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Happy “Diamond” anniversary – 60 episodes!
Topic 1: Are we breaking artificial intelligence?
In this era of “pandemic,” our behaviors are different from normal. That can be confusing for AI. In fact, it points out some of the weaknesses of AI data gathering, and how the models can wander off in the wrong direction.
Topic 2: What happened with VR?
This newsletter articles from Axios asks the question: Did Virtual Reality miss its big opportunity in this era of changing technology?
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-login-1dd8e53f-b755-4950-b905-7b5560393190.html
And we ask . . . If not this time, should we be ready for the next opportunity? Or will VR’s time to enter the mainstream never come?
Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic – Spying on Employees.
Employers have used technology to keep track of employees for a long time. Now we’re taking that to new heights. What lessons will we learn from spying on employees during the new work-from-home movement?
Great quote: “… the new office life is likely to become a pulsating den of surveillance.”
https://www.zdnet.com/article/going-back-to-the-office-new-spying-tools-are-waiting-to-greet-you/
We have been getting a lot of questions from IT Service Providers on emerging technologies and how they can start to implement these into their services offering. Brian talks with Ted Cole, VP of Channels and Strategic Partnerships with GPS Insight. They are a fleet management company with a focus on technology that utilizes IoT, AI and Edge Computing. Ted, who is a channel veteran is heading up their partner program which is designed to make it seamless for you and your customers.
You can email Ted directly for more information ted.cole@gpsinsight.com or visit https://www.gpsinsight.com/looking-to-partner/
Please check out our new “Killing IT Reading List” – at https://killingit.smallbizthoughts.com.
Promo: Join us at the SMB Online Conference May 19-20. As a bonus, we’re doing a “Killing IT Live” session. Check it out at https://www.smbonlineconference.com.
Topic 1: The Next Evolution of Facial Recognition – good and bad
Makers of facial-recognition technology are trying to figure out how to adapt to a world in which people cover their faces to avoid spreading disease.
Scouring social media and other apps for facial recognition database. Is this legal? Ethical? Also – finding children who have been victims of crimes. Sounds good, but also has some drawbacks.
Links: How Well Can Algorithms Recognize Your Masked Face? https://www.wired.com/story/algorithms-recognize-masked-face/
Topic 2: The Facebook “Supreme Court”
Facebook announces a board beyond Mark Z. to determine what is acceptable on their platform. Self regulation takes a different spin when you get to appoint the board that governs you – in hopes that governments won’t.
https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-names-20-people-overrule-mark-zuckerberg/
An interesting take-away for the previous two topics: Government regulation and self-regulation are important factors. You need to engage in these discussion with your clients.
Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic – The Small Business Sales process
What will change after we get to leave our houses? Some things won’t go back. In addition, many people are now comfortable doing a totally-online sales pitch. Others are eager to get back to the way things were.
We add our perspective.
. . . This episode brought to you by Bob’s Metal Bending Shop . . .
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Remote work forces for your clients have been set-up…now what? Brian talks with Infogressive CEO, Justin Kallhoff about securing remote workers and the vulnerabilities our businesses face in the current landscape.
They give some great insights on conversations you need to be having with your clients in order to effectively secure them remotely and protect their businesses. This is MSPs time to shine…IT Service Providers are one of the most essential services for business in today’s landscape.
Check out the “Killing IT Reading List” at https://killingit.smallbizthoughts.com.
Topic 1: Virtual Events — what you want to see
A different kind of discussion here. Would you rather rush out from quarantine to a channel-focused event, or maybe a sporting event, a social event, or even a concert?
We are still waiting for a “killer app” for online events.
Topic 2: The Economy
Where are we? Note: Wild speculation ahead!
We are clearly on our our way to recession. How soon will we start to move out of it?
How paralyzed are you by the statistics? What are the implications for business when there is so much uncertainty? In the previous topic we talked about the specifics of dealing with this regarding conference events. What about the rest of our economic interactions?
And the big question: What is the best approach for your business to take to guarantee survival in this environment?
Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic – Office space after the Pandemic
You have to dig a bit . . . but there’s a mention of voice-activated elevators. Dave’s favorite interface!
Related Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/23/offices-after-coronavirus/
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Billy Austin, President and Co-Founder of RocketCyber talks with Brian about SOC as a Service and log monitoring being one of the largest pain points for MSPs protecting their clients and maintaining compliance.
Defense evasion is never going away. What steps are we taking to mitigate damage and loss for our customers? Billy gives us some insights into an attackers playbook and with extended dwell times on a network, what they are up to and trying to accomplish.
Topic 1: CX Rules – Amazon makes it a little more difficult to buy – so you won’t be disappointed.
Amazon has made several subtle changes in response to the current economic environment. Specifically, their delivery times and inventory are no longer as reliable as they used to be. One example: They have reduced the “people also bought this” option so they are not automatically pushing items that might be out of stock or take longer to fulfill.
They are also pushing Kindle versions of books, which never go out of stock.
The goal is to minimize bad Customer Experience and maximize the positive Customer Experiences they can. Their assumption is that people are keeping track of who serves them well and who disappoints them during these unusual economic times.
Related Link: https://www.inc.com/chris-matyszczyk/amazon-is-changing-its-website-to-do-something-truly-unimaginable.html
Topic 2: Good Communication is critical in these unusual times.
Here we highlight a disagreement between an IT department and the people they serve. IT is more critical than ever to every organization – and they need to learn how to work with people!
The School Board tried to blame IT… and IT struck back and got their letter in the WaPo: https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/sbts-s-april-19-2020-letter-to-fairfax-county-school-board/4a5941a3-7e50-47f4-8818-3396a4097c06/?fbclid=IwAR00u5qY7lM6WdzbOdfcrTOVxabZP0f_WEPBpaSqOIt0b7CTutuHTDg5K70
Topic 3: Technology after the Pandemic – Cutting edge technologies to help keep the food chain safe.
IT – and blockchain in particular – will change the way we keep food safe.
Key quote: “Gartner predicts that 20% of the Top 10 grocers worldwide will be using blockchain by 2025 to improve food safety and traceability by creating a secure ledger documenting its production, quality and freshness.”
Link: https://diginomica.com/critical-role-it-assuring-food-safety-pandemic-times
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Brian discusses CompTIA’s recently released ‘Trends in Managed Services’ report with Director of Industry Analysis, Carolyn April.
MSPs moving toward an MSSP model continues to be not only an opportunity but a requirement in Managed Services whether built in house or partnering.
Exciting to see the movement toward a Managed IoT model for SMB’s. We have seen this on the horizon for a few years, MSPs leveraging their skill set to step in and assist their clients growing their business through technology. Carolyn explains that where the hardware and end point monitoring is seamless for MSPs, the real opportunity is going to come from the data collection and analytics for their customers to be able to maximize the IoT integration benefits.
A copy of the full report can be found here. Or you can email Carolyn directly with any comments or questions at capril@comptia.org
Topic 1: Community Rant – Helping your clients with finances.
We cannot believe that there are “experts” recommending that you lower your rates, forgive debts, and be the financial support for your clients in the rough times ahead! Just because someone bought time on a webinar does not mean that you should be taking their advice.
There are ways to cut costs by offering different services. Please do not create a “loss leader” service in a recession! Cash remains king.
Please do not simply charge less and give the same level of service: That breaks the value chain.
Topic 2: Education and Online Learning – How much opportunity is here?
Sending all the student home has made clear that there are systemic problems with “universal” online education. Many students do not have the Internet connectivity or resources to simply switch to online education.
In addition, there are lots of teachers who have never used online tools to deliver education. And if all the colleges go online, they will compete in ways they have never competed before.
Yes, there’s “opportunity” here, but the world is more complicated than that simple statement implies.
Topic 3: Technology after the pandemic – Robots Welcome to take some jobs
We were struck by the article below on how robots are being accepted instead of feared, at least in one specific example. There have been commentaries for years about the fear of robots taking jobs. But in this strange pandemic context, we’re finding that robots are welcome to do certain jobs that humans aren’t interested in doing.
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Brian has a round table with IoTSSA Advisory Board members Brian Weiss, CEO of ITech Solutions, Guy Baroan, President of Baroan Technologies and Ed Bensinger founder of Bensinger Consulting. They have a very candid and informative talk around what challenges and opportunities they are seeing with todays challenges.
Balancing potential loss against new opportunities and what they are doing to truly align with their clients as a partner and essential business service. Through this alignment they are seeing opportunities arise such as increased demand for Co-Managed Services leveraging their expertise and ability to remote monitor vastly expanded networks.
