Out of the Box IT
Osama M. Faris brings out of the box thinking about information technology into focus.
Zenith gets the axe – Axcient takes over
December 6th, 2011FAR recently ripped out all our old Backup and Disaster Recovery servers at all customer sites. These old BDRs rip-outs, which we’ve branded as BACK2U’s, were manufactured and supported by a company called Zenith Infotech. While they initially seemed like the right partner for the critical function of protecting our clients’ backup and business continuity, we soon started to see a few things that did not impress us at all. Here’s the short list:
1. Hodge podge solution, put together via a mixture of multiple vendors.
2. Clone, low end hardware.
3. Nightmare support.
So at absolutely NO COST to our valued clients, we axed them all out and went with an incredible solution from Axcient. Based in Mountain View, California, Axcient impressed us with substance. Here’s the short list:
1. Organically grown solution. No slapstick.
2. HP hardware, all the way.
3. Exhilarating support.
End result. Bliss.
Oh, and so you don’t think I abandoned Zenith without a little warning, here is what I sent to their Executive Vice President of Sales prior to pulling the trigger. In case you’re wondering what his response was – you guessed it – no response. The silence says that even he feels I made the right decision.
From: Osama Faris
Sent: August-15-11 8:14 AM
To: (name-redacted)@zenithinfotech.com
Subject: FAR’s Partnership with Zenith
Good Morning (name-redacted),
Hope all is well with you. This email is to inform you that FAR’s experience with the Zenith BDR platform to date has been less than satisfactory. We have lost significant revenue due to credit’s we have had to issue to the clients, and as it stands, this solution does not give us any level of assurance as it pertains to backup and disaster recovery. My techs have had to spend literally hours on the phone/chat sessions during regular and after-hours trying to make the solution work. In a nutshell, my techs have lost confidence in the product.
Currently, we are starting to deploy Axcient devices for new customers, and are currently retaining our existing clients that are on Zenith, until such time as we can afford to migrate them off.
I think very highly of you (name-redacted) – my introduction to you by (name-redacted) is what instigated me to choose the Zenith platform – and that is why I am sending you this email, out of courtesy, to inform you of my dissatisfaction.
Sincerely,
Osama M. Faris
CEO
FAR
An open letter to Autotask: Who is my Leader?
September 12th, 2011It seems to be fashionable these days to write “open letters” to corporations–and since I would like to feel that I am “à la mode”, I’ve decided to write one to you, my good friends at Autotask.
First, let’s start with the positive aspects so as not to look like I’m flaming you folks or anything. I am very grateful to Autotask for quite a few things. FAR has been a faithful Autotask-based organization for well over six years and I am thankful for the incredible offering you folks have built and continue to improve upon with each and every release. As a cloud-based professional services automation solution, you were “cloud” before it was cool. The vision that Bob Godgart and his team had from day one–and the passion in sticking to the plan–has paid back dividends to the company, it’s investors and, most importantly (from my perspective), to its customers. I am also thankful for receiving the Autotask MVP designation. It is nice to be recognized and, yes the “bling” on the awards’ mantle makes for a great discussion.
So now that we’ve gotten the positive points out of the way, here’s the issue I really want to bring up with you: with Jay McBain leaving Autotask, who is my LEADER? A bit of context to this question is definitely necessary. When Bob Godgart resigned from active duties as CEO of Autotask, he did a fantastic job transitioning day-to-day functions to his replacement, Mark Cattini. He also passed the torch of the Community leadership, the “partner face” of Autotask to Jay McBain. Bob said that he actively pursued Jay to take over this function to energize the Autotask CommunITy; to be our tribal leader. That collaborative group is a very active one–any doubts can be quickly dispelled by logging on to the site and seeing the number of contributing members and the quantity of threads/discussions taking place each day. We are energetic, vocal, knowledgeable and critical to the success of Autotask–not just because we pay a monthly fee, but because the members feed your product funnel. The Autotask CommunITy finds the bugs and makes feature requests, providing the gravel and sandstone for your roadmap.
Right now, we’re leaderless. The concern isn’t so much about being left without a “go-to guy,”, but the personal disappointment about how this entire situation came about. How did the Autotask MVPs, group leaders, and all your other clients find out about Jay’s departure? From a leaked internal memo, published by the MSPmentor editor Joe Panettieri. What followed after that was an absolute social media feeding frenzy, with everyone and their uncle (including myself obviously) writing blogs, news articles, tweets, and other commentary.–All are speculating about what seems to be the most important thing on people’s minds right now: WHERE IS JAY GOING? Of course, being a master of social media manipulation, Jay has been stoking the fire by re-tweeting posting quotes and Facebooking anything and everything that mentions Jay McBain. Considering where Jay IS going (and yes I do know where he is going), I am impressed with the ingenious use of social media to make sure that his name stays top of mind. He’s going to need us.
Enough about Jay–back to the real point of this post–and that is, why have we, the Autotask CommunITy been left with a leadership vacuum, a tribe of energized and active customers with no chief, to stoke the fire and keep it crackling? Why was the On Tour series created, booked and advertised; only to have the real driver of these events not show up? Jay asked me to provide the customer presentation for the Toronto event but, when I recently messaged him to ask if he was still planning on attending the event, his response was “no.” That does not paint a good picture pertaining to leadership continuity or commitment to the Autotask CommunITy that you so carefully and painstakingly cultivated from scratch. Its one thing to build a 30,000+ strong customer base, but it’s another thing to build and maintain an active ecosystem of customers.
Unlike most open letters that just whine and complain, allow me to offer a few suggestions that might help improve the situation and make us all feel that you are truly committed to the success of the Autotask CommunITy.
Empower and nurture your group leaders
You have a number of dynamic, entrepreneurial and energized group leaders that take time out of their busy schedules—and most importantly, time from running their BUSINESS—to plan, coordinate, and execute group meeting in their respective areas. Why don’t you empower them even further within the Autotask CommunITy ecosystem? Give them the ability to lead their respective groups, both at meetings and online. Compensate them for the time they will have to spend encouraging, coaching and mentoring their micro-tribe. Spread out the responsibility of energizing and mobilizing the 30,000+ customers and maintaining the stickiness.
Invest and capitalize on your MVPs
So you gave us a nice trophy, fired off a press release, and gave us reserved front row seats at Autotask CommunITy Live 2011. Thank you–that was a nice gesture. Now, turn around and make us sweat to keep the title. Empower us so the MVP status actually means something. Use our creative and leadership qualities to drive the company and customer experience to new heights. Make it worth our time and effort—there’s nothing illicit or sleazy about that. Inviting us all to Las Vegas is nice, giving us a preview of the roadmap is great, but that’s not a deep enough commitment; not for us or for Autotask.
Turn the lights back on
If the lights stay out much longer, people are going to look for other sources of illumination. Right now, we’re all in the dark; reading rumours, tidbits, tweets and blogs. By now they’re pretty much just regurgitating the little that we already know. Come out and officially tell us a few things like who’s taking over for Jay, who will lead the On Tour campaign and, most importantly, where Autotask CommunITy Live 2012 will be held! Your executive team needs to step up and communicate with the CommunITy at large, and with the group leaders and MVPs in particular. Don’t let the rumour mill be the source of this kind of information. It’s time to turn on the lights and make things clear and transparent.
In summary, let me once again thank Autotask for the excellent solution you’ve given us. You’re system is the nuts and bolts of my business, and I am committed to continuing to use it and support your growth as much as I can. If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have bothered writing this long letter and expressing the concerns many of your other customers are experiencing.
FAR Redefines Managed Services Excellence
September 1st, 2011No business owner wants to be considered “average.” At least you shouldn’t want to be paying an “average” company to provide products or services to your organization. Just like your business, making continual improvements and challenging your team to perform at the top of their skill set is crucial to keeping pace with competitors. Those tasks are also important to ensure your company’s success, both from a short and long-term aspect.
That philosophy is no different when it comes to IT services. What customer would willingly trust their crucial business systems to an organization that wasn’t continually improving their performance—especially when they would pay the same amount to contract with a competitor that was?
At FAR, we work hard to stay ahead of the curve, creating innovative solutions for our clients and focusing on ways to improve our customer service. Our comprehensive portfolio includes the latest technologies to help you address all your business needs, including unified communications and innovative backup/disaster recovery solutions. While the research and development (as well as the extensive training) required to introduce a new service can be challenging, the result is well worth the effort.
But what does “service” really mean? The term is much too vague. Just check the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition, which describes service as “useful labour that does not produce a tangible commodity.” This rather vague portrayal does not distinguish a hard-working (though minimally trained) teen raking leaves from the highly skilled and certified professional who manages complex IT systems. Few seem to understand the level of commitment, education and preparation required to support some of the most advance systems used in today’s business. That’s not to disparage the hard work provided by those in other industries, but to emphasize the differences in the term.
With that in mind, FAR is about to change the definition of “service”– at least from an IT managed services perspective. Today (September 1, 2011) we are proud to announce our partnership with Live Virtual Help Desk (LiveVHD) to expand our customer support capabilities. The Victoria, BC-based IT help desk organization will become an extension of FAR, allowing us to expand the services we offer.
What additional cost will our customers pay for this enhancement? ZERO. That’s correct–more support capabilities with no increased cost! What a concept.
What does the LiveVHD relationship allow FAR to do for our clients? The all Canada-based IT experts will handle our technical support calls and tickets, manning the controls 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Our support staff will be monitor systems and take care of your onsite needs, connected to LiveVHD through a professional services automation system called Autotask. This will give the FAR team the time and manpower to enhance the other services we provide our customers, ensuring we continue our reputation as THE premier Managed Services Provider in Ottawa.
How does this relationship help our business clients? It will allow us to provide instantaneous access to a technical resource, someone who fully understands corporate, technology systems, and other specific needs. LiveVHD can resolve most issues remotely and can escalate a service ticket to our team anytime an on-site visit is needed–a seamless, behind the scenes process that ensures full business continuity.
The end result is we get to spend more QUALITY time with our clients. We’ll focus on current business systems, ensuring that superior performance is maintained at all times, and meet with each customer to discuss how we can improve to help them achieve long-term organizational goals. We’ll spend even more time researching new technologies, uncovering issues and opportunities facing the industries we support, and understanding how it will impact our clients.
FAR can help YOU design a winning game plan and brainstorm ideas to help improve your company’s competitive position. We’re raising the bar in managed services and our clients will benefit from this new relationship.
As of September 1, 2011, service has been redefined. Give us a call and you’ll find out how IT managed services are our focus and we’re ready (more than ever) to assist you.
FAR has moved – well, sort of!
August 9th, 2011
It’s been a busy summer at FAR – and moving is never easy. FAR has moved – well sort of. Our office as you might know it if you’ve visited is a state-of-the-art, high-end Teknion masterpiece, with Altos glass walls, and integrated systems that give our technical teams the ultimate in office systems comfort. One really long sentence to say – we absolutely LOVE our office. Recently, I was approached by RIPP, a fascinating company working on an innovative clean technology to fully recover valuable commodities from scrap tires. They were looking for a quick 2 year sublease as they work on building permanent facilities for their project. They loved our office, and I decided to accept their offer so we moved – about 1 foot to the left – to the unit right beside ours! A big thank you to Donosti Investments Ltd for letting us sublease a part of their space. We’ve been busy “prettying” it up and making it feel like home. Feel free to stop by any time and visit us at our new offices – same building different unit! 6 Antares Drive Phase I Unit 2, Ottawa, Ontario K2E8A9.
What is Your Purpose?
November 10th, 2010Sitting in a café recently, I began to think, while sipping my third latte of the day, just what makes FAR “FAR.” Or, in other words, what is our purpose, “raison d’être?” It really started to get my creative juices flowing. Not just because I had a caffeine buzz, but realistically, I thought about our strengths as a collective company, as well as individually. It’s been my experience that while good service seems hard to come by nowadays, that doesn’t mean that we should give up hope with the attitude of “well, if the customer doesn’t expect it, then why should we go the extra mile?” The answer to that question, of course, is “to make a difference,” and to “give the customer a reason to understand what separates you from that of your competitors” who most likely are just putting out the reactive day-to-day fires.
At FAR, it is of course our mission to respond to our customers’ reactive immediate needs. However, we also strive to position ourselves as proactive, trusted advisers to our clients, especially since more of our clients are simply coming to expect this. Our goal is to anticipate our customers’ needs and wants – even before they do. That said, I will share what we at FAR feel the role that technology should successfully play within your organization.
Technology should:
- Fuel your business, not drain you bank account.
- Allow you to innovate, not stagnate.
- Improve your communications, not confuse your message.
- Generate compliments from your audience, not bewilderment
- Give you an edge, neither cutting nor bleeding.
Understanding how to approach technology is just the first step in getting to where you want to be. You also need to work with an IT solution provider who is going to tell what you need to know, rather than what you want to hear. Here are some of the qualities that we at FAR feel comprise a solid IT solution provider relationship.
Your IT provider should:
- Relate to you, not be related to you.
- Talk your language, not “geek speak.”
- Tell you what you need, not what you want.
- Impress you, not depress you
Don’t let IT take a back seat in your overall business strategy. How is IT fitting into your corporate goals and objectives? How is it fitting into your purpose?
Credit Goes Where Credit Is Due
August 17th, 2010
(From left to right, Lisa Virtue – Osama Faris – Anson Pereira – Wayne Bartlett)
Yes folks, the title is pretty canned, but I really couldn’t think of anything sharp or witty. So it’ll have to do! This year has been a transition year for FAR; aggressive marketing, brand maturation, stepping outside of our comfort zone to truly understand what we are and why we’re different. One of our key partners, WatchGuard, honoured FAR with a Creative Marketing Award for 2010 at the Seattle Conference. As much as I would love to soak up the honour and bask in it, I’ve got to be true to myself and share the love with the two people who REALLY deserve the glory – Film Director Lisa Virtue from Right Path Pictures, and studio owner Wayne Bartlett from Bartmart Audio. No words could possibly describe the gratitude, so a picture is worth a thousand words. The only one physically missing from the shot is Ononymous, the rap star who wrote the lyrics and performed – but he’s there in spirit (you’ll get what I mean soon enough).
You Got To Give To Get
August 9th, 2010I really get sick of me. I’ve stopped going to my corporate web site because what’s the first thing that pops up? Me. What I’ve realized is that, nothing makes me happier than you. I love it when I can find something to write about that does NOT involve me, FAR or anything related to either. This is what giving to get is all about.
So as you know from my social feeds, I was at the Ingram Micro Cloud Summit in Dallas a few weeks ago. Great event, interesting ideas, fantastic people. Two of them however, stand above the rest in my books.
Enter Jennifer Bauer-Anaya and Dennis Crupi onto my blog stage. I’ve only spoken to Jennifer a few times over the phone and had a few email blasts back and forth. She’s a PR/marcomm/marketing specialist and has been trying to get me onto a webinar as a subject matter expert to present. The love doesn’t stop there.
Monday evening, Jennifer masterminds dinner and includes some really neat people like Travis Austin from MSPintegrations who I am a “not so secret anymore” admirer of – dude, I forgot to get your autograph), Gennifer Biggs from Business Solutions Magazine (remember to say “hello”!) and last but definitely not least, the coolest person I have met in a very, very long time – Dennis Crupi. Dennis is the Director of Creative Services, for Ingram Micro. I was so glad to meet Dennis – not just because he saved me from having to pay for dinner, but because he did for me in the next 5 hours (we were talking till 1AM) what no amount of money could have done for my business.
So here is what he did for me (for free):
- He confirmed for me that I was not an idiot. You’re probably saying “sure, ya right, not an idiot. Have you read your own blogs, Osama? Are you drunk on your own KoolAid? (more on the KoolAid thing on another blog)”. I’m serious – in 5 hours, I exposed to him FAR in a way that I have never, ever exposed to anyone, except myself, in front of a mirror with the bathroom door double locked and barred (and you thought this blog was NOT about FAR…ya right).
- He validated FAR’s marketing efforts. FAR has been working on a marketing strategy for months and months. It has been a hard road. Like Dennis said, it’s not just about having marketing for the sake of having marketing (or in Dennis’ words, it’s not about “showing up and throwing up” – sorry Dennis, I know you’re going to hate me for attributing that one to you), it’s about making marketing make your business grow. It’s about making marketing produce results. Wow, what a really cool concept, Osama. “Geez, you’re a rocket scientist. How long did it take you to figure that one out?” you say. Longer than you think, is my answer to what I can HEAR you saying to yourself as you read this blog. Yes, this blog has nascent Web 3.0 technologies built into it – I can see you read, hear you say the words in your head as you read, feel your finger on your scroll wheel rolling down to the next sentence, watch in horror as you click the X on the top right to shut my web site off right now out of fear that what you are READING right now is actually true. Being at 46,000 feet while I wrote the majority of this blog must be affecting my small brain. I need to see a doctor.
Two things? Is that all it takes to make you idolize someone? No, most important, what Dennis and Jennifer did last night is reinforce one of the driving forces behind our marketing campaign for 2010 and beyond. I’ve said this statement so many times to myself, my staff and clients. It’s not what you know, it’s what you share.
When I say share, I don’t mean like a “Web 2.0 share”, also called classically as bait-n’-switch. Or as the “cool people” say it, how do we “monetize” the exchange. No, it is what you truly share, without expecting in return. It’s like our “Get the Skinny On” campaign running at Executive Fitness Leaders (the gym next door to our office). For the past several months, once a month we profile one of the clients that go to this premier, private studio-based facility and plaster their profile and picture in the cardio room for a month.
We tell their story. With absolutely nothing expected in return. At no cost to them or to the gym – and there is a cost to FAR (designer time, professional photographer, coordination, writing, editing, etc etc.). Sure, the FAR logo is plastered on the water dispenser. But I could have paid a couple of hundred bucks a month and got that. The key element was the community building nature of the campaign. We wanted to take the time to share other people with other people. Just like Jennifer did connecting me to Dennis. Just like Dennis did re-connecting me back to myself. Dennis, truly – thank you for what you did. I am forever indebted to you. Rock on.
Maturity: Better Late than Never
May 25th, 2010Recently I’ve noticed some things repeating. Business (and the economy more generally) often goes in cycles. FAR is going through a lot of growth. That happened before during the .com rush. Like a lot of other people, I thought the economic upswing was indestructible and I hate to say it, but I made a lot decisions that I paid for dearly.
Reminiscing gave me some pause to think about how I’ve changed as a business person over the years. I’ve changed. I’ve learned. While I’m still an entrepreneur that chases opportunity in pursuit of excellence, here are the top 5 things I’m doing differently today:
- Surrounding myself with happy people. You’d be surprised how important this is. Who would you rather have supporting your network? Someone who was competent, gruff and unhappy or someone who was competent, friendly and happy? The latter. Who wouldn’t? In fact, the only person on staff who is not overflowing with happiness is my Chief Marketing Officer. Free espresso. Free San Pellegrino. Corner office with a huge window. Still, he acts like I pooped in his cereal. What can I say? I did witness Vince smiling once; it was over our new business cards. But seriously, every business also needs serious employees. People who are serious can be happy, too.
- Putting my existing clients ahead of chasing new business. FAR customers definitely appreciate this, and many businesses make the mistake of trying to chase every dollar that floats their way. At FAR, we focus on serving a small number of customers really, really well. We say ‘no’ to business if it compromises moral principle. I prefer to make “heavenue”: heavenly work that produces revenue.
- Festina lente! It’s Latin. Yeah, I went there. It translates to: make haste, slowly. At FAR, we’ve thrown the phrase “as soon as possible” almost completely out of our corporate vocabulary. Today, at FAR we do “what is correct — quickly and cost-effectively”. Mistakes made in haste can be very expensive. So, we focus on being responsive, but in a way that avoids the panic that stems from everything being treated with equal rush priority. When you panic, you make mistakes. That’s why paramedics never run to get to an injured person. When you make basic mistakes, you might as well send your customer a singing telegram about why their money is not well-spent with you.
- The money is in a trust account. What customers are really looking for these days is a trusted advisor for IT. Not a “partner”, an “expert”, or a “computer geek”. Yesterday I was in the elevator at one of my largest customers and one of the employees in the elevator said “do you work here?” I said yes and no. She said: “I see you here all the time meeting the Boss”. Hard to explain to her in 30 seconds that I’m there all the time “meeting with the boss” due to the trusted advisor status FAR has with a multi-million dollar global enterprise.
- I don’t wait for the phone to ring. I’m proactive. It’s a cliché, but it’s a cliché for a reason. Support is often a thankless job. So, I seek out the compliments. I’m not shy about it. Just yesterday I walked into Vince’s office and said: what do you think of my new guayabera? I didn’t wait for him to answer: I said, yes, yes, it is awesome, isn’t it. I don’t wait for someone to say thank you. I call them and ask them how they’re doing.
Osama Faris: Autotask Most Valuable Partner for 2010!
April 29th, 2010As many of you may have read in my Twitter feed or on LinkedIn last week, I won an award. Not just any award, but a Most Valuable Partner award from Autotask for 2010. It was a pleasure to win. I was in Miami for the Community Live! conference after my trip to Egypt.
If you’ve never been to Miami, it’s a terrific city to visit. It has a lot of history and culture, as well as beautiful art deco architecture. The conference was great for Autotask partners, and I highly recommend it. I was just digging into my salad at lunch the first day of the show when I realized they were calling my name.
Osama Faris!
They called me a couple of times. I imagine people were having flashbacks to Ferris Beuller’s Day Off by the time I realized someone was calling my name. As an IT managed service provider, someone shouting my name is not always a good sign. But then I realized: they wanted to give me an award!
I’m not sure why I won. I have a lot of ideas on what makes me and FAR a valuable partner. Maybe it’s because I’m an extremely satisfied customer and I like to let other people know. Or maybe it’s because I provide a consistently positive but objective view of Autotask products to anyone who asks. Or maybe it’s because I work with my clients to help them understand the value of Autotask. Maybe it’s because I’m just that good looking. Or maybe it’s all four.
Either way, I’m very grateful to have won (look at how grateful I look in this candid photo!). So, I want to thank everyone at Autotask, as well as many of the great folks I met at the show. It was amazing. Autotask has a very vibrant partner community with a a diverse, third-party product ecosystem.
I wasn’t the only award winner, and you can learn more about the show from the press release. I met a lot of very talented and interesting Autotask partners, each with their particular niche, learned all about additional products I could add to FAR’s Autotask to better help serve our customers, won an award, got some wonderful Miami sun, bought myself a guayabera. I left inspired!
When I arrived at the airport on Wednesday, the woman behind the check in counter said: you’re going to have to check that. At first, I thought maybe she meant my head. It had gotten a bit bigger since my win. But she just meant the trophy.
But now it’s back to work and back to serious blogging. Coming up, I’ll be returning to my series on The Cloud to focus on whether or not hosted Exchange and other email solutions. Be sure to check back soon!
FAR launches new hip hop video for April 1
April 5th, 2010By the time you read read this quick break from my more serious articles, I’ll be in Egypt on business. But I hope you all had a chance to check out FAR’s April Fool’s Day video and press release last week highlighting FAR’s decision to diversify it’s IT services portfolio by introducing rap music recording and production. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth watching for my cameo scene alone!
Be sure to read the press release and check out the Studi-O website for more details!