Tubbservatory Round-Up #12 – December 2022

Tubbservatory Round-Up – Tools and Resources for Your MSP

Each week Richard throws a spotlight on five resources Managed Service Provider (MSPs) business owners should take note of in the IT industry. The Tubbservatory is a weekly video broadcast featuring useful articles, podcasts and events that bring value to IT business owners.

Tubbservatory Round-Up #12 – December 2022 is a recap of all of the Tubbservatory episodes made during the month of December. It’s edited together for you to watch at your convenience. The items are summarised below, with links to the resources mentioned in the video at the end of this article.

This month’s topics include: Leadership, Employee Engagement, Sales, Cybersecurity and Mitigating Risk.

Tubbservatory: The December 2022 Round-Up Video

Tubbservatory Round-Up #12: December – Week 1

#1 Odoo – An Open Source ERP & CRM Platform

Odoo is an open source platform ERP and CRM solution with an impressive array of integrated apps.

Odoo’s unique value proposition is to be easy to use and fully integrated. It’s a centralized, online platform that’s available anywhere, and on any device.

I’m hearing great things about Odoo from Managed Service businesses who are impressed by its power and simplicity.

One to keep an eye on.

#2 The 10 Key Competencies of Leadership

A short video that will help MSP owners is the 10 Key Competencies of Leadership from Tribero.

The competency areas include:

Communication
Problem Solving
Innovation
Leading People

In under 4 mins, Trevor Norman and his team share some valuable leadership tips.

#3 Threat Predictions for 2023 from Barracuda’s Security Frontline

An excellent article worth reading is Tilly Travers writing for SmarterMSP on threat predictions for 2023 from Barracuda MSP’s security frontline.

The article asks 5 top Cybersecurity experts including Riaz Lakhani, the CISO at Barracuda, for their advice to MSPs going into 2023.

This is advice that every MSP should read and take on board to help keep you and your client’s safe.

#4 Linode’s Partner Roundup featuring Dogsbody Technologies

Are you looking for an open source M365 alternative?

That’s just one of the resources James Steel of Linode mentions in his latest MSP Partner Roundup video.

Linode also shines a spotlight on Linux-focused MSP, Dogsbody Technologies: Providers of Linux Cloud Services to SaaS companies.

#5 Pax8 Virtual Launch Briefing – 8th December 2022

The next Pax8 Virtual Launch Briefing took place on 8th December 2022.

The Launch Briefings usually take about 90 mins, with one goal – to grow your MSP business.

Reasons to attend them include:

Gaining solutions to common MSP pain points
Learning PSA integrations to ease billing headaches
Getting an inside look from a current Pax8 partner

Tubbservatory Round-Up December 2022 -Richard Tubb-Blog Graphic

Tubbservatory Round-Up #12: December – Week 2

#1 How Can IT Leaders Address ‘Quiet Quitting’?

Since the phrase ‘quiet quitting’ went viral on TikTok in the summer, there has been a constant buzz about it in the press.

Although some may argue “Is this just the same as good-old fashioned ‘disengagement’ under a fancy new name?”

Computer Weekly’s Cath Everett suggests that the ‘quitters’ often result in other staff picking up the slack, which could lead to burnout, or them simply moving on.

This article is full of pointers on how to take the necessary remedial actions as a leader to build resilience in your own workforce.

#2 Tate Talks Podcast Back for Season Two

Back for a second season is veteran MSP expert Chris Tate’s Tate Talks. The half-hour interviews with MSP luminaries kicked off again in November, following a short hiatus.

You can catch all of the previous season one episodes here too, in case you missed them.

The episode with Robert Baugh of Keepabl is a great introduction to how he found a niche in the market – to make Compliance-as-a-Service much less of a headache for small businesses.

#3 Video: How to Stop Data Leakage in Microsoft365

If only there was a way to prevent people in your business from sharing sensitive data. Well, if you’re a Microsoft 365 business premium customer, you can!

This blog from Integral IT’s Jonathan Edwards gives you a step-by-step guide on how to set up policies within 365’s Data Loss Protection portal.

There is also a video to help guide you as well, should you need it.

#4 How to Answer the 7 Toughest Prospect Questions

When it comes to sales, your ability to answer tough questions demonstrates your understanding of how your products and services are likely to meet your customer’s needs.

This article from Zomentum contains essential tips to help you prepare for those common objections and difficult questions by giving you 7 of the most common for you to prepare for.

These questions will help you demonstrate your value as an MSP, which is vital in closing a sale with a potential client.

#5 The ‘Not an MSP Show’ is Back!

Pete Matheson, Andrew Moon, and Scott Riley are joined, once again, by our very own Richard Tubb. They will be sharing their insights on a range of MSP-related subjects in live broadcasts.

From ways to reduce your customer support costs to maximising customer lifetime value.

So you don’t miss a broadcast, you should subscribe to the YouTube channel now.

Tubbservatory Round-Up #12: December – Week 3

#1 MSPHERE the French-Speaking Community for BeMSP Partners

French MSP BeMSP launched a community for French-speaking managed service providers earlier this year.

MSPHERE (or ‘MSP HERE’) is a collective intelligence community where members can get in touch share expertise, and get answers from a team of experts.

The community already has 132 members and is growing.

As you would expect, their values focus on kindness, mutual aid, sharing, and solidarity.

#2 Encourage a Healthy Work-Life Balance to Empower Your MSP Employees

As a business owner, your employees are an essential part of the machine that makes your enterprise work.

A workforce out of balance will affect productivity and your bottom line Tubbservatory Round-Up #12 could be affected as a result.

This short guide from SuperOps gives a few pointers on what you can do to support your staff if they:

Are working long hours
Forgetting to take proper breaks
Feeling disengaged

#3 7 Apps to Help Improve Customer Experience

Customer experience is an important factor that can set you apart from your competition. Therefore, it’s worth investing the time to get it right.

This blog-post from Midlands MSP 2Logic offers 7 tools that can be utilised to up your communications game in 2023; And thanks to cloud technology, these won’t cost you a fortune to implement.

#4 Highlights of the Acronis CyberFit Summit 2022

In case you missed the Acronis Cyberfit Summit last month, Acronis has written a pair of blog posts with all the highlights from the event for you to read at your leisure.

Split over the two days, they give a full recap of the keynotes, product announcements and the roadmap for 2023.

Highlights from the event included the Dragon Cyber Cup, a panel of Women in Cyber and the live broadcasts from the Cyber Studio, featuring interviews by our very own Richard Tubb.

#5 ‘Merry Christmas’ – 30 Years of the Text Message

It was on the 3rd December 1992 when an engineer in Berkshire sent the first text message.

It was sent on an Orbitel 901 phone to the office manager who was at a Christmas party at the time, and it simply read: “Merry Christmas”.

According to Statista the humble SMS is in decline. There were only 40 billion text messages sent in 2021, compared to the 100 billion messages that WhatsApp users send every day.

Tubbservatory Round-Up #12: December – Week 4

#1 ChatGPT: the Complex AI Chatbot Tool from OpenAI

If you’ve not yet come across ChatGPT, then prepare to be impressed at how this AI Chatbot works.

For example, in this article for CNET, David Lumb explains how ChatGPT can fight Hospital Bills and even Invent Bedtime Stories for your children!

Despite this kind of technology seeming a long way off, every MSP should keep abreast of today’s AI developments.

#2 Easily Deploy a Mastodon Server with Linode Marketplace

With Elon Musk’s turbulent takeover of Twitter, many Tweeps are moving to rival social media platform, Mastodon.

Unlike Twitter, Mastodon is decentralised. Meaning it exists on independently run servers.

So this article from Hillary Wilmoth of alternative cloud provider Linode should be of interest, as it describes how to easily deploy a Mastodon Server using the Linode Marketplace.

#3 A Guide for MSPs on Identifying and Mitigating Risks

With the economic crunch comes a situation which many MSPs dread — client’s non-payment or going bust.

Jason Kemsley at Uptime Solutions gives some advice to MSPs on Identifying Risks and Mitigating.

The article suggests keeping a risk register, so that you can closely monitor contracts or clients that are in danger of becoming unviable.

#4 UK Government Extends NIS Regulations to Cover MSPs

News that the UK government will extend its Network Infrastructure and System (NIS) regulations to cover MSPs.

Islam Soliman reports for IT Europa that the update aims to improve the cybersecurity of firms providing critical services such as healthcare, water, energy and computing, supported by a £17m fine if they fail to effectively implement security measures.

Managed Service Providers should expect to a greater tightening of regulations in the future, so this article is a worth a read.

#5 Video: I Spent 7 Days Working in the Metaverse by Pete Matheson

MSP expert Pete Matheson Spent 7 Days Working in the Metaverse and has documented his findings in his latest video!

Could the next iteration of working from home include donning an Oculus Virtual Reality headset and collaborating in the Metaverse?

This might not be as crazy as you think, as Matheson explains!

Tubbservatory Round-Up #12: December – Week 5

#1 James Steel’s December Parner Roundup

James Steel of Linode dons his Christmas hat for the latest MSP update video.

This time he talks about Akamai’s Next-Gen Cloud Plans, The Virtual Desktop King, Ransomware Recovery Advice & Much More.

James’ videos have been a goldmine of great information for MSPs throughout the year, so if you’ve not checked them out yet, make sure to do so now.

#2 The 2022 Late Payments Report from Chaser.io

Late-payments from clients are the scourge of cash flow issues for Managed Service Providers.

So if you’re looking at shoring up you credit control next year, then check out The 2022 late payments report from Chaser.io

This report assesses the current global severity of late payments, how they can be reduced, and what methods businesses have implemented to deal with them.

Of special interest in the report is the fact that finance services, construction and IT businesses are those spending the longest managing their accounts receivables tasks.

#3 Karl Palachuk’s Book Recommendation: The One Minute Manager

Here’s a glowing book recommendation from MSP legend Karl Palachuk.

The One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson is a great book for learning how to give employee feedback, says Palachuk in his latest video.

If you’d like an overview of this famous book, then give Karl’s video a watch.

If you chastise your employees for making mistakes it will cost you more money in the long run. @karlpalachuk Click to Tweet

#4 Managed Services Sector Should Brace for More Private Equity Activity

Looking ahead to 2023, the Managed Services sector should brace for more Private Equity activity, says Flow Transform‘s Etienne Greeff.

In this article by James Cowen of CRN, we’re told by the Flow Transform CEO how he believes more companies are likely to become the targets of PE investment in order to consolidate and grow.

Could your MSP be the next target of Private Equity investment?

#5 Linus Tech Tips Present Young People Trying Windows 98

For the more mature, experienced IT Professionals amongst us. LinusTechTips have produced a hilarious video where Young People Try Windows 98.

It’s interesting to see their reactions to this familiar and yet quite retro-looking operating system. From its animated mouse pointers to setting up the dialling properties in control panel.

Tubbservatory Round-Up December 2022 -Richard Tubb-Blog Graphics

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Links to the Resources Mentioned in this Round-Up

From Week 1

Mentioned in Week 2

Week 3

And Week 4

Week 5

How You Can Help

That’s all from the Tubbservatory Round-Up for December 2022!

Are you aware of a useful tool or resource you think we may be interested in?

Please let us know in the comments.

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AI, Customer Experience, Leadership, Managed Services, Mastodon, MSP News, Quiet Quitting, Resources, Tubbservatory, Tubbservatory Round-Up, Video

STEPHEN MCCORMICK

I'm the MSP Community Manager for Tubblog. A small business owner, technical writer and blogger, with 15 years experience in corporate IT. I frequently attend MSP peer groups and create content relevant to IT service providers and business owners.

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