IT Nation 2017 recap: what’s on the horizon for our team
IT Nation is our annual chance for this one-of-a-kind community to come together and learn new things, have a ton of fun, and bring back exciting new innovation for their businesses…but it’s so much more than that too. IT Nation is the place where our partners connect with each other, with our vendor partners, and with us to create long-lasting connections that drive bigger business results. This year’s focus is all about the power of technology teams to build the foundation of that success.
I hear companies throw around the term “ecosystem” quite a bit so this year I wanted to help our partners understand it better – define it and then lay out how it can fuel bigger successes, with technology teams acting as the glue that holds your ecosystem together. ConnectWise is proud of our place at the center of the IT Nation ecosystem, where we strive every day to connect you to the tools that enable you to deliver unique services. Our ecosystem is growing as you grow, evolving as you evolve, adapting to meet your needs. Let’s look at how you can optimize today’s landscape.
The technology canvas
This year’s IT Nation was also my opportunity to introduce the concept of the technology canvas, and to help you understand the importance of looking at your clients through that lens. I shared a step-by-step strategy for owning each piece—or square—of the technology canvas, and discussed strategies to help everyone form the right teams to carry out the important steps for incredible growth: land, install, embed, manage, renew, and expand. The farther you go through the cycle of these necessary steps, the stickier you’ll become and the more opportunity you’ll have for to master every square of the technology canvas that fits for your business.
If you look at the tech canvas for each of your clients, you’ll see where your clients have overlapping needs. Where those needs meet your passions, you’ll find the opportunity to build strong, strategic teams. Look at your resources, capabilities, and the demand in your space and choose the pieces of the technology canvas that you know you can dominate. This cyclical strategy is something you’ll do over and over again for every square. It’s a deliberate, systematic way to run your business.
And we intend to give you a deeper dive into this approach with our new Path to Success webinar series kicking off in December. Sign up for the first installment as Paul Dippell, CEO of Service Leadership, and I discuss Merger & Acquisitions essentials.
A new and exciting partnership with Cisco
I was also excited to have my friend Nirav Sheth, Vice President, Partner Solutions, Architectures & Engineering from Cisco, join me on stage to discuss our new partnership between ConnectWise and Cisco, announced last week at the Cisco Partner Summit. We’ve found great alignment between our two companies and I couldn’t be more excited to join forces with them to bring a much-needed solution to our communities – ConnectWise Unite™. Unite will drastically reduce the complexity and costs of managing multiple cloud solutions from Cisco & AWS, while giving businesses of all sizes the ability to quickly reap the business advantages of recurring revenues.
“It’s a win-win for ConnectWise and Cisco as they leverage each other’s strengths to promote managed services in the SMB market.” – Channel Futures
What’s coming in 2018
ConnectWise Chief Product Officer, Craig Fulton, happily joined the stage to share some of the amazing innovations in development. Some crowd favorites included bringing ConnectWise Automate® to the web with computer management and network mapping, as well as ConnectWise Perspective, which relays a live video feed from that customer’s smartphone to the technician.
Finally, Craig and I announced the exciting news that 2018 will bring with it the incredible new capabilities of our ConnectWise Developer Kit, which will allow unprecedented connection within the ecosystem and give vendor partners and ConnectWise partners the chance to customize their ConnectWise experience like never before. We’re reinvesting our money into our partners who are interested in helping us grow our ecosystem by launching an angel investment fund next year. Interested in being notified when more information is available? Send an email to Invent@ConnectWise.com.
2018 is going to be an amazing year, and we’ve kicked it off right with an incredible IT Nation keynote. Now the rest is up to you. It starts with you and your teams right here, right now, at IT Nation.