The ASCII Group wrapped up the 2015 IT SMB Success Summit Series at the Irvine Marriott in Irvine, Calif. The eighth stop in the year-long Success Summit also included the awarding of the 2015 ASCII Cup Vendor of the Year to StorageCraft.
Also, knighted as the Top Four Contenders for The ASCII Cup were Datto, eFolder, LogicNow, and Lenovo. Knighted as The Distributor of the Year was†ASI†for getting the most votes throughout the year in this category. And Recognized as Esteemed Noble Partners were BlackStratus, HP, APC by Schneider Electric, Vertical Axion, and QuoteWerks.
The pre-day activities on Wednesday, October 21, included lunch and business card exchange. Vendor-sponsored sessions on Wednesday covered topics such as branding your managed services, disaster recovery, using IT assessments to win new business, simple website improvements, threat intelligence, quoting faster, and security services. The day ended with an ASCII member meeting followed by a welcome reception.
The main day event kicked off with a networking breakfast and peer card exchange. Guest speaker and ASCII member C.J. Ezell, founder and CEO of PointClear Networks, a healthcare systems integrator and managed services provider based in Fairhope, Ala., spoke with attendees about “Adding Dental Integration to Your Managed Services Practice.” His talk was followed by an introduction of ASCII Community Ambassadors.
Then presentations continued on capturing the power of the cloud, an ASCII Platinum Presentation on eFolder’s SEPP IT concept, and the “perpetually valuable MSP.” After a short break, attendees heard update on Datto Inc., and learned about MSP market opportunities. And in the ASCII Community—Building Business Together session, attendees heard how the next wave of services will be further built leveraging the ASCII community and helping take IT providers’ businesses forward.
In the afternoon, ASCII member Charles Tholen, president and CTO, Cognoscape LLC, is presented “Successfully Winning in The Legal Market With Managed Services.” And ASCII member, Eugene Tawiah, a certified Ethical Hacker, spoke about “Proven Triggers to Help SMB Customers Focus on Cybersecurity.”
Vendor presentation topics included disaster recovery, blended architecture, business continuity, opening new markets to MSPs and the channel, as well as partner program updates from APC by Schneider Electric and Lenovo.
The special guest speaker was Jana Monroe, ex-FBI assistant director, Cyber Division, who will talk with attendees about how to become the security experts for their clients.
Attendees also had the opportunity to browse the solutions pavilion, meet ASCII staff, and vote on vendor awards.
The day ended with a closing awards ceremony and giveaways, followed by the 2015 ASCII Cup party to celebrate sponsors that have been recognized by the attendees throughout the year. Winners of the Irvine event were as follows:
Pre-Day
- Best Education: Breach Secure Now!
- Best Technical Demo: CNET ChannelOnline
- Best IT Workshop: Webroot
Main Day
- Best Rapid Pitch: Fonality
- Best Keynote Presentation: Datto
- Best Creativity and Innovation: Star2Star
- Best IT Management Tool: LogicNow
- Best Partner Incentives: StorageCraft
- Best Market Opportunity: StorageCraft
- Top Security Solution Category Leader: Webroot
- Top Security Solution Winner: Breach Secure Now!
- Top Productivity Solution Category Leader: Connectwise
- Top Productivity Solution Winner: Star2Star
- Top Storage Solution Category Leader: Datto
- Top Storage Solution Winner: StorageCraft
- Top Cloud Solution Category Leader: Star2Star
- Top Cloud Solution Winner: eFolder
- Top Revenue Generator Category Leader: eFolder
- Top Revenue Generator Winner: StorageCraft
- Top Channel Programs Category Leader: Datto
- Top Channel Programs Winner: StorageCraft
- Top Distributor Category Leader: ASI
- Top Distributor: D&H
- Best Partner Involvement: Pax 8/ QuoteWerks/ StorageCraft
- Best of Show: Datto
The Summit Series is designed for qualified industry IT professionals and managed service providers, and is targeted toward those who are looking to increase revenue and enhance their current business model. ASCII members receive free admission to the event.
The ASCII Group is a membership-based community of independent MSPs, VARs and solution providers.
For more information go to www.asciievents.com.
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