MSP Voice Episode 68 - “Clients, not Customers” with Thomas O’Brien

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MSP Voice

MSP360

72 episodes

7 months ago

MSP Voice is a podcast produced by MSP360 where each week we talk to different managed service providers about their business. We cover topics like how to get started, what are some of the best tools and even what to avoid. The goal is to be informative and a go-to resource for any MSP looking to start or grow their business. © MSP360

Technology

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All content for MSP Voice is the property of MSP360 and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Technology

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MSP Voice Episode 68 - “Clients, not Customers” with Thomas O’Brien

MSP Voice

34 minutes 52 seconds

5 years ago

MSP Voice Episode 68 - “Clients, not Customers” with Thomas O’Brien

Podcast main page: www.mspvoice.com/
Show-notes: www.mspvoice.com/msp-voice-episode-68/

Guest: Thomas O’Brien

Company: IDEOLITY

This week I welcome Thomas O’Brien with IDEOLITY to the show. Thomas is in the Kansas City area and has been in business since 1988. While it took Thomas and his partners about 3 years to settle on IT services, they have been going strong ever since. In 2008 they changed the name of the company to IDEOLITY to better reflect what they do and it’s also much shorter than the previous name. Even though Thomas has been doing IT services for over 30 years, this is actually his 4th career. With the introduction of the Microcomputer, Thomas taught himself the platform and started up a training company to train companies on how to use these new computers. This experience eventually led him to IT services.

With an educational background in psychology and government, Thomas went back to school in 1991 and got his master’s in computer and information management. He says this additional education experience really helped him to better understand the business. Interestingly, IDEOLITY has always been “the IT resource” for their clients and has basically had them on monthly contracts. They were doing break/fix in the early days, mostly because things always broke. While they have a core group of clients who have been with them since the ’90s, many of their customers have been with them for about 10 years. Thomas also recommends continuing education and found some great resources at the Kauffman Foundation which helped him tie the technical to the business aspects at IDEOLITY. Listen to the end to understand the meaning of the title of this episode.