I recently had the great pleasure of being invited to the London Stock Exchange to record a Live Stream for Avast.
The event was hosted by my friend Richard Tubb and I was joined on the panel by Robert Gibbons and Leigh Wood.
I’ve known all these people for a long time so it was a fun and honest chat.
Long story short, the main takeaway from the panel was how old I am and just how long I’ve been in this industry.
This goes some way towards to explaining why I’m currently on a break..
One of the questions that came up was around MSP vs MSSP. We debated this at length but the overriding point I wanted to get across was that the SMB just doesn’t care.
The more I reflect on this, the more I think we need to improve as an industry. Let’s face it, most of us deal with SMBs. Some of us specialise in a vertical market, but most don’t. Although I often say that SMB IT is a vertical in its own right really.
So, let’s think about the clients we work with and support.
The SMB just want their stuff to work, for it to help them be efficient and to be secure. They don’t have time to worry about how we do it or the labels we give ourselves.
They want the peace of mind to know it’s being looked after and that is where we come in. It’s the job of the MSP or MSSP or whatever to make it happen.
In the analogy we discussed, we are the General Practitioner, we are the people they come to and expect help from. If we then use specialists or consultants behind the scenes, it doesn't matter. We are the ones offering the totally managed service.
If you want to watch the recording, you can do it here. I’d advise against watching in HD though…
