Learnings from the BigBig!

Last week, we had the opportunity at Nerdio to participate in the Taylor Business Group BigBig Conference in our hometown of Chicago, IL. It was the first time we attended the BigBig in our role as the official Azure automation and management platform of Taylor Business Group and it was a wonderful event with tons of learning, excitement, and opportunity to meet great MSP partners.  There were three key themes I picked up on at the event that I would like to share in this article—

Learn-it-All MSPs Taylor Business Group MSPs impressed me with their “learn-it-all mentality.” Each MSP I met was constantly asking questions about how they could grow their practice through innovation, and nobody was shy about asking us to take them through what at times can be difficult topics to master in the world of Microsoft Azure. That desire to learn more and be more is the mark of greatness and there was no shortage of great MSPs looking to learn and grow at this event.

Cloud-First Approach. Most MSPs I spoke with, including many after my keynote on Friday, realize they need to move their practice to one that prioritizes and makes money in the cloud. Most have moved the majority of their customer’s seats to the cloud with Office 365 but realize this is only the first step. They know that building a successful cloud practice with strong recurring revenue requires them to move their infrastructure to the cloud as well as their productivity apps. To do that, gaining a strong foundation in Microsoft Azure fundamentals is needed. It was great to speak with so many partners who are excited to use Nerdio for Azure as the automation platform that will help them deploy, price, manage, and optimize Microsoft Azure for customers now and in the future.

Winning Somewhere Before Winning Everywhere. Most MSPs I spoke with have been in business for a long time and have built successful businesses across the US and Canada. One of the best meetings we had was presenting to the MicroAge peer group on Thursday where we had the opportunity to discuss with the franchisees how to build successful cloud practices in Microsoft Azure. The big take-away from this group was the need to not skip steps or to really dig in and learn the fundamentals of how to make money in the cloud. It can be overwhelming for an MSP looking to transform their practice and not every partner will be able to do so overnight. Therefore it is important to identify the first partner you plan to move to the cloud, do it right, and build the foundation for success that you can repeat over and over. Win somewhere before you win everywhere.

We very much enjoyed participating in the BigBig with the MSPs who make up Taylor Business Group and look forward to spending more time with each MSP partnering to build successful cloud practices in Microsoft Azure.