daarna kom die oordeel. So is Christus ook net een maal geoffer om die sondes van baie weg te neem. As Hy die tweede keer verskyn, kom Hy nie in verband met sonde nie, maar om verlossing te bring vir dié wat Hom verwag. Hoe voel jy oor die bonatuurlike dimensie van die lewe? Bestaan daar so iets? Of is dit net 'n klomp outydse bygelowe, 'n onwelkome oorblyfsel van die Middeleeue? Wat dink jy?Wanneer ons na ons lewens kyk; lyk ons almal maar net na menslike wesens: Ons word gebore, ons word groot, ons gaan skool toe, ons doen wat ons nou doen, en eendag ... sal ons lewens op hierdie aarde tot 'n einde kom. Dis hoe dit gaan...Soos ons grootword, kom ons in aanraking met verskillende invloede. Kan jy dit as bonatuurlik bestempel? Ek dink nie so nie. Natuurlik het ons elkeen 'n morele raamwerk nodig waarvolgens ons kan leef ... sommige mense kies sekulêre humanisme, Boeddhisme, Islam, Sjinto ... en 'n hele paar mense kies Christenskap.Maar ons weet dat Christenskap nie net 'n morele raamwerk is om saam met die ander oor te debatteer nie. In sy kern gaan dit geheel en al oor ‘n bonatuurlike verlossing.Hebreërs 9:27-28 'n Mens is bestem om net een maal te sterf, en daarna kom die oordeel. So is Christus ook net een maal geoffer om die sondes van baie weg te neem. As Hy die tweede keer verskyn, kom Hy nie in verband met sonde nie, maar om verlossing te bring vir dié wat Hom verwag.Jesus is nie bloot 'n wyse ou profeet met goeie sedes nie. Hy is die Seun van God wat aan 'n kruis gesterf het om die prys vir ons sonde te betaal, sodat ons deur God vergewe kan word. En geen hoeveelheid goeie sedes sal jou ooit in die hemel kry nie. Die hemel is immers 'n bonatuurlike ryk wat 'n bonatuurlike sleutel vereis. Jesus is die sleutel.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 MailLukas 24:30-32 Terwyl Hy saam met hulle aan tafel was, neem Hy die brood, vra die seën, breek dit en gee dit vir hulle. Toe gaan hulle oë oop, en hulle het Hom herken, maar Hy het uit hulle gesig verdwyn. Hulle sê toe vir mekaar: “Het ons hart nie warm geword toe Hy op die pad met ons gepraat en vir ons die Skrif uitgelê het nie?” Ons verhoudings met ons medemens het ‘n ontsaglike groot invloed op ons karaktervorming. Opbouende verhoudings help ons om in ons alledaagse handel en wandel die fundamentele waarhede van die lewe te ontdek. Ons leer om die realiteite; die druk en ook die beproewinge van die lewe te hanteer.Sophie Scholl was ‘n lid van ‘n Nazi Jeugbeweging. Sy, haar broer Hans, en nog studente het op ‘n dag die negatiewe sy van Hitler se propaganda begin insien en weggebreek van die Nazi's. Hulle het die Bybel en die werke van Christelike denkers soos Augustinus en Kierkegaard saam bestudeer. Hulle het Jesus ontmoet en die waarheid met mekaar gedeel. Hulle het besef dat die waarheid, selfs al vra dit ‘n hoë prys, uitgeleef moet word.Haar hegte band met haar broer en vriende het haar die moed gegee om by die weerstandsbeweging aan te sluit. Dit het tot haar teregstelling op 21-jarige ouderdom, gelei. Sophie se ontdekking van waarheid was nie in isolasie gevorm nie, maar in verhoudings - menslik en goddelik.Net ná Jesus se kruisiging en opstanding, het twee dissipels langs die pad na Emmaus geloop en die traumatiese gebeure van die Pasgafees bespreek. Toe Jesus langs hulle kom loop het, het hulle Hom nie herken het nie, want Hy was die laaste persoon wat hulle verwag het. Maar met etenstyd ...Lukas 24:30-32 Terwyl Hy saam met hulle aan tafel was, neem Hy die brood, vra die seën, breek dit en gee dit vir hulle. Toe gaan hulle oë oop, en hulle het Hom herken, maar Hy het uit hulle gesig verdwyn. Hulle sê toe vir mekaar: “Het ons hart nie warm geword toe Hy op die pad met ons gepraat en vir ons die Skrif uitgelê het nie?”Daar is niks - absoluut niks - soos die ervaring om langs die pad van die lewe, 'n persoonlike ontmoeting met Jesus Christus te hê nie. Dit sal jou oë vir die waarheid oopmaak. Niks vergelyk daarmee nie! 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

I kväll har vi en bred palett med filmer åt er. Och det är hela 5 stycken. Thomas har varit på bio på Filmstaden Bergakungen i Göteborg och kanske har sett årets bästa skräckfilm med Obsession. Han verkar helt besatt i den. :-) Vi har sett den svenska feelgoodfilmen Je m'appelle Agneta med Eva Melander och Claes Månsson. En väldigt trevlig och hjärtevärmade film på den franska landsbygden. Tomas har spanat in ännu mer feelgood med filmen Remarkably Bright Creatures där en bläckfisk förändrar världen för ett antal utvalda människor. Och så har vi sett när tv-serien Jack Ryan med John Krasinsky har blivit film. Det bjuds på en riktigt actionstänkare i Jack Ryan : Ghost Wars. Thomas har också tittat på ytterliggare en uppföljare i Scream-serien. Ghostface härjar loss för 7:e gången i SCREAM 7. Där har ni kvällens meny. Varsågoda. Nu åker vi!

Send us Fan Mail1 Johannes 2:15-17 Moenie die sondige wêreld en die dinge van die wêreld liefhê nie. As iemand die wêreld liefhet, is die Vader se liefde nie in hom nie. Die wêreldse dinge – alles wat die sondige mens begeer, alles wat sy oë sien en begeer, al sy gesteldheid op besit – kom nie van die Vader nie, maar uit die wêreld. En die wêreld met sy verleidelike dinge gaan verby, maar wie die wil van God doen, bly ewig lewe. Dit is baie maklik om so betrokke te raak in die kultuur waarin ons leef, en die sosiale en ekonomiese gebeure van die dag; dat ons uiteindelik glo dat dinge nog altyd so was, en boonop altyd so sal wees. Tog het hele beskawings, deur die geskiedenis gekom en gegaan. Die mees gevorderde, die magtigste koninkryke ... het verdwyn en net ruïnes agtergelaat.In sy groot werk: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire het Edward Gibbon beweer dat die agteruitgang van Rome die natuurlike en onvermydelike gevolg van trots en ‘n illusie van grootsheid was. Te veel voorspoed het hulle aandag op die verkeerde dinge laat vestig en die belangrike instandhoudingswerk is so afgeskeep dat dit tot verval gelei het. En net daar het hierdie ontsaglike groot ryk so agteruitgegaan dat dit ineengestort het.Dekadensie lei tot agteruitgang, agteruitgang tot verval, en verval lei uiteindelik tot vernietiging. Kyk om jou na die wêreld vandag. Wat sien jy? En in watter mate het jy jouself oortuig dat dit altyd so sal wees? 1 Johannes 2:15-17 Moenie die sondige wêreld en die dinge van die wêreld liefhê nie. As iemand die wêreld liefhet, is die Vader se liefde nie in hom nie. Die wêreldse dinge – alles wat die sondige mens begeer, alles wat sy oë sien en begeer, al sy gesteldheid op besit – kom nie van die Vader nie, maar uit die wêreld. En die wêreld met sy verleidelike dinge gaan verby, maar wie die wil van God doen, bly ewig lewe.God is ewig. Die wêreld is nie. Alles wat vandag so aanloklik en verleidelik lyk; al die begeerlike dinge, gaan verby - maar hy wat die wil van God doen, bly vir ewig...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 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. 

Send us Fan MailMatteus 13:44 “Met die koninkryk van die hemel gaan dit soos met 'n skat wat in 'n saailand onder die grond lê. Wanneer iemand dit kry, maak hy dit weer toe; en omdat hy baie in sy skik is, gaan verkoop hy alles wat hy het, en hy koop daardie land. Het jy al ooit daardie aha-ervaring gehad wanneer jy iets verstommends ontdek? 'n Juweel, wat te midde van die skuim van die lewe, alles verander?Hulle beweer dat 'n Ethiopiese bokwagter in die 9de eeu n.C. opgemerk dat sy bokke energiek geword het nadat hulle die rooi bessies van 'n spesifieke struik geëet het. Hy het gewonder hoe hy sal voel as hy self van die bessies eet; en wonder bo wonder, het hy verkwik gevoel. Monnike het later die bessies gebruik om tydens lang gebede wakker te bly. En dit, my vriend,  was die begin van koffie se reis; van wilde plante met rooi bessies tot ‘n besondere drankie wat wêreldwyd geniet word!Deesdae neem ons koffie as vanselfsprekend aan, en ek dink nie vir ‘n oomblik daaraan dat dit deur 'n klomp bokke ontdek is nie!God versteek dikwels skatte - nie om dit van ons te weerhou nie - maar om vir iemand wat opreg daarna soek, toe te laat om dit te vind. Een oomblik van ontdekking kan alles verander. Jesus het dit so gestel in:Matteus 13:44 “Met die koninkryk van die hemel gaan dit soos met 'n skat wat in 'n saailand onder die grond lê. Wanneer iemand dit kry, maak hy dit weer toe; en omdat hy baie in sy skik is, gaan verkoop hy alles wat hy het, en hy koop daardie land.Waar is die skat van God se koninkryk? Buite in die oopte vir almal om te sien? Nee! Dit is weggesteek in 'n saailand. En daardie skat is so kosbaar dat 'n mens alles sal verkoop net om dit te hê.God het iemand met ‘n soekende hart lief. En sy Woord is vol wonders; wonders wat alles verander; wonders so ongelooflik dat hulle die snuisterye en versiersels van hierdie wêreld waardeloos maak.Miskien is dit hoekom God soveel nader voel, wanneer ons vrae het, as wanneer ons dink dat ons al die antwoorde het. Gaan! Gaan soek die skat!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 MailPsalm 126:2 Ons het gelag en gesing. Onder die nasies het hulle gesê: “Die Here het groot dinge aan hierdie mense gedoen.” Het jy al opgemerk hoe jy ook onwillekeurig gaap wanneer jy iemand anders sien gaap? Hoekom is dit so?Dit word sosiale spieëling genoem - ons breine boots instinktief die gedrag van ander na, veral diegene met wie ons emosioneel verbind is. Wanneer jy iemand sien gaap, stuur spieël-neurone in jou brein die boodskap dat jy ook nou moet gaap. So, wanneer jou vriend gaap, sê jou brein: "Ek ook!" - nie uit moegheid nie, maar uit ‘n gemeenskaplikheid.En dieselfde geld vir ons emosies. 'n Nare woord of 'n vuil kyk van iemand bederf die res van jou dag. Maar, wanneer 'n vreemdeling jou onverwags vriendelik behandel; al glimlag hy net vir jou, kan dit 'n gewone vaal dag sommer ophelder.Ek glo in Jesus. Ek is nie seker of jy ook in Hom glo nie, maar sy verlossing gee my groot vrede. En een van die dinge wat Hy ons belowe, is sy vreugde. As ons weet hoe lief Hy ons het, en wat Hy vir ons gedoen het; en wat die ewigheid vir ons inhou ... is daar mos geen rede waarom ‘n mens nie vol vreugde kan wees nie! Ja, selfs, wanneer dinge nie so glad verloop nie.Psalm 126:2 Ons het gelag en gesing. Onder die nasies het hulle gesê: “Die Here het groot dinge aan hierdie mense gedoen.”Die vreugde wat Hy vir ons gee, raak ook ander aan. Mense sien dit raak wanneer ons te midde van beproewinge, onverklaarbare vreugde, uitstraal. Ek dink hierdie wêreld het meer vreugdevolle Christene nodig. Wanneer die mense jou opregte, blywende vreugde sien, sal hulle vir hulself sê ... Sjoe! Die Here het groot dinge vir daardie ou gedoen.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 MailRomeine 5:3-5 Dit is egter nie al nie. Ons verheug ons ook in die swaarkry, want ons weet: swaarkry kweek volharding, en volharding kweek egtheid van geloof, en egtheid van geloof kweek hoop; en dié hoop beskaam nie, want God het sy liefde in ons harte uitgestort deur die Heilige Gees wat Hy aan ons gegee het. Die lewe kan nogal onverwagte kinkels in die pad hê, nè? Net wanneer jy dit die minste verwag, slaat die teëspoed jou plat! Jy bevind jouself in 'n gat; 'n plek waar jy nooit verwag het om te wees nie. Maar weet jy, dit kan net mooi die grootste geleentheid vir God wees om vir jou ‘n besondere geskenk te gee!In 1931, op sewejarige ouderdom, het Jacques Lusseyran in 'n ongeluk sy sig verloor. Sy wêreld het oornag verander. Maar hy het vinnig by sy blindheid aangepas en eerder as om wanhopig te word, het hy buitengewone insig en deursettingsvermoë ontwikkel. As ‘n jong seun het hy besorgd geraak oor Hitler se mag. Hy het besluit om Duits te leer sodat hy radio uitsendings kon volg. Tydens die Tweede Wêreldoorlog het hy 'n leier van ‘n Franse Weerstandsbeweging geword. Hy is deur die Gestapo gearresteer en na Buchenwald gestuur, waar hy een van die min mense was, om, ten spyte van die wrede toestande, sy gevangeskap te oorleef. Sy blindheid het 'n geestelike lens geword waardeur sy insig, moed en deernis verskerp is. In sy memoir, And There Was Light, skryf hy: Ek het vrede in my hart gehad, want ek het ontdek dat vreugde in duisternis kan bestaan.Romeine 5:3-5 … Dit is egter nie al nie. Ons verheug ons ook in die swaarkry, want ons weet: swaarkry kweek volharding, en volharding kweek egtheid van geloof, en egtheid van geloof kweek hoop; en dié hoop beskaam nie, want God het sy liefde in ons harte uitgestort deur die Heilige Gees wat Hy aan ons gegee het.Wanneer die lewe onverwags verander, gee God jou die geleentheid om te groei. Wanneer jy deur lyding volhard, bou dit ongetwyfeld jou karakter. Jy stap saam met Jesus deur daardie hel. Hy sal jou vul met 'n rotsvaste hoop wanneer Hy deur sy Gees, sy liefde in jou hart uitstort.Moenie blind wees vir die grootste geleentheid wat Hy jou ooit sal gee nie.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 MailRomeine 14:11-12 want daar staan geskrywe: So seker as Ek lewe, sê die Here, voor My sal elke knie buig, en elke tong sal bely dat Ek God is.” Elkeen van ons sal dus oor homself aan God rekenskap moet gee. Sommige dinge is baie duidelik sonde. Jy mag nie moord pleeg nie, dis tog voor die hand liggend, nè? Jy mag nie egbreuk pleeg nie – dis ook logies, maar deesdae ongelukkig nie ‘n baie populêre ding om te sê nie. Ander dinge is, wel, nie so voor die hand liggend nie. En daardie nie-so-voor-die-hand-liggende- dinge veroorsaak baie konflik.Hier is ‘n moeilike vraag: Beteken genadedood 'n deernisvolle keuse om lyding te beëindig, of is dit 'n skending van die heiligheid van lewe? Is kunsmatige intelligensie 'n wonderlike ontdekking, of hou die ongereguleerde ontwikkeling daarvan ‘n bedreiging vir die mensdom se bestaan in?Ek is seker jy het jou eie siening oor daardie, en oor baie ander sogenaamde grys areas, wat ons begrip van reg en verkeerd bepaal. Maar, wanneer boosheid onder die vaandel van sosiale vooruitgang gepleeg word, moet dit gekonfronteer word. En soos opinies meer verdeeld word, en soos samelewings meer verskeurd raak, en soos die media meer venynig word, moet jy jouself afvra, watter rol speel ek in die negatiewe dinge wat om ons gesê word? Waarom gooi ek klippe na ander, eerder as om in die spieël na myself te kyk? Romeine 14:11-12 “So seker as Ek lewe,” sê die Here, “voor My sal elke knie buig, en elke tong sal bely dat Ek God is.” Elkeen van ons sal dus oor homself aan God rekenskap moet gee.Terwyl ons so besig is om ander te oordeel, moet ons onthou dat God alleen die regter is, en dat ons almal eendag voor Hom verantwoording sal moet doen.Nederigheid en selfgeregtigheid is vyande. Voordat jy iemand se kop in 'n argument afbyt, onthou dat elkeen van ons aan God sal moet rekenskap gee.Want 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 MailDeuteronomium 31:6 Hou moed en wees dapper! Moenie bang wees nie, moenie vir hulle skrik nie, want die Here julle God gaan saam met julle. Hy sal julle nie in die steek laat nie, julle nie alleen laat nie.” Hou jy van verandering? Nie? Wel, jy is nie alleen nie. Die waarheid is, dat baie min mense gemaklik is met verandering.Stel jou dié situasie voor. Moses weet hy gaan binnekort sterf en hy is besig om Josua voor te berei om die leierskap van Israel oor te neem. Hulle staan op die drumpel van die Beloofde Land terwyl Moses sy laaste instruksies gee. Hulle staar magtige vyande, versterkte stede en die onsekerheid van 'n kritieke leierskapsoorgang in die gesig. En op die oomblik pleit Moses met hulle om nie bang te wees nie, maar om sterk en dapper te wees.Wel, ja, dis maklik vir jou om te sê, Moses. Jy is nie die een wat die Jordaanrivier moet oorsteek nie. Jy is nie die een wat geveg na geveg moet veg om die Beloofde Land in te neem nie. Kyk watter seënwense spreek Moses oor sy volk uit:Deuteronomium 31:6 Hou moed en wees dapper! Moenie bang wees nie, moenie vir hulle skrik nie, want die Here julle God gaan saam met julle. Hy sal julle nie in die steek laat nie, julle nie alleen laat nie.”Soos ons gesê het, hou die meeste van ons nie van verandering nie. Al hoop ons dat dinge sal verbeter, of dat dit sommer vanself sal regkom, is dit ontstellend wanneer verandering kom, selfs al is dit positiewe verandering, omdat ons nie weet wat in die toekoms gaan gebeur nie. En dit is veral wáár, wanneer ons ernstige uitdagings in die gesig staar; wanneer verandering kom, soos dit vir Israel gebeur het. Dis een ding as iemand anders vir jou sê: wees sterk, wees dapper, moenie bang wees nie, maar dis nie genoeg nie. Wat genoeg sal wees - wat altyd meer as genoeg is - is die rede waarom ons dapper moet wees; want die HERE jou God sal julle nie in die steek laat nie, julle nie alleen laat nie.”Want 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 MailPsalm 94:18-19 Toe ek gedink het my voete gly, het u troue liefde my regop gehou, Here. Toe ek met baie onrus in my binneste sit, het u vertroosting my tot rus gebring. Die druk wat ons in die lewe ervaar, bekruip ons dikwels geleidelik, onmerkbaar. Jy leef net daarmee saam totdat jy eendag op breekpunt kom.Ek het onlangs met 'n vriend van my in sy sewentigs gesels. Hy het gewonder wat God volgende vir hom in gedagte het, nadat hy pas sy deeltydse werk voltooi het. Hy was altyd, behalwe vir 'n bietjie pyn en 'n bietjie onsekerheid oor ‘n knievervangingsoperasie in die nabye toekoms, ‘n gelukkige en positiewe mens. Maar nou, met al die verwikkelinge wêreldwyd, het hy begin besorg raak oor sy finansies en gewonder hoeveel tyd hy en sy vrou saam op hierdie aarde oor het. Ek kon sien dat hy nie homself was nie, hy was onder druk. Dis hoe dit in die lewe is... Ek is seker jy kan jouself hiermee vereenselwig.Hierdie psalmis was baie duidelik deel van 'n gemeenskap onder druk, waar die goeie mense aan die hande van die goddeloses gely het. Daarom bid hy tot God in:Psalm 94:18-19 Toe ek gedink het my voete gly, het u troue liefde my regop gehou, Here. Toe ek met baie onrus in my binneste sit, het u vertroosting my tot rus gebring.Dis ‘n aaklige gevoel wanneer jy voel asof jou voete gly, en asof die sorge van die lewe jou gaan oorweldig.Kom ons wees realisties - God verwyder nie altyd die oorsaak van ons probleem nie. In plaas daarvan vertroos Hy ons, Hy ondersteun ons daardeur. So, verstaan mooi, daardie goddelike vertroosting is nie die afwesigheid van probleme nie, maar die teenwoordigheid van God, te midde daarvan. Hy vervang angs met vreugde, chaos met stabiliteit. Hou moed. Jy is nie alleen nie.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 MailHandelinge 13:4 So is Barnabas en Saulus deur die Heilige Gees uitgestuur. Hulle het na Seleukië toe gegaan en daarvandaan na Siprus toe oorgevaar. Die lewe bestaan hoofsaaklik uit alledaagse en herhalende dinge …. Maar niks is toevallig nie. Eendag, skielik, uit die bloute gebeur daar iets wonderliks waarvan jy self nie die betekenis verstaan nie, totdat jy jare later daarna terugkyk en dan word dit glashelder.Klink die naam Albert McMakin bekend? Waarskynlik nie. Albert McMakin was ‘n nuwe gelowige en hy was aan die brand vir Jesus. Hy was baie ernstig dat sy vriende ook van Jesus moes leer, en toe daar ‘n bekeringsdiens daar naby was, het hy 'n vragmotor met mense gevul om van Jesus te hoor. Hy het Billy, een van sy vriende wat glad nie belanggestel het nie, met moeite omgekoop om saam te gaan, deur hom die eer te gee om die vragmotor te bestuur. Toe hulle daar aankom, was Albert se gas 'betowerd' en nadat hy nog ‘n paar dienste bygewoon het, het hy sy lewe aan Jesus Christus gegee. Daardie man, die bestuurder van die vragmotor, was Billy Graham. Dit was die jaar 1934. Sedertdien het Billy Graham duisende tot geloof in Jesus Christus gelei en die verloop van die geskiedenis vir altyd verander. Ons kan nie almal soos Billy Graham wees nie, maar ons kan almal soos Albert McMakin wees – ons kan almal ons vriende na Jesus bring. Daar word beraam dat meer as 3.2 miljoen mense deur Billy Graham se openbare dienste na Christus gekom het.Handelinge 13:4 So is Barnabas en Saulus deur die Heilige Gees uitgestuur. Hulle het na Seleukië toe gegaan en daarvandaan na Siprus toe oorgevaar.Albert, Billy, Barnabas, Saulus. Gewone mense, elk met 'n voorafbepaalde rol, deur wie God magtige dinge gedoen het. Vir elkeen het hul dag begin soos enige ander dag. Maar toe ... verskyn God. Pasop, want net wanneer jy dit die minste verwag, sal die Heilige Gees verskyn.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

Tusk állította irányba Magyar Pétert a varsói katonai tiszteletadáson Megszólalt Varga Judit volt államtitkára a kegyelmi ügyről: az Igazságügyi Minisztériumban nem történt befolyásolás Több százmillió forint állami támogatást kapott Bóna Zoltán édesapjának szervezete Válaszolt a Sándor-palota arra, hogy kérte-e már a kormány a kegyelmi ügy iratainak kiadását Surányi félévnyi emelést adna a kisnyugdíjasoknak Hvg.hu: Lázár a választás előtt több százmilliós tartozásokat engedett el négy önkormányzatnak Magyar Péter: Nem irigykedni, hanem tanulni kell, hogy Magyarországon is olyan fokú fejlődés lehessen, mint Lengyelországban Magyar a Telex kérdésére: Amire most szükség van, amire mindenkit bátorítunk, hogy legyen mielőbb egy hosszabb tűzszünet Orbán Viktor egykori vétóját ma végleg felülírta a történelem Csütörtökön is drágul az üzemanyag, mutatjuk melyik és mennyivel! Lemondott Deutsch-Lazsányi Erika a ritmikus gimnasztika szövetségben betöltött tisztségéről Megindokolta a szövetség, miért mondott le Deutsch-Lazsányi Erika Rendkívüli hét vár Európára, térképeken mutatjuk az időjárás átalakulását A további adásainkat keresd a podcast.hirstart.hu oldalunkon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tusk állította irányba Magyar Pétert a varsói katonai tiszteletadáson Megszólalt Varga Judit volt államtitkára a kegyelmi ügyről: az Igazságügyi Minisztériumban nem történt befolyásolás Több százmillió forint állami támogatást kapott Bóna Zoltán édesapjának szervezete Válaszolt a Sándor-palota arra, hogy kérte-e már a kormány a kegyelmi ügy iratainak kiadását Surányi félévnyi emelést adna a kisnyugdíjasoknak Hvg.hu: Lázár a választás előtt több százmilliós tartozásokat engedett el négy önkormányzatnak Magyar Péter: Nem irigykedni, hanem tanulni kell, hogy Magyarországon is olyan fokú fejlődés lehessen, mint Lengyelországban Magyar a Telex kérdésére: Amire most szükség van, amire mindenkit bátorítunk, hogy legyen mielőbb egy hosszabb tűzszünet Orbán Viktor egykori vétóját ma végleg felülírta a történelem Csütörtökön is drágul az üzemanyag, mutatjuk melyik és mennyivel! Lemondott Deutsch-Lazsányi Erika a ritmikus gimnasztika szövetségben betöltött tisztségéről Megindokolta a szövetség, miért mondott le Deutsch-Lazsányi Erika Rendkívüli hét vár Európára, térképeken mutatjuk az időjárás átalakulását A további adásainkat keresd a podcast.hirstart.hu oldalunkon. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send us Fan MailGoeiemôre aan al ons VARS-vriende. Ek is Jokkie Gauché en hier is VARSVANDAG se Tweede Nuusbrief vir Mei.  Indien jy dalk nog gewonder het; die winter is hier! Wat ‘n wonderlike tyd van die jaar is dit nie! Die lang stil koue aande herinner my so baie aan die woorde van N.P. Van Wyk Louw: O Heer, laat hierdie dae heilig word: Laat alles val wat pronk en sieraad was. In 1993, tydens die Heidelberg Taverne-aanval in Kaapstad, het die 23-jarige Lyndi Fourie haar lewe verloor. Jare later het haar ma, Ginn Fourie, die dapper besluit geneem om Letlapa Mphahlele, die bevelvoerder tydens die aanval, te ontmoet. Ten spyte van ondenkbare hartseer, het Ginn vergifnis bo bitterheid gekies nadat sy oor Jesus se woorde in Matteus 6:14 nagedink het:Want as julle ander se oortredings vergewe, sal julle hemelse Vader julle ook vergewe.   Deur die krag van die Heilige Gees het 'n merkwaardige verhaal van versoening ontvou. Vandag reis Ginn en Letlapa saam en deel 'n boodskap van genesing, vrede en vergifnis dwarsdeur Suid-Afrika. ‘n Getuienis soos hierdie herinner ons waarom die verkondiging van die Evangelie vandag nog so belangrik in ons land is. In 'n wêreld vol verdeeldheid, pyn en onsekerheid, bring die versoeningsboodskap van Jesus, genesing van harte, en herstel van verhoudings. Deur FRESH of te wel VARS, en ons radiovennote dwarsdeur Suid-Afrika, word mense elke dag, dikwels op plekke wat 'n kerk dalk nooit sal bereik nie, aan Bybelwaarhede blootgestel en bemoedig.  Plaaslik het KG, ons nuut aangestelde Hoof in Suid-Afrika, onlangs die radiostasie, Radio Khwezi, wat daagliks Fresh-Zulu uitsaai, besoek. Hy het die stasiebestuurder, Daniel Wunderlich, ontmoet om die vennootskap te versterk wat daarop fokus om meer Zoeloe-sprekende luisteraars met Bybel-gesentreerde inhoud te bereik en te dissipel. KG het weer bevestig dat: “Radio 'n betroubare bron van waarheid in die gemeenskap is. Dít wat uitgesaai word, vorm persepsies en oortuigings en is deel van die daaglikse lewe.”  Dankie dat jy Christianityworks Suid-Afrika met jou gebede, aanmoediging en vrygewigheid ondersteun. Jou bydrae help ons om die lewensveranderende boodskap van Jesus oor ons hele streek te versprei.Onthou:Vergifnis is ‘n geskenk aan jouself; dis ‘n besluit - nie ‘n emosie nie.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 MailHebreërs 7:25 Daarom kan Hy ook dié wat deur Hom na God gaan, eens en vir altyd verlos: Hy lewe vir altyd om vir hulle by God in te tree. Daar is deesdae soveel slegte nuus. Diktators, oorloë, lyding, uitbuiting, misdaad. Dis regtig lelik, nè? So, wat doen ons? Ons kyk noord en ploeter voort op ons eenvoudige manier op soek na ons klein ou kolletjie onder die son. Maar sê-nou daar is meer in die lewe as dit?Blaise Pascal was 'n briljante 17de-eeuse Franse wiskundige, fisikus en uitvinder. Hy het groot bekendheid verwerf vir baie uitvindings, veral vir die een wat Pascal se Driehoek genoem word. Ten spyte van sy akademiese sukses, het hy met innerlike onrus, siekte en 'n gevoel van geestelike leegheid geworstel. Dit het alles verander op een nag toe hy 'n kragtige ontmoeting met Jesus gehad het.Hy het dit sy "nag van vuur" genoem. Hy het daardie nag die Teenwoordigheid van die lewende God ervaar. Hy het sy belewenis van daardie aand op 'n stukkie perkament neergeskryf en in sy jas gebêre - waar dit eers agt jaar ná sy dood, op die ouderdom van 39, gevind is. Daarop was geskryf: My God, my God, waarom het ek U verlaat? Mag ek nooit weer van U geskei wees nie.Hebreërs 7:25 Daarom kan Hy ook dié wat deur Hom na God gaan, eens en vir altyd verlos: Hy lewe vir altyd om vir hulle by God in te tree.Het jy al jou nag van vuur gehad? Het jy al van aangesig tot aangesig met Jesus, wat vir jou gesterf en weer opgestaan het, gekom? Miskien nie, of miskien het jy, maar dit lyk alles so ver verwyderd van die dinge wat op hierdie oomblik aan die gang is.My vriend, vandag het ek goeie nuus vir jou. In Christus het God jou ontsettend lief. In Christus kan jy gered word. In Christus kan jy vir ewig by God wees, want Jesus leef. Hy is gereed om jou te help wanneer jy Hom vra.Doen dit vandag. Doen dit nou. Wend jou tot 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

Send us Fan Mail2 Korintiërs 1:20-21 want al die baie beloftes van God in Christus Jesus is 'n volmondige “ja”. Daarom is dit ook deur Christus se toedoen dat ons, om God te verheerlik, daarop “Amen” sê. Hy het ons saam met julle op Christus as fondament geplaas, terwyl God ons ook vir Hom afgesonder het. (NLV) Die lewe is deurmekaar. Jy kan nie daarmee stry nie. Wys my 'n enkele gesin wat nog nie sy eie probleme gehad het nie. Wys my 'n enkele persoon met ‘n grys haar of twee, wat nie deur 'n paar werklike krisisse in die lewe gegaan het nie. Sulke mense bestaan eenvoudig nie.Die lewe ruk en pluk ons inderdaad rond. Hopelik skuur dit ‘n paar van ons growwe kante af. In vandag se lewe moet 'n mens veerkragtig wees, jy moet verantwoordelikheid kan neem. Maar daar is 'n rots waarop ons veerkragtigheid gebou kán en móét word; 'n tydlose, onwrikbare fondament waarop ons elkeen kan en moet staan. Hier is dit:2 Korintiërs 1:20-21 want al die baie beloftes van God in Christus Jesus is 'n volmondige “ja”. Daarom is dit ook deur Christus se toedoen dat ons, om God te verheerlik, daarop “Amen” sê. Hy het ons saam met julle op Christus as fondament geplaas, terwyl God ons ook vir Hom afgesonder het. (NLV)God se beloftes is waar. Jesus het vir jou gekom. In Christus is al die beloftes van God 'n ‘ja.' Hy het gekom om jou van jou sonde te red. Hy het weer uit die dood opgestaan om jou 'n nuwe lewe te gee. Hy is gereed, gewillig en in staat om sy Gees op jou uit te stort om jou in Christus sterk te maak. Jy sal die ewigheid saam met Hom deurbring.Hoe word hierdie beloftes vir jou ‘n werklikheid? Deur jou geloof in Jesus te plaas; deur jou hele lewe aan Jesus oor te gee. Want die ‘ja' op al God se beloftes is in Christus, en daarom sê ons deur Christus "Amen" tot eer van God.My Vriend, vertrou volkome op 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

Today’s headline news for Canadian IT solution providers: The AI supply chain squeeze: Yesterday, we brought you a special mid-day look at the new partner platform and AI Factory announcements from Dell Technologies World. But if you look past the glitz of the main stage, there was a sobering reality check delivered during the partner-specific keynote. Pete Trizzino, president of global sales at Dell Technologies, warned partners that supply constraints are officially back. Driven by voracious hyperscaler demand for AI infrastructure, the squeeze on GPUs, CPUs, and memory is tightening rapidly. In fact, Trizzino warned that the supply chain issues we are starting to see now could be significantly worse in 2027. For Canadian MSPs and VARs, this is the klaxon sounding for hardware lifecycle planning. Partners need to be having capacity conversations with their clients today, locking in orders, and potentially leveraging IT financing to bridge the gap while hardware makes its way through a congested supply chain. CIRA targets the MSP model: Closer to home, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is preparing to launch a new channel-oriented product platform at the ChannelNEXT conference in Toronto later this month. Led by channel executive Tim Brien, the upcoming platform marks a dedicated pivot toward a managed service provider model. As Canadian organizations face an increasingly complex threat landscape complicated by strict data privacy regulations like Law 25 and PIPEDA, the demand for sovereign, domestic cybersecurity infrastructure is accelerating. By embracing a multi-tenant channel model, CIRA aims to provide Canadian solution providers with a localized alternative for DNS and enterprise security services, removing the administrative friction of scaling broad deployments. PraisonAI zero-day and Operation Ramz: In the cybersecurity space, threat actors are actively exploiting a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in PraisonAI (CVE-2026-44338). The zero-day flaw was targeted within hours of its disclosure, meaning anyone building agentic AI pipelines with the framework needs to apply patches immediately. On a positive note, INTERPOL has announced the results of Operation Ramz, a massive cybercrime crackdown across 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa that resulted in 201 arrests and the seizure of dozens of malware and phishing servers. In Brief: Lumina emerges from stealth: Cybersecurity startup Lumina has officially launched an AI-native platform designed to reduce alert noise by 87 percent across cloud, identity, and endpoint environments. With security operations centers overwhelmed by false positives, Lumina is using AI to automatically triage and contextualize threats, freeing up analysts to focus on genuine incidents. Nordian and Starlink partner up: Connectivity provider Nordian has signed a reseller agreement with Starlink to embed high-speed satellite internet directly into industrial equipment. Targeted at the agriculture, mining, and transportation sectors, this allows Canadian edge deployments in remote areas to maintain constant connectivity, enabling real-time telemetry and predictive maintenance. Noah Labs builds local AI: Software developer Noah Labs is building Sentinel, an AI-native integrated development environment designed to run 100 percent on-device. As data sovereignty becomes critical, Sentinel allows developers to build and test AI models locally, removing the risk of exposing sensitive proprietary data to public cloud APIs during the development phase. NSF’s deep-tech initiative: The United States National Science Foundation has announced a $1.5 billion X-Labs initiative to fund deep-tech research. The massive influx of capital is expected to heavily influence cross-border commercialization and innovation in North America, focusing on autonomous systems, quantum networking, and advanced materials. Read Full Transcript Welcome to The Buzz from ChannelBuzz.ca, I’m Robert Dutt, today is Tuesday, May 19, 2026, and here’s what’s happening in the channel today. Yesterday, we brought you a special mid-day look at Dell’s new Modern Partner Platform and the massive expansion of the Dell AI Factory. But if you look past the glitz of the main stage, there was a very sobering reality check delivered during the partner-specific keynote. Pete Trizzino, president of global sales at Dell Technologies, took the stage to warn partners that supply constraints are officially back. Driven by the voracious hyperscaler demand for AI infrastructure, the squeeze on GPUs, CPUs, and memory is tightening rapidly. In fact, Trizzino warned that the supply chain issues we are starting to see now could be significantly worse in 2027. For Canadian MSPs and VARs, this is the klaxon sounding for hardware lifecycle planning. If you are waiting until the quarter a client needs a server refresh, you are going to be too late. Partners need to be having these capacity conversations with their clients today, locking in orders, and potentially leveraging IT financing and distribution partners to bridge the gap while hardware makes its way through a congested supply chain. Closer to home, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, or CIRA, is preparing to launch a new, heavily channel-oriented product platform later this month at the ChannelNEXT conference in Toronto. Led by channel executive Tim Brien, the upcoming platform marks a dedicated pivot toward a true managed service provider model for the national internet registry. For years, Canadian organizations have faced an increasingly complex threat landscape complicated by strict data privacy regulations like Law 25 and PIPEDA. The demand for sovereign, domestic cybersecurity infrastructure is accelerating. By embracing a multi-tenant channel model, CIRA aims to provide Canadian solution providers with a localized alternative for DNS and enterprise security services. The new program is designed to allow channel partners to self-provision services, exert granular control over technical deployments, and scale enterprise-grade security offerings to their small and medium-sized business clients. Ultimately, this move is intended to remove the administrative friction associated with scaling broad deployments, allowing partners to integrate CIRA capabilities directly into their existing recurring revenue security stacks. In the cybersecurity space, it has been a busy 24 hours. First, a major warning for developers and security teams working with autonomous agents: threat actors are actively exploiting a critical authentication bypass vulnerability in PraisonAI, tracked as CVE-2026-44338. The zero-day flaw was targeted within hours of its disclosure, meaning anyone building agentic AI pipelines with the framework needs to apply patches immediately. On a more positive note, INTERPOL has announced the results of Operation Ramz, a massive, coordinated cybercrime crackdown across thirteen countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The first-of-its-kind operation resulted in 201 arrests and the disruption of major cybercrime networks, including the seizure of dozens of malware and phishing servers that have been targeting businesses globally. In Brief: Cybersecurity startup Lumina emerges from stealth today with an AI-native platform designed to reduce alert noise. Connectivity provider Nordian has signed a reseller agreement with Starlink to embed high-speed satellite internet into industrial equipment. Software developer Noah Labs is building Sentinel, an AI-native integrated development environment designed to run entirely on-device. And the United States National Science Foundation has announced a 1.5 billion dollar X-Labs initiative to fund deep-tech research. Full details and expanded stories on all of our In Brief items can be found in the show notes or the blog post at ChannelBuzz.ca. Later today on In The Channel, we have more from Las Vegas. I’ll be sitting down with Alan Ashby, Dell’s senior director of Americas data center presales, to break down the practical realities of the AI infrastructure boom for mid-market partners. And if you haven‘t heard yesterday’s episode yet, that’s probably because there wasn’t one, because outside of Dell Technologies World, it was Victoria Day back home. That’s how we’re seeing the headlines today. I’m Robert Dutt for ChannelBuzz.ca, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

Send us Fan MailFilippense 2:3-4 Moet niks uit selfsug of eersug doen nie, maar in nederigheid moet die een die ander hoër ag as homself. Julle moenie net elkeen aan sy eie belange dink nie, maar ook aan dié van ander.Niemand hou daarvan wanneer hulle nie hulle sin kry nie. Niemand nie! Dit begin al op 'n baie jong ouderdom wanneer ‘n kind homself in woede op die grond neergooi en skop en skree as hy nie sy sin kry nie. Kom ons wees eerlik, ons voel soms steeds lus om sulke woede-uitbarstings te hê, nè?!In die 12de eeu het Thomas Becket, die Aartsbiskop van Canterbury, ‘n meningsverskil met Koning Henry II gehad oor die kerk se gesag. Hulle was aanvanklik goeie vriende, maar nadat hy Aartsbiskop geword het, het Beckett grootkop gekry en geweier om aan die koning se wense toe te gee, selfs oor onbenullige dinge wat regtig nie saak gemaak het nie.Uiteindelik het sy aandrang om sy sin te kry, tot ‘n sluipmoord op sy lewe gelei. As Becket nederig was en vrede wou maak, sou hy sy lewe behou het, en die verhouding tussen die kerk en die staat sou waarskynlik ook baie beter gewees het.Om ons eie sin te kry in ‘n skermutseling lyk so ontsettend belangrik dat ons alte maklik dié dinge wat werklik saak maak, uit die oog verloor.Filippense 2:3-4 Moet niks uit selfsug of eersug doen nie, maar in nederigheid moet die een die ander hoër ag as homself. Julle moenie net elkeen aan sy eie belange dink nie, maar ook aan dié van ander.'n Snaakse ding gebeur wanneer ons kies om toe te gee; wanneer ons ons selfsugtige trots uit die pad kry; wanneer ons die ander persoon opreg begin eer ... dan breek vrede werklik deur.Natuurlik moet ons nie toegee wanneer dit nie om die regte rede is nie. Maar maak seker dat dit nie dalk jou eie koppigheid is wat die konflik in die eerste plek aangeblaas het nie! Dink mooi: is daar op die oomblik ‘n konflik waarby jy betrokke is, waar jy met ‘n skoon gewete kan toegee? Dink net hoe dinge sal verander indien jy wel besluit om die nederige een te wees?... moenie net elkeen aan sy eie belange dink nie, maar ook aan dié van ander.Maak vrede met die feit dat jy nie altyd jou eie sin hóéf te kry nie.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 Mail2 Korintiërs 4:7-8 Ons wat hierdie skat in ons het, is maar kleipotte wat maklik breek; die krag wat alles oortref, kom dus van God, nie van ons nie. In alles word ons verdruk, maar ons is nie terneergedruk nie; ons is oor raad verleë, maar nie radeloos nie; In 'n wêreld waar ons almal probeer om iemand te wees, beleef baie van ons 'n knaende gevoel van ‘ek is nie goedgenoeg nie.' Ons redeneer dat ons soveel swakhede en tekortkominge het, dat ons nooit regtig veel sal kan bereik nie.Ek moet nou ‘n belydenis doen: Dit het my soms gepla dat Christianityworks, die bediening wat hierdie daaglikse boodskappe produseer, nie 'n indrukwekkende kantoor gehad het nie. Ons kantoor het sleg afgesteek by die spoggerige televisie- en radio-ateljees wat ek dwarsdeur die wêreld besoek het. Ons s'n was net 'n ommuurde gedeelte van 'n voorportaal, wat 'n plaaslike kerk gratis tot ons beskikking gestel het.Ons opset het, in vergelyking met ander, absoluut minderwaardig en onbeduidend gelyk.Sien jy hoe maklik dit is om in daardie strik te trap? En tog is God gewoond daaraan om brose en feilbare mense op die mees verstommende maniere tot sy eer te gebruik. En Hy doen alles met 'n doel. Paulus skryf aan ‘n gemeente:2 Korintiërs 4:7-8 Ons wat hierdie skat in ons het, is maar kleipotte wat maklik breek; die krag wat alles oortref, kom dus van God, nie van ons nie. In alles word ons verdruk, maar ons is nie terneergedruk nie; ons is oor raad verleë, maar nie radeloos nie;Paulus se bediening, het bestaan uit 'n paar onbelangrike manne en vroue, wat deur die bekende wêreld sonder groot ophef voortgeskuifel het. Hulle het in vergelyking met Jerusalem, met sy glorieryke tempel, absoluut onindrukwekkend gelyk. Maar God gebruik gewone gebroke mense om sy kosbaarste geskenk te dra, sodat niemand ooit onseker sal wees oor waar die krag vandaan kom nie. Hy vul wagtende, biddende harte met sy Gees en krag. Ons is die leë houers - Hy is die skat daar binne-in.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 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."

We find out what it's like heliskiing in Albania, learn about the ski resort of Champoluc in Italy, and hear about the last ski day of the season in Chamonix.We also have snow reports from Cervinia in Italy and Les 2 Alpes and Tignes in France.Host Iain Martin was joined by freelance journalist Katie Bamber and Editor of Snow Magazine, Tris Kennedy. SHOW NOTESKatie previously shared her experience of touring the Alps in a camper van (in Episode 167), the Haute Route (in Episode 172) and Geilo in Norway in Episode 204 (1:30) She recently skied on the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier in Austria (2:45) Tris skied at Passo Tonale, which stays open until 03 May (4:15) Iain was at the Grands Montets for the closing day party (6:00) Check out the Pond Skim event video (7:00) Alex Armand from Tip Top Ski Coaching is in Les 2 Alpes (7:45) Floss Cockle from the YouTube channel FreeFloFloss is in Tignes (8:30) Dave Burrows from SnoPros Ski School was in Cervinia (10:30) Samuel Equy & Mathéo Jacquemoud set a new ski FKT for Chamonix to the top of Mont Blanc and back (13:30) You can watch their video here Jaquemoud set a time of of 13h27m49s for the Haute Route earlier in April (14:00) Where is Champoluc? (16:45) What's the ski area like? (19:00) Ski 2 went out of business in 2021 (23:00) Al Morgan reported from the SIGB ski test in Champoluc in Episode 303 (23:30) Tris travelled with Heliski Albania (26:00) Where is Albania? (26:30) Who is Norman Wisdom? (28:00) How to get there? (29:00) Pristina has statues of Tony Blair and Bill Clinton (29:00) Valbona is in the ‘Accursed Mountains' (31:00) You don't (normally) need to jump out of the helicopter (32:00) What's the terrain like? (33:30) Best time to go (35:30) Check Tris's article in National Geographic (37:00)FeedbackYou can leave a comment on Spotify, Instagram or Facebook – our handle is @theskipodcast – or drop me an email to theskipodcast@gmail.com. We're also on WhatsAppAnon (Spotify): "309 was another fabulous episode bringing the mountains ever closer to all of us. Despite living in a ski resort myself [Morgins] I never fail to learn something new about life in my own backyard." Lucy Kings: "I've been an avid listener for some time. I'm particularly interested in your commitment to sustainable travel, championing the female voice and above all I love that The Ski Podcast has highlighted the issues of disability and improving access to skiing for young people by fundraising for Snow Camp." Antonia Simpson: "I was delighted to see Vars and Risoul featured in Episode 310. We've been going to the area for years. It's a massively underrated region and it's brilliant.”There are now 311 episodes of The Ski Podcast to catch up with in our back catalog – all available at theskipodcast.com. Just have a search around the tags and categories and you're bound to find something you'll find something of interest to get you through until next winter.You can buy Iain a coffee at BuyMeACoffee.com

5/7/26 (co-host Buz Eisenberg). Food Bank of Western Mass Dev Dir Jillian Morgan: 40%-50% of people here are food insecure. Mental Health Law Prof Frederick Vars: “Through the Fire: How People with Mental Illness Are Empowering Each Other,” his own hospitalizations, self-help groups, meds & hope. Congressman Jim McGovern: the feds v Smith Coll, elections 2026 & the War in Iran. All That Jazz w/ Ruth Griggs & bassist Matt Dwonszyk: Side of Jazz @Eastside Grill.

Jak se za třicet let proměnila správa českých silnic a jakou roli v tom hraje digitalizace? Kdy je nejvhodnější okamžik pro opravu silnice a jak se v posledních letech změnil jejich stav? Z Tomášem Minibergerem z firmy Vars Brno hovořil Martin Petříček, zástupce šéfredaktora týdeníku Ekonom.Tento díl podcastu Na vlně podnikání moderuje Martin Petříček, zástupce šéfredaktora týdeníku Ekonom.

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.

Episode 153 of “The Trusted Advisor” features Zack Kass, the former Head of Go-To-Market for OpenAI and “one of the world's foremost authorities on applied AI.” Kass was the featured guest for a recent RSPA Emerging Technologies Advisory Group meeting.  Kass is an Executive-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, Chair of the Ruder Finn AI Advisory Council, and author of the new book The Next Renaissance: AI and the Expansion of Human Potential. Kass first crossed paths with many RSPA members when he keynoted BlueStar's VARTECH 2025 Conference in the Bahamas. “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. 

Today we find out about the ski resorts of Risoul and Vars in France, report from the Dynastar X3 Triathlon in Courchevel and look at how you can improve your ski mindset. Host Iain Martin was joined by ski mindset coach, Lou Pode, and COO of The Ski Club of Great Britain and organiser of the London Snow Show, James Gambrill.  SHOW NOTESIain recently skied in Verbier (5:30)Alex Armand from Tip Top Ski Coaching is in Les 2 Alpes (6:30) Floss Cockle from the YouTube channel FreeFloFloss has been skiing in Val Thorens (7:00) Jen Tsang runs the website ThatsLaPlagne.com (9:30) Iain took part in the Dynastar X3 Triathlon in Courchevel (11:30) Lou learned to ski using the ski évolutif system in Les Arcs (15:00) Listen to Episode 229 for further discussion about female participation in skiing (18:00) Find out about Lou's Ski Mindset Coaching (19:30) Lou can prepare you before their holiday (20:00) How to get there (26:00) Iain skied in Roccaraso, flying out to Naples (26:45) Size of the ski area (28:45) Who is it suitable for (33:00) James has been skiing twice this winter in Risoul and Vars (33:30)The Fashion Show is back at the London Snow Show for 2026 (35:00)There are also plans for to make Sunday a ‘Legends' day (37:30)Find out more about the London Snow Show on their website (40:00) FeedbackIf you've enjoyed this episode you can leave a comment on Spotify, Instagram or Facebook – our handle is @theskipodcast – or drop me an email to theskipodcast@gmail.com You can also join our WhatsApp channel for exclusive material released ahead of the podcastHelen Keast: "I just wanted to say how much I've been enjoying the podcast — I've listened to every episode and look forward to each new one. I especially love the features on different resorts, and I really enjoyed the equipment reviews at the start of the season and the Olympic coverage!" Emily Ruth Givens: "Love the podcast" Colin Tierney: "Gausta is another area in Norway I am looking at didn't realise that was the area heavy water was made."Anna: "Thank you for the podcast! Just discovered and binged it driving across Newfoundland for a ski at Marble Mountain. I love the ski safari idea in Episode 307." Jan Claeren: "Thank you for the podcast - it's great to listen to and to travel with you and your guests"There are now 310 episodes of The Ski Podcast to catch up with. If you'd like to get some insight on a particular destination or the latest kit, just go to theskipodcast.com, have a search around the tags and categories and you're bound to find something you'll find something of interest to get you through until next winter.Please do subscribe – it helps other people find us and you'll never miss an episode. If you enjoy the podcast, you can always buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/theskipodcast

Mastering the shift from MSP to MIP. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this insightful episode, Oguo Atuanya, CVP of Vendor Experience at Pax8, joins us to discuss the pivotal evolution in the IT channel: the transition from Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to Managed Intelligence Providers (MIPs). We explore how the marketplace is moving beyond traditional infrastructure support toward a future defined by AI-driven orchestration, business consultancy, and scalable agent-tech organizations. Oguo details how Pax8 is leading this transformation by curating solutions that allow partners to move from transactional service models to life-cycle management that prioritizes measurable ROI for the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market. Key Takeaways Pax8 is redefining the role of the distributor by acting as an AI commerce platform for the SMB market. The shift from Managed Service Provider (MSP) to Managed Intelligence Provider (MIP) is critical for scaling in the modern tech era. Successful MSPs must evolve into business consultants who integrate AI-driven workflows rather than just selling infrastructure. Security and automation are foundational elements that every modern MIP must prioritize to ensure scalability for customers. The “MIP Playbook” provides the curriculum-driven enablement partners need to successfully pivot their business models. Building strong, end-to-end customer lifecycle management is the key to minimizing churn and maximizing long-term value. https://youtu.be/c8uCnMJd9bg 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 Pax8, Managed Intelligence Providers, MIP, AI commerce platform, SMB technology, MSP evolution, AI-driven workflows, agent-first strategy, digital transformation, channel partner strategy, cloud solutions, customer lifecycle management, IT channel innovation, scalable automation, business consultancy, technology architecture, agent store, managed service providers. Transcript Oguo Atuanya Audio Episode [00:00:00] Oguo Atuanya: I, I mean, the ultimate goal is to get that MIP channel as intelligent or even more intelligent and agile than any enterprise IT department. [00:00:13] Vince Menzione: We just finished Ultimate Partners Winter Retreat here in beautiful Boca to a sold out crowd. Today I’m joined by Dexter Hardy, the founder of Integral for a compelling discussion, a guo. Welcome back, [00:00:29] Oguo Atuanya: Vince [00:00:29] Vince Menzione: to the welcome back to the podcast, my friend. So good to see you. [00:00:33] Oguo Atuanya: Good to see you, my friend. It’s been about, what, two years? [00:00:35] Vince Menzione: It has been two years, almost two years. Almost two years ago now. And uh, man, this [00:00:40] Oguo Atuanya: thing is just picking up steam. [00:00:41] Vince Menzione: It is. We’re having a blast. We were having so much fun. It was [00:00:44] Oguo Atuanya: awesome. [00:00:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:00:44] Oguo Atuanya: Really awesome. [00:00:45] Vince Menzione: And you were for context, for people watching and, and listening. Uh, we were here in Boca yesterday for the Ultimate Partner Executive Retreat. [00:00:52] Yep. It was this awesome event and great to have you involved in it. Uh, pat, thank you so much. So, uh, last time you were here [00:01:00] Oguo Atuanya: Yes. [00:01:01] Vince Menzione: Uh, you were representing Microsoft where you spent 22 years. [00:01:05] Oguo Atuanya: 22 [00:01:06] Vince Menzione: years. [00:01:06] Oguo Atuanya: Two years, right. Outta outta Junior Heart. [00:01:07] Vince Menzione: Amazing. And, uh, tell us, tell us about your journey so far. Uh, almost two years, a year and a half at Pax. [00:01:14] Eight. About a [00:01:15] Oguo Atuanya: year and a half. [00:01:15] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:01:16] Oguo Atuanya: a year and a half. [00:01:17] Vince Menzione: And tell, tell for our viewers and listeners, uh, your role at Pax eight. [00:01:21] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:01:22] Vince Menzione: Which is a preeminent company in this space. We used to use the term disty. I’ll let you describe them. Uh, officially [00:01:29] Oguo Atuanya: No, [00:01:30] Vince Menzione: because they don’t, you don’t use that term. [00:01:31] Oguo Atuanya: We’re not, we’re not a distributor. [00:01:33] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:01:33] Oguo Atuanya: Scott Cha would kill me. [00:01:35] Vince Menzione: That’s right. No, I know, I know. I remember the, uh, [00:01:38] Oguo Atuanya: the New [00:01:38] Vince Menzione: York, was it the New York Times article? Yes. Yes. [00:01:41] Oguo Atuanya: Was kind of a, [00:01:42] Vince Menzione: that was a launching point coming out. Yeah, yeah. [00:01:44] Oguo Atuanya: No, we, we, we see ourselves as, um, um, the pre, uh, permanent marketplace. For SMB. [00:01:52] Vince Menzione: Nice. [00:01:53] Oguo Atuanya: Right. So you think about the SaaS and the cloud. [00:01:55] Yeah. You know, solutions that you need. In SMB, we work with vendors to bring it, um, you know, to the SMB market through, uh, MSPs. And we also, uh, see ourselves as the premier [00:02:08] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:02:08] Oguo Atuanya: Um, AI commerce platform for SMB. [00:02:13] Vince Menzione: Very interesting. [00:02:14] Oguo Atuanya: Right. And as we go through the discussion, uh, this afternoon, you’ll see why. [00:02:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:02:21] Oguo Atuanya: That differentiation is [00:02:23] Vince Menzione: key. I, I love, I love to dive in. I love to dive in. I will say this, I, I think you’ve gotten a lot of people very interested in the community. I mean, certainly your events are becoming bigger and bigger. You’re beyond conference. [00:02:36] Oguo Atuanya: Next one’s coming up in Salt Lake City [00:02:38] in [00:02:38] Vince Menzione: June. [00:02:38] I plan on being there, salt Lake City in June. [00:02:41] Oguo Atuanya: I must have you there. [00:02:42] Vince Menzione: I will be there and you will, and you will be at our event in May. [00:02:45] Oguo Atuanya: Absolutely. [00:02:46] Vince Menzione: Talking about beyond, but also talking about this community. Uh, I’ve also woken up over the last year or so as well and learned a lot about this SMB community and ms, what we call MSBs. [00:02:58] You’ve re you’ve re-categorized them, uh, but this community is palpable. The opportunity is huge. [00:03:04] Oguo Atuanya: It’s huge. [00:03:05] Vince Menzione: And, um, I would say that, uh, yeah, we can talk, we’ll talk, we’ll just talk through it. ’cause it is huge. Yeah. There’s a lot of things that need to be done. [00:03:12] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:03:13] Vince Menzione: And I think, I think PAX eight is, uh, at the forefront in driving a lot of this. [00:03:17] The hyperscalers, like Microsoft are, are paying attention now more in a big, in a bigger way than before [00:03:23] Oguo Atuanya: being great partners. [00:03:24] Vince Menzione: Been great, great partners. Yeah. We’ll talk about your role with Microsoft in that regard. [00:03:28] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:03:28] Vince Menzione: But talk, let’s talk about this evolution too. Let’s, uh, so for those who are listening, who are used to maybe us talking about a SaaS software company Yep. [00:03:36] Or an ISV or an SDC, uh, we’re talking about MSPs, managed service providers, which is the common term that people use. These are, these have been traditionally the companies, the smaller companies, they used to call em mom and pop shops back. The old VARs that became managed service, the past [00:03:53] Oguo Atuanya: provider in, in the past, they’re getting bigger. [00:03:54] Vince Menzione: And then Yes. One of the big [00:03:55] Oguo Atuanya: ones, y say [00:03:56] Vince Menzione: Nexus Tech. We had Yes. [00:03:57] Oguo Atuanya: Partners of ours. [00:03:58] Vince Menzione: Nexus Techs, new Charter. [00:04:01] Oguo Atuanya: Charter, Michelle [00:04:02] Vince Menzione: Evergreen, I could Ira Lyra. Yeah. They’re, they’re becoming bigger and bigger. Private equity is getting involved. What’s important, what’s important to note too is that the customer is driving this because customers are requiring more and it’s no longer about, and my my point of view is it’s no longer about loading up software and just letting it go. [00:04:22] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:04:23] Vince Menzione: You need to be hands-on all the time. [00:04:24] Oguo Atuanya: Abs. Absolutely. And, and [00:04:26] Vince Menzione: yeah, [00:04:26] Oguo Atuanya: kind of skating towards that park of, um. MIP? [00:04:31] Vince Menzione: Yes. Let’s talk about MIP [00:04:33] Oguo Atuanya: managed intelligence providers. [00:04:35] Vince Menzione: So last year, year Beyond conference, I believe you launched this like new in I, we’ll call the new nomenclature or the new name, or this new thing. [00:04:46] And evolved. And evolved, yeah. [00:04:48] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:04:49] Vince Menzione: So talk about the managed intelligence provider for us. [00:04:52] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Wow. When it happened In Beyond Or at? Beyond, I should say. Um. We thought it’d catch on because it’s apt. I mean, it’s, it’s sort of indicative of what’s happening now and what will happen over the next 24 months, but, uh, the sort of migration towards this and the marketplace has been immense. [00:05:17] I mean, you, and you, you know, hit on what the difference is. Yes. Earlier on, um, today. What’s driving this shift is that most MSPs have been really good at being tools and technology infrastructure providers. [00:05:36] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:05:36] Oguo Atuanya: Right. [00:05:37] Vince Menzione: They would hook up your network and your printer. In the old days, they fix your, fix your computers. [00:05:42] Yes. Or replace re-image, all those things. Right? Yes. That was the old days. And, [00:05:46] Oguo Atuanya: and, and also provide some very manual services delivery, which will now play. In this new era that we are actually, I shouldn’t say going into, it’s taking all, [00:06:00] Vince Menzione: we’re, we’re there, [00:06:00] Oguo Atuanya: we’re there right now. So, um, you know, they, they, I guess the transformation from MSP to MIP others partners that would actually become managed intelligence providers. [00:06:14] That means really, you know, integrating intelligence into workflow that matters for the SMBs. Right. So you [00:06:23] Vince Menzione: so double click on that for, [00:06:25] Oguo Atuanya: for [00:06:25] Vince Menzione: our [00:06:26] Oguo Atuanya: viewers. Yeah. So all really means is that you’re moving from being that, you know [00:06:29] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:06:30] Oguo Atuanya: Technology, infrastructure, tools, provider to, you know, becoming an, an orchestrator and a and a and a business consultant. [00:06:38] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:06:38] Oguo Atuanya: Right. For you. SMB. Right. So important. ’cause you have to now get into, uh, very secure, streamlined automated AI driven workflows to help them. [00:06:52] Vince Menzione: All driven in the cloud. Everything’s in the cloud now, as opposed to the old days. Right. On premise. [00:06:58] Oguo Atuanya: All gone. None. That’s happening. It’s all gone. All gone. Yeah. [00:07:00] So you, you’ve got this automated platform right now. You should as, um, an MIP, um, we actually gonna be in a position to design, um, agent tech organizations for your, uh, SMBs who wanna scale. ’cause as we talked about yesterday, yeah. SMBs have opportunities they wanna grow, but not have the wherewithal to go hire a hundred people. [00:07:27] Instead of doing that, you go hire a hundred agents. Yeah, but you’re gonna need that MIP to architect, the organization, launch it for you, manage it, get you, you know, automated, you know, workflows that you’d leverage to run your company, and then they have to manage and optimize the technology. Um, as necessary. [00:07:49] So, so, huge shift. [00:07:50] Vince Menzione: Huge shift. [00:07:51] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:07:52] Vince Menzione: And it was interesting for me being at the, where you talked about the write of Boom conference that you, were you, your organization was there? Yeah, I was there as well and I was in the room with some of the Microsoft folks and we had some of those larger partners we talked about [00:08:07] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:08:08] Vince Menzione: That were in the room as well. And just, uh, different perspectives too. Like I hadn’t heard it firsthand. It was interesting for Microsoft too, to get that feedback from. From some of them as well. Um, I think, I think the ones that are progressive are already on board with you. I’ve, I’ve already talked to some of those organizations, like, oh, we’re a hundred percent Pax eight, that’s it. [00:08:29] But then some of the others I think are still, there are still people out there that are stuck in the past. Would you agree? Like this community is in the, is in a transition right now to this new model? [00:08:38] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:08:39] Vince Menzione: Tell [00:08:39] Oguo Atuanya: us [00:08:39] Vince Menzione: about that. [00:08:40] Oguo Atuanya: There are, I mean, listen, I, I don’t, you know, wanna put a number. You know what we’re seeing. [00:08:48] But I’d say that about eventually, let’s say we’re gonna have about 30% of folks that really get it and move. [00:08:56] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:08:56] Oguo Atuanya: Right. The others we’re gonna have to, [00:08:59] Vince Menzione: there’ll be the laggards that’ll [00:09:00] Oguo Atuanya: take longer and let me just, you know, sort of rephrase that state. Most of them understand, you know, what the opportunity is with this whole Yeah. [00:09:14] Vince Menzione: You [00:09:15] Oguo Atuanya: know. They’re still struggling with being able to, you know, articulate this story, um, from a value prop perspective, right? You know, go in, talk to the SMBs, help the SMBs understand how, you know, they can be more productive, more efficient, and um, ultimately more profitable and scale, um, with an agent, you know, framework. [00:09:44] They still struggle. Yeah. And, and that’s kind of where we come in, where we helping these SMB or sorry, MSPs and to be ips. [00:09:54] Vince Menzione: So tell us, understand that. Tell us what you’re doing. I believe you, you stood up like academies and things like that, right? You’re doing some outreach, some enablement for the community? [00:10:02] Is that what it is? [00:10:03] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah, we we’re heavy, we’re heavy in, um, enablement. Um, because, you know, everyone realizes that. To be successful with this whole campaign. It’s not just about putting agents up in an agent store, real, SMB, you know, native, um, vertical aware agents that actually, you know, when you deploy it in an SMB business, right, they drive value right away, [00:10:37] Vince Menzione: right? [00:10:38] Oguo Atuanya: Right. So, but we also realize that it’s not just about, you know, landing the agents in the marketplace, but enablement is a huge factor. That’s why when you go back to things, you know, like academy, uh, the MIP playbook, uh, some of the, uh, inculcation integrations we we’re doing with, um, partners, really critical to have that enablement layer. [00:11:04] Vince Menzione: Interesting. [00:11:04] Oguo Atuanya: Along with providing the agents and the, in the agents store. [00:11:07] Vince Menzione: Who’s developing these agents in the agent store? Are they providers for the MSP community? Are they organizations like Take, take us through that model. [00:11:17] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. So they, they, they, because [00:11:18] Vince Menzione: you, you manage all the vendors. [00:11:20] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah, I do. Right? [00:11:21] Vince Menzione: I do. So tell us more about that. [00:11:22] Oguo Atuanya: I do. So it’s, it’s multifold, right? Um, one fold is you have prebuilt solutions that you know vendors. [00:11:30] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:11:30] Oguo Atuanya: Built for, you know, SMBs and they’re directed towards SMBs. Then you also have a second category, uh, sorry, category of solutions that are more tools that MSBs use. [00:11:42] Right? But there’s also a third, um, prompt to this where we are orchestrating an integration of, um, um, IP between [00:11:54] Vince Menzione: interesting the [00:11:55] Oguo Atuanya: vendor department, uh, into providing, you know, solutions. That we can land in the, in the agent store. [00:12:03] Vince Menzione: That’s fascinating. So, yeah. So you have, so you have a standalone product or a standalone solution or agent. [00:12:10] You have the orchestration and then you have the customer tools and the tool. And the tools. [00:12:14] Oguo Atuanya: Yes. [00:12:15] Vince Menzione: Yes. That’s fascinating. [00:12:17] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. It’s um, it’s sort of a three flying approach that, um, the market needs, right? Yeah. And that, that’s key. By the way, Vince, when you know, um. You’re developing these agents and these solutions. [00:12:30] Yeah. Because they’re not, they’re not just tools anymore, right. Essentially it could be somebody’s, uh, FTE. [00:12:38] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:12:38] Oguo Atuanya: Right. So they have to address a specific outcome. They have to be, you know, uh, valuable. You have to show the ROI and for these SMBs. Don’t have a lot of wiggle room. [00:12:53] Vince Menzione: So you, that they’re smaller companies, right? [00:12:55] Yeah. So anything you do is gonna be super impactful. Yeah. It’s not something they can absorb necessarily, or, you know, lose time and money. [00:13:03] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:13:03] Vince Menzione: Uh, you’ve gotta be very sensitive to that in this, in this market, this size market. And even the MSPs are, even though there are some that are much larger, there’s still a lot of smaller MSPs out there. [00:13:14] Oguo Atuanya: And, and coming to the MIP playbook, um, what partners don’t need anymore. Um, it’s hype. [00:13:23] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:13:24] Oguo Atuanya: They need an almost curriculum driven approach, right. To landing this initiative and infrastructure and also managing it long term. Yeah. So that’s what the MIP playbook does. [00:13:39] Vince Menzione: So you were an executive at Microsoft. [00:13:41] You managed the channel partner. I, I would call the resellers and the disti. In fact, for the America’s business, I believe was your role. [00:13:49] Oguo Atuanya: I I did manage the large resellers. At [00:13:51] Vince Menzione: large resellers. So at one point, and you also had the Disti at one time? [00:13:54] Oguo Atuanya: At one point I had the Disti, the telco, the domain providers. [00:13:58] Vince Menzione: Yes. The large resellers. I remember when we first met, yes. I think that was when, [00:14:00] Oguo Atuanya: yes. [00:14:00] Vince Menzione: Yes. And so when you came, PAX eight is a very strong Microsoft partner. You were, again, I mentioned you were the launch partner or one of the launch partners for the marketplace. [00:14:09] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:14:09] Vince Menzione: But talk about the role and the relationship with Microsoft and the value that PAX eight provides for this market, uh, kind of layering between, uh, the Microsoft components and, and the SMB market. [00:14:24] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Does that [00:14:24] Vince Menzione: make sense? [00:14:25] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. So, so Microsoft has always been. Um, keen on the SMB segment, um, you know, Jose Gomez and Company in the Americas, and folks like, um, Alison West Hughes from a core perspective that, yeah, they’re very serious about this SMB segment. And, um, I’d say the key difference with Microsoft is Microsoft realized early. [00:14:56] Probably based on the fact that Microsoft’s always been a very strong channel friendly, [00:15:01] Vince Menzione: yes. [00:15:01] Oguo Atuanya: Oriented company. I realized earlier that you really can’t scale cost efficiently by having a direct SMB business, right? Right. You have to go through the channel. [00:15:14] Vince Menzione: They’re what, 160,000 MSPs or ips? [00:15:19] Oguo Atuanya: Um, for us at pax, [00:15:21] Vince Menzione: I think for the world. [00:15:22] Oguo Atuanya: Uh, yes. [00:15:22] Vince Menzione: Somewhere the world around there. The world, yeah. You would have to reach all those companies individually, which Yeah, you’d [00:15:27] Oguo Atuanya: have to, well, I mean, even then the, there’s the Ians of SMBs [00:15:31] Vince Menzione: Yes. In worldwide. Yes. That’s right. Right. At at the customer level. The pyramid is huge. You can’t, [00:15:35] Oguo Atuanya: you can’t really scale. [00:15:36] No, you can’t. You can only do that through the channel. [00:15:38] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:15:39] Oguo Atuanya: And, um, I think, I think the relationship between Microsoft and PAX has just. Strengthened over time because Microsoft sees, if we go back to that definition of a, you know, distributor versus a marketplace and a platform provider stuff. So we’re seeing the difference. [00:15:56] Yes. And the value add and, you know, the services led approach that packs it, you know, brings to, um, um, driving the SMB business. Yes. Um, you know, just that we have, we think PAX eight, we have a very strong relationship. And a very strong MSP ecosystem, which is critical when you sort of, you know, uh, look at that difference between just a regular reseller and an MSP. [00:16:26] Vince Menzione: Absolutely. [00:16:26] Oguo Atuanya: Right. Um, you just can’t, what we talked about earlier, just transact a solution and then walk away. It’s, it’s, uh, it’s, um, it, it’s, it’s really a sustainable end-to-end, you know, customer life cycle management approach. When you’re dealing with them. [00:16:44] Vince Menzione: I think it’s important here too, and, and again for the maturity model of our listeners and viewers, it might be at different levels of understanding about the, about the model. [00:16:53] But if you think about the model and the evolution, right, being the, from the old model of being, uh, hardware centric and maybe software centric, uh, the old days of what was a disti, which are not at disti anymore, but, um, the distis were there to provide credit. Availability of product. [00:17:12] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:17:12] Vince Menzione: And And delivery, basically. [00:17:14] Right? Yeah. That was it. [00:17:15] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:17:16] Vince Menzione: And that’s how that they were intermediaries on some of that. [00:17:19] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:17:20] Vince Menzione: But PAX eight evolved at a later time. [00:17:22] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:17:23] Vince Menzione: More modern time, I would say in the cloud. Yeah. [00:17:25] Oguo Atuanya: PAX eight. So one in the cloud, if you will. [00:17:28] Vince Menzione: And I think that’s maybe a differentiation and this new model that it also feels to like this MSP community has been coming along. [00:17:36] And I, I, I believe a lot of thought leadership from the PAX eight side. I’m speak, I’m speaking for you here, but in terms of some bold moves that the organization is doing. [00:17:46] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Listen. Um, as you know, I dealt or engaged with PAX eight for a while before joining PAX eight. [00:17:54] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:17:55] Oguo Atuanya: I’d engaged with p fact fact pxi, funnily enough was the first meeting I had, um, when I came back from the uk. [00:18:02] Vince Menzione: Is that [00:18:02] Oguo Atuanya: right? Yeah. During my stint running, um. Um, devices, uh, sales organization for Microsoft. The first meeting I had coming back into the Americas was so P Aid and Nick Hedy and, uh, Ryan Walsh and, oh, that’s so funny. Joke about it. By the way, Ryan Walsh all has a prep, uh, notes study, you know, he got ready for the media. [00:18:26] Vince Menzione: Oh, that is hilarious. I met Ryan. Uh, we were on stage together at a channel partners a couple years ago. [00:18:32] Can’t [00:18:32] Oguo Atuanya: miss his energy. [00:18:33] Vince Menzione: He can’t [00:18:33] Oguo Atuanya: miss his energy. [00:18:34] Vince Menzione: Such great energy. [00:18:35] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. But, but listen, I think if I could just sum it in a, you know, in a, um, a framework or a box. The key difference between PAC sales is we look at engaging with MSPs in SMB, um, from a customer lifecycle management. [00:18:57] So we start from, Hey, how do we help you with customer acquisition? When you do acquire the customers and you make that first licensing transaction, it doesn’t go away. That’s when we actually start, you know, thinking about how do we help, um, you ensure that your SMBs realize, um, value from what you sold them. [00:19:18] You know, if you need to expand, but, um, beyond one, you know, skew in the stack, that’s what you do because you understand the needs of USMB that helps drive consumption, you know? Nurture that through all, we start, you know, looking at, is it time for re sorry, renewal. There’s a team minus approach to renewal. [00:19:37] ’cause we also keep our eyes on churn. You can, you know, gain as much business as you can, but if you churn, it does nobody any good. Yeah. So we look at things end to end from our position to churn. And that really is embedded in the platform that sits underneath the marketplace. [00:19:53] Vince Menzione: And you act as the, well see, we’re gonna use technical terms here. [00:19:57] CSP. You’re the first layer of CSP and then they, they also, in many cases, sometimes they’re not, but in many cases they are the CSP to the customer. They’re providing the, the licenses to the customer. [00:20:10] Oguo Atuanya: Well, we, so we, we are the first tier of that, you know, two tier [00:20:14] Vince Menzione: Exactly. [00:20:15] Oguo Atuanya: Model. So we, we, [00:20:16] Vince Menzione: you’re tier one [00:20:17] Oguo Atuanya: Microsoft. [00:20:18] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:20:19] Oguo Atuanya: Right. We, you know, as an existing might press on an example, it could be one of our other vendors, like, you know, um, any of the 150 vendors we have. We engage with them, we enable the um, MSP, who’s the resell, who’s really in the traditional sense, the reseller layer, much more valuable in terms of what they do. [00:20:41] Vince Menzione: That’s right. [00:20:41] Oguo Atuanya: And then. The MSP engages with, uh, the end customer. So that’s kind of what the flow is. [00:20:47] Vince Menzione: Yep. Yeah. And that’s one component of what they do for the customer. The transaction is a one one and done sort of. [00:20:53] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:20:53] Vince Menzione: But then it’s all the managed services and layering Oh, provide on top of it. And then all the other solutions say 150 platforms. [00:21:00] Oguo Atuanya: Uh, 150 vendors. [00:21:01] Vince Menzione: Vendors, yeah. So hundreds of platforms that are available to the customer for [00:21:07] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:21:07] Vince Menzione: Through taxane. [00:21:08] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. But, but lemme just emphasize that especially. We are going actually where we are. Right. Um, again, it starts, it starts way to the left of the continuum than just driving the transaction. [00:21:23] Vince Menzione: So take us through the continuum then. [00:21:25] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah, that’s what I said earlier, the continuum is, you know, helping this, helping with [00:21:28] Vince Menzione: acquisition, customer acquisition, [00:21:30] Oguo Atuanya: even, you know, prior to that it’s, it’s helped. We’re getting to a point now where we’re helping these MSPs and they should all be able to do that during the MIP era. [00:21:38] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:21:39] Oguo Atuanya: Understand the market they’re playing it. Yeah. Understand, you know, the market, their SMBs are in, understand their verticals or their scenarios so that you can actually build, you know, this precision, outcome driven, you know, solutions. [00:21:52] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:21:52] Oguo Atuanya: Right. That, that’s the beginning and then you sell and acquire. [00:21:58] Right. And then once you acquire that business, uh, it’s always on, you know, situation. You’re helping realize value. ’cause if you don’t. You’re not expanding beyond the stock. Yes. And um, you’re not driving consumption. And if you don’t drive consumption, [00:22:14] Vince Menzione: you’re not making any money. You’re really not making, [00:22:16] Oguo Atuanya: it’s not churn. [00:22:16] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:22:17] Oguo Atuanya: Right. And then they have to keep an eye on, when renewals come about, there has to be a healthy T minus period. Right. Um, so ensure that you renew during renewals. Um, that’s actually when we then look at, Hey, what’s your stack look like? Right. Especially with the agent era, right? Do you have everything you need? [00:22:37] Do you have the processes? Is there governance? Is there enough security for your, um, SMB, right? So that’s kind of the tune up time before we renew, and then we help you renew and then retain so that it’s, it’s a, it’s a sort of lifecycle approach, not just transactional. [00:22:55] Vince Menzione: Oh, I, I hear. Talk and, you know, I talk to different people in the industry about the SMBs, the MSPs in the SM B market, uh, that some of these organizations are very much, they’re very technical. [00:23:07] Yeah. Like they’re technical folks. Sometimes they’re not sales folks or they’re not consulting type folks. Yes. So how do you help them overcome some of those challenges or those gaps? I mean, I know some of it’s through the academy. [00:23:19] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:23:19] Vince Menzione: Do you help them also with selecting like, how do they think about their organizational structure to have the right people in the right seats and those types of [00:23:26] Oguo Atuanya: things and that, that’s, that’s, [00:23:27] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:23:27] Oguo Atuanya: All what the MIP playbook, that’s, and the process is all about Nice. It’s, it’s, Hey, how do we expand your horizon, you know, beyond just providing the technical aspect things, how do you understand the business? How do you go about conversations to discover, right, your, uh, SMB, right? And once you discover, how do you go about architecting, you know, a value framework that includes, you know, maybe looking at the organization and suggesting agents and then, you know, when you land them, right? [00:23:59] What’s the, um, optimization, you know, process beyond just landing them. So it’s, it’s helping them. [00:24:08] Vince Menzione: Make transit, become business [00:24:09] Oguo Atuanya: consultants. [00:24:09] Vince Menzione: Right, exactly. Which is what they need to do. [00:24:11] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. The, in this era, you really need to understand what your SMB is doing because, you know, think about it for the longest, this sort sub, you know, consultative approaches were only sort of reserved for enterprise. [00:24:26] Vince Menzione: Yeah, that’s right. [00:24:27] Oguo Atuanya: But when you look at how, you know, the solutions that we sell, I change, they’re really enterprise solutions now that are in SMB. Right. You have to sell that way. You have to engage that way. Right? So that, that’s, that’s a key differentiator between being an MSP and an MIP, bringing that intelligence into you applying, you know, an intelligent workflow to the way your SMB conduct that, sorry, conducts their business. [00:24:56] Vince Menzione: So tell, take me through, uh, what the ideal MMSP or MIP looks like to you. Like what is the. The, the top of the top and to the right. And then where do you see the challenges? Why do some organizations or, or, ’cause I’m sure there are some that struggle, whether it’s 10%, 20%. [00:25:14] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Yeah. [00:25:15] Vince Menzione: Because it’s, it’s, it’s a continuum. [00:25:16] It’s a, it’s a cycle to get from, from point A to point B for a lot of these organizations. Right? [00:25:21] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. So [00:25:21] Vince Menzione: what do you see from the challenges they need to overcome and, yeah, so, so the, [00:25:25] Oguo Atuanya: the, the optimal MSP looks like what we just described, right? Yeah. Right. You have an organization that thinks through the process that way, set up. [00:25:33] Right. [00:25:34] Vince Menzione: And they become an ongoing consultant. They help them through the process. They understand ai. Right. This is another thing too, right? Organizations, I mean, are struggling right now with their [00:25:43] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah, absolutely. [00:25:44] Vince Menzione: Their people. [00:25:45] Oguo Atuanya: It’s gotta be the baseline. [00:25:47] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:25:47] Oguo Atuanya: You know, these days, understanding ai, understanding the agent, you know, journey. [00:25:53] Uh, what works well is, um, you know, you, um, you know, you, you. You have to be able to design, um, land a scalable, secure, uh, environment, um, [00:26:13] Vince Menzione: secure. [00:26:16] Oguo Atuanya: So, so security is key here, [00:26:20] Vince Menzione: right? I keep thinking about Claude, what’s happened just in the last several weeks. Yeah. In our industry with people putting things up on, through, through open browsers. [00:26:28] Yeah. [00:26:29] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:26:29] Vince Menzione: To Claude and to. Different tools. [00:26:31] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Yeah. [00:26:32] Vince Menzione: And if you’re an SM B and you’re trying to lock down your environment’s, don’t want, that’s, you don’t want your data exposed. [00:26:37] Oguo Atuanya: That’s why security is [00:26:38] Vince Menzione: huge, [00:26:39] Oguo Atuanya: is key. But, you know, one of the things we recommend is start very specific. Uh, it could be a bundle that includes, you know, could be co-pilot, could be some other AI pillar. [00:26:52] Uh, and then it has to be, you know, a security layer. [00:26:57] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:26:58] Oguo Atuanya: Uh, to that. Then there has to be an enablement, you know, services layer to that as well, right? So, um, you build secure, um, you land, uh, and then skills develop key, right? And then monetization. You have to be able to hit those levels, uh, to be able to survive in this world. [00:27:22] You’re no longer just selling. Tools. [00:27:27] Vince Menzione: Yes. At margins, [00:27:30] Oguo Atuanya: flat margins. So the tool, the tool sprawl, um, is what takes a lot of margins away. [00:27:37] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:27:37] Oguo Atuanya: From the equation. [00:27:38] Vince Menzione: Right? Tell, tell us about that. ’cause I, I, I remember even back in my Microsoft days, yeah, we would go in and, and have partners that were successful that would say. [00:27:47] In fact, the ones that are most successful would basically tell the customer, you already own it. Like you have a, you have an enterprise agreement and it has all the capabilities you need to run your enterprise, and you’re buying all these other one-off solutions and trying to patch them into your, into your portfolio of your, your solution set. [00:28:04] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Nobody, nobody, especially in SB, nobody wants any more tools. [00:28:08] Vince Menzione: No, I can [00:28:09] Oguo Atuanya: imagine. Um, you, you’ve gotta sort of assemble this thing into a platform that works. [00:28:14] Vince Menzione: Yep. [00:28:15] Oguo Atuanya: Right. And it’s gotta be repeatable. If it’s not repeatable, then you’re not driving the frequency. Right. It’s gotta be scalable. Um, ’cause if it’s scalable, then you’re going into, um, that kind of sprawl where people start thinking they need to replace gaps with more tools. [00:28:32] Yeah. Nobody needs. Right. [00:28:34] Vince Menzione: And that creates more vulnerability by putting [00:28:36] Oguo Atuanya: Absolutely. [00:28:37] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:28:37] Oguo Atuanya: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s [00:28:39] Vince Menzione: fascinating. So [00:28:40] Oguo Atuanya: it’s, it’s a different, um. Sort of engagement and I, I’m refraining from saying it to different kind of sell because the connotation of sell is you transact and you’re gone. It’s a full lifecycle engagement model. [00:28:56] Yeah. [00:28:56] Vince Menzione: I think what you’re doing is you’re enabling the evolution of this market. [00:29:01] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah, [00:29:01] Vince Menzione: that’s the way I would say it. [00:29:02] Oguo Atuanya: Well, that, that’s exactly what we’re trying to do with, um, the shift from MSP to MIP is. Um, we’re driving the transformation in SMB. [00:29:12] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:29:13] Oguo Atuanya: I, I mean, the ultimate goal is to get that MIP channel as intelligent or even more intelligent and agile than any enterprise IT department. [00:29:23] Yes. ’cause they are the, [00:29:24] Vince Menzione: they are ones, the enterprise IT department [00:29:26] Oguo Atuanya: for that customer. Yeah. The, the word trusted advisor is gonna take a very, you know, it’s [00:29:31] Vince Menzione: fascinating, [00:29:31] Oguo Atuanya: more serious connotation in this space. Because the SMBs are dependent on you as the MMIP for that. [00:29:39] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Let’s talk, we, we had a session on marketplace yesterday. [00:29:42] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:29:43] Vince Menzione: Um, you have been a great driver now through, especially through this new program, the new unified marketplace. [00:29:50] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:29:50] Vince Menzione: Uh, PAX eight is stood, stood above and beyond and doubled sales, I think is what I thought I heard. Take, take us through some of the, [00:29:58] Oguo Atuanya: well, I mean, uh, uh, a marketplace. Uh, marketplace sales has grown exponentially, [00:30:04] Vince Menzione: exponentially, [00:30:04] Oguo Atuanya: right? [00:30:05] Um, um, this partnership with Microsoft is really all about for the first time, um, integrating, you know, both the, uh, Microsoft, uh, marketplace and the P State marketplace into the MSP delivery, you know, system. Right? What does that mean for the MSP? It means that for the first time, the MSP is gonna have an ability to, um, you know, uh, bundle seamlessly or package seamlessly. [00:30:36] I know from a Microsoft Yeah. Package seamlessly. Um, you know, so Microsoft, uh, solutions and third party solutions that are complimentary again, to driving the outcomes that, you know, uh, the SMB needs. It’s really all about provisioning. Um, and, um, you know, building those solutions intelligently and, and dynamically, right? [00:31:05] Where it’s very scalable, right? So that, that’s sort of what the intelligence and the, the dexterity of our marketplace, uh, does. Right? So, so it’s, it’s, it’s creating, you know, um, provisioning, building, uh, transacting. Then really managing in a very automated fashion. Right. So that’s what the MSP gets. Yes. [00:31:32] The vendor, like Microsoft and other vendors remove the guesswork from, is this actually gonna hit the mark for, uh, SMBs? ’cause we do that curation through the discovery when we, you know, integrate marketplaces. Make sure that those solutions, those agents that land in the marketplace are SMB applicable. [00:31:57] ’cause the other thing we, we, we see in the marketplace, and I’m using the general marketplace is, um, a lot of companies will tell you that they have SMB solutions or agents. Yes, in the marketplace. And then you go into the marketplace and these are really enterprise, enterprise [00:32:14] Vince Menzione: solutions. Solutions that are [00:32:15] Oguo Atuanya: being forced down into SMB. [00:32:18] Well, you can’t do that these days ’cause you have to hit that, you know, customer, um, precision when you’re driving, you know, outcome based solutions. You have to be precise. [00:32:29] Vince Menzione: What is, what is the curation process for? Um, I’m an SMB customer. I come to the MSP. And you help at your marketplace level, it sounds like you help design what the right solution is. [00:32:42] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Yeah. [00:32:42] Vince Menzione: So what, tell, take us through that process real quick. [00:32:45] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. So, um, you know, we have a set of folks internally. Along with our PXI labs people. [00:32:52] Vince Menzione: Okay. [00:32:53] Oguo Atuanya: When we’re actually intaking, you know? So [00:32:56] Vince Menzione: you’re using AI as well on that side of Yeah. We use AI Doing your discovery process for the customers. Yes. [00:33:02] Using [00:33:02] Oguo Atuanya: AI as well. It, it uses ai, the rules that are being written into it, you know, [00:33:06] Vince Menzione: it [00:33:06] Oguo Atuanya: processes, Hey, it’s gotta be applicable from an SMB perspective. Right. This [00:33:10] Vince Menzione: is very cool. [00:33:11] Oguo Atuanya: Right. So, um, you know, we, we do that, we ensure that it’s, um. It’s applicable. There’s no guesswork. Right. Then we put it on the, um, on the agent store. [00:33:22] Right. And then, um, you know, we help the, uh, uh, MSPs, um, architect and fit solutions around the agents, you know, for very specific outcomes. That’s, uh, so it’s, [00:33:36] Vince Menzione: this is fascinating. [00:33:37] Oguo Atuanya: It’s a very curated process. [00:33:39] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So for, um, the market, the MSP market or MIP market that are watching and listening today, and maybe they’re not with PAX eight yet. [00:33:49] Like what would, what would be the, the, I mean you’ve already described what the differentiation Yeah. Just, I’m just thinking out loud here. Like what would you say to them today, especially as this market is changing, not your market, but the, just the technology sector, the, the shifts are happening so fast right now. [00:34:07] What would be the. I guess the one piece of advice you would give to this community of technology companies out there that they should think about for 10 26. [00:34:18] Oguo Atuanya: It’s, it’s really refrain from Yeah. Selling just tools and infrastructure. Yeah. [00:34:30] Vince Menzione: Which is the way a lot of them have been structured. That’s right. [00:34:32] They’ve done right. [00:34:33] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. Think about [00:34:34] Vince Menzione: they’ve gone down a road with a vendor because they got great margins for some reason. [00:34:37] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. So understand your customer, the space they’re playing and how you can build, you know, solutions, uh, for them. Be specific vis-a-vis the solutions that you’re building. Right. [00:34:50] Again, um. I was having a conversation yesterday with Nina Hard, and we’re talking about the high heat of, uh, traffic verticals, right? Yeah. Uh, you know, things like healthcare, uh, things like financial services, right? Be very specific in the solutions that you’re building, right? Don’t experiment too much land on what an applicable solution is. [00:35:18] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Predictable [00:35:18] Oguo Atuanya: solution. Make it repeatable, make it. Scalable. Emphasize on the upscale and enablement right, and focus on the monetization. Understand exactly how you’re gonna articulate the value add and the ROI. To [00:35:40] Vince Menzione: To the customer. [00:35:41] Oguo Atuanya: The SMB. [00:35:41] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:35:42] Oguo Atuanya: Because that’s where a lot of folks struggle, right. They still cannot do all that, [00:35:47] Vince Menzione: and they get stuck on the cost to the customer. [00:35:50] They get hung up, I guess, is what I would say. Right. They don’t, they don’t articulate the value enough. [00:35:55] Oguo Atuanya: Well, they’re not selling outcomes. [00:35:57] Vince Menzione: They’re not selling outcomes. They’re selling, [00:35:58] Oguo Atuanya: they’re trying to piece together tools. [00:36:00] Vince Menzione: Hot [00:36:00] Oguo Atuanya: and hot [00:36:01] Vince Menzione: tools, [00:36:01] Oguo Atuanya: spot applications. [00:36:02] Vince Menzione: Tools, tools is the best way to [00:36:03] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:36:04] Vince Menzione: To describe it [00:36:04] Oguo Atuanya: to [00:36:05] Vince Menzione: the [00:36:05] Oguo Atuanya: company and all else spills come to Pax it. [00:36:07] Yes. Teach you how to do it. [00:36:09] Vince Menzione: Well, I, I’m fascinated to join you in June at Beyond. [00:36:13] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:36:13] Vince Menzione: Um, same [00:36:15] Oguo Atuanya: here. [00:36:15] Vince Menzione: So dates again. [00:36:18] Oguo Atuanya: Vincent, you put me, I think it’s, uh, June 7th to the ninth. [00:36:21] Vince Menzione: June 7th to the ninth. [00:36:22] Oguo Atuanya: And this is, uh, in Salt Lake City. In Salt Lake City [00:36:25] Vince Menzione: this [00:36:25] Oguo Atuanya: year. [00:36:25] Vince Menzione: Salt [00:36:25] Oguo Atuanya: Lake [00:36:26] Vince Menzione: year. Yeah. You had it, you had it in a different in Colorado last year [00:36:28] Oguo Atuanya: we had it in Denver. [00:36:29] So this is actually, this is actually, um, this is [00:36:32] Vince Menzione: your hometown, [00:36:33] Oguo Atuanya: the company. Yeah. This is, this is the mainstream. Beyond. So [00:36:36] Vince Menzione: I love [00:36:37] Oguo Atuanya: it. This is a big event. [00:36:38] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:36:38] Oguo Atuanya: Right. ’cause we also have regional events. [00:36:40] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Like four or 5,000 people. I think last year [00:36:43] Oguo Atuanya: it was right around three to 4,000. Three to 4,000 last year. [00:36:45] I think we’re gonna get, you know, more than that. Yeah. In, in, uh, salt Lake City. Then of course we have, um, a regional beyond. We just had the Em me version in, um, Berlin. Um. Netherlands, [00:36:56] Vince Menzione: Netherlands [00:36:57] Oguo Atuanya: after that. [00:36:57] Vince Menzione: But you did Berlin last year? We [00:36:59] Oguo Atuanya: did Berlin. Berlin last I knew years ago. Next year we’ll be in, uh, uh, Copenhagen. [00:37:03] Vince Menzione: Okay. [00:37:03] Oguo Atuanya: And then we’ll also have, um, uh, Asia version. Nice. Uh, in 27 [00:37:08] Vince Menzione: Milano. Maybe the year after would be good. [00:37:11] Oguo Atuanya: We, we, we need to arrange, I’ll work with, um, uh, you know, uh, MCEO. Harold. [00:37:16] Vince Menzione: I love it. I love it. [00:37:17] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. [00:37:17] Vince Menzione: Um. I would, uh, so I have one question. I might’ve asked you this question before, but I would love to just ask you now. [00:37:24] ’cause times have changed. Our lives change, but this is my favorite question. I ask all my guests, especially all my good friends like you, you’re hosting a dinner party and you can host a dinner party anywhere in the world. It might be here, it might be in Houston, it might be in Kenya, it might be anywhere. [00:37:41] We maybe, maybe it’s in EMEA or AsiaPac. Um. You can invite any three guests from the present or the past to this amazing dinner, whom would you invite? A guo and why? [00:37:55] Oguo Atuanya: So this one always gets me because [00:37:58] Vince Menzione: I love that. [00:37:59] Oguo Atuanya: Yeah. So, you know, you and I have talked before, right? So there’s a standing, uh, invitation for my mom, you know, who know? [00:38:05] Love that. Yes. Swear a while ago. [00:38:07] Vince Menzione: Yes. Yes. [00:38:07] Oguo Atuanya: And then, you know, my sister also who [00:38:09] Vince Menzione: passed [00:38:10] Oguo Atuanya: away, passed away in May [00:38:10] Vince Menzione: last year. [00:38:11] Oguo Atuanya: So I’d love to have this tea because, you know. [00:38:14] Vince Menzione: Some great conversations. We’ll see how [00:38:15] Oguo Atuanya: he’s doing and, you know, and check [00:38:17] Vince Menzione: in with [00:38:17] Oguo Atuanya: how, how, how things, um, are going and now Wow. This third one, [00:38:24] Vince Menzione: who’s the third one? [00:38:26] Oguo Atuanya: This third [00:38:26] Vince Menzione: one is, he talked about your son a little bit the last couple of days. Yeah. Days. But I don’t think, [00:38:30] Oguo Atuanya: I don’t think he’s, he wants to be bored. [00:38:33] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:38:33] Oguo Atuanya: Having, having, um, a dinner with you [00:38:35] Vince Menzione: and you’ll be there. So now we need to ask add one more [00:38:38] Oguo Atuanya: person. Yeah. We need to add one more person. I’m thinking about that. [00:38:42] MSB. Who’s become an MIPI [00:38:46] Vince Menzione: love it. [00:38:47] Oguo Atuanya: I [00:38:47] Vince Menzione: would [00:38:47] Oguo Atuanya: love to have him at the, or her at the table. [00:38:50] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:38:51] Oguo Atuanya: And, and talk about what that journey was like. [00:38:53] Vince Menzione: I love it. I love it. Well, that’ll be a fun dinner and I might come by and bring dessert or something. [00:38:58] Oguo Atuanya: You, [00:38:58] Vince Menzione: you, you, [00:38:59] Oguo Atuanya: you’re [00:38:59] Vince Menzione: always maybe just stop by and say, [00:39:00] Oguo Atuanya: you’re always welcome. [00:39:01] Vince Menzione: I’d love to meet your mom and your sister. So [00:39:03] Oguo Atuanya: thank you Vince. [00:39:04] Vince Menzione: Um, you are a great friend. I’m so excited to have you here in the room. Your organization is doing incredible things and we love having you as part of ultimate partner in our community. So, so great to see you again, my friend. [00:39:18] Oguo Atuanya: Appreciate it, Vince. [00:39:19] It’s always a, a pleasure being here with you and seeing you and, uh, I can’t wait to see you beyond. [00:39:24] Vince Menzione: I love [00:39:24] Oguo Atuanya: it folks out there. It’s selling out. So [00:39:26] Vince Menzione: babe, [00:39:27] Oguo Atuanya: get our, [00:39:27] Vince Menzione: get your tickets [00:39:28] Oguo Atuanya: soon. June 7th to ninth. It’s, uh, the biggest show in the MSU [00:39:31] Vince Menzione: world. It’s the biggest show. And then we, uh, is also gonna participate, I believe, at our, at our Bellevue event, Bellview Forum, which will be an incredible event. [00:39:39] Yeah. And May 13th, May 11th, through the 13th. I want to thank you for watching. I wanna thank you for listening to this episode of The Ultimate Eye, to partnering and following our YouTube channel, ultimate Partner, and for being part of our community at Ultimate Partner. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. [00:39:55] Thank you. Don’t forget, ultimate Partner Live is coming soon, may 11 through the 13th in beautiful Bellevue, Washington. I hope to see you there.

⁠⁠Enio Augusto⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ e ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Marcos Buosi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ trazem as notícias do mundo da corrida com os comentários, informações, opiniões e análises mais pertinentes, peculiares e inesperadas no Redação PFC. Escute, informe-se e divirta-se.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠SEJA MEMBRO DO CANAL!!!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Jason Beal, President, Americas at Exclusive Networks, spoke with Doug Green, Publisher of Technology Reseller News, during the Channel Partners Conference & Expo about the company's channel-first approach to cybersecurity and how partners can capitalize on growing demand for advanced security solutions. Beal explained that as cyber threats continue to evolve, organizations are looking for specialized security solutions that go beyond traditional offerings. Exclusive Networks focuses on delivering a curated portfolio of best-of-breed cybersecurity technologies through a partner-led model. “Our entire business is built around enabling partners to bring world-class security solutions to their customers,” Beal said. The discussion highlighted how Exclusive Networks supports partners with not only technology but also services, training, and go-to-market resources. This enables MSPs, VARs, and service providers to expand their cybersecurity capabilities without needing to build deep expertise in-house. Beal also emphasized the importance of specialization in today's market. As cybersecurity becomes more complex, partners who can differentiate themselves with advanced solutions and expertise are better positioned to win and retain customers. As conversations at Channel Partners continue to focus on security, AI, and partner growth, Exclusive Networks is positioning itself as a key enabler for partners looking to build scalable, high-value cybersecurity practices. Learn more about Exclusive Networks: https://www.exclusive-networks.com/usa

Era véspera do feriado judaico de Pessach. O plano dos nazistas era, em poucos dias, acabar com o que restava do Gueto de Varsóvia. Mas encontraram uma resistência inesperada. Jovens, em especial de movimentos juvenis, decidiram se organizar e, armados, resistiram o quanto puderam. Durou um mês. E este se tornou, para sempre, o grande símbolo de resistência judaica durante o Holocausto .Dia 19 de abril é o dia em que lembramos o Levante do Gueto de Varsóvia, quando a revolta começou, no ano de 1943, no calendário gregoriano. No calendário judaico, é também esta a data que inspira do Iom Hashoá. E é sobre a relevância deste evento histórico que vamos conversar. Nossa convidada é Thais Lancman, que é escritora, mestre em Literatura Judaica pela USP e doutora em Literatura Comparada pela Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. E pra sempre uma bogeret do Habonim Dror

In Episode 152 of “The Trusted Advisor,” RPOWER President Jami Interdonato, BlueStar CMO Dean Reverman, and RSPA CEO Jim Roddy analyze the 2026 RSPA Retail IT Channel KPI Study. Interdonato, Reverman, and Roddy discuss the resurgence of partnerships, the resiliency of high-initiative VARs and ISVs, the short- and long-term benefits of recurring revenue, and more.  To download your copy of the 2026 RSPA Retail IT Channel KPI Study, visit: www.GoRSPA.org/blog-2026-rspa-retail-it-channel-kpi-study/  “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 this episode of the CPQ Podcast, Frank Sohn speaks with Garima and Pulin about how AI-driven fair market value (FMV) intelligence can support pricing and CPQ-related processes in the used IT asset market. The conversation goes beyond product features and also explores the personal stories behind the business. Garima shares her journey from flight attendant to entrepreneur and explains why perseverance has been such an important strength throughout her career. Pulin talks about starting out in finance, teaching himself computer skills, learning from a failed startup, and even driving Uber in the early days of the company to help keep the business going. On the business side, this episode looks at how their platform is designed to bring more structure and pricing transparency to the used IT asset industry. Pulin describes the goal as creating something similar to a Kelly Blue Book for used IT assets, while Garima explains why fair market value is at the center of the platform. The discussion also covers why they see CPQ and their business as mirror images, how FMV-based intelligence can influence pricing decisions, and why this matters for organizations involved in reverse supply chain and asset monetization processes. Frank, Garima, and Pulin also discuss the company's ideal customer profile, including OEMs, VARs, and ITAD organizations, as well as broader trends around AI, data, integration, and the future of pricing.  This episode is especially relevant for anyone interested in: CPQ AI in pricing Fair market value intelligence Quote-to-cash Used IT asset pricing Reverse supply chain technology IT asset disposition (ITAD) If you work in CPQ, pricing, revenue operations, or B2B technology, this conversation offers a different perspective on how pricing intelligence can shape commercial processes in markets that have historically lacked consistent benchmarks.

The deployment of artificial intelligence across the business sector is introducing structural margin pressure rather than delivering the promised productivity dividend. Rather than self-funding through measurable efficiency gains, AI investments are currently being financed through compensation cuts, organizational tightening, and heightened performance expectations, as evidenced by data from ActivTrak, Gallup, Novoresume, and ResumeBuilder. This shift positions AI less as a driver of output and more as a cost-cutting measure embedded in software spending. Concrete developments show that, according to ActivTrak analysis, time spent on email and messaging has increased after AI adoption, while uninterrupted focus time has declined. Gallup data confirms that about 40% of employees use AI tools, though only a fraction leverage them effectively. Novoresume's survey reveals that although half of AI users report completing tasks more quickly, much of the saved time is not reinvested in productive output, and over half of respondents believe they could perform their roles at a similar level without AI involvement. Supporting evidence from Jobs for the Future identifies significant worker skepticism and low readiness, with only 36% of employees feeling equipped to use AI effectively and 44% viewing AI as a net negative for jobs and quality of life. Further, Snowflake's findings indicate that organizations are adjusting headcount to fill new skill gaps while eliminating overlapping functions. Inside the channel, ConnectWise observes that larger MSPs and VARs are curtailing compensation increases and relying on AI as a headcount management lever, exacerbating delivery expectations as evidenced in the Resume Builder findings. The operational consequences for MSPs and IT service providers are clear: organizations can no longer treat AI as a simple add-on. Providers face heightened expectations to deliver measurable outcomes—such as enhanced ticket resolution or lower escalation rates—despite constrained labor resources and ongoing workflow disruption. Without system-level productivity proof, procurement may preemptively reduce service spend. Effective risk management now requires auditing AI deployments for verifiable workflow changes, embedding measurable AI outcomes in QBRs, and treating workflow redesign and user training not as optional extras but as necessary, billable services. 00:00 Busier With AI 03:05 AI Outpaces Workers 05:33 MSP Squeeze 07:46 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  Nerdio , HaloPSA

The episode identifies a fundamental structural shift in the MSP and IT services landscape: vendor channel consolidation and ecosystem dependency are increasingly determining who controls customer relationships, margins, and access to recurring revenue streams. Companies such as Microsoft, Anthropic, and Huntress are actively reshaping the ecosystem by investing significant resources in partner programs and platform strategies that dictate operational baselines and restrict neutrality. This realignment is driving MSPs to deliberately choose platform alignments, as attempting to remain neutral increasingly results in a loss of relevance and market access. Central to this shift is Anthropic's $100 million investment in launching the Claude Partner Network for 2026, which creates certification and co-sell incentives for firms capable of implementing Claude within enterprise environments. According to Dave Sobel, this is not long-range product development but a concentrated customer acquisition cost to rapidly build channel coverage. In parallel, Microsoft is embedding Anthropic models within Copilot, shifting to a multi-model approach that retains flexibility at the AI model layer while keeping Azure as the entrenched operational platform. Supporting developments reinforce these channel and ecosystem pressures. Huntress's move to expand its partner program to value-added resellers (VARs) dilutes its previously MSP-exclusive channel, removing some of the distribution advantages MSPs may have relied upon. Sonomi's positioning of third-party risk management as an MSP revenue opportunity comes amid rising supply chain risk, as supported by ConnectWise's 2026 MSP Threat Report highlighting increased identity abuse and supply chain attacks. Simultaneously, declining PC shipments—especially for budget devices—are shifting the economic emphasis from hardware projects to operational service engagements such as identity governance and lifecycle management. The operational implications for MSPs are clear: partner program frameworks have become the gatekeepers of pricing, leads, and ongoing service annuities, reducing the room for independent strategy or procurement-driven decisions. Ecosystem alignment must be intentional and based on a realistic assessment of program timelines, certification windows, and revenue structure. As hardware refresh cycles slow and vendors consolidate services and identity requirements, MSPs face increased dependency risk, potential margin erosion, and diminished negotiating leverage. Those failing to anticipate or adapt to these shifts risk being relegated to subcontractor roles without control over customer relationships or recurring revenues. Three things to know today 00:00 AI Channel War 02:27 Identity Baseline Shift 03:43 Refresh Revenue Shift 04:46 Why Do We Care?  Supported by:  Small Biz Thoughts Community