Nine great Peyton Manning traits

If Peyton Manning were an entrepreneur, I’d like to be his angel investor. It's clear that many of the characteristics that make Manning a great quarterback would also make him a great entrepreneur. Here are nine characteristics of an entrepreneur that Manning personifies:

1. Be a visionary leader. Great entrepreneurs have the ability to see the big picture and, even more important, recognize the opportunities in that picture that other people don’t. I called this ability The Warren Buffett/Peyton Manning Secret Strategy in a 2010 CoBiz article. Buffett and Manning are both masters at having vision and seizing opportunities others never notice. What a valuable entrepreneur characteristic!

2. Have a maniacal focus. Great entrepreneurs have a maniacal focus on what’s important all the way through to the tiniest detail, especially in the early phases of building a business. Manning certainly has this characteristic; his attention to detail borders on obsessive.

The remaining traits can be found here:  Nine great Peyton Manning traits ...Colorado Business Magazine | Weisner Media | Denver News |ColoradoBIZ Magazine

Citrix XenMobile MDM demo - mobile device management

How Big is the Hosted Desktop (DaaS) Market? (Part 1) | Citrix Blogs

How Big is the Hosted Desktop (DaaS) Market? (Part 1) | Citrix Blogs

Desktop as a Service Conversation Starter

Slow VDI adoption rate could get a boost from Desktop as a Service

Facing rapid change, CIO adopts shared services model, cloud solutions

Facing rapid change, CIO adopts shared services model, cloud solutions

Spam me and give me a virus – thank you very much!

This is a great blog from Scott Swanburg at Citrix talking to some of the lesser known (but very valuable) benefits of a hosted Citrix solution.

http://blogs.citrix.com/2013/08/26/spam-me-and-give-me-a-virus-thank-you-very-much/?goback=%2Egde_4152959_member_268974957#%21

How to send files directly to ShareFile.

Citrix ShareFile is an enterprise follow-me data solution that enables IT to deliver a robust data sharing and sync service that meets the mobility and collaboration needs of users and the data security requirements of the enterprise. By making follow-me data a seamless and intuitive part of every user’s day, ShareFile enables optimal productivity for today’s highly mobile, anywhere, any-device workforce.

Go to the folder on the ShareFile website that you want to email attachments to and select Request Files

Select Give me a link I can copy and send using my own email software (optionally select the checkbox if you want to be notified when files are uploaded)

DO NOT CHECK THE BOX FOR Require recipients to enter name and email before uploading (helps with tracking)

Select the Request Files button

You will then receive a URL, copy the last part of the URL

Open your email client and paste this content from the URL and append with @mail.sharefile.com

Hit send!

Here is a video posted by ShareFile showing this process if that is more your style – YouTube video: Send Email Attachments Directly to ShareFile

5 reasons SME's are moving to WorkPlace

One of the most frequent questions we get on WorkPlace is “When should a company move to WorkPlace?”  While there are to many to name here there are many reasons to make the move, there are also certain events that minimize obstacles and objections. These are”buying signs” which greatly reduce the sales cycle for prospects considering WorkPlace.




1. Adding/Removing locations or employees.

WorkPlace is ideal, not just for growing companies, but ones that may be downsizing as well.   The on-demand nature of WorkPlace ensures that one can scale quickly and without additional investment.  Companies in uncertain economic times are reluctant to make capital purchases or commit to large IT projects or financial obligations.  Through cloud computing, you can help these prospects leverage every advantage of newer technology without the downside of purchasing hardware and software that may sit idle in a business downturn.  As the business sees growth, it can plan for a predictable operational expense on a per-user basis.  It is a win-win even in an economic downturn.

2.  The Refresh Cycle.

This is always a mixed bag for Solution Providers.  There is nothing better than closing a large project or other opportunity that brings instant dollars to the bottom line, however we have never encountered a company that was looking to spend money on network upgrades.  In fact, we found this to be the very point at which a company would seek to get “competitive bids” or look for alternative solutions to their aging hardware.  Facing the routine capital expense of the hardware life-cycle is at odds with simply paying for on demand services on a monthly basis, and operational costs are better for budgeting, planning and keeping the focus on business growth and profits.  Imagine leading your sales efforts with “What if I told you that you could predict your monthly IT cost at let’s say 99/user/Mo and that included support email backups business continuity. Would you have a few minutes to discuss?” or what if I told you that you would “Never Buy another server” again.

3.  Business Continuity.

In recent years, tornado's,  hurricanes, floods, and other natural disasters have taken businesses offline for days, if not weeks or months.  Many never recover from such an outage, and simply having data stored offsite is not enough to encompass a true business continuity plan.  With the recent outages at major carrier's and the pain still fresh enough to want to minimize a recurrence, many businesses are more readily turning to WorkPlace.

4.  Time to Value.

When selecting potential projects to meet the business priorities, leaders must consider the time to value of each project. Many factors are affecting how quickly a potential benefit can be realized. They include the following two steps:

• User Segmentation. Clearly identify the needs of users and establish common requirements that can drive common technical solutions.

• Identifying Desktop Transformation Model Architectures. IT architects can design a variety of different virtual desktop models. Each model is characterized by varying degrees of complexity in its implementation, varying changes in IT business practices and is associated with varying levels of capital and operational expenses. Picking the right desktop delivery model that meets the user’s business needs is critical to the long term success of the project and user satisfaction.

5. Business Financial Objectives.

Businesses have varied financial goals and objectives, and understanding these will help you close WorkPlace deals.  The discussion relating to Capital versus Operational expense has been a driving factor in Managed Services as well as DaaS deals, but unless the client is cash and credit poor, very lucrative DaaS deals are the exception rather than the rule.  Unlike a lease, which is tied to a tangible asset, WorkPlace is entirely an operational expense.  Additionally, WorkPlace extends the life-cycle of existing computers and frees up capital for other department or projects.   By learning what drives the financial decisions of your prospect, you can best learn the keys to driving the decision to move to WorkPlace.