2009 March « Dave Stelzl's Blog

Archive for March, 2009

Mar

Making Managed Services Work

Categories: Opportunities
Tags: kaseya, lpi, Managed Services, mcafee, nable, reseller, var, zenith

Managed services is a misunderstood term with too many disparate definitions; at the same time, it’s an essential part of financial stability. I was speaking with one of my coaching clients yesterday who, two years ago had zero dollars in recurring revenue, and now has about 2 million annually with a 40% margin. Try to get that in hardware, or better yet consistently realize it in services over a year (including bench time).

Based on excellent feedback from our March teleseminar, I have scheduled a phone conference specifically on Building and Selling managed services. This will be geared to small and mid-sized resellers/solution providers who are serious about growing managed services in some form. So whether you’ve already built it and just want to see sales take off, or you’ve been working on it and just don’t have the program working, this will provide specific steps to take in order to move forward. Sign up here: http://www.stelzl.us/subscribe_teleseminar.asp – we’ll start at 11:30 East Coast time just like last week, and there will be an MP3 available a few days after the session.

Mar

Spending April Fools Day with the Conficker Worm

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Categories: Sound Bites
Tags: april fools day, Conficker, cybersecurity, microsoft, trend micro, worm

You should know what this is. Tomorrow is the day of the Conficker Worm, and it’s likely that some of your clients will have it. USA Today gives a simple test to see if you’re infected. The worm blocks over 100 websites, so simply ask clients if they can reach www.microsoft.com, www.mcafee.com, www.trendmicro.com, or Symantec’s site, and if they can they’re good (according to USA Today).

What does this worm do? There seems to be some confusion and ambiguity here. I don’t have it so I don’t really know. But USA Today mentions everything from “nothing major”, to “Cyberwarfare”. In either case, you may have people asking, so a quick read of the USA today article might be prudent.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/technologylive/2009/03/how-to-diagnose.html

Mar

Making Money in a Miserable Economy – Follow Up Notes

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Categories: Opportunities

Today’s teleseminar was a huge success and very well attended, including people from all parts of the country; resellers, manufacturers, software publishers, and distributors. A recording of today’s session will be made available to those who attended. I will also be providing a copy for purchase to those who were not able to attend for $150. A couple of key sound bites from today’s call:

1. Executives must take action – they’re under tremendous pressure by shareholders, boards, and superiors. Using strategies and techniques presented in today’s call, it is important that solution providers reposition themselves to provide leadership and support.
2. It’s time to rid yourself of time wasting activities as well as unnecessary expenses; however, don’t confuse this with sound investments, marketing, and calculated expansion. Cisco and IBM both exemplify this behavior as they cut in certain areas, while expanding in others. IBM’s recent layoff announcements coincide with tremendous investment plans if they acquire SUN. Those who gain new ground will be positioned for growth as the economy recovers.
3. Don’t sell other people’s stuff and don’t chase other people’s programs. Personal branding is an essential part of the recovery process. Sales people must work to brand and position themselves as thought leaders while the need is great. Take ground while others are scrambling.

I’ve already received a number of comments and questions from those who attended today’s session. I look forward to hearing from you as you apply today’s principles. Also be sure to check out Friday’s new podcast – see links on the sidebar.

Mar

The network is the computer…

By Dave Stelzl's Blog 1 Comment

Categories: The Bottom Line
Tags: Cisco, Ibm, network, Server, Strategy, Sun

Are you keeping up with the tech news? There are some interesting things happening out there in the midst of a broken economy. IBM is looking to pick up Sun – whether or not you are in this market or not, there are a lot UNIX servers being sold out there; it’s not all Microsoft. Can IBM resurrect some of the momentum SUN had in the late 90s? The more interesting news is Cisco’s entre into the server market. If you recall a Fortune magazine article last fall detailing Cisco’s data center strategy, selling enormous switches with a green side to them, this is the next step. To be honest, I was expecting a storage acquisition by now, leveraging Cisco’s SAN switch technology. I’m certain this is next. While it may sound to some like Novell buying Wordperfect, I think there’s more to this. A recent Harvard Review article provides some insight on what may be happening here:

1. Taking control of future cloud computing resources
2. Building a compliant infrastructure in expectation of new “green” legislation
3. Redefining data storage and server capabilities as part of the network (Something SUN tried to do from the server side, but never actually succeeded on)
4. Positioning for a more mobile and lightweight computing world that will better serve minis, iphones, and other PDA type technology.

I recommend the Harvard Review article: http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/sviokla/2009/03/does_cisco_have_its_head_in_th.html

But wait! There’s another side of this. These companies are expanding their brand and foot print while others are wallowing in economic depression. They are cutting wasteful spending while spending strategically to grow their brand. This is part of the downturn strategy. When things do finally turn around, these companies will have new offerings ready to go, a brand that’s remembered, and cash in the bank to restart their momentum.

Mar

Opportunities for success….

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Categories: Opportunities
Tags: creativity, Innovation, Money, sales, seminar, Technology, training

Don’t miss this week’s podcast at http://dstelzl.podbean.com/ – The final chapter on what is happening in the cybercrime space. We’ve had some major hits this month including Heartland, WorldPay, Checkfree, and more. Find out 5 things companies are doing wrong – five areas you could be focusing on to win more business.

Also, we’ve had a tremendous response to the upcoming March 26^th Teleseminar – Making Money in a Miserable Economy. Make sure you register at http://www.stelzl.us/subscribe_teleseminar.asp while there’s still time. I’ll start at 11:30 AM East coast sharp! The material for this event is fresh and relevant to our current market – this will open up new ideas for success in the coming months. Read more on my website (link above).

Mar

Who wants a $30 Billion contract?

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Categories: The Bottom Line
Tags: contract, Cyber Security, Federal, sales, security, Technology, Wall Street

Up to $30 billion in Cyber Security – The US government is right now in the midst of evaluating the state of security across US Internet infrastructure; I don’t expect good news to come out of this. Budgets aren’t yet established, but it’s going to be in the billions, and numbers like 30 billion are being tossed around. Who will get these contracts? Will they go to firms that really understand security? If you have connections in the federal space, and a team that understands security, I’d start making friends with Information Assurance and talking about it. Another option is to start a federally focused sales team (be aware you’re going to need some certifications to do this). A recent Wall Street article states the alternative,

”Some intelligence officials worry the government’s clunky contracting system will end up awarding contracts to familiar big companies that lack the highly skilled technicians who gravitate toward smaller firms.” Do you think Northrop Grumman and Lockheed have the skills to pull this off or is the money better spent on smaller more specialized security focused firms? I’d love to hear you opinion on this.

Mar

Keeping up with March’s big hits!

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Categories: Sound Bites

Some of this month’s most significant sound bites:

1. Finally a number published on the heartland attack (who knows how accurate it is). SC magazine reports 249,839 records compromised. It’s hard to believe this is right knowing that this organization processes over 100 Million transactions each month. We’ll keep watching as the investigation continues.
2. Checkfree, the company many use for online payments, exposed about 5 million records this month according to SC. This was done by redirecting traffic intended for the Checkfree site to a server in the Ukraine.
3. SC also reports the total number of known compromised records since 2005 as 252,392,040. This agrees with the “250 Million” number I often quote in my executive seminars.

The problem with all of these numbers is inferred in today’s USA Today article on Cybercrook’s Websites http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2009-03-15-identity-theft-is-your-computer-infected_N.htm . Researchers are discovering information aggregators out on the net that belong to cybergangs – servers used to storehouse stolen information – digital asset warehouses. In this article researcher Prevx found one such site connected into 160,000 systems, actively siphoning off data as people did everything from order pizza to conduct daily banking activities. The details of the article show that cybertheives have a complete account of every activity performed on these systems from changing passwords, to sending meaningless emails. But they also capture banking information, payment transactions, and all kinds of other sensitive information on these infected systems.

Mar

Data@Risk Cover

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Categories: Opportunities
Tags: Data@Risk, David Stelzl, sales, security, selling, Technology, Workshop

Due out in April 09

A quick update on the book – Data@Risk, Building an Asset Mindset Toward Securing Data is due out in April 09. We’re completing the final pieces right now…finishing up the cover design which looks something like the picture above, inserting humorous illustrations like the one I posted a few days ago, and making some final edits. This book is positioned for the managers and executives you work with every day, showing them where their data is insecure, why today’s security efforts are largely failing, and how to work more effectively with security consultants to get the job done. I wrote this in response to many workshop attendees asking for a version of the House & the Cloud suitable for clients. Stay tuned, it will be out shortly.

Mar

Making Money in a Miserable Economy

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Categories: Opportunities
Tags: Information Security, Managed Services, online, sales training, security, selling, teleseminar

Paralleling my most popular workshop, Making Money with Security™, this teleseminar will get you going again.

Scheduled for March 26 at 11:30 am Eastern for one hour, full of content, no discussion, not Q&A and best of all no travel required.

The fee is $95 (only $25 if you’ve been through my one-on-one mentoring program or if you have a current subscription to my Podcast program). This fee is per individual so please don’t hand out your pass code or call in from a conference phone. The price includes the session and access to a recording of the session – yours to download and keep. There is limited “seating.” Check out my website at http://www.stelzl.us/subscribe_teleseminar.asp to sign up today.

Mar

Wall Street Confirms Sound Bites

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Categories: Sound Bites
Tags: Data Breach, Heartland, ID Theft, Identity, Information Security, selling

Wall Street writer Ben Worthen, in an article dated March 10, 09 recounts some of the growing risks of identity theft, validating many of the statistics I’ve given over the past two years. Here’s a short excerpt:

“The number of reported data breaches of all kinds in the U.S. climbed to 656 last year from 446 in 2007, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization based in San Diego that helps identity-theft victims. These breaches affected some 36 million records — including Social Security numbers, credit-card accounts and other personal data.

Overall, more than 250 million records containing personal information have been lost or stolen since 2005, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse — and that’s driving more consumers to companies that say they can prevent theft.”

656 companies reporting ID theft

Over 250 Million identities expose

36 Million records exposed in 2008

Also noted in the article, Heartland processes over 11 Million Transactions per day, but a total number of exposed numbers has not been published.

Sound bites build credibility with asset owners and overcome technologist’s attempts to make their security sound solid. Wall Street is a solid source to quote from given that most decision makers read it (or at least pretend to).