Meet Terrence Boylan of PacketLogix!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Founded in 2002, PacketLogix has worked with organizations of all different sizes and in a broad spectrum of market sectors. In the early days of PacketLogix, we focused exclusively on the corporate enterprise marketplace assisting large organizations and agencies mainly with network security and wireless design. As cyberthreats became more omni-present, we have invested significantly in our capability of helping better protect both clients’ networks, but also their end points and servers. For the past fifteen years, we have been working with the United States federal government through our own GSA blanket contract. We have worked on national classified networks at various intelligence agencies, trained network technicians in Baghdad, Iraq, and even worked with the US Secret Service, US House of Represtatives, and the US Senate. In recent years, PacketLogix has taken a focus closer to home in Rhode Island helping the small to medium business community.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
Since January 2020.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
The model, the Support Desk and tools were clearly first class and what we needed to get to our next level.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
The biggest change I have had since joining The 20 was the realization and action I have taken in seeking our larger clients that I can now handle with the support of The 20 Support Desk and community of like-minded partners.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
Hands down – the other members. Their generosity and honest desire to help me grow my business has been so overwhelming. I hope when I get on my feet I’ll be able to repay it forward with other members.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Never, ever, ever give up. You can screw up 7 ways til Sunday, but don’t ever give up.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Sales and marketing. Getting new clients.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
New client acquisition and bringing our operations in line with the best practices of The 20 and its members.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Sales and marketing is everything. Yes, you need great operations, but without sales and marketing excellence, you won’t have anyone to support.
What book are you currently reading?
MSSP Playbook by Charles Henson
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Interested in becoming a member like PacketLogix? Click here for more information!
Meet Gary Blawat of Businertia!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Businertia was established in 2006. Originally, we were going to be a management consulting business and had an opportunity to start an IT business for a real estate investor that wanted to diversify. We actually had two articles written about our flat-rate IT model in 2007. However, when the market crashed in 2008, we were able to negotiate an asset purchase for the IT company we started. Twelve years later, we are still enjoying delivering IT services to the SMB market.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
I saw Tim talking about Cytracom at ASCII for a couple of years before we joined and kept hearing about this great idea called ‘The 20.’ So, in May of 2018, I decided to dig a little deeper and I signed up a month later. Michael Vu, Michael Wayland, and others were big influencers to our decision. When you can hear the vision and then talk to people that are working to make it a reality, it was a game changer.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
The bottom line was scale. With every new customer we always seemed to hit a resource limitation to perform technical work to a high quality and focus on growing the business. The biggest thing I realized was that we needed to focus on building our competitive advantage and that was not going to happen by organically growing a support desk or just outsourcing it. So, the idea of us joining a group that was building a common support desk, leveraging core tools, and most importantly: giving us access to a dynamic, mastermind group, became too good to pass up. It quickly became an integral part of our future growth plans.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
Ensuring that we continue to create face value with all of our clients. Once the documentation is done and the support desk starts handling the day-to-day ad hoc requests, it became increasingly noticeable that we are in the ‘people business.’ We needed to ensure we were still reaching our customers in ways that maintained our local presence, but demonstrated the depth to handle their every day demands. The challenging part of that was not bypassing the support desk and doing simple work to create that value. With the amount of information that flows in the Teams channels, the question is not ‘how’ to create that value, but implementing ideas in planned stages over the course of a customer’s agreement.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The people. There is so much business and technical acumen within the group. Every VISION, Quarterly, or daily peruse of Teams gives another ‘Aha!’ moment to solve a problem.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Self-discipline. It is so easy to get carried away on fun items or worry about items that cannot be controlled. I’m always in awe over those leaders that have mastered it. They know when to push themselves enough to move ahead or just seem to focus on the right things at the right time.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Setting the right expectations. Really identifying where I want to take this business so it supports the right balance for my lifestyle and for my employees.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
Setting the wheels in motion to become the best communicating MSP (MID) Service provider in South Eastern Wisconsin. This also includes re-branding the organization to better match who we are.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Stop looking at support desk as a cost-per-hour as it relates to dollars spent in correlation to amount-of-time on tickets. Having the support desk should be looked at as an operational cost that provides you scale in a very budgetable way. However, keep in mind, having a 24/7/365 support desk is only one facet of how you create value to your customers. There is still work to be done in justifying the price points you need to grow your business.
What book are you currently reading?
A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.
– How can you not be interested in learning a philosophical way of battle/life from a Samurai?
Favorite blogs / podcasts
The humorous subtitles in response to the article title starts my day with a laugh. For instance, take article title ‘The new surf game in Microsoft Edge now available for everyone.’ — the subtitle to the article is ‘I guess this means all the bugs are fixed (and they’ve run out of icons to change)?’
Interested in becoming a member like Businertia? Click here for more information!
Meet Caleb Brown, Owner of JS Computek!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
JS Computek is headquartered in Columbia, MO and we’ve been serving Mid-Missouri since 1997.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We chose to strategically partner with The 20 in early 2019.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
There were many factors, but here are the most influential:
A. The ability to scale with confidence.
B. The extra knowledge, cooperation, and human resources.
C. The ability to deliver the MID model which aligned with our company mission of delivering “IT Sanity” to our clients and staff.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
Since joining, the biggest impact has really been internally — thinking about making documentation and processes clear, concise, and accurate.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The helpful members; so many great resources in the group to share with.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Be willing to grow and adapt in your mindset and processes.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Breaking through the mindset of the prospect’s belief that IT should be like calling a plumber and that break/fix is a smart way to run a business.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
For 2020 our core areas of focus are cloud migrations and new client acquisition.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Find your uniques, define and sharpen your core processes, and then build systems around those processes that allow you to scale up or down on demand.
What book are you currently reading?
I’m currently reading The Compound Effect.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Krebs on Security and Darran Daily.
Interested in becoming a member like JS Computek? Click here for more information!
Meet Michael Wayland, Managing Director of Byte-Werx!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
We’re Byte-Werx, an MSP out of Houston, Texas. We started business in March of 2013. Originally we were a web design and development company. After years of trying to be both, I realized I wanted to laser-focus on being an MSP. So, in January of 2017, I bought out my partners and made it happen! Since then we’ve had amazing growth and found success with CPAs, law firms, and a variety of other clientele from several industries.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We joined the 20 in June of 2017 — we’re looking forward to our 3rd anniversary coming up!
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
As a small local shop, I wanted to be able to offer my clients 24/7 service, assistance when we were unavailable, and best-in-class software that being in a big group provides.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
The biggest change is the community and drive to always make ourselves better. It has allowed me to learn and implement best-in-industry policies and procedures as well as letting me focus on growing my business.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The outstanding community. We are a member of several industry groups and none of them feel like The 20. The relationships we’ve built here have been some of the most beneficial in my career and I know there are several members that would be willing to drop what they’re doing and fly out to my aid if I really needed it.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, you need to run your business like it’s a business and not a job. This means building process and procedures that scale, documentation, and being ready to hit the gas to grow when you’re ready.
What are your biggest business challenges?
One of our biggest challenges is getting our message out to new businesses who may have never heard of us. Lead generation has never come naturally to me but we’re starting to see a lot of promising returns on our investments now.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
For 2020 our primary focus will be on business workflows and implementing a modern workplace to our new and existing clients. With the jarring COVID-19 events, it is clear that all businesses need to be able to pick up and work anywhere at anytime and we truly believe that is the future of work.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
As an MSP our real value-add and profit driver is automation and efficiencies. You can’t roll a truck for every problem or do one-off remote log-ins. To scale you need to create a flexible and complete stack so you can focus on learning and perfecting your procedures.
What book are you currently reading?
I’m currently digesting Getting Naked and would highly recommend it. It shows how being completely honest with your clients will win you loyalty and allow you to grow your business. I will always recommend The Checklist Manifesto for any MSP just getting started on getting their process and procedures in order.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
I listen to a lot of podcasts. Non MSP-related podcasts include FiveThirtyEight, EconTalk, and Planet Money. My favorite MSP/industry podcasts are: Frankly MSP, Security Now, and MSP Voice.
Interested in becoming a member like Byte-Werx? Click here for more information!
