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!
One concern often not touched with the move to work from home is how do you verify who you’re speaking to really is who they say they are? It’s easy to make a deepfake voice and it’s getting easier to use that for fraud. We live in a post-security world where you don’t only focus on preventing a breach, you accept it as an eventual inevitability and focus on limiting the impact. Credentials will be breached, but access doesn’t necessarily have to be.
A password used to be enough, but with shared password, simple passwords, weak encryption, or even just system breaches, getting a password compromised is easier than ever. I take many precautions and I’ve had it happen to me due to exploits with the provider. Passwords aren’t the only things you need to be worried about either.
You have the technical requirements to work from home, and you need to make sure you can keep it secure. If your encryption is broken, it doesn’t matter how complex the password is. Likewise, if your password is cracked, there’s no need to break the encryption. Each layer of complexity leads to a new potential attack surface. Security was 2D in the early 90’s, and now we’re at string theory. Social engineering isn’t just wearing a vest into a building anymore, it’s a mix of technology and human fallibility.
Why Should You Verify?
With changes in technology, and the number of ways security can be breached, if you can’t see the person, how do you know they are who they say they are? I might have talked to a client many times, but what identifying information do I really know about them? If you’re in a help desk or a large office, what do you actually know about Kenneth in accounting or Jane in marketing?
Most people know very little about their coworkers outside of their immediate coworkers (except at the smallest companies) and what they reveal at work. What does John in the next cube do in his free time? How many kids does he have, if any? Where did he grow up? You might know some of these, but not all of them, and that’s normal. While working from home, what happens if “John” calls you and needs a financial transfer? How can you tell if it’s him or just sounds like him?
When you become their IT provider, what do you do when you need to somehow verify that Sam in accounting needs to get access to John’s computer? How do you know it’s Sam working remotely and not a potential threat? You can’t reasonably learn every employee at every site or even a large subset, so what do you do?
Verifying Clients and Multi-Factor Authentication
You have to draw a line somewhere in order to trust someone. A password can be compromised, but 2 different passwords is less likely. This is the general principle behind 2FA and standard MFA solutions. 3 simple passwords can be substantially harder than 1 extremely difficult password. 3 challenges in sequence is harder to crack than 1 challenge.
When I write a login to something that’s going to be public facing, I like to add in a nice half second delay between all attempts. That includes going from the login to 2FA with legit credentials. It doesn’t matter if they’re using a super computer to brute force the login, they get at best 2 attempts a second.
2FA and MFA are great for logins, but what do you do when a person needs to speak to you to describe their problem or login issue? You need to figure out a way to do the equivalent without crossing ethical boundaries and without creating an imposition. You need to rely on a secret and make it scalable.
While this sounds like a daunting task, the trick is to be secure enough to make breaches have time to be verified rather than aiming for perfect security. Sending a code to a specific email or a cell phone can be more than enough combined with making the user provide that information. How likely is your hacker to get physical access to your client’s employee’s phone, their password to gain access, and their IT information?
Your hacker might have memorized every fact about John, but if he can’t pass the authentication, you don’t provide service. The real John at worst has to go home and get their phone or reach out through a controlled channel internally for further service.
Verification Solutions
Most verification solutions require you to install something or use some kind of 2FA application. The problem is, a lot of users don’t want to be inconvenienced. You can ask a company what they want, and they’ll tell you security until you ask what they’re willing to sacrifice.
Using a verified method of contact is what every major company does, but most private verification solutions still want you to use an application. Your client is all for security until it becomes hard. If the CEO or owner refuses, what’s the point of verifying anyone else at all at that point? Your site is compromised at the highest level easier than anywhere else.
A good verification solution needs to approach the technical challenges while making them as transparent as possible. Our ID 20/20 tool aims to do this. We operate under the basis of if they can get access to every communication method an employee has and can act as that employee, it’s past the point of sanely being contained. Obviously, there is special handling for user setups and similar though.
What Makes A Good Verification Strategy?
You don’t plan your company around information being leaked to moles at every level if you want to stay in business. A verification solution needs to take into account the human element for both security and usability. People hate to be inconvenienced even if it is for their own good. That extra few minutes going through obscure information, that extra application they need, etc. can all be points of dissension. The door that’s a huge pain to unlock usually gets left open or held during working hours.
You are only as strong as your weakest link. Raising the bar on social engineering to 2 times or 10 times the physical security or technical security doesn’t mean you’ve made it 2 to 10 times harder. You’ve just made it the less likely target. You are only as secure as the weakest link in your security stack. When everything is roughly equal, you have better security than having many strengths and many weaknesses for dedicated attacks.
Don’t neglect security, but don’t waste resources striving for a goal which makes no sense. Security almost always comes at a cost, and if you aren’t willing to pay it to shore up weakness, you’re vying for an impossible dream. Just because your company firewall is near bulletproof, doesn’t mean that Jim’s admin account password of “Firebird1” isn’t going to get cracked in 10 minutes. If you neglected the 2FA, anything else you did is statistically a complete wash.
Conclusion
Focus on your clients, focus on your users, and focus on security. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater while completely missing the point of what your security is supposed to accomplish. A help desk security measure is supposed to make it easy for a user to prove they are who they are, not leave them wondering how you know about their second aunt on their mother’s side’s blood type and the date it was tested.
The more security you throw at users, the harder they tend to fight back. You need to make security easy and trivial while keeping it secure. Can you contact them from a predetermined contact source? If so, you have the right person or a way, way bigger issue on your client’s hands. It’s good enough for your bank, your utilities, and pretty much any major service, why isn’t it good enough for you?
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!
Meet Allan Sivils, CEO of Sivils IT Consulting!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Sivils IT Consulting is located in Virginia Beach, VA. We were established in 2014 after I spent 15 years managing enterprise IT operations. I wanted to create a niche business that focused strictly on partnering with our clients’ IT operations, and not selling software or hardware. We focus on building true partnerships with our clients that allow us to advocate for their business growth.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We joined in December 2019!
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
A couple of reasons – The 20’s model is very similar to what we have been building since we started our business; to focus on being the best “Managed IT Department” for our clients. So, it made perfect sense from a partnership standpoint. Second, we have clients on both coasts, and being a part of The 20 gives us the resources that we need in order to serve clients across the United States. This allows us to scale faster, while not sacrificing the quality that our clients should expect. Lastly, the shared expertise of being a member alongside other top MSP’s allows us to work together to bring the best solutions to our clients.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
We do not feel limited by how much we can scale our business by being a member of The 20.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The network of being a member. Being part of such a large community has already helped us since joining in December operationally. We’ve been able to provide onsite resources to our clients that are thousands of miles away, and have these resources follow the same processes we do internally. We’ve been able to implement better technical solutions and processes that have helped us internally to service our clients.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Relationships. Both within our MSP community, our vendors, and especially our clients.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Managing the ebb and flow of IT projects around our clients growth – while we do our best to ensure that we can schedule to meet expectations, sometimes the volume of projects needed at one time can be difficult to manage. Also, sometimes projects require a wide range of very specific expertise. Being a member of The 20, this is quickly becoming less of a challenge.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
Microsoft Azure, Windows WVD and Nerdio. We see that these have a huge operational advantage and efficiency versus having workloads onsite. It also helps us scale our clients faster, while ensuring their business continues to have the highest availability for their operations.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Stay focused on the relationships I mentioned above and being the IT Department advocate. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the business, with a lot of us being engineers that get too focused on the details, leverage your fellow partners/vendors instead of trying to take the entire pie for yourself. Follow this up by a repeatable IT operational standard and processes that will be clear and focused for your team to support and, most importantly; stable, secure, and protected for your client.
What book are you currently reading?
I travel a lot, so by “reading…” that really means “audio book” for me. This would be Traction by Gino Wickman. I’m actually listening to it again! I will listen to audio books that I have enjoyed, multiple times — that is — if I find the information extremely valuable.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Honestly, I don’t have any. I spend so much time investigating, reviewing, testing, and reading about various IT solutions and methods. I guess I would say, I read “the internet.”
Interested in becoming a member? Click here for more information!
Meet Mark Elliott, CEO of 3i International!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
3i International is located in Houston, TX. We have 25 employees and have provided expert IT services since the year 2000. We are awesome at security and managed services, and our mission is to help people be their best by making technology easy and secure. We have a great team and have a lot of fun every day!
How long have you been a member of The 20?
3i International joined The 20 in December of 2018.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
Great question, this is a two-part answer for us. First, we were looking to move upmarket to larger clients and wanted a way to deliver services on a national level where we did not lose control of our customer or have degradation in support by hiring one-off boots on the ground. Secondly, we were having challenges scaling the business, and it kept leading to service delivery issues. Before The 20, we had a great company with talented engineers, and our clients loved our support and personal touch. At our size, we did not have separate teams for the helpdesk and onsite engineers. Every engineer had a seat in the call center, and when needed, they would be sent onsite. This methodology worked well as long as we did not grow. Every time we had major projects or a large new client onboarding, we would have to move resources from the call center to install equipment or onboard new seats. As soon as we reallocated resources from our call center, the level of service that our clients had become accustomed to would fall. We would then move some resources from the field back to call center only to have project deliver suffer. We found our company stuck on a staffing teeter-totter with happy and then unhappy clients. The 20 gave us the ability to truly separate our call center from the onsite and project team, which has been a Godsend. We now have happy clients all the time, not just in between waves of growth.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
We are closing more new MRR deals every month with the 20 offering and pitch. Our pipeline has grown with higher monthly recurring opportunities than we had before. The 20’s footprint has allowed us to focus on larger companies with multiple locations in different cities. We have found a real need here as an internal IT department with 500 employees cannot successfully support 20 locations with a couple of engineers. Our customer satisfaction with project delivery is through the roof. The 20’s call center handles the majority of our tickets, so we were able to shift our team around and create a dedicated team focused solely on project delivery. During our growth, we can now provide great support from the call center, our local onsite team, and the project team.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The community is awesome, from weekly accountability calls with other members, the ability to message nationally on Microsoft Teams to find an answer to a tough question, the comradery at quarterly training meetings. It just a strong group of like-minded individuals with 1000’s of years of experience all fighting to make a difference in the lives of their customers and their families. The services The 20 provides encompass most of what an IT company needs to succeed. It is a great offering of tools at a fair price. We were concerned about what our customers would say about the changes, but our customer satisfaction continues to increase since becoming a member.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
I don’t. I think this question could be answered ten different ways by ten people, and no one would be wrong. You might hear answers like grit, ambition, courage, commitment, willpower, drive, integrity, and on and on, you get my point. So why is it that sometimes you see individuals with these traits fall short of their full potential? I have been at this game for 25 years now, and I know that I possess all of the traits I just listed above. I am moderately successful, debt-free, and can retire comfortably in a few more years. By national standards, I’m in the top 1%, but by no means do I have a yacht or private aircraft. My journey to this point has been a dog fight in a highly competitive market. So, I think great success takes more than character traits as they are table steaks in today’s business climate. I feel to blow it out of the water truly you have to be first, better, or different. I feel the opportunity The 20 has afforded my company compliments my character traits by creating a differentiation that allows me to reach my full potential.
What are your biggest business challenges?
Last year we spent time identifying our weaknesses and threats. Now, last year’s challenges are this year’s opportunities as we have prioritized what we will be fixing and implementing during this calendar year. This year we are working on increasing outbound lead generation to 50 leads per month, implementing an employee training program around culture and function, standardizing our QBR methodology, and executing on a new inbound digital marketing strategy.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
We are an EOS company, so we will continue to implement and improve our use of the traction tools set. From a top-line perspective, we are focused on growing monthly recurring revenue in the healthcare, legal, AEC, manufacturing, and energy verticals.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Identify what’s holding you back, and if you’re willing to fix it, find a business coach or organization with the skill set to help you solve your challenges and hold you accountable. Don’t be afraid to partner with The 20. It is one of the best decisions we have made for our business and the people we support.
What book are you currently reading?
I recently just finished setting my personal goals for 2020, which includes a list of 36 books. Here are the three that I am currently reading in January:
1. The Big Leap – Gay Hendricks. This book is about removing upper limiting beliefs in your personal and business life that keep you from reaching your full potential.
2. The Road Less Stupid – Keith Cunningham. I am reading this book for the second time. Incredible lessons that are easily digestible like fatherly advice.
3. The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter – Michael Watkins
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Chris Voss – The Negotiation Edge
Guy Raz – How I Built This
Interested in becoming a member? Click here for more information!
Meet Travis Street, President and CEO of Complete Technology Solutions!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Complete Technology Solutions (CTS) was founded in 2001 in Muncie, Indiana. I ‘accidentally’ started the company when I was finishing my bachelor’s degree at Ball State University. I was working at Staples at the time and a customer (an elderly lady in her 70s) asked if I would come to her house and setup a computer I sold her. I didn’t see the value of my skills at the time so I traded my labor for a home-cooked meal lol. After I was finished with my work, she gave me a $20 tip and asked if she could give my number out to some of her friends. I didn’t realize how connected she was in the community. The next week I had 10 elderly ladies calling me for computer help! And that was how CTS was started. Since our humble beginning as a one-man break/fix shop, CTS has evolved and grown over the years to a fully-managed IT department service with over 50 staff members, and offering nationwide IT support and consulting services exclusively to the multifamily industry.
How long have you been a member of The 20?
We joined The 20 in the spring of 2018.
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
Prior to joining, our company had hit a revenue ceiling for over 5 years that we could not overcome. At the time we did not have a vertical focus. And although we had been working with multifamily companies for close to 15 years, we still supported other local businesses and were competing with many IT companies locally. I wanted to change our direction and offer a service with a vertical focus that was unique and would give us a competitive advantage. I accidentally discovered The 20 while attending a ChannelPro conference in Dallas. After a ‘colorful’ keynote speech by Tim Conkle, I immediately recognized The 20 model was the way to succeed and allow CTS to scale up and grow. I signed up the next day! It was the best business decision I have ever made.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
The biggest change in our business since we joined is that we are now 100% vertically-focused. The tools and nationwide footprint of the 20 has given us the freedom to focus on our multifamily specialty and deliver superior all-inclusive service and support to our clients for a predictable, flat monthly fee.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The best thing about The 20 is the camaraderie between the partners. Every member is a great resource and has unique talents and skills they share with the group as a whole.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
In order to succeed, you gotta put in the work. Hard work, discipline, and determination.
What are your biggest business challenges?
I think I speak for most of the companies out there in saying sales and marketing is always a challenge for an IT company. One of the biggest advantages of joining The 20 is that they became my marketing and sales department and handle it all. This way I can focus on business development and on our vertical.
What are your areas of focus for 2020?
We are focused 100% on multifamily and student housing moving forward. This is a vertical we have been working with for over 15 years and have a wealth of experience. We truly understand the unique needs of property management and development companies which allows us to provide superior service and consulting services to this market.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Focus on at least 2 or 3 vertical markets and tailor your service delivery around them.
What book are you currently reading?
I switch between business development books and science fiction books. Currently I’m reading Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman, and Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories by Terry Bison (one of my favorite science fiction writers).
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Multifamily Matter Radio Show. I love listening to this show to stay on top of the latest trend and information in the multifamily industry.
Interested in becoming a member? Click here for more information!
Tell us a little about your MSP…
Network Management Solutions is located in Santa Cruz, California. We serve Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Jose and the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The business was established in 1984 by Greg and Robin Sirakides under the name ‘ComputerLand of Capitola.’ I began working for them in 1998 and offered to purchase the business from them in 2006. I renamed the business in 2009 and began migrating my clients to an all-you-can-eat monthly support model. We enjoy serving our clients and giving back to the community that we live in!
How long have you been a member of The 20?
I believe we’re close to 3 years!
Why did your MSP originally look to partner with The 20?
We wanted to augment our support staff with a 24/7 service desk that was US-based. Additionally, we were already operating a managed IT department and liked the idea of partnering with like-minded MSPs to extend our breadth and depth of skill and location.
Tell us about the biggest change in your business since joining The 20.
Joining The 20 caused me to focus on the type of deals that were win-wins for both us and the client. This meant that I needed to start saying ‘no’ to opportunities, which was one of the best things I could have ever done. Not all deal are the right deals.
What do you like most about being a member of The 20?
The community. I have been a part of other networking groups, but everyone in this group is conducting business essentially the same way — and it helps when getting and giving advice.
What do you think is the most important quality necessary for success?
Having a growth mindset. All businesses make mistakes, including myself, including the service desk — it’s what we learn from those mistakes and how we grow from them that make us better and creates a better offering for our clients.
What are your biggest business challenges?
I have had 2 significant challenges to face in the last 4 years. First: finding and keeping good talent. This business is often a platform for younger people to launch there careers. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just that the churn is hard.
The second issue is that in the course of a 2-year period, I lost my 2 biggest clients to circumstances out of my control. It made my business feel stagnant for several years even though we were still growing; the problem was replacing what we once had.
What are your areas of focus for 2019?
We are making sure to discuss with each of our clients what the current cybersecurity landscape is and ensure that they are as protected as possible.
What advice would you share with an MSP looking to scale their business?
Make sure to start working on process now. Document the way you do business. Scaling is hard when you’re attempting to reinvent the wheel each time.
What book are you currently reading?
I am currently re-reading Traction and implementing more items. I plan on reading The Checklist Manifesto next.
Favorite blogs / podcasts
Seth Godin
The Hustle
Interested in becoming a Partner? Click here for more information!
