High Energy at WPC10 with Dan King of New West Technologies

The Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference here in DC amazed me with its high energy and the enthusiasm of its attendees. Everyone I talked to was excited about the news, gossip and stories they were hearing from around the Microsoft partner ecosystem. One guy talked with was Dan King, CEO of New West Technologies, and he almost single handedly could have been an alternative energy source for the show.

Here are some quick snippets of our conversation:

Who is New West?

New West Technologies is a company I founded back in 1992 that sells systems to people with money. Ha! No, seriously, we are based out of Portland, Oregon and we are an organization of geeks who love playing with gadgets, electronics and computers. We been fortunate to turn our passion into a business than solves problems for our customers.

Over the past few years, we have focused our energies on successfully integrating POS systems with mobile technologies and helping our retail industry clients save money. As a company that a OEM builder, an ISV, a VAR and a consulting practice, we bring to the table a variety of capabilities- a strength that led to us being named the 2010 Microsoft Partner of the Year.

Who are some of the clients you’ve worked with?

Our clients are mostly small businesses with retail space, like apparel stores, liquor stores- hard goods type shops. It is amazing the impact a well thought out technology solutions can have. One client is a parking lot. Yes, a parking lot. They increased revenue 15% by installing a mobile POS system that allows people to buy car washes while their car was sitting in the lot. 15% to the owner of a parking lot is a huge increase.

Another client is the Portland Children’s Museum. We worked with them to install a POS system that made it easier for customers to buy tickets and saved the museum $47,000 in one year. You can see the whole story in our YouTube video:

Originally posted on MicrosoftPartnerNews.com

Conversation with Sean Harris of PassLogix

I was eager to meet up Sean Harris of PassLogix at the Worldwide Partner Conference. Security and identity management have been issues that have continuously plagued the IT world…seemingly forever. Sean is the Vice President of Sales for PassLogix and is on the front lines of working with enterprises to solve the most vexing security issue: password management.

Here is a quick recap of our conversation:

What is PassLogix?

PassLogix has developed software that takes away the need for users to manage their own usernames and passwords. Aside from the fact that remembering twelve passwords is an enormous hassle, most people tend to create a security vulnerability for their company by using one simple word as their password, and then never changing it. PassLogix helps clients to ensure that their enterprise level password strength is strong, lower help desk calls (by eliminating the need for users to remember any passwords) and even integrating password management with card readers at the desktop level.

PassLogix was started in 1996 and has 23 million users. Their software can be implemented by companies of any size from small businesses to large enterprises like Kaiser Permanente, HSBC and the US Post Office. Being size agnostic and complete scalable, PassLogix is seeing increasing demand as companies are embracing the cloud and using a combination of local applications as well as those served over the Internet.

How long have you been a Microsoft Partner?

PassLogix is a long time Microsoft Partner. However, in the past year and a half, that relationship has grown markedly stronger. PassLogix has developed strategic relationships with most identity management software vendors. Microsoft recently rolled out Microsoft Forefront, a identity management solution that provided us a opportunity to seamlessly integrate our product with theirs.

What do you think of WPC 2010?

While we were here last year, this is the first time we have been in a booth. It is a fantastic opportunity to network with our Microsoft contacts- some of whom we’d only spoken to on the phone! It is great for relationship building to put faces to people’s names. We are also excited to meet and learn about other Microsoft partners. For example, we have had numerous conversations around how to integrate identity management into the Unified Access Gateway environment. We’ll be working with Microsoft’s other UAG partners to ensure that as companies continue to embrace the cloud they won’t expose themselves to security vulnerabilities.

(This post originally appeared on Microsoft Partner News)

Interview with Kristin Bockius, Microsoft’s State and Local Government Relationship Manager

Originally posted on MicrosoftPartnerNews.com...

The Worldwide Partner Conference is hopping down here at the Washington Convention Center. The energy level is high as 14,000 attendees network with each other and learn about the latest Microsoft software and services. One attendee I had a conversation with was Kristin Bockius. She works in the Public Sector group at Microsoft and leads their efforts to build relationships with state and local government clients and partners that service them. She is is an thought leader in how to utilize social media marketing techniques. Here is a few snippets of our conversation:

Why are you here at WPC?

I’m here mainly to connect with partners that sell to state and local governments or have an interest in tapping into this huge marketplace. I’m particularly keen on showing how they can use effective social media marketing campaigns to grow sales and strengthen client relationships. For example, if a partner isn’t using any social media tools now, they can still work with us to leverage the social media properties Microsoft has already built, like www.gov2social.com, and www.brightsidegovernment.com, and twitter.com/microsoft_gov.

Can you share some examples?

Sure. Infostrat is an IT consulting company and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. I recently sat down with them for a social media consult. They were very interested on how to leverage social media in a business to business (B2B) and a business to government (B2G) situation. I shared a set of best practices that we’ve developed at Microsoft and now they are going to be launching a new marketing initiative with social media at its core.

Another company is SpeakTECH. They already have embraced the benefits of social media marketing as cost effective way to reach to prospects and customers. The challenge is here is how do we at Microsoft co-mingle our social media marketing activies with theirs in a way that effectively but appropriately drives new sales.

Lastly, I’m also going to be talking with Zones about how they can expand their already successful business into the sometimes hard to penetrate state and local government marketplace.

This is your first time at WPC. What do you think so far?

I’m psyched to be here. For one, I love DC! Plus, compared to other trade shows, everyone here is really engaged and enthusiastic.

Facebook Worth $23 Billion? and Other Questions

Is Facebook worth $23 billion or $12? Whatever Facebook is worth in the end- those are some really big numbers...

Twitter Places is targeting Foursquare and Gowalla (again). I haven't seen the benefit of location based social media. Although I do have a Foursquare account, I haven't used it much. Do you use it regularly? What do you get out of it?

Worried about a large asteroid hitting the earth and wiping out life as we know it? Don't worry, the Russians have our back.

My agency was just selected by TerraGo Technologies to provide integrated public relations and social media services with the goal of increasing awareness for TerraGo's software solutions among decision-makers at government agencies and industrial organizations. TerraGo is a really cool geospatial data company that delivers software applications that extend the access and application of maps and images for non-GIS users and customers. I'm psyched we get to work with them.

Lastly, take a moment to vote for Ryan Zimmerman for the All-Star Game this Monday. Not convinced? Click below to see the video of him hitting a walk off home run last night...

Braun Jones of WWC Capital Group, latest on Straight to the Point Podcast

For as long as I've been recording podcasts for the Straight to the Point series, I've been focused on how marketing executives have been addressing larger business problems from a marketing perspective. I've been really lucky to sit down with some outstanding professionals from Microsoft, British Telecom, Socialware, BearingPoint and others.

Last week, however, I shifted gears a little bit and interviewed Braun Jones. Braun is a principal at WWC Capital Group, which is an investment banking and private equity firm dedicated to serving middle market companies in need of capital or seeking advisory services to complete a sale or an acquisition. I wanted to sit down and pick his brain about economic and market trends that affect the environment that marketers have to operate in.

What did we cover?

• What does the economic outlook look like right now? Five years down the road?
  
• How does he make transaction decisions?
• What kinds of start ups are getting investments now? What technology trends are "hot"?
• Is the government contracting market ready for another round of mergers?
  

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