To the cloud & back to the ground
This Wednesday we will be holding our second webcast with CharTec’s Frank Gurnee and going over the business implementation of the Cloud & HaaS models and how they complement each other perfectly in the new economy. It’s no secret that budgets are still tight and that our client base is always looking for ways to do things faster, better and… cheaper. The advances in the bandwidth have made the cloud revolution possible and the HaaS plays hand in hand with the SaaS model, allowing you to grow faster with less money.
Please join us this Wednesday at 12:30 EST:
These webcasts are not recorded and are not meant to be glorified sales pitches. You either recognize the opportunity and want our help with the tips and tricks around the profitable implementation or not. If you are going in the cloud/HaaS direction, we will put our resources behind you and make sure you’re up to speed and push you forward as fast as possible.
Working closer with partners is our major goal for 2010, hope you’re a part of it. Register for the event and see how we can help.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
What is going on at Own Web Now?
The most frequently asked question by folks I meet with at IT conferences is about the general company activity. What is new? What are you guys up to? Truth is, our most profitable and successful partners work very closely with us on projects, promotions, service upgrades and updates and we certainly have a very open and thorough notification, support, forum and NOC system in the business that is designed to serve it’s partners.
Yet, most partners don’t participate. Unfortunately, you get the most out of your relationship with Own Web Now when you work with us on the entire portfolio of solutions we have. There isn’t much we can do about those who don’t invest in making a close relationship – but we can do a ton to benefit those that do.
With that in mind, I’m proud to introduce you to the OWN Staff Blogs:
Support: The Monkeys’ Tackle Box
Teaching other tech monkeys how to fish, one blog post a time.
http://monkeys.ownwebnow.comDevelopment: The Monkey Wrench
OWN Development
http://tmw.ownwebnow.comMarketing: The Marketing Match
Marketing to “match” your business!
http://marketingmatch.ownwebnow.comSales: That Sales Blog
http://thatsalesguy.ownwebnow.comEverything else: The Schism
Work and personal separation
http://theschism.ownwebnow.com
These blogs are written by our teams and people you’ve talked to on the phone, support portal, forums or even met in person at a conference. The content is completely up to them and the opinion is solely theirs and is in no way associated with Own Web Now Corp or it’s many brands.
Typically, the information at OWN, much like any other corporation, is from the bottom up: topics are suggested from interaction with partners, prepared and eventually released here. There is a bit of latency and a lot of consideration when writing stuff on behalf of Own Web Now and it’s partners.
With staff blogs, we hope to change all that. By empowering our staff to talk to you directly, in the manner they consider valuable, we hope to connect you closer to what we do here. We’re all on Facebook, Twitter and we’re very easy to find at nearly every conference and on the phone – so we encourage you to check us out and what we’re all working on.
Every day we come to work trying to make everything we deliver better – faster – efficient. We invite you to take a closer look at how we do it all.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
How are we doing?
In 2010 we have aggressively addressed every bit of negative feedback and constructive criticism that has been sent our way. We’ve hired additional support staff, improved documentation at every level, improved marketing programs, improved response times, addressed concerns with the software and pricing, opened up forums, improved communications and ship times, literally everything that has been reported has been addressed.
As a result, we’re doing more business than ever and by proxy our partners are doing better than ever.
I want you to know that we are not going to rest.
As a matter of fact, some of you may already be aware of what I’m about to address: surveys.
For the past few weeks, every support request that has been closed included a survey that was sent a day later.
These surveys are reviewed directly by me and my board.
We expect to hear when things go really good and when they go really bad – and I want you to count on us. We have a long history in the IT solution provider industry and a great reputation that we’ve earned through the years. As we’ve grown we’ve had more than a fair share of bumps and bruises – so again, I want you to count on us because we care and we are going to be aware of every significant or insignificant issue that gets reported.
When things go great – please tell us, teams are rewarded on their performance.
When things go bad – please, please, please, please tell us. We strive for perfection with every interaction.
As we grow and add more services there are going to be challenges – in business the first movers are rewarded and you, as our partner, have to be competitive in order to earn your clients business. You have my promise that we are going to treat you right and put you in a position to win. All I ask is that you work with us and take a few seconds to fill out a survey when things go far in either direction. It will keep us on our toes and assure you get the best possible service.
Sincerely,
Vlad Mazek, MCSE
CEO, Own Web Now Corp
(877) 546-0316 x500
Scheduled Maintenance – Sept 13th – 19th
Below is the current maintenance schedule between September 13th – 19th.
- Monday 9/13/10 – 9/14/10 – Final testing on DELLA, the new EUROPE Exchange 2010 server
- Wednesday 9/15/10 11pm Eastern – Installation of Exchange 2010 SP1 on LOUIE. During the installation, Exchange services may be required to restart, however, clients connecting to cas.louie.exchangedefender.com should automatically switch between CAS servers in the event of a interruption during the install.
- Thursday 9/16/10 11pm Eastern – Installation of Exchange 2010 SP1 on LIVEARCHIVE.
- Friday 9/17/10 11pm Eastern – IP address change of Exchange 2003 server DONALD. Clients should not have to make any changes to automatically connect to the new IP address.
Sunday 9/19/10 5pm Eastern – Offline database defrag scheduled for SCROOGE. During the defrag, clients will be unable to connect to their mailboxes. The defrag is estimated to take up to 5 hours to complete, and is one of the final steps in the upgrades to Scrooge.
Update 9/15/10 4:00 PM: We have decided to push the offline defrag until October 9th-10th. We understand that September is one of the busiest months for our partners, so we’ve pushed back the maintenance until next month.
Shockey Monkey – 30 days later
Many of you first heard about Shockey Monkey when it launched about a month ago at CompTIA. Now nearly a month later, and well over 1,000 portals strong, Shockey Monkey has been an overwhelming success. It has consumed nearly all of our development resources as the delivery of Shockey Monkey and it’s deep integrations is critical to all of our partners success in the cloud.
We have done a great job with the feedback that you’ve given us and are on-schedule to deliver the Service Manager functionality next week. In fact, it will be the core subject of our townhall webcast next week, and it’s a great time to ask questions as the entire team will be present:
Shockey Monkey Townhall – Service Manager
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/656778440
We have already shipped the Import/Export Wizard and Email integration and we have committed to delivering full ExchangeDefender suite to each Shockey Monkey user – free or pro. With the portals generating an enormous amount of email, and our partners relying on them more and more, we simply had to make sure you would stay in business in case of a catastrophic data loss event. Let me repeat that – when you sign up for Shockey Monkey, your organization gets full ExchangeDefender free of charge.
Why?
I have been asked this question in a number of ways: Why do I need Shockey Monkey? Why do I need Autotask or ConnectWise if I can get Shockey Monkey? Why would I use this if I already have a PSA? Why would you develop this if you’ve already developed integrations to other PSA’s. Allow me to answer this in two parts.
1. Regardless of which PSA solution you have, you will have Shockey Monkey by the end of September. Our investment in Autotask and ConnectWise is not going away, but we have a huge need for services that we could not offer through third parties because of both legal and development (API) constraints. First, in order for our partners to win in the cloud their name and logo must be the first – the only – thing the client sees. Our partners spend an enormous amount of time building their brand and client trust & loyalty: so we must deliver a solution that makes it easy for our clients to manage their cloud solutions with a brand that is uniquely our partners. Everything from checkout to self management to documentation is Own Web Now’s responsibility to provide, and by integrating it with the rich experience we deliver in the Service Manager there is only one way to do it.
2. Let me say it again – our investment in Autotask and ConnectWise is not going away. Shockey Monkey does not compete with these solutions nor is it designed to replace them. However, the level of self-service and client management we deliver as a part of Shockey Monkey is not yet possible with the third parties, but we still expect you to count on them for support management, billing integration, executive reporting and service statistics.
To sum it up: We have designed Shockey Monkey for you, to help you build a better client-friendly cloud business. It’s free and it’s really all about you and your users. You need Shockey Monkey because your users need this feature set and these products. If you don’t provide it, someone else will and we’re here to help you win.
That said, I encourage you to go ahead, sign up, and check it out. And please make sure to register and tune in next Wednesday.
I will be discussing this today, live, around 1:05 at MSPU in Washingon DC: http://www.mspu.us/livebootcamp