Welcome to this AV MSP newsletter! This is our September 2024 edition and it’ll be a bit less article heavy, and more oriented toward resources related to ITSM and MSP operations. One of our co-founders, Colin Birney, will be teaching an hour-long course on AV Managed Services for Beginners at CIX 2024 in Denver, on Wednesday, September 4th at 11AM. You can see all available sessions here: https://expo.commercialintegrator.com/education/schedule/ and you can sign up to attend here: https://registration.experientevent.com/ShowCIX241/?flow=attendee and get 50% off admission (although, if you’re resourceful, you may find a better deal).
The following resources were compiled for the CIX session attendees, but we also thought you’d all get some benefit from at least a few of them. A big part of running an AV-centric MSP is staying informed to ensure we’re in step with the IT industry. We do that via webinars, classes, forums, videos, podcasts, and conversations with customers and other service experts. We can’t give away ALL our secrets, but here’s a curated list of resources that can help you on your managed service journey.
Casual Reading and Listening
Regardless of how you feel about their product, Atlassian has a thorough guide to definitions and best practices. It will define the vocabulary words you often hear concerning ITSM.
https://www.atlassian.com/itsm
Definitions and descriptions of ITIL v4 practices. This is useful for understanding the practices themselves and how they interact. While a little dry, it’s good to get to the root of what’s driving processes and standards.
https://www.knowledgehut.com/tutorials/itil4-tutorial/itil-management-practices-processes
It would also be useful reading to understand the ITIL Service Value System and where practices fall within an overall ITSM organization; this Knowledge Hut tutorial helps with that.
https://www.knowledgehut.com/tutorials/itil4-tutorial/itil-service-value-system-svs
Karl Palchuck’s Managed Services in a Month provides practical steps to either creating a new managed service organization or converting a break/fix business into managed services. While this is focused on small to mid-size MSPs, the fundamentals are the same.
https://managedservicesinamonth.com/
Gibson Research Company’s “Security Now” podcast is a weekly (several-hour) detailed overview of major security issues currently impacting IT organizations. It’s a good place to learn the language and responses to security incidents so you can implement them into your organization.
https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
Smashing Security is another podcast that might provide lighter fare for those wanting to consume security news. It’s a weekly 30-minute or so podcast covering the news of security.
https://www.smashingsecurity.com/
Community
Always know you’re not going at this alone. While we’re always happy to chat, there are also communities online that are always ready to talk when you need it, and always providing interesting conversations you can learn from.
The Reddit MSP community provides a ton of useful (and free, of course) resources as you learn and grow your practice. While much of it is focused on typical IT practices, these concepts often will be helpful to AV folks as well. There are several companion Discord servers as well, focused on IT MSPs.
Another great community that we’ve been involved in for years is the Commercial AV subreddit and Discord server. The subreddit is more question-focused, while the Discord is for conversation and community. Both have a strict no-sales policy, but it’s a good place to chat with peers about what’s on your mind.
https://reddit.com/r/CommercialAV
Structured Learning
Sometimes you need some classroom learning to add more tools to your toolbox. While getting ITIL Foundations certified is useful, there are other inexpensive ways to learn beyond that.
Axelos, owner of the ITIL framework, provides links to ITIL learning and testing resources. Vendors vary by country; find the one that’s best for you.
https://www.axelos.com/certifications/itil-service-management/itil-4-foundation
SNMP Monitoring is becoming a common way to get additional information from devices. This Udemy course is a solid introduction.
https://www.udemy.com/course/snmp-monitoring
Learning about APIs is another important bit of knowledge if you’re going to engage in remote monitoring and management. This video is a thorough beginner’s overview.
AI Stuff
Not that we want to talk about AI or LLMs any more than we must, but they’re here and we have a responsibility to understand the technology, even if we’re pumping the brakes on implementation.
While not an easy read, browsing the MIT AI Risk Repository will open your eyes to new and horrible ways AI can be dangerous or misused. While you’re considering your implementations of AI as a tool to promote business, it’s also your job to be informed about risks and consult your customers. This is a fantastic free resource you should take advantage of.
That’s it for this month’s newsletter! We hope to see you (or have seen you) out at CIX. Otherwise, feel free to reach us at sales@av-msp.com.
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