Greetings! Well I stand corrected. I thought that August was the slow news month (aka dawg days of summer). We’re reporting more and more news all the time – so no let-up on this end!

In the introductory video below, I bring to your attention what I believe to be important news. Jeff Middleton has committed to the SMB Nation Fall conference bringing a “taster” of his SMB MVP Tour content to us!!!! On a serious note, I present information on how to donate to the Jim Locke Memorial Fund. Add a recent visit from Scott Cayoutte (GITCA) and a surprise award, and we’re code complete!

Cheers!
Harry Brelsford | CEO | SMB Nation, Inc. | www.smbnation.com

PS – ‘Da SMB Nation Fall Conference is in “game on” mode so sign up at fall.smbnation.com to join us September 30-October 2, 2011. MORE SPEAKERS AND CONTENT JUST ADDED!

Small Business Influencer 2011 Awards

Join us August 25^th at 10AM for a webinar highlighting the just-released list of the Top 100 Small Business Influencers. This contest, undertaken by SMB Nation friend Ramon Ray at Smallbiz Technology , has identified the best of the best. Sign up for the webinar here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/744193944

BONUS: Join me at the Award Reception on September 13^th in Manhattan. Details here: http://influencers.smallbiztrends.com/news/champions.

Disclosure: I’m honored to have been selected as one of the Top 100. Woot-Woot!

This just in! Gain more purchasing power just by tapping into the promos that D&H Distributing has brought to you from leading manufacturers: 10% off 1^st order of select Netgear Smart & Managed Switches, 3% off select Cisco Small Business skus, 5% off all SNOM orders, 3% off Epson Scanners, 3% off Brother Inkjet Printers and more. For the latest, check out www.dandh.ca/smbnation.

For those SMB Nation Partners eager to source from a distributor that knows your business, D&H Distributing, a national technology distributor focused on independent resellers has partnered with SMB Nation to bring you exclusive demos and promos to help with your solution sales for your SMB clients.

With over 93 years of distribution experience, D&H has a solid history of dedicated service and evolving with the times to offer the latest technologies across networking, infrastructure, servers, mobile and desktop computing and many other categories of interest. D&H has more recently been recognized by the ACSII Group’s second annual Distribution Survey where they won 8 out of 16 categories – more than any other distributor in its class. In 2010, D&H was also recognized by Cisco as Global Distribution Partner of the Year and won Microsoft’s Operational Excellence Award in Licensing for the seventh consecutive year.

D&H is proud to announce its popular reseller rewards program, Incentives, is now available in Canada! Resellers will earn reward points on qualifying purchases that are redeemable in the D&H Incentives online mall where they can select from hundreds of merchandise items such as: services, travel, gift certificates and many other great incentives! During the month of September only, earn double incentive points! Shop on www.dandh.ca today!

You can learn more about the benefits of doing business with D&H Distributing by visiting www.dandh.ca. Set up a free account and receive a $50 Petro-Canada gift card when you make your first purchase of $1000.

ENERGY! Jeff Middleton to bring SMB MVP Tour “Taster” to SMB Nation Fall!

The 9^th Annual SMB Nation Fall Conference just took a techie turn for the better. We’ve been able to secure Jeff Middleton, currently on the hit SMB MVP Community Roadshow to be our lead-off speaker! The “taster” is good for you, good for Jeff and good for us. You can learn about the traveling roadshow here [http://smbmvptour/info/info-overview/]. In addition, during the 75-minutes Jeff has at our event, you’ll enjoy an overview of the technical tour content PLUS have a chance to hear these specific topics:

• Migrate Anything to Anywhere.
• Migration Platforms for SBS, Exchange, and Windows or Cloud-integrated deployments.

This is your chance to engage and get ENERGY!

BTW – the fall conference is now 2/3 technical and focused on the TOPICS you told us that you, our readers, want to hear more about.

Then Next Level of BDR Evolution, by CharTec

There are some rumblings at CharTec regarding their latest BDR product release. Version 2 of the CharTec BDR (Backup Disaster Recovery) appliance provides a stronger product offering for MSPs to protect their clients data through a reliable, easy-to-use solution that allows resellers to take advantage of improved virtualization and cloud features. A newly designed partner portal provides increased functionality and improved partner satisfaction. An RMM agent enables the CharTec BDR appliance to deliver rapid and reliable restore of any backup image remotely at any time. Reporting functionality on the portal allows partners to see detailed information about their backups and virtualization and will allow them to show their clients a detailed report on the status of their BDR.

"With the BDR appliance, CharTec has provided us with a solution that helps us deliver more efficient, reliable and higher-quality IT to customers looking for a better way to protect their data," said John Pyron of IBNS Inc. "CharTec is continually improving their product offerings to ensure that we have access to the latest technologies available on the market today. By enhancing what was already a solid backup and recovery solution, they help us eliminate client risk and downtime while helping us grow recurring revenue and increase profits."

“Innovative product offerings are a hallmark of CharTec and with the latest release of our BDR appliance, we remain ahead of the curve in providing partners with the means to offer clients the ultimate business continuity in the market with no upfront cost,” said Alex Rogers, CharTec's CEO.

PLEASE DONATE – Jim Locke Memorial

Last week we shared the sad news that Jim Locke, the founder of the SMB Technology Network (SMBTN), had passed away. Jim was well-known in the community for his role in running the SMBTN trade association. To honor him for his efforts, we awarded Jim with the SBSer of the Year award in 2009 at the SMB Nation Fall conference. Now there is a chance for you to give something back as well by helping to assist Jim’s survivors: Marilyn (wife) and Brian (son). Big- hearted members of the SMBTN community have begun this effort in setting up a donation site here: http://www.smbtn.org/JimLocke.htm where you can also learn more about Jim. Kindly note that the memorial service for Jim is in the L.A. area (Pasadena) this coming Thursday night (August 25) at 7:00PM. Click on the above link for more details.

Elvis (aka Harrybbb at right) honors Jim Locke as SBSer of the Year at the SMB Nation 2009 Fall Conference!

Note that we have officially changed the SBSer of the Year award title to the “Jim Locke Memorial Community Award” and both a deserving man and woman will be awarded at our upcoming fall event. SMBTN will have a booth in the MarketPlace Expo where donations will be accepted.

What’s the Difference between Hosted PBX and Cloud PBX?

The traditional on-premise PBX is rapidly being replaced by more affordable, less resource-intensive solutions like Hosted PBX and Cloud PBX. If you’re considering a technology upgrade, there are distinct differences between the two.

Both help reduce the cost and complexity of managing a phone system within your office. The phone system “hardware” is actually a server located in the provider’s data center. Features of the phone system are delivered via software. But that’s where the similarities between Hosted PBX and Cloud PBX typically end.

Here’s a feature comparison between Cbeyond Cloud Services’ NetPRO® PBX and Hosted PBX.

Want to learn more about NetPBX® PRO? Contact Cbeyond Cloud Services.

Seen on Bainbridge Island – GITCA!

Last week Scott Cayouette, Vice Chair – North America, for GITCA, visited the Pacific Northwest. GITCA is the worldwide user group organization that is supported by Microsoft. Scott was in Redmond for strategic meetings and built-in a few days to visit us at the SMB Nation “man cave” on Bainbridge Island. We discussed topics ranging from the role of GITCA – which is formally known as the Global IT Community Association at www.gitca.org. The GITCA vision is: “Being the Keystone in the Computing Ecosystem for supporting the successful growth, development, technical education, community service, and influence of IT Professionals, user groups and associations.” Its mission is to serve all manners of IT Pros including enterprise, government, in-house and SMB. So our man Scott is protecting our SMB interests!

Scott Cayouette is the president of IPW Networks in the South Florida area in addition to his GITCA duties. He is a huge University of Miami football booster!

Broadsmart is Cloud to the Core!

Broadsmart delivers Cloud Telephony (SIP Trunked/Hosted IP PBX products and services) nationwide, and the company considers the SMB and Enterprise business class customer as its core market. Recently, Broadsmart announced a second redundant “hot” site located in Denver, CO. These facilities enable the company to be redundant by offering a disaster recovery component.

Hosted IP is relatively new to the market place, and bringing the product to the end user in a way that can be understood can be complex. Broadsmart has accomplished this task by developing a user friendly product in the cloud. As we know, the phone system and ‘lines’ are now virtual, lending to significant cost savings, and increased feature functionality that is inherent to cloud technology. The approach is to refine product lines, create a low barrier to entry, and maintain a market position so that Cloud Telephony soon becomes a common business tool.

The technology has changed the way phone companies serve customers on the network level. At the same time, the technology has changed the way customers use their telephone. Handsets now plug into an Ethernet connection, and can share the single user port. Video is now readily available on a phone call. Features that have never been available on the desktop phone like “Click to Call” with Microsoft Outlook® Integration, “Visual Voice Mail Unified Messaging” allowing voice mails to become emails, and “Simultaneous Ring” allowing all of the users devices (cell phone, office desk phone, home office phone) to ring at the same time when their direct number or extension is dialed. In addition, apps for your mobile device (iPhone®, Blackberry® or Android™) like “Speech to Text” visual voice mail now integrate with your Broadsmart service in the Cloud.

Our world has been waiting for the next generation of telecommunications services; Hosted IP in the Cloud is quickly satisfying the appetite...

For more information, contact…

Shout Out – Josh’s Blog!

Longtime SMB Nation friend, Josh Peterson, is slated to give a great speech on consumer satisfaction surveys at our SMB Nation Fall conference. Here is a shout out to his analytical blog for you to enjoy: http://jo-sh.com/

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