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Top 5 Reasons to Attend SMB VoIP
September 20-22, Washington DC 2010
5. The humidity will be gone from Washington DC. Admittedly – the recent Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington DC (mid-July) was a bit overheated and humid. That all changes in the fall – it’ll be a glorious few days at the Gaylord!
4. Co-location is LEVERAGE! We are delighted to team with Channel Partners, a well-established telecom show. We believe that we’re better together. The typically Channel Partner’s attendee is a “sales agent” who is very good at promoting and selling telecom plans and cloud services. That allows our SMB Nation tribal members to actually “do the work” if you team up. It’s hand-and-glove folks!
3. SMB Subject Matter Experts! We’re bringing in the best in the business again. You’ll just have to click through to see who!
2. Be there at the Start – SMB VoIP community. Leading the parade and being ahead of the curve is a time-tested formula for business success. This is your chance to “own” the entire customer relationship that combines voice+data. This time the convergence is for real.
1. You Must! Home alarm system time folks – if you don’t VoIP your customers as a computer guy, someone else will. That is, the telephone grrl will come in and steal your client. Trust us – she’s already calling on your accounts!
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SMBnation News
astro posted on September 02, 2010 08:20
Cindy Bates will be giving the Microsoft Keynote at SMB Nation Fall 2010 in Las Vegas, October 22-24, 2010!!!
 I recently spent time with Cindy Bates, vice president of the U.S. Small and Medium Businesses organization at her Lincoln Square office in Bellevue, Washington (just a short eco-commute from the main Redmond campus). I wanted to learn more about the new role for this long-time Microsoft executive.
I’ve watched her success over the past several years with great interest and my compliments for her ability to navigate a Fortune One $62B enterprise with SMB nimbleness and finesse. The ten-year Microsoft veteran has accepted new responsibilities with this appointment. Cindy has responsibility for a multi-billion dollar business and US SMB is responsible for 40% of SMB WW revenue. Her Microsoft career started in the business development M&A area and she then joined Darren Houston in starting the SMS&P organization.
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host posted on September 03, 2010 08:32
Data storage provider 3PAR was acquired by HP today at $33 per share, $3 over their previous offering. HP's previous $30 bid was not enough to discourage Dell from raining the bar to $32. When HP through in another buck, Dell threw in the towel. This purchase came at three times 3PAR's stock price at the beginning of this battle for the byte.
3PARS shares were down 3 cents at $32.85 after Thursday's $33.88 closing on NYSE.
3PAR is a direct competitor to the larger EMC Corp in the cloud computing space. On another note, EMc just sold its retrospect software to ROXIO.
Interesting maneuvering, this will be an interesting company to watch.
Chris Bangs
SMB Nation
http://www.3par.com
http://www.hp.com
http://www.dell.com
http://www.emc.com
http://roxio.com
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astro posted on September 03, 2010 07:58
Folks - I'm stacked with calls the first part of the day. Then please forgive me as I duck out early for Vacation 2.0 this Labor Day weekend.
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astro posted on September 01, 2010 06:34
Smallbiztechnology.com invites owners of growing businesses & small businesses, entrepreneurs, technology consultants, journalists and bloggers to attend the Small Business Technology Tour 2010 – http://www.smallbiztechtour.com #smallbiztechtour
The tour, taking place in five cities, San Francisco (September 28th), Salt Lake City (October 14th), Boston (October 25th), Washington DC (November 5th) and Atlanta (November 9th) is for those business owners who want to learn how
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astro posted on August 31, 2010 08:34
Earlier today I spoke with Louis Hayner at Alteva about its move into the Microsoft community with its UC product(s). As part of the community conversation, Louis shared the following. While not as racey as the HP CEO sex scandal – it’s still newz!
BTW – Louis and I will be chatting more at the SMB VoIP workshop (September 20-22, 2010, Washington DC) and I’ll certainly have a follow-up blog.
Alteva, headquartered in Philadelphia, today announced the appointment of David Cuthbert as CEO. With over twelve years of operational management and leadership experience, Cuthbert’s focus will be leading Alteva through its industry leading growth. Cuthbert joined Alteva in 2006 as the COO and has developed scalable processes through automation and employee development. The Founder of Alteva, Chairman and former CEO, William Bumbernick, will focus on the innovative direction of the company as Chief Innovation Officer.
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astro posted on August 31, 2010 08:02
I knew today was coming but it arrived all too fast. Today is the effective date that Microsoft Response Point is completely withdrawn from the market and is no longer in engineering maintenance status. What’s it mean for SMB Nation tribal members that enthusiastically embraced this cool small business telephony offering?
Photo: My recent May 2010 meeting with Response Point general manager John Frederiksen at Microsoft Redmond.
Here is a direct quote from Microsoft’s Response Point Team Blog, just so I get the language exactly right, “discontinue the sale, support, and development of the Response Point phone system for small businesses, effective August 31, 2010.”
That means the OEMs, the primary channel that sold response point, can no longer sell Response Point systems. I have messages into Aastra, Syspine and DLink and will write an updated blog later this week with how those vendors will play in a post-Response Point world.
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astro posted on August 30, 2010 13:25 
 Last Thursday night I attended a corporate reception that I couldn’t resist. Internap, a Internet backbone provider, was providing a tour of its secret Seattle network operations center. Once I arrived there – I got a double-dip! Charles Carkeek, a long-time SMB Nation tribal member, was also an invited guest and we greatly enjoyed catching up. He claims that my book, SMB Consulting Best Practices, got his daughter interested in technology and she recently completed a Masters degree in the area (thanks for the love tap Charles but your daughter deserves all the credit).
Photo: Randy Ortiz from Internap with long-0time SMB Nation tribal member Charles Carkeek. BTW - Carkeek was featured in the MSFT EBS case studies!
Anyways – see the video interview HERE with an Internap executive (
Randy Ortiz). And please send help – I’m stuck inside the Internet
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astro posted on August 30, 2010 10:07 
Join me and David Lady as we outline the new Pocket MBA course schedule. It's this Thiursday and you can sign up HERE. This is the joint gradulate-level certificate offered by Aspen University and SMB Nation.
We will discuss:
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astro posted on August 30, 2010 09:46
Global Report Identifies the World’s Top
Managed Services Executives, Entrepreneurs, Experts,
Coaches and Community Leaders
Datto Inc., T...
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astro posted on August 29, 2010 20:56
 Today I had an LSD trip, riding my bicycle from Whistler BC down to Vancouver, BC.
First – get your mind outta the gutter – I’m talking “Long Slow Distance” not Lysergic acid diethylamide
I departed Whistler Village right after sun rise at 630AM in order to ride the busy and narrow Highway 99 before too many cars created traffic. The ride was much harder than I forecast. I incorrectly assumed it was 70-miles downhill. Rather – it was 70-miles of rolling hills with significant cumulative elevation gains. It is Sunday night as I write this so I will let the photos do the talkin!
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