In The News

Bethesda, Maryland – December 20, 2018 — The ASCII Group, the leading and oldest membership-based community of independent North American MSPs, VARs and solution providers, is pleased to announce the line-up of speakers for its 2019 North American ASCII IT Success Summits. The agenda for the Summits reflects an enhanced focus on education, providing attendees with strategies and best practices on how to grow their IT companies while best servicing their customer base. The events will be highlighted by more MSP-led education sessions and speakers in 2019, bringing even more value to attendees.

Keynote Speaker – Adam Steltzner, Technology Is Not the Obstacle: Described as “Einstein brilliance meets Johnny Cash cool”, Adam Steltzner helps companies harness the power of curiosity to spark innovation and collaborative leadership across their entire organization. From aspiring rock star going nowhere fast to a history-making PhD rocket scientist, Adam Steltzner is recognized as one of NASA’s leading – and most unique – innovators. For nearly a decade, Adam led and inspired the breakthrough team that invented the ingenious “sky crane” landing system that so spectacularly landed the Mars Rover, Curiosity, on the Martian surface 300,000,000 miles from Earth in 2012. Next, Adam will lead NASA’s Mars 2020 Project that will gather core samples of Mars for scientific discovery.

Additional MSP peer education speakers include:

Leo Bletnitsky, LBA Networking – MSP Merger Concerns? Learn What NOT to Do!
Mergers and acquisitions are one way to fuel growth but you need to tread lightly. Much of what is being touted when evaluating partnerships is numbers, but there is so much more to it. This session will detail specific questions you need to ask as part of any merger or acquisition evaluation. Leo has been involved in two mergers in his career – one was incredibly successful and the other failed miserably. With nearly 25 years in the IT industry, the lessons learned will certainly help your next business evaluation. 

Robert Boles, BLOKWORX – Security Business Service Transformation: The 6 P’s to MSSP
Our industry continually adapts, and as we have evolved into a managed services provider role, the ability for each of us to offer deeper levels of service as it relates to cyber-security will become the standard in the near future. How can MSPs make this transition into a Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) role and effectively present the value to their clients. With over 20 years in providing IT services, fellow member, Robert Boles has successfully made this business transformation.  This session will help define, deliver and breakdown different strategies on how MSPs can successfully make this transition. 

Rayanne Buchianico, ABC Solutions – Key Financial Red Flags MSPs Miss
Rayanne has been working with MSPs for over 15 years, helping them gain better clarity on their finances. With so many moving parts and constant change in our industry, it’s hard for MSPs to stay focused on the financial side of their businesses. By leveraging key MSP “sanity check points”, you can quickly see if there is a problem that needs investigating in your business. The session will help you better understand how balance sheet accounts work with the P&L and provide valuable insight into your business and key metrics you should be tracking.

Angel Rojas, DataCorps Technology Solutions – Approaching the Home Services Market: HVAC/Plumbing/Electrical
With a US market size of $60 billion, there is a healthy amount of money to be made in this vertical. In this session, we’ll cover the keys to serving the Home Services Market. It might seem trivial, but HVAC, plumbing and electrical companies have unique needs that, if not understood ahead of time, will absolutely kill the deal after the fact. When approaching this market, you need to be prepared and understand what is unique about it. DataCorps has had great success with the home services vertical and enjoys a niche in this industry that is made up of excellent, great-fit, value-oriented clients. 

The Success Summits are the leading conference in the channel, and bring together over 1,500 IT solution providers and MSPs, innovative technology vendors, and key industry thought leaders in a two-day format. With nine events across the U.S. and Canada, the series will focus on areas that will help MSPs advance and move their businesses forward through the power of community and its offerings.

“As ASCII celebrates its 35th anniversary, we are proud to provide an environment where MSPs can learn from each other, discover new ways to leverage technology, and network with leading channel vendors,” said Jerry Koutavas, President, The ASCII Group.  “Members leave the events with new ideas to grow their business and new partnerships with today’s top vendors.”

The Summit series is designed for qualified industry IT professionals, and is targeted towards those looking to increase revenue and enhance their current business model. MSPs and solution providers interested in attending the Summits can visit www.asciievents.com.

For more information, follow ASCII on Twitter @asciigroup and #ASCIISUCCESS.

About The ASCII Group, Inc:

The ASCII Group is the premier community of North American MSPs, VARs and solution providers. The group has over 1,300 members located throughout the U.S. and Canada, and membership encompasses everyone from credentialed MSPs serving the SMB community to multi-location solution providers with a national and international reach. Founded in 1984, ASCII provides services to members including leveraged purchasing programs, education and training, marketing assistance, extensive peer interaction and more.  ASCII works with a vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors that complement the ASCII community and support the mission of helping MSPs and VARs to grow their businesses. For more information, please visit www.ascii.com. 

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Press Contact
Alysia Vetter
Vice President of Marketing
Tel: 800-394-2724 x 131
Email: alysia@ascii.com
Web:  www.ascii.com