733 Back to the Future of IT

[Uncle Marv]
Hello friends, Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast presented by NetAlly and we are here with another interview on day two of ASCII EDGE, the last ASCII event of the year known as the ASCII Cup. And I forgot to mention on an earlier episode that I'm going to make sure I do it now, this is being recorded in the cloud and that is courtesy of Rhythms. So the IT Business Podcast is now powered by Rhythms.

So anytime you hear these live on-site presentations, that is how we're doing it. So I have with me another ASCII member that was plucked out of the audience here and Robert Thompson out of Canada is here with me. Rob, how are you?

I'm doing very well, thanks Marv, how are you? I'm good. So just to let listeners know if you're not watching the video, if I don't play this clip, the DeLorean is literally in front of my booth here.

So there is a large group of people taking a picture in front of the DeLorean. Rob, are you a Back to the Future fan?

[Robert Thompson]
Yeah, absolutely. This car is fantastic. It's supposed to be an exact replica.

[Uncle Marv]
I was talking to the gentleman earlier and that's a street-worthy vehicle.

[Robert Thompson]
That was a shocker that they drove it here. I wouldn't have thought that but yeah, it's fantastic.

[Uncle Marv]
So Rob, you're here at the ASCII event in Florida, not at the Toronto one. What was so compelling about coming down to Florida?

[Robert Thompson]
Well, I mean being from Toronto, it's quite cold there in October. It's very nice here and I mean I always love making it out to an ASCII event. I mean it's such a great community but I'm also a Spark peer group leader.

So all of the leaders meet here at the ASCII cup every year.

[Uncle Marv]
So tell me how long you were a member of ASCII before they roped you into doing the Spark thing?

[Robert Thompson]
That's a good question. I've been in business about 10 years now and I've been an ASCII member I think almost the whole time. Probably nine years now.

They started the Spark groups; I think this is the third year now. So it's been a few years.

[Uncle Marv]
So you obviously must have been active in ASCII for them to ask you. So what types of things had you done before that?

[Robert Thompson]
I regularly attend the monthly ASCII member meetings. The Zoom call? The Zoom call and I go to every Toronto event that I can make it to and the odd other event and I think just being engaged, being a hungry MSB that wants to grow and do the right thing for their customer.

Engaging with other professionals and peers is very important because that is the best education you can get in this industry I think. So being engaged in the community and at the events, I think that's why they ask. I think they think that if somebody is hungry and trying to do the right things and is happy to share knowledge, I think that's a huge part of this community is knowledge sharing.

I think they recognize that you know and figured hey let's give this guy a shot at being a Spark leader.

[Uncle Marv]
Have they tapped you to take over for Chad as being the official Canadian ambassador?

[Robert Thompson]
That's a long ways out I'm sure. Chad, we love Chad. He's a great member of the community up there and always a pleasure to speak with him so shout out to Chad.

But yeah, he's got a much more mature operating model. That's something that I strive for though.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay, well let's go back to the business side of it. So you've been you know open 10 years. When you started, did you start straight with managed services?

Because it sounds like that was about the time to jump in.

[Robert Thompson]
I think I was lucky with the timing. I started as a break fix. Didn't really know what managed services was until I had opened my business.

I think the ASCII communities would introduce it to me but managed services was something I switched to rather quickly. It wasn't easy to get into it though.

[Uncle Marv]
Not back then. Nobody knew the name. The customers didn't understand.

So how'd you make the switch with the clients and stuff? Did you take existing clients and convert them or just all new business became managed services?

[Robert Thompson]
We've converted all of our clients to managed services now. That wasn't easy. The new clients are easier to get them to understand and sign up for something that is a recurring revenue stream for us.

It is a mental shift for the client. You need to explain that you don't pay us to fix your problems. You pay us to prevent them.

We are gardeners not ambulance drivers sort of thing. I think when that mental shift happens in the client then they're happy to switch over. Frankly we didn't force our hand but you ultimately are the one in command of the relationship when you're an ITMSP.

I think we are the experts and we know best. Ultimately a good client will listen to that.

[Uncle Marv]
I know you said you're not as mature as Chad but I'm going to guess that you're mature enough to have a full stack and a full command of the managed services space. So are you doing pretty much everything for the clients including a lot of the cyber security stuff, compliance, all of that?

[Robert Thompson]
Compliance we're just dipping our toes into now. I think up in Canada we're a little behind the American businesses.

[Uncle Marv]
Americans don't care so you're behind us.

[Robert Thompson]
Maybe we just care a little less. So compliance we're dipping our toes into. We do have full stack cyber security.

All of our clients get it and we look to compliance frameworks as a guide even for our non-compliant worthy. The clients who don't care about compliance we're still guiding them toward that just because it makes sense.

[Uncle Marv]
Which frameworks are you moving towards? NIST, CMMC?

[Robert Thompson]
I've always looked toward NIST but CMMC seems to be becoming more and more popular down here so we may follow suit on that but NIST has always been what I look at.

[Uncle Marv]
Outside of coming to these ASCII events of course the ASCII cup you get to attend the party tonight but what other things are you taking advantage of in ASCII besides being tapped as a spark leader?

[Robert Thompson]
Yeah, that's a good question. I think the community here, the conversations that we have are the most valuable thing and those don't happen, those happen organically. You show up to a meeting or you see somebody near the DeLorean and you just spark up a conversation.

You're talking specific to ASCII benefits? It doesn't have to be.

[Uncle Marv]
They like to try to squeeze in an ASCII question but anything really. This goes out to all service providers and if there's anything you want to share even if it's not ASCII I'll take it.

[Robert Thompson]
For a recent initiative Marv, I think marketing and communicating with the client has been my number one focus recently so we're starting to do technology business reviews or QBRs with our clients now which we never did previous. Just being in front of the client, having an ongoing conversation with them and even with non or potential clients so sending out technology tips via a newsletter or a mailing list, that type of thing. Just trying to add more value, more visibility, more clarity between the client and us so that they understand what we're doing better and I think that will pay dividends with our existing clients and with referrals and so on which is how we get a lot of our business.

[Uncle Marv]
That has been a topic of late what people have talked about in terms of what is marketing to your clients, specifically existing clients because a lot of times we get the pushback where you're just trying to sell me something else but it's like no, no, no, no. I want to show you what we've done so you understand so that if you don't see us for a while, you're not going to say, well I don't see you, why am I paying you? That's a big part of that communication, that marketing, letting them know yeah, we're still doing stuff behind the scenes that you need to pay us for.

[Robert Thompson]
Right, right, absolutely. Just like tracking time in a ticket that they can see later on, it's very similar that they know you're there in the background working away.

[Uncle Marv]
Have your clients appreciated some of that communication?

[Robert Thompson]
Absolutely, it's still quite new, the TBR, the technology business reviews but I've done a few of them already and the feedback has been 100% positive. They love that we're taking an additional step to make sure we're all on the same page and even the clients who know that we're working hard in the background really appreciate having that.

[Uncle Marv]
That's good, that's good. Any particular product that you're using for that? Doesn't matter if you plug one or not.

[Robert Thompson]
No, actually, I'm looking at tools to help. We just heard from somebody on the stage there about their tool. I've just started with the spreadsheet and one note type of a combination for our meetings but I'm sure we'll get some formality to it at some point but nothing yet.

[Uncle Marv]
All right, well, Rob, it was great to meet you and I think you participated in the member meeting last night. You gave us a couple of good tips and stuff on a very morbid topic. I won't share here on the stage, on the podcast but when you get to be a part of an ASCII event and attend a member meeting, sometimes you get tips that you didn't plan on it but those were some very valuable insights and things to think about planning for.

[Robert Thompson]
I agree. There are a lot of things. The conversations we had yesterday were things you don't want to think about but you should and that you have to think about and due diligence is always a challenge in our industry but that's why we have our peers to help us out.

[Uncle Marv]
All right, so I see that they've gone back in for another session. I don't know if you want to see it but I'll let you get back to it but, Rob, thanks for stopping by and hanging out. Pleasure.

[Robert Thompson]
Thanks for having me.

[Uncle Marv]
And that's going to do it, folks, and we'll be back with more from ASCII Edge in St. Pete. We'll see you later. Hello, friends.

Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast here in St. Petersburg, Florida. Day two of ASCII Edge and for those that are watching the screen, I have shown that we are in front of the DeLorean from that great 1980s movie, Back to the Future. This is a live functioning vehicle, folks.

People have been stepping in, turning on lights, listening to the sounds, and wondering if they can put trash in the flux capacitor. But that's not what we're here for, folks. We are here to talk about ASCII and I have with me, we're just going to call him Vlad because his name is hard to pronounce.

So, Vlad, how are you? Very good, thank you. Thank you for having me.

All right, well, thanks for being summoned by Lynn after the meeting there to come out and chat. So, real quickly, I know you and I have talked, but for the listeners, tell us a little bit about you and your company.

[Vladan Gajicic]
Absolutely. My name is Vlad. Everybody calls me Vlad.

It's easier to pronounce, easier to say. Being in the business since 2018, company's called GVS IT Services. We are in northeast Florida, Jacksonville area.

[Uncle Marv]
Jacksonville. Yeah. All right.

So, 2018. Yes. So, you came in at a pretty much good time learning managed service.

Did you do managed services from the beginning?

[Vladan Gajicic]
No. Before, I used to work for two managed service providers. And after that, I worked for Office 365, Concierge, then Premier Support.

And after the Premier Support, you had the side hustle, same as many of us started like that, where they used to work for somebody and had their own side hustle customers. And I was working for 16, 17 hours. And I was like, okay, it's time.

It's time to flip the coin and spoke with my beautiful wife and support me all the way. I was going to say you had to get permission, right? Not permission.

It's pretty much like we always took some risks by me as a growing up in my career, biting a bullet, you know, biting the stuff that I may not know. That's how you learn when you get into the situations where you are trying to do something, but you're unsure or you don't know. So, go to the fire or go into the very deep water and try to swim out.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So, now let me ask you a hard question I didn't prepare you for, but you started the business in 2018. The first couple of years are really, you know, a struggle for most people.

You're just trying to get everything situated, figure out where you're going to go. 2020 comes along, COVID. How'd you survive through that?

[Vladan Gajicic]
Well, I can tell you this. When the COVID hit, our business grew 200%. Even though we took off Wi-Fi and our daughter for a whole year, we went to travel around Europe and I was working remotely, right?

But mostly of our revenue comes from other MSPs where we grew in level three support. Okay. That was something that we didn't plan at all, right?

It was not planned. We still have our own MSP customers, but it just grew, boom. And communication and work with other MSPs really grew our business.

It's like 90% of our revenue right now, believe me or not. Nice. Some of them are ex-ASCII members.

Okay. Well, let me ask you about ASCII. When did you join and how has that helped you?

Absolutely. I was joining in 2020. It's fourth year.

I joined because every MSP has kind of like a small peer group, small, let's say five, six MSPs that work together, help each other. It's a small team. We communicate together and they told me about, hey, there's one vendor who came out.

You should join ASCII. It's a big crowd of MSPs, help each other. Okay.

I went to see first time and I loved it. So here I am four years later, still going to the events and talking to people like yourself and learning about struggles, showing my struggles so we can all help each other and be better.

[Uncle Marv]
Right. So outside of the fact that ASCII members help each other, do you take an advantage of any of the programs that ASCII offers?

[Vladan Gajicic]
Absolutely. ASCII offers definitely advantages of certain products out there that we use to offer our customers. And definitely you are treated differently when you are part of the ASCII member.

[Uncle Marv]
Nice, nice.

[Vladan Gajicic]
How are you liking the DeLorean? I love it. I love it.

It just brings the memories of the first movie when I was a kid. I'm 40 years old, just turned 40 last week. Okay.

And I remember watching these movies and just seeing this just brings back some memories.

[Uncle Marv]
Were you born in Serbia? Yes. Okay.

So when did you move to the US? 2010. Okay.

So you weren't here when these movies came out, but did you see them in Serbia?

[Vladan Gajicic]
Yes. Yes, absolutely. I mean, we are not a third part country, you know, we don't have a TV and stuff.

Come on.

[Uncle Marv]
No, but you know, it's funny. Sometimes movies are super huge overseas and then sometimes they're not. Sometimes there's movies that I've never heard of that they're huge in other parts of the world.

So it's interesting to hear what movies make it and which ones don't.

[Vladan Gajicic]
There's a one comedy called Yankee Zulu that is a comedy that in Europe was humongous, was huge. But yet here in America, not many people know about it. It's such a strong and hilarious comedy that nobody knows about it.

But hey.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. Well, Vlad, I want to thank you for taking some time out. I think we got a break coming up.

I'll let you get back to it. And nice to meet you. Thanks for being a part of ASCII.

Absolutely. Chat soon. That's going to do it, folks.

We'll be back with another episode. And until next time, holla! Hello, friends.

Uncle Marv here with another episode of the IT Business Podcast presented by NET's ally, Empowered by Rhythms. We are here live in St. Petersburg at the last ASCII EDGE event of the year. And I have a very fantastic segment here for you today.

I have with me one of the best partners the IT Business Podcast has had in a while. Juan Fernandez from SuperOps is here in the house. We have some exciting news to share.

But first, let me just say, Juan, how are you, man?

[Juan Fernandez]
I'm good, man. It's an honor to be here. I'm a little tired coming off of a number of events and a lot of exciting new announcements.

But here and just enjoying the vibe here at the ASCII event. And it's just been wonderful.

[Uncle Marv]
You have been all over the place. I have seen it. SuperOps has been busy.

Of course, it has been a busy year. It has. But let's first get some big news out of the way.

I know that by the time you guys see this video or hear this podcast, this will be old news and you would have heard about it. But Juan Fernandez and I just got to sit in that DeLorean that I've been telling you about that's in front of my booth. And there's a specific reason as to why we got to sit in it.

So Juan, tell us.

[Juan Fernandez]
Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the things was, you know, we wanted to, you know, we talk about the future of RMMPSA. And, you know, I'm happy to say I brought the futuristic shades to bring back the DeLorean that we had here.

So we brought back from the future to bring the DeLorean and bring some fun and this wonderful evening of fun that we have planned for the ASCII Cup as well.

[Uncle Marv]
Let me ask, what was the impetus to make that the theme for this year's ASCII Cup?

[Juan Fernandez]
I think the big thing was, you know, we talk about the future of managed services. And, you know, we did something like this previously where we talked about, you know, going back to the future. And we really liked dipping into that vibe.

And so we thought, how much fun would it be if we actually brought the DeLorean? And, you know, I happen to have a pair of Doc's shades from the show and I've always been a big fan. And so we thought it'd be a really cool vibe.

And it's really been a great hit, lots of folks. And we just sat in it as you, and hopefully we'll see some pictures of that. And it's just awesome.

And it's super fun to kind of think about where we came from, the technology that we were aspiring toward as we were growing up. And then thinking about where we are today, it's a very different place. And so a lot of wonderful moments there and I'm excited to create more wonderful moments.

[Uncle Marv]
You'll hear more about that folks. And I'd like to talk about it more, but I want to make sure that we get to the reason that you're here. You're not only a sponsor of the ASCII event, proud partner of this podcast, you brought in the DeLorean.

But there's some other big news you've got to share. So people that are not here at the event are going to hear it by this show. So what do we got to share?

[Juan Fernandez]
Yeah. You know, one of the things we talk about is like the future managed services and what does that look like and representing it with coming back from the future and trying to help build the future of managed services. We just launched our AI, which is named Monica.

Monica was named after somebody, one of our employees that actually passed while building the platform in the early years. And so we memorialized her and her works in the program and in the platform. So our new AI has been released and I have gotten text after text from numbers of MSPs that are like, dude, Monica, though, are you serious?

Like, this is legit. And so I get a lot of happiness to see when something like that and we can bring those surprises and really help move the future of managed services forward.

[Uncle Marv]
Now, you had AI built in already. Yeah. So there was a lot of stuff that people were excited about.

What is it that makes Monica that much more enticing to use?

[Juan Fernandez]
Yeah, I think as you start to think about Monica and VisionX, as we start to think about these two nuances, VisionX gives you the ability to look towards the future. But then you have Monica, which is like a coach that's kind of telling you, here's all the things that are trying to help you along the way. So we're using your data to give you some advice and think about things like your tickets and your sentiment of your messaging and ticket analysis all comes together.

So Monica is your guide inside of our platform.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. So that sounds like super huge news already. It is.

I know we're coming to the end of the year. You and I have talked about looking forward and looking to the future. It sounds like you guys have some other stuff coming down the road.

Oh, yeah. I know you probably can't give all the details. But what if we were to get a glimpse?

What do you see happening?

[Juan Fernandez]
I would say this, you know, one of the biggest challenges that we heard from everybody in the MSP was integrations. So we will answer your questions and your call. I promise you that almost every single week for the rest of the year, you will be answered fully.

And so hopefully all the things that we're doing and the hard work we're putting into it is the things that you guys are looking for, because you've asked and we're trying to answer. So I'll save all the rest of the know. But just know that this is going to be an exciting next couple of months for all of us and all of our future partners.

[Uncle Marv]
All right. I'll look forward to chasing you down.

[Juan Fernandez]
Oh, yeah.

[Uncle Marv]
Come out and you're going to get worn out. Well, speaking of worn out, I know you just you kind of, I would say literally flew in today to be a part of this, the event tonight. You guys sponsored that, too.

[Juan Fernandez]
We did. We did. We did.

We wanted to bring the fun, right? Obviously, it's not just about the tech. It's not about running your business.

It's about creating special moments. It's about being part of the community. As you well know, that's why we what we do with you, is making sure that we foster and build community.

And so tonight, we have a really special treat. We're going to bring it old school. So for those that remember the days where we're all learning how to dance, maybe spin around on some cardboard.

I think I got a little something for us tonight. Really? Well, you can say it now because these people won't hear because the show will be long over and gone with but we have an extra special break dancers that are coming in tonight to set the tone and just really kick the party off.

So it is going to be level 10 fun tonight.

[Uncle Marv]
Now let me ask this question. Are there going to be the big super large boom boxes, the kind that we used to carry on our shoulders?

[Juan Fernandez]
I guarantee there's going to be some music for sure.

[Uncle Marv]
Okay. Yes. All right.

We look forward to that. And of course, folks, if you want to be a part of things like this, you got to you got to be here. And of course, you missed this one.

But next year is ASCII doing these events and, you know, sets the stage. The last event of the year ASCII Cup is when we had the big party. Of course, other companies have parties at the end of their stuff, too, but not as interactive as the ones that ASCII puts on like the one tonight.

It's going to be fun.

[Juan Fernandez]
I'm really excited. Again, I'm already dressed for it. Right.

You got the shades kicking it old school. Right. And, you know, these things don't come out.

I don't wear this normally. So obviously we're coming out of our box.

[Uncle Marv]
Yeah, but it's still it's still you. It's still a jacket. Hey, I can only go so far.

All right. Well, one, thank you very much. I know that, you know, you just got in.

You got a lot of stuff to get done and get ready for tonight. So thank you for stopping by. Pleasure.

And as always, thank you for being a partner of the podcast and being a partner of ASCII.

[Juan Fernandez]
Appreciate you, Marv. Keep going, buddy. We really appreciate your contribution.

[Uncle Marv]
Well, that's it, folks. So we'll see you guys soon. Sorry you're going to miss the party if you were not here, but we'll send pics.

But until then, we'll see you. Holla!