LabTech Software Automation Nation: Partners Share Biggest Mistakes
George Bardissi, president of Hatfield, Pa.-based managed service provider (MSP) Bardissi Enterprises, yesterday provided the gruesome details about his company’s biggest mistake during a breakout session at LabTech Software‘s Automation Nation 2014 in Orlando.
Bardissi said he initially did not know about the regulations that needed to be addressed and had to re-evaluate how his company offered managed services to its customers. He pointed out that if he had known about these rules in advance, his company could have saved tens of thousands of dollars.
“It was a costly mistake,” Bardissi said.
Bardissi, along with panelists from ERGOS Technology and Nehring Technology, discussed the lessons they have learned from their past errors during an Automation Nation session titled “My Biggest Mistake.”
Justin Nehring, chief technology officer of Nehring Technology, noted his company “did its homework” during its search for a remote monitoring and management (RMM) software provider, but it originally focused on the wrong factors in making a choice.
“I was doing the homework and chose wrong,” Nehring said. “Now, I know to look beyond the products a company offers and look at its management team too.” (As you may have guessed, the company now uses LabTech Software’s products.)
ERGOS Technology President Matt Clines said his company suffered due to poor hiring and retention decisions.
“Employees are the most important part of a company,” Clines noted. “They’re really what we’re selling to customers.” But Clines said his biggest mistake has been to retain trouble-making employees for too long, until they spread negativity like a cancer.
All three panelists overcame their mistakes, however, and offered the following recommendations for MSPs:
- Conduct plenty of research to find products, software and tools to help your company grow.
- Find a partner who can help your company for years to come — not just today.
- Implement an “open-door policy” to encourage employees and managers to communicate with one another and with you, the owner.
- Spend time with every employee and manager to ensure he or she can be an asset to your company.
- Ask yourself not just what a service will look like in operation today, but what it will look like in 5 years.
Bardissi also noted no MSP is an island, and collaboration is key for service providers.
“You’re gonna get hit or you’re gonna hit, there’s no in-between,” Bardissi said. “Sometimes, it’s not always the best thing to say I can do it alone.”
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