Brendan attended his first course at Harvard Business School last month and gives us his review of the experience in the first episode for 2023. The course, called “Aligning Strategy With Sales”, covered off on corporate and sales strategy conception, pricing, distribution methods, recruitment and performance evaluation, marketing methods, and

Have you thought about starting a podcast for your business? Well, this week, we’ll give you a head start by telling you all about the mistakes we made, the feedback we got, the hardware that sucked, the mics that worked best, the software we use, and how we define success.

MSPs that get their legal frameworks right minimise risk, drive profitability, and drive Enterprise value. Do you have the right agreements in place? How often do you review them? How are they aligned with ever changing SaaS vendor terms of use? Anne Hall from IT Agree joins Brendan this week

About 90% of start-ups fail, but what sets apart that successful 10%? Adam Ross co-founder of CloudOlive spills the beans on what it takes to build a successful start-up. Adam and his co-founder went through the Antler Venture Capital incubator in 2020. They successfully secured funding to solve a universal

This week on the Insights as a Service podcast, Brendan and Nick discuss their experiences at the recent IT Nation Connect and Gartner IT Symposium/XPO conferences. With the increase in cyber attacks and the evolution of ransomware, it was no surprise that cyber security was front and centre at these

This week on the Insights as a Service podcast, Brendan and Nick discuss their experiences at the recent IT Nation Connect and Gartner IT Symposium/XPO conferences. With the increase in cyber attacks and the evolution of ransomware, it was no surprise that cyber security was front and centre at these

Where is LinkedIn going wrong? LinkedIn was designed to make recruitment and social selling easy. It’s the ideal platform to promote your ideas on thought leadership and your personal and business brand. But as it has grown, the platform, and the way people use it, has changed. In this episode,

The thing that makes a business great doesn’t always scale. How do you hold on to your formula for success as headcount and business complexity grows? This week Nick and Brendan talk through that, along with how the French do business, learning from rejection, and matching business hours to customer

Greg Sharp sold Base2 to Kordia in 2021 for a 10x multiple, so he knows a thing or two about orchestrating a high-value exit. He has also founded several other businesses, the latest of which is ZenContract, a SaaS play aimed at helping MSPs build value in their own businesses

Swearing in the workplace is up by 60%. Is this acceptable, and if yes, by whom and in which context? The secondary job market has always existed, and most companies were turning a blind eye. Now with the tight labour market we are experiencing, companies are actively seeking workers who

Here’s how to avoid profitability issues in your business. What’s your end game? And how can you work back from that definition to create the required building blocks for success? Adrien Nisbet works with businesses under stress to turn them around and/or to help execute owner exits. In this episode,

Matt Bristow, GM of ONGC, joins Brendan and Nick to talk about starting up a security operations centre (SOC) and how his business implemented a cost effective entry into the security space. The guys also discuss whether “guys” is a gender neutral term, how fibre build times are blowing out,

Will Slappey’s business (IT Voice) had bought 8 businesses in the two years leading up to his chat with Brendan. That conversation was recorded 4 weeks ago. Since then, he has acquired two more. In short, he knows a thing or two about acquiring business in the ICT market. Check

Kaseya’s CEO says his company has no position on any social issue, is this the right approach? And how much value is lost when there is no cultural alignment in an acquisition? Nick and Brendan cover these questions, and a bunch of other industry talking points, in this episode filmed

Zero Trust is a term increasingly used in cyber security circles, but it means different things to different people, and it feels like each brand has a different take on it. So how to make sense of what Zero Trust really means? Masaki Takeda, Network Delivery Manager at The Instillery,

So much of the value on offer at networking events and conferences comes down to the connections you can make, but it can be hard to come out of your shell and feel confident approaching strangers. What should you lead with? How to get out of the chat if it’s

MSPs need a Customer Success process that is scalable, repeatable, documentable, and efficient… with metrics and a system to ensure the customer feels heard. When you concentrate on the people, programs, processes, and products that make a positive impact for your customers, their success guarantees your MSP’s success. Marnie Stockman

Depending on who you talk to, a recession is either looming or is already here. But does that present opportunity in the tech sector? And for MSPs, could it ease the pressure caused by current the shortage of skilled workers? Nick and Brendan dive into all that, discussing the wasted

Brendan and Jeremy Nees (Chief Operations Officer at The Instillery) woke up early to watch the Zscaler’s Zenith Live, so you don’t have to. Cyber security is one of the biggest opportunities for MSPs to add value, and this episode will offer you a glimpse into the future of cyber

Good people are hard to find, so why limit your reach to people with industry specific experience? And have you thought about how to better attract women to your business? This week Catherine Dearlove joins Brendan to share her story of coming into a tech role for the first time,

Introduction Is Elon Musk a giant tool?  Can a 4 day work week work in the tech sector? Will Spain pass a law to force telcos to answer all calls within 3 minutes? Brendan and Nick tackle the big issues while enjoying some quality Lightwire gin. Timestamps for the busy

NZ’s UFB fibre rollout has set a standard that Australia’s NBN is miles from even getting close to. This week Richard Riley, Chief Customer Officer for NZ’s 2nd biggest fibre carrier, Tuatahi First Fibre, joins Brendan to talk about where NBN went wrong, how 5G is impacting fibre uptake, and

Introduction The DHT, or dickhead test, is an important part of any interview process. People buy from people, and you need to make sure your people will rep your brand as you would. Nick and Brendan dive into that and also talk through how a recession, if that’s what we’re

Introduction Just because you have developers ready to work on new products or features doesn’t mean they should. Adding more products or features doesn’t equate to better business results. Creating solutions clients want starts with getting the basics right. Join Brendan and Nick in this back to basics episode on

Introduction With skills shortages biting, it’s never been more critical for businesses to create pathways for emerging leaders. But what makes an effective leader? And how can we nurture those traits? This week Brendan is talking to leadership coach Amanda Russo, a subject matter expert who works with businesses to

Introduction In this period of rampant inflation, your margins will inevitably be eroded if you don’t raise your prices. Efficiency within your sales team and company are key to thrive in a high inflation environment. Brendan and Nick are here to help MSPs like you to adjust pricing without losing

Introduction Harriet Mellor runs Your Sales Co, a sales training company that works extensively in the tech sector. This week she joined Brendan to talk all things related to sales success, both for individuals and organisations. Topics include team structure, the importance of personal branding and aligning it with your

Introduction How can the nimble MSPs compete with the big companies when it comes to recruitment? And how does your company culture play an essential role in attracting, and retaining, top talent? Highly skilled people aren’t the only thing in short supply – The current shortage of hardware is adding

Introduction Enable complete utilisation of the cloud by taking the breaks off your client WANs. Kurt Rodgers, Network Strategy Manager for Chorus, NZ’s largest fibre carrier, joins us to talk Hyperfibre, the 10Gbps access FttP service that is low cost and takes the complexity out of hyperscale connectivity. Timestamps: 0:00

Introduction Not sure whether Teams Phone is the fit for your clients? Wondering how to scope it? In this episode, Brendan & Nick walk through the features, breaking each section into small digestible bits with just a hint of DJ horn. We also wrote THE book on Teams Phone. The

Introduction This is part 2 of the in-depth conversation between Brendan and Nigel from The Tech Tribe. Nigel shares his MSP Sales and Marketing experience from helping more than 3000 MSPs around the world. How to differentiate your brand in a commoditized market and where Voice fits in a service

Introduction This week Brendan had a chat with Nigel Moore from The Tech Tribe! He has worked in a MSPs, owned one himself, and of course, now has this community that’s empowering MSPs to grow, scale and operate more effectively. This episode is Part One of their conversation. Timestamps:  0:00

Introduction Voice enables MSPs to limit churn and drive revenue, but it can also introduce complexity to provisioning, support and billing processes. In this episode Brendan and Nick run through the pros/cons and the ways that voice can be incentivised for all stakeholders to get the best possible outcomes for

Introduction Pricing and marketing are joined at the hip. Ron Wood runs Pricing Insight which, as the name suggests, helps some of Australia and NZ’s largest companies define and implements pricing strategies. In this episode he talks with Brendan about the mistakes to avoid, the process to follow in order

Introduction Join Brendan and Nick for a deep dive into the good, the bad, and the future of 3CX Unified Communications without the sales pitch. Episode 11, like any other Insights as a Service episode, is about making sure MSPs are aware of what 3CX can do, what it can’t

Introduction Paul O’Dwyer knows what gets businesses ahead. He has used the Scaling Up frame work to orchestrate his own high value exit and to build several brands he has been (or still is) involved with. He has also helped many other business owners work towards the same outcomes through

Introduction Nick and Brendan talk about the changes to Teams Calling, Microsoft price increases, what not to do when things go wrong, the power of retrospectives, and why Lightwire built a big red button. Timestamps: 0:00 How not to do IT status and outage updates 7:00 3 Tips to better

Introduction Have you heard of Agile but aren’t quite sure what it is or what it can do for your business? Tim Philips, an Agile and DevOps coach with over 15 years of experience from Unfuddle, joins us this week to get us all up to speed on how using

Introduction This week on Insights as a Service, Brendan is joined by Nick Phillips to discuss the impact Omicron has had on Australian businesses and what NZ MSPs and businesses can learn from that experience. Latest industry news is also covered, including new laws and liabilities in the cybersecurity space,

Introduction This week on Insights as a Service Nick and I are covering Telstra’s $2,5 million fine from the Australian Communications and Media Authority, NBN’s transition to the business space, and the real insights that are unlocked with customer surveys like the famed NPS score Timestamps: 0:00 What’s in this

Introduction This week on Insights of a Service we are joined by Markus McIver and Roman Paljk from Virtuoso where we talk about talent in the tech industry, the value of your reputation, and how genuinely caring can set your MSP apart from the competition. Timestamps: 0:00 Episode Intro 1:06

A $300 million merger that will make Telstra “sh*t bricks”, how not to do comparison pages, and we talk about why industry awards aren’t worth the hassle. Timestamps:  0:00 Today in Insights as a Service 1:00 How not to make a comparison page 6:26 Deloitte and KPMG AU going remote

Zack Levy worked in legal and commercial roles within some of the biggest IT companies going around before buying into, and subsequently running, Strut, an IT company that had big goals. He talks to us about how he engineered the buy in, and how a 10 year plan turned out

A guide to setting the right price for MSP products/services, we run through who’s buying who in the telco world, and we have the 2nd half of our chat with Mike Jenkins, CEO and co-founder of The Instillery. Timestamps: 0:00 Welcome to Insights as a Service 1:10 Aussie Broadband acquisition

In episode 1 of the “Insights as a Service” podcast, we cover key industry news, do a deep dive on the Australian Government backed purchase of Digicel Pacific by Telstra, and sit down with Mike Jenkins (CEO & founder of The Instillery) to learn about how he grew a 2