GFI Max Customer Conference: Forbes Previews Event for MSPs

GFI Max U.S. Customer Conference 2013 will be kicking off next week in Las Vegas, and MSPmentor will be there to cover the event for any channel-related news, as well as chat with GFI Max partners between keynote speeches — which reminds us: What can managed services providers (MSPs) expect to hear at the conference?

We reached out to GFI Max Business Unit General Manager Alistair Forbes for a quick sneak peak. He provided us with an exclusive look into the conference, pointing to key bring your own device (BYOD), mobile device management (MDM) and compliance themes.

CJ: What will be different at this year’s conference?

AF: This year’s agenda will be packed with even more great sessions, all geared towards helping Max customers grow their business and increase recurring revenue. The agenda has been extended to two full days (last year was one and a half days), including 34 speakers — a majority of which are GFI Max customers who are growing their business using Max. Over the two days, MSPs will learn many strategies to grow their business to the Max (90 percent of the attendees at our conferences last year grew their businesses after attending the event). We hope MSPs will also enjoy the social aspect of the conference and the opportunity to network with the other professionals attending.

We’ll have a lively panel session, which covers HIPAA, PCI and the Patriot Act. Legislation like PCI, HIPAA and the Patriot Act are having an almost daily effect on MSPs and their client’s business. Art Gross, president and CEO of HIPAA Secure Now will chair this panel of industry experts as they provide expert insight on how to stay the right side of key legislation.

We will also be announcing and previewing three new product releases to the attendees, extending the MAX product portfolio into significant new areas.

CJ: More than 8,000 MSPs are now using the company’s platform. Is there a time frame in mind to reach 10,000 MSP? If so, how far off is that time frame?

AF: A precise time frame is difficult, but at our current rate of growth, we would expect to exceed 10,000 customers, comfortably, in 2014.

CJ: What are some of the areas you will be discussing during your keynote speech?

AF: I will cover the evolving MSP landscape and the change imperative for MSPs; the rapid rise in the adoption of cloud services and GFI’s plans to deliver tools to help MSPs respond to that and secure their place in the new ecosystem; device proliferation and strategies for managing mobile now and in the future; trends in malware and approaches to web filtering; the increasing importance of wireless networking; energy efficiency and power management; and longer term plans for GFI Max.

CJ: What are some key themes attendees should pay attention to during the conference?

AF: Attendees should pay attention to the discussions on how the industry is changing, and the need for them to adapt their businesses to maintain their growth and profitability in a very different SMB computing landscape, mobile device management and BYOD themes, remote background management, GFI Max ServiceDesk new offering, HIPAA information and more.

CJ: If I was still not sure about attending the conference, how would you convince me?

AF: It’s simple, any MSP wanting to grow their business cannot miss this event. Our conference is different. The GFI Max community of MSPs and IT support providers include some of the brightest and best minds in the industry, so attendees will have a great opportunity to listen to and share with their peers, industry experts and the GFI team.

As well as hearing from our knowledgeable GFI Max executives, attendees will hear real world examples from customers who have faced and successfully overcome many of the challenges that you face in your business today. As they say — there’s no better way to learn than learning by example.

We’re offering time out, time to look at your business from the outside in, so that with the insight of others you can reflect on what you do well — really well, what isn’t really working out for you and how you could be doing this better.