VARs and managed services providers from across North America and the United Kingdom converged in Dallas this week for the second annual HTG Summit. If you’re not familiar with HTG and its strategy to help solutions providers strengthen their businesses, here’s an overview.
Led by founder Arlin Sorensen, the HTG Peer Groups now have solutions providers members from across the US, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. For members, HTG is one of their key sources for industry information, peer sharing, vision, learning and vendor relations. But, there is still much work to be done.
During the kick off HTG ALL luncheon on April 26, Sorensen applauded all members of HTG for the effort and commitment they all make in their business, but there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done especially as threats continue to beat down on the door of their member’s businesses.
The cloud appears to be the biggest challenge to overcome and from many members still a source of discomfort and threatens to disrupt their traditional streams of revenue. “Some members are now 100% cloud based,” Sorensen said during his opening keynote address. “Change is coming and the way we do business is changing” Sorensen continued.
Tied in with all the talk of special operations, being a Go-Giver is still the core of HTG. Sharing best practices, holding member’s accountable and focusing on the future are just some of what each HTG member is called to focus on each quarter in their meetings and throughout their day to day lives back at the office.
Special Ops is the theme, comparing HTG members to an elite group of military professionals who are called to perform specific tasks during warfare. Is the MSP business under attack? Some may think so. Downward pressures from cloud computing vendors and the usual list of suspects dot the horizon. “Everyone must remain focused, so they stay on the same path,” mentions Sorensen.
HTG is now focused on building a stronger focus and healthier IT community. A big shift from even one year ago when HTG had expansion strategies in Australia and additional groups mapped out. HTG expanded into Australia earlier this year. Heartland Tech Group’s strategy now is to cap membership at 250 members worldwide and focus on building solid and committed groups of members who can execute on HTG’s core beliefs of personal and business group and development. “It is time to focus on depth vs. growth,” Sorensen concludes.
Sorensen offers up additional thoughts over on MSPmentor.
Contributing blogger Stuart Crawford helps Canadian companies master social media. Sign up for The VAR Guy’s Newsletter; Webcasts and Resource Center; and via RSS; Facebook; Identi.ca; Twitter and VARtweet.
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Stuart,
I think you grabbed some of the key points from the big tent items. But the thing that many may not get from your post is the fact that close to 250 companies take close to a week to work on their business and not in it. For small businesses this is a big investment that I personally think pays off 100 fold. Every business has challenges, but for those of us that are HTG members to have a place to go and discuss them and get peer feedback on how to resolve them is immeasurable. Thanks to the Arlin and the other HTG leaders for a great event and thanks to you also Stuart for sharing your knowledge of social media and web marketing during the Marketing SIG, I am still sorting it all out.
It’s a good brief overview of what happened during the week. I love your input so I kind of wish it was a little longer…
HTG is making great strides in helping companies like us to grow and better serve our clients in this ever-changing world.
BJ: The VAR Guy wishes he had been able to attend the HTG Summit. Travel conflicts stopped that from happening. But our resident blogger will be on hand for HTG’s annual gathering in November 2010.
-TVG