729 Eric Torres on the Importance of Community

Transcript

[Uncle Marv]
Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast and we are doing another special audio recording this week where I told you I would not be doing a live show. Today is my getaway day. I will be heading over to St. Pete, Florida to attend the ASCII EDGE conference in St. Petersburg. It is the last ASCII event of the year, so it is called the ASCII Cup because there will be a big old blowout party happening over there. So if you are in the St. Pete or surrounding area, you might want to get over there. So the ASCII EDGE Cup is happening.

So today, Tuesday, October 22nd, we've got a show here. I mentioned the IT Business Podcast is presented by NetAlly. Today's episode is sponsored by our friends over at Super Ops, the all-in-one RMA PSA platform to help you streamline and supercharge your business.

I hope that's their tagline, because that's what I said, and you know I don't edit. So the one and only will let me know. Today, I have a very special first-time guest.

We don't know how this happened. We've chatted about it. But if you've seen the podcast cover, no, it is not Elton John.

It is the one and only Eric Torres. He's got a new gig over at Pax 8. Eric, how are you?

[Eric Torres]
I am doing well, my friend. I'm doing well. Long-time listener, first-time caller.

[Uncle Marv]
Fantastic. So yeah, you made the switch over to Pax 8, what, about a month ago?

[Eric Torres]
Boy, not even. It was at the end of last month was the announcement, and then I had some time off that was already scheduled, and then in true Rode Royer fashion, my first actual day with the team was on the road at Pax 8 beyond Berlin. So yeah, I'm still getting my feet wet.

[Uncle Marv]
That's a definite on-the-road trip, so glad you're able to make that. We'll talk about that in just a second, but let's talk about the fact that, so you're at Pax 8. Everybody knows you.

You've been in the channel for a while. I actually, and you may not remember this, probably summertime 2014, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 15th Street Fisheries, there was a Datto Roadshow, and that's where we met. I talked to you for about, I don't know, 45 seconds, and then we hadn't talked until today.

So 10 years, my man.

[Eric Torres]
That is taking me back. That is, boy, that might be one of, that had to be my second or third Datto event back then, second or third vendor event for that matter. So yeah, that's dating back a long while ago.

[Uncle Marv]
So now you're here at Pax 8, and let's see, the official title, Vice President of Channel and Community Engagement, correct?

[Eric Torres]
That is correct. Yes, I'm joining Rob Ray's team and doing channel events and engaging with the community and doing what I love and what I do best.

[Uncle Marv]
So interestingly enough, Pax 8, in my opinion, has done a pretty good job of engaging the community. So let me just ask you, what are you going to bring to the table? Because they were doing pretty good, so they must be looking for some very lofty things.

[Eric Torres]
Yeah, just enhancing the engagement. Pax 8 does, boy, 150 plus events throughout the year. So there's no shortage of opportunities for the MSP community to engage with us.

I think it's more about just evangelizing all of the benefits that our partners see. And I know Rob needed some help. We needed some road warriors on the team that know what the life is like going out there from event to event and meeting with all of our friends that are out there and just continuing to further educate people on what it is that Pax 8 truly brings to the table.

[Uncle Marv]
Nice. So in terms of the events, now, of course, we know the big events, the Pax 8 Beyond, and you guys do a lot of partner stuff there. So in terms of expanding the community engagement, what are some things that might be popping up that are different than what we've seen before?

[Eric Torres]
Boy, that's a good question. We are still in the midst of it. Right now is the planning time for the following year.

It starts late September, early October, and just truly building out our plan to figure out, okay, what new events can we add? I saw some new things on our list that I have never done before. So I think that's the thing that gets me pretty excited is we know the events that we know and love.

You mentioned ASCII taking place this week. I'll see you down there. So we know the ASCIIs.

We know the large vendor events. We know those types of things. But there's new ones that are popping up all over.

Whether that's a vendor event or even expanding into some of the larger scale events that are out there that now MSPs are starting to go to, the Microsoft of the world that are out there, and large scale events that now, because the playing field has been leveled, that now MSPs are starting to go to some of these. That's what I'm really excited about sitting down and figuring out, okay, well, what can we add? What's different?

How do we think outside of the box rather than the typical playbook that us vendors have been using for years?

[Uncle Marv]
Right. Now, how much of what changes comes out of the PACS 8 marketplace? Because that is now stepping outside of our channel that we have known for years.

It opens up a lot of opportunities. So what changes are attributed to that?

[Eric Torres]
Well, I think the marketplace, for one, it's an incredible opportunity for MSPs that are out there to, I use the term level the playing field. So we see a lot of the MSP community starting to go after some of the more medium-sized businesses on the SMB side and utilizing some of the key resources within our marketplace. I know that we had just announced our partnership with Commvault.

So now Commvault is available in the marketplace, and that's that enterprise size data protection that typically wasn't available for MSPs or even SMBs for that matter. So using something like that and offering that offering to their clients, I think that just opens the door and it all starts with the marketplace. I remember years back, MSPs were asking me and their clients were asking them, how do we back up our main business applications?

Salesforce, for one of them, Salesforce was a huge solution, a huge platform that a lot of SMBs were using that the MSP market just couldn't really do much with. And now they're able to with our brand new partnership with Commvault. So I see a lot of use for some of the vendors that are inside the marketplace.

I also see, we recently did a study with Channel omics, and they surveyed MSPs that were out there, SMBs that were out there, and just what they're really seeing out there. And we found a ton of data in there that is quite fascinating to me. And when you look at the marketplace, I think a lot of folks were confused as to who we compete with and who we don't compete with and how we play nice and, again, level that playing field for everybody.

So, yeah, I'd love to talk more about the Channelnomics report and what we're seeing out there from MSPs.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, before we dig into that report, let me just ask generally, because we hear from Jay McBain all the time about how the MSP market, the managed services market is growing exponentially. We see new vendors trying to hop into the space to capture the MSP market. And in, you know, I'm speaking as an MSP now, I do see, I don't want to say proliferation, that's probably not the right word, but I do see the fact that because of more vendors coming in, because of more opportunities, that there are some MSPs that might think we're going to lose out on a lot of things now because of these big players and other players moving in.

How do you see the state of the channel and the MSP community with regards to all the change that's happening?

[Eric Torres]
I see it as the exact opposite. I see it as all these major players are coming in, but quite frankly, what I've seen over the years is that a lot of the big enterprise size companies that are trying to get into this market, they don't really know how to. And they're leveraging MSPs to go out there and further sell their products.

So we see that time and time again, I won't get into specific vendors, but they are relying on the MSPs to go out there to lead the way for the SMB side, because they don't really know how to navigate that business. So I truly do see it as a ton of opportunity, and especially with a lot of the players that are coming in, because the new vendors that we're seeing pop into this market are, sure, some of the larger ones, but they're also a lot of the smaller ones, the MSP-focused new vendors that are coming aboard. But I also look at it like this is the way it's always been.

It's always been changing. Every couple of years, we see a new shift into what we're focusing on. Way back in the day, it was focusing on moving to the cloud and focusing on business continuity and security and riding those new waves and further adding to the services and the opportunities that MSPs have.

I see it as a silver lining and not necessarily a threat.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. So referring to that report, and I wanted to ask that question first, because it makes me sound like I'm in the 10%, but the report actually says that 90% of IT solution providers expect a rise in marketplaces by 2029. That's a big number.

[Eric Torres]
That's a huge number. Some of the other numbers that stood out to me, aside from those that just show that they're embracing the marketplace mentality and going to that one single location to help uncover new opportunities, new ways of doing business and more streamlined ways. It's how a lot of the younger generation, and I'm probably dating myself, but the younger generation are used to going somewhere and just purchasing things.

And that's what we're seeing. Some of the other numbers that really stood out to me is that 46% saw an increase in their profitability and almost identical to that, 45% are saying that they're wrapping more services into their deals and they're seeing more profit as a result. So embracing that marketplace mentality and using that, it really does uncover new lines of business, new ways of adding to the bottom line and operating more maturely.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, it certainly opens up more opportunities to get in front of eyes that we normally wouldn't get because, let's face it, driving some of these younger generation people to a website, they're just going to get on their phones and they're just going to type in what they're looking for. And yeah, if there's a marketplace where they can go and find almost everything they need, for us to be in that list somewhere, that's the way to get in front of people. Now, of course, the bigger the marketplace, the more competition that could show up there.

But listen, competition's what we do anyway.

[Eric Torres]
That's spot on. And some of it isn't even necessarily competition but partnering. For example, we do partner with the Azure marketplace and we're seeing the private offerings that are inside of Azure available through Pax8 as well.

So what seemed to be competition not that long ago is actually a partnership and working on building all of that into a nice, cohesive ecosystem. It's all about helping our partners work more maturely, have more options, uncovering more leads. And then we also have the added benefits of the enablement, the community, the academy.

There's just a ton of resources available for those partners that are out there.

[Uncle Marv]
All right, so that report is out. I will have a press release available for people to see. And let's see, there's a link somewhere to go and get the full report and do all that.

So that'll be great. Of course, like I said, it basically mimics every other stat out there. You know, our industry is growing.

The MSP managed services division of just about every company is growing. And you mentioned the opportunity to partner with more and more things. Let me ask you this.

The fact that you've been involved in the channel, you've been, you know, a part of a lot of things. Are there trends that you see happening for MSPs that are helping us, you know, with that growth? Are there things that are being adopted technologically that you're seeing a trend around?

[Eric Torres]
There's the M&A trend that's been going on for quite some time that I'm seeing. And I'm a strong proponent of the peer group, the pack mentality. So what I see more and more MSPs doing is when they're thinking about M&A, whether they are embracing it and looking forward to something like that or a little bit fearful of that.

And what I see them doing is leaning towards their peers and discussing more, communicating more and having that true community focus. So that's where I see the Pax8 peer groups, the major peer groups that are out there and just getting in a room and talking with others. And the trend that I'm seeing is, yes, we have the larger acquisitions that are happening, those that are truly building these huge MSPs.

But even on the smaller side, I see a lot of the small MSPs getting together, the five to 10 person shops that have met somebody through a peer group that have joined forces. And suddenly they're adding even more to their bottom line and being more strategic. So I guess to answer your question, I see a lot more communication happening, a lot more freely sharing of information with others because it's all about helping this entire community grow.

And it's yes, there are competitors out there, but we're willing to share information and help each other out. And that's the biggest thing. As far as different technologies, I think the technology that MSPs offer, it changes, it ebbs and flows.

I mean, there's the new shiny object in the room that everybody's looking at and testing out. And I think that's a good thing. I think people are building really good technology out there and it's up to MSPs to embrace that and utilize it.

AI being one of them, I'm seeing AI become an everyday occurrence. I use it nearly every single day in my role. So that is the mentality that MSPs are having on the tech side, too.

It's just how do we embrace the new technologies that are out there? How do we bring this to the SMB market and how do we partner with some great partners out there that can help guide us?

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah, I was hearing what you said about the peer groups. I think the biggest thing around that is we are helping each other with our operational efficiency. So I don't know that it's I think we're kind of stepping back from the shiny object syndrome and taking a look at what's out there already that why aren't you leveraging this to make your business more efficient, which hopefully will make you more profitable and will give you a much better stance when it comes to your cyber risk position and especially helping out the customers.

So I see that happening a lot in our industry.

[Eric Torres]
Yeah, no doubt about it. And quite frankly, MSPs are moving so fast that it's almost impossible to keep up with all of the advancements that their own vendors, their existing staff has been offering them. And that's part of the challenge that that my team and I is out here to address.

How do we share with others the benefits that are out there when talking about the PACS-A community, talking about learning and we started out talking about BEYOND and different events and different opportunities for MSPs to get together and understand truly what's happening. So it's a challenge for people like me, but it's one that I embrace and I'm out here that I'm happy and happy to be out there spreading the word.

[Uncle Marv]
So let me ask you about BEYOND in Berlin, but I want to ask this as a bridge, as we're talking about getting the word out in education, there's almost this sense now for the last, I don't know, 18 months or so, maybe two years or more, that vendors are starting to be more intentional with their education towards MSPs, both to help them run their business better, but also in a sense to help them sell product better. And then with the marketplace, of course, it's opening up much more than that.

So how do you see the relationship between vendors, distributors and MSPs evolving?

[Eric Torres]
It's a huge opportunity for vendors, all vendors, PACS-A included, to help educate the market that's out there. And if you look at your typical MSP that is out there serving the SMB market, a huge majority of them are technical minded folks that have then started their own business, their own practice. And sales may not be their number one focus, may not be there the thing that they're the best at.

So I think relying on the vendors, relying on us, the PACS-A Academy, where we've got a support team, a global support team of coaches and peers that are helping with all of the knowledge that is out there and truly helping MSPs get that competitive edge and training them on how to do better at sales, how to do better at marketing and building that community aspect of it. I'm a big advocate and I've said it before way back in my days of being an MSP from way back when. I'm not trying to recreate the wheel.

Somebody's already done this. So why don't I see what is working for others, hear how they've done it, put my own spin on it and then go out there and add to my bottom line, giving me that competitive edge as an MSP. And when you look at the community that PACS-A has been building, we've been building this since 2012.

So there's a lot of brainpower behind what we're doing and how we're doing it and the coaching programs that are out there and just all of the ways that MSPs can learn a lot more about what's happening out there in the market.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. You mentioned PACS-A Academy. I don't want to gloss over that.

That has been a great place for people to learn just about basic business stuff. So if you're a PACS-A partner, be sure to take advantage of the PACS-A Academy. And now let's go ahead and circle back to where I was going to go and the PACS-A Beyond in Berlin.

So I've been to the first two PACS-A Beyond in Denver and. It was kind of interesting hearing about PACS-A doing this in Berlin and considering it. I don't know what the word was.

It wasn't groundbreaking. It wasn't earth shattering, but it was it was almost being treated like a brand new thing because it was the first of its kind overseas. So let me ask you from your perspective, what was PACS-A Berlin like, both as an attendee and both as your first duty as a PACS-A person?

[Eric Torres]
Sure. Yeah. Likewise, I was at both of them in Denver in 23 and 24, and it had the exact same look and feel in Berlin.

It was a major event. There was there was a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz. There was a lot of communication amongst the people that were there.

And here in North America, we're used to these large events. We're used to the IT nations of the world, the Kaseya Connects out there, those large scale 3000 plus attendee events. I've been going over to overseas to events for years now, and they're a lot smaller in scale.

And you're talking about a 100, 200 person event. Suddenly they go to beyond Berlin and there's over 500. And next year it's going to be even larger than that.

So bringing that big scale mentality event overseas is the ultimate goal. And we're seeing a huge success in doing exactly that. So from an attendee standpoint, again, it had the same look and feel, the same the same limelight of everything, the excitement level.

And then me joining it as my very first PAX 8 event, it was just like recharging my battery and going out there, brand new things to talk about, brand new people to meet and to get that that word out. And it's an awfully exciting time. I absolutely see the beyond events someday, soon overtaking some of the largest events that are out there across the globe.

[Uncle Marv]
Come on, come on now, man. Really?

[Eric Torres]
I'm drinking the PAX 8 Kool-Aid, but I see it as only a matter of time until it is. It already is a must attend event, but now just a large scale must attend event.

[Uncle Marv]
OK, so for years, you know, the rest of the world has kind of looked to the U.S. as, you know, the MSP market. You know, I've heard MSPs talk about the fact that, yeah, we run an MSP, you know, in England and Australia and stuff. But we're nothing like an MSP in the U.S. What was the sense that you got from MSPs over there or solution providers that attended PAX 8 beyond and how they viewed themselves compared to us over here?

[Eric Torres]
There's I've been I've been working globally for quite a few years now, and there's a couple of things that are true and there's a couple of misconceptions. So I will say one of the misconceptions is that they're behind that MSPs across the globe are behind those from North America on certain things. And while that may be true from a security standpoint, they've been dealing with compliance issues for years.

So in my mind, when you look at GDPR, they were dealing with that for years, whereas the North American market is just now starting to catch up on that side of it. But then when you look at building a true managed services practice where they have that recurring revenue and that's how their businesses build, that's where they are learning quite a few things from the North American market, especially a lot of the in the APAC region. It's been a few years since I've gone to some APAC events.

So we're dating myself to pre-COVID. But I remember going to some of those roadshows and some of those events and still talking about how to build that managed services practice. So it's a mixture of both.

They are looking towards the North American market as leaders when it comes to building some of the business practice. But they're ahead of us in in in other in other ways. Another nuance of the EMEA market, they're used to buying from a distributor.

They're used to buying from somebody out there that is simply just selling them product. We're going over there, changing the game and offering a marketplace, a true disruptor when it comes to the what they're used to, how they're used to doing business. And they're embracing it with open arms.

So it's a mixture of a little bit of all of that.

[Uncle Marv]
Interesting. All right. So it sounds like you got some exciting things that you're going to be doing.

I believe the press relief had the phrase doubling down on business growth strategies. Is that correct? They're going to have you double down on some stuff.

[Eric Torres]
I yes, that is correct. Doubling down on the amounts of activities that we have out there and the ways that we are engaging with the community. This is only going to expand.

And it's part of what I've been doing for years. How do we how do we see more of the market? You know, we go to these large scale events and we have our conversations.

We meet with people. We see our friends. But how do we get out there to some of the areas that there aren't typical events?

Some of the smaller tiered cities that that maybe it's the MSPs that don't have the bandwidth to go and travel to a large scale event. How do we how do we interact with them? How do we go see them?

How do we bring this to their area? And that's what we're working on. And that's part of the challenge, but part of the excitement of being in on the on a channel team in the vendor world.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. And so for people that don't run specifically in the Pax 8 circles, if it's not the big events, what are some of the upcoming smaller things that Pax 8 might be doing that you could let us know about?

[Eric Torres]
Sure, we've got we're at the regular events, the ASCII's, the channel pro, I'm going to channel pro coming up. We've got IT Nation coming up. There's a number of vendor roadshows that are very intriguing to me outside of the Pax 8 events that we do, the education, the academy events that we bring out there.

But there's a lot of smaller scale events. I see some of the vendors that are looking at this and thinking outside the box. Some of our friends that are out there that are hosting others at events that are doing small lunch and learns that are just reaching that community again that they normally don't.

For us at Pax 8, our own mission briefings, those are out there. That's a traveling event that that is hitting all of these cities out there and truly expanding the engagement that we that we have with the community. But the mission briefings, especially that that is an excellent way to hear more about Pax 8 and learn about what we're doing and learn about how to do more.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. That means I'll be able to see you more and not necessarily from afar.

[Eric Torres]
That is that is exactly right. Exactly right. You know, and also our very own Matt Lee.

Matt Lee is out there. I see him on LinkedIn. I see him on Facebook.

He is I don't know when he's ever at home. And he's been a friend of mine for a long time. And he is out there training a ton of folks on the latest on security.

And I remember back years ago, pre-COVID, we had him at an event. And just how impressive he is when he's when he's talking with people and even traveling in his whole setup and the way he goes about his role. But that is something that that I also get a kick out of every time that I see that he's in a new place and talking with new people.

And he is just constantly on the move. And it's awfully exciting.

[Uncle Marv]
I think Matt Lee works in the exact opposite as the rest of us. Most of us get about two weeks of vacation where we can actually leave work. I think Matt gets about two weeks of vacation where he's at home.

[Eric Torres]
That is exactly right. I was I was actually in the in the lobby of the Berlin Hotel when he and his wife walked in and they had a ton of road kit cases that they travel with full of equipment, full of clothes. And I look at him, I said, wow, you're really packing a lot for this.

And he said, this is day 16 of being on the road straight without going home. So, yeah, he is he is absolutely in hotels more than he is his own bed. That's a fact.

[Uncle Marv]
Someone needs to do a documentary about the Lees and their and their go bags.

[Eric Torres]
Just that would be awesome. I have asked him. I've seen the I've seen some of his kit, some of it.

And actually, that was the first time. This is a couple of years back. First time I saw a stream that I look, he's all set up and he's on the road.

And I look at I go, what is that? And that's just how he's how he's built. He's built different.

[Uncle Marv]
That is the let's say I think it was the second or third time I did a podcast with him. And both he and I were in remote locations with our gear. And it just was absolutely hilarious that we did that.

But Eric, thank you very much for finally coming on the show. And we'll have to get you on more often. But I get to see you at least at the Ask the Edge event because I will be there.

I will also be at IT Nation. So I know that's a big place. I may not see you there.

[Eric Torres]
That is a big place. But yeah, I'll see you in a couple of days at Ask the Edge. And yes, this is a long time coming.

Joining your podcast here. I would love to come back. We've got some exciting announcements coming up next month.

So hey, who knows? I'll be back soon. Someday.

[Uncle Marv]
I've told Rob and I've tried to tell your marketing people if there's any news, let me know. Love to have people on the show. And I am a PAX 8 supporter.

And I think that's all I can legally say.

[Eric Torres]
There we go. There we go. We appreciate it.

[Uncle Marv]
There you have it, folks. Eric Torres, the vice president of Channel and Community Engagement and PAX 8, joining all of the other big swingers, heavy hitters in that PAX 8 community. Eric, thanks a lot.

Thanks, Rob. All right, folks. We'll see you soon.

There will be many, many more audio podcasts coming. Head over to itbusinesspodcast.com. Check them out.

I'm headed out. Talk to you later. Allah.