This inspiring episode traces Chris Soutar's remarkable evolution from a Best Buy sales floor to becoming a powerhouse in the managed services industry. It's a masterclass in adaptability and ambition, offering an inside look at the dynamic and often unpredictable path of career growth in the rapidly evolving IT and managed services arena. Hear Chris share his personal experiences and invaluable insights, providing a guiding light for anyone dreaming of or considering a significant career shift. Whether you're an industry veteran or a newcomer, Chris's story is a testament to the limitless possibilities that await in the world of technology and managed services.
Get an in-person rundown on what N-able has to offer including products, insights, networking and more.
The N-able Roadshow is visiting more cities than ever before in 2024. Take a look at our first group of locations; we may be in a city near you! -> http://spr.ly/6000RsTOq
'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.
Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.
This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.
Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.
The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.
Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.
The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.
All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
This inspiring episode traces Chris Soutar's remarkable evolution from a Best Buy sales floor to becoming a powerhouse in the managed services industry. It's a masterclass in adaptability and ambition, offering an inside look at the dynamic and often unpredictable path of career growth in the rapidly evolving IT and managed services arena. Hear Chris share his personal experiences and invaluable insights, providing a guiding light for anyone dreaming of or considering a significant career shift. Whether you're an industry veteran or a newcomer, Chris's story is a testament to the limitless possibilities that await in the world of technology and managed services.
Get an in-person rundown on what N-able has to offer including products, insights, networking and more.
The N-able Roadshow is visiting more cities than ever before in 2024. Take a look at our first group of locations; we may be in a city near you! -> http://spr.ly/6000RsTOq
'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.
Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.
This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.
Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.
The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.
Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.
The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.
All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
One, two, three, four, when I'm starting to grow out a help desk team and I'm looking around the room and I'm like all of these people are here because of what we built along the way.
Speaker 2:The hum of computers, the clatter of keyboards. This is where stories of IT triumphs and innovations are born, but every so often there's a story that starts somewhere a little different.
Speaker 1:For Chris Soutar, it wasn't server closets and help desks, but the aisles of a retail store A lot of learning, a lot of listening, a lot of just involving myself in meetings that I probably had no business being a part of.
Speaker 2:I'm Chris Massey. From Now that's it. This is a story of going from selling at Best Buy to building a best in class managed service provider. Welcome to Now that's it. Stories of MSP success, where we dive into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn managed services into the thriving sector it is today.
Speaker 1:I am the opposite of the prototypical IT person. I was never involved in computers. I mean, we had the electronics and things like that, but computers were always kind of a you know unnecessary evil for a long time for me. We never grew up, you know, taking computers apart and you know skeleton things back together and you know playing computer games or anything along those lines. It just so happened here we are, you know, along the way. But you know I'm definitely much more involved than I used to be. But yeah, this whole IT world was not what the plan was at all.
Speaker 2:You didn't grow up on computers. You didn't go to school for computers. What were you going to school for?
Speaker 1:I went to school for communications because I didn't know what I wanted to do. But I wanted to be. I'm a big sports guy, so I felt like I wasn't the athlete. But maybe if I can do some of the things like work in PR or marketing or advertising, I can get as close as I can to a sports type, you know job or something along those lines. I mean, that was really what I wanted to do and it just. You know, I took a couple sales classes towards the end of college just because I needed easy credits and lo and behold, you know, it turns out to probably be the best four classes or five classes that I took the whole time there. You know, four years of college, a degree you don't use, and then it's those couple core classes that help out.
Speaker 2:College is interesting for a lot of, at least Americans. I feel like a lot of folks you know we still have the trades which are so important, but a lot of folks because their parents went to school. You know, you feel like you've got to go to school. I was just like you. I had no idea. I think I changed my major at Ohio State like 17 times. Now you, you found something. You're just like I just need to get the degree right, like that's like yeah.
Speaker 1:I just need to get out. You know, I just needed to do the four years and get out. And yeah, it is, and it was during that time, definitely. You went to high school and then everybody went to college. You know, regardless of what you know you might do or you might not do, it was just the thing that everybody did, so so off I went.
Speaker 2:So you're going to school and you got a part-time job at one of my favorite joints. Where was that? Best Buy? Huh, best Buy, yep, every good IT person. What were you doing at Best Buy and what was that like?
Speaker 1:So, part-time, I was stocking shelves. You know I came, I worked at a grocery store and you know it. Just, it made sense for them to say, hey, you know how to stock shelves, come stock shelves over here. So you know you're unloading trucks at night and you know you're just trying to make, and you know, a couple of extra bucks here and there, you know. So maybe I can eat a little bit better while I was in school for a week. But yeah, that's kind of where this all started. It's just stocking shelves at Best Buy.
Speaker 2:And then you didn't have any computer experiences you mentioned, but they threw you in the computer department.
Speaker 1:I had no experience whatsoever going into computers and I mean we kind of had a conversation and they're like you know what you're going to be done with school. Obviously you're going to need a job. You're probably not going to be here forever. Why don't you just come on here full-time? You've got something to start with, and then if things work out and you're here for a while, great. If they don't, you know okay. But yeah, they're like in on top of all that, we're going to put you in computers. So what do you know? And so it was definitely a crash course right away. I've learned how to read those little tags.
Speaker 2:You're working part-time while you're in college and then you graduate and they offer you a full-time position, which had to be reassuring. But you're probably thinking to yourself, like am I going to work at Best Buy for the rest of my life?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and one day you know, I kind of made my living during the back to school and the holiday seasons. You know, it was really easy for me, as somebody who didn't know anything about computers, to start selling computers to people because they trust him. Just so happened, the owner of Autra came in and was looking for a computer game for his kid during that time and I just happened to be the person to help him. And then he would just start kind of coming in and I didn't know who he was. I knew about, right, we would send people there all the time. This was during like the Windows XP to Windows 7. Nobody wanted Windows 7. So we would send him to Autra. You know they can get you XP devices, it's fine. But yeah, he came in and started listening and watching and eventually gave me a call and you know, here we are. I mean long story short, but yeah, we definitely. You know we hit it off right away and we started talking and he got a spot, wow.
Speaker 2:So Entree had to be a pretty well-known business or service provider at the time to have a relationship with Best Buy, where you were sending them that direction, right. So tell us a little bit about Entree, sort of as you joined, what was the company?
Speaker 1:like, yeah, so well, entree started in 1983. So they were one of those big national chains at the time. Entree, I think they were Entree computer services or something along those lines. But along the way they had broken out as far as franchises go. And Mike and Kroprosky, you know two brothers. Mike had worked here since, you know, the early 80s on things and so they ended up buying the company.
Speaker 1:So we were traditionally a break fix company. You know that was doing what every other IT person or every other IT company was doing at that time supplying servers, going out and fixing issues. You know really was a reactive type type situation, but I think at that time everybody was doing it, that's right. And we were just kind of getting into the, the mold of maybe not straight, you know, strategically changing things, but definitely changing up our business model a little bit outside sales to inside sales, you know teams and really getting into that idea and maybe having a little bit more of an outsourced presence. But yeah, in this community, you know, very well known. So it made that kind of connection very easy when we were looking for things.
Speaker 2:Awesome, so you must have made quite the impression on the owner. He saw your sales skills right, so he brings you on in the sales department.
Speaker 1:Whatever impression I made, definitely, definitely, was a lot of smoke and mirrors, because coming into this, as I said, I had no experience or asking me you know what APs are, and all that.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what they say you're fake it till you make it right. And so you did a bunch of different things right. Like you were reselling hardware, you guys did some training software in there. Can you talk a little bit about like what entree was like besides just a Avar and an IT shop?
Speaker 1:What types of things we were doing everything. We had the in-house service center, which we still have now. I mean, pieces, all of them were throw away at this point in time, but back then I mean that was multiple people in there repairing PCs and printers and everything like that. Yeah, we had a training center here. You know, we would have classes hosted for, hey, we want to teach people how to use Excel, vba or you know, pivot tables. Or sometimes you'd get a couple you know high-end IT people and you'd get like, all right, we're going to do a Windows server 2008 or an SPS class or something like that. And so, yeah, we were really a one-stop shop for IT, not just supporting but also, you know, educating and teaching.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you went through a handful of sort of transformations, right. You added new service lines. You sort of were, if not following the trends, you're ahead of the trends in a lot of different cases, and so business was going really well, right, when you started there. Talk a little bit about you as a salesperson. How did you sort of grow up through the company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I was doing inside sales for a couple years at that point in time and it's really you know, again, it's not.
Speaker 1:Eventually you get to the point of fake it until you make it, but then you're, you know you're actually putting together these configurations and stuff and you got to learn a little bit about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you're presenting these things to, you know, it managers at the same time and they can see right through you, you know, if you have no idea what you've, what you've put in there.
Speaker 1:So it definitely was, you know, a lot of learning, a lot of listening, a lot of just involving myself in meetings that I probably had no business being a part of, but definitely pulling information from where I need. And I think I look back at all those times and as how I've grown, as far as you know, being in sales, I look at those as like key things because I can go back and I can say I stole that from that person, I stole that from him, I learned how to do that from her and I just kind of picked what I wanted and made it all kind of come together. But it was definitely a learning process, sure, and you pick up a lot of stuff along the way that you just have no interest in it and you don't really know what you're talking about. You're like I get it, I know. I know how it all fits together as far as that puzzle goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you got pretty good at sales, at least in your mind. You felt like, hey, I'm doing a pretty good job. And the business was sort of changing right At Entree. I think you talked a little bit about how, you know, even business sort of slowed down, like maybe you didn't even feel the challenge anymore. Is it what was sort of happening?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. So it was during that time of you know the economy and the recessions were starting up a little bit. Things were changing a lot and you do. I think every salesperson goes through it and they feel like they've either plateaued or they've gotten too good for this, or, you know, they've got it all figured out and it really sometimes takes that slap to the face to say, wait a minute, you're not maybe as good as what you think you are. There's always room for improvement and always room for growth. So it was definitely.
Speaker 1:The business was changing, the IT landscape was changing. I mean, we were getting into things down at this level kind of you know that small to medium business level that just wasn't there when I first started. You know, in virtualization, and you know then the managed services buzzwords and you know the focus on security and not being able to tell a customer. You know, when they called in, oh yep, we've got you scheduled for a week from now and you know we'll have somebody on site and they'll help you out. Yeah, so it was changing dramatically and very quickly.
Speaker 2:So you had a little bit of a change of heart. Right, you decided to go and maybe see what was available, see if the grass was greener on the other side, and and look at another company. Right, you left on track.
Speaker 1:I left, I was done, I was freshly married, we had a small child at that time. I'm like you know what, if I can do it here and I figured it out, I can do it anywhere and figure it out. So yeah, we left behind IT and we took a little bit of a detour doing some trucking leg of logistics sales in a very corporate, very structured environment.
Speaker 2:What was that conversation like? At home you just have a child and you've got a pretty solid, secure job. I'm sure you were making decent money and all of a sudden you say, honey, I'm leaving. What was that like?
Speaker 1:Thankfully, she's the most supportive person that I could have on the back end and she's like you know what, if you don't think that this is working and you don't think you're happy, you got to go out and be happy and do what you need to do. So, while she might have also thought all of those things of like I don't know if he's going to really figure this all out, she trusted it, she trusted the process, she bought into it too and thought, hey, he's got to be happy with what he's doing. And at that point in time, I just wasn't. It was a struggle for everybody. At that point, while we were still doing well here, the budgets were getting tighter, things were going away. There was a shift in idea of, okay, we're not going to invest in people anymore, the industry's turning over and the workforce is turning over. So I felt like, all right, let's get ahead of this and make the change.
Speaker 2:So the culture shifted quite a bit at Entree, which was another one of those reasons. By the way, we hear that a lot. If that small company turns into not necessarily a fun place, or at least you're not challenged, things are a lot more difficult to do. Maybe it is time to step away. So you step away and you do the trucking logistics. Tell me a little bit about that, chris. What was a day for you? What type of things were you selling? How did that work?
Speaker 1:I was selling freight I was selling the idea of somebody else is going to come pick up your freight. It was a very dramatic shift as far as what it was, but at the time I was looking for something different. I was looking for something new and exciting. However, I definitely wasn't ready for a corporate mentality in a corporate environment being away for so long. I mean, you were down to the minute of what you were doing. Why weren't you doing this? Why weren't you on the phone? Why weren't you calling people? What did you sell today? What did you sell yesterday? This constant drive for a number that I didn't see as big of a value in as what I had done before. But it was that chase for a new. What's the grass look like over here? Thankfully, I didn't leave here on bad terms, so no bridges were burned. I still had. All the tolls were paid, but yeah, it was a different world.
Speaker 2:So you realized, and how long did you do the trekking logistics In?
Speaker 1:nine months. It took me like six months to realize I stopped.
Speaker 2:That's good. And then it probably took you three months to realize I'm not going to do this anymore. It's not going to get any better. So you put in your two weeks and you did. You have a plan at the time, Chris. I didn't even put in two weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I came back in a Monday morning, yeah, and I said I'm not going to come back and I turned it all myself and I went home and I mean my wife knew I was at point, but I don't think she was ready for me to walk in the door at you know eight o'clock right after I left and come back and say why are you here? I had one plan and it was to get rehired at Andre. And I sat here and I called and I emailed probably every day until I finally eventually got rehired. But that was the only plan. But I was, you know, you get to a point and you know you got to have a job. You got, you just bought a house. You're, you know, recently married. You got a young kid, you got to, you got to pay the bills. So I mean it was either entree or maybe some part time job selling direct TV somewhere. Yeah, it was, it was a leap of faith.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so once a salesman, always a salesman. I'm sure you could have gotten somewhere else, but it's good that you realized after you had left that you know what the grass isn't always greener and I really did like that culture and even though the things were going south, that can change and I can be part of that change, right? So I actually wrote this down. You know, you called into your surprise. They didn't have a spot, right? So after a million calls that's what I wrote after a million calls probably wasn't a million, but it seemed like it was every day for a long time Then they they finally brought you back, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it probably was close to a million. You know it would be a call you know in the morning and a what you still don't have anything, and then call in the afternoon. Are you sure you really don't have anything? But yeah, they were changing too and thankfully, me moving away was perfect timing for everybody. I was coming back and they were looking to get into this whole managed services game and they didn't know where to go either. So this was a perfect like we can put everything in here and if it doesn't work, we can cut ties very easily. Yeah, so I mean I bet on myself.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Let's talk about that. What got you? Where had you really heard about managed services and where did you sort of figure out like this was the future and I should do some work on this and I could be the one to bring it here. How'd you get excited about it?
Speaker 1:So before I left, we were gabbling in it very lightly. You know, we had, we'd kind of seen this idea of like, hey, somebody will pay us every month to look at their networks, but we never really went full force into it and and they had always looked at it as far as a revenue stream that could be potentially there. We were doing some really like a low G type, you know, check up type services. You go out there every month, they need document everything, and then you'd apply all the patches and you know, then we'd go away for a month and you know, and, and when they brought me in, they said, hey, you know what? We went to an anger microconcert or conference. We were, you know, talking about this, and they said, hey, if you really want to do this, you have to commit to it. And they're like, if you want to be here and do this, we want you to learn this, we want you to understand it, so you're going to have to help us show value for commitment as well.
Speaker 1:It was a combination of two things. I always thought it was a good idea. At the beginning, I just thought it was a really cool concept and a really good idea. The other side of it is, everybody in my house needs to eat so, so I better be committed to the stop. Ras is an idea, but when I really started going under the hood and get everything, it didn't take long to get very committed to the idea, because I knew what it could do and what the power was behind it.
Speaker 2:But not everybody was on board right at entree. Like it took some convincing. I mean, even even the. The opportunity that you had right was like look, you've got six months right or something, or three months Right, like something like that. They give you a very much, yeah, yeah. So what? What do you think the resistance or the opposition was Back in those days? To manage the resistance?
Speaker 1:I think it was still too new of a thing, yeah, but I think you also. You know I'm working with a number of people who had been here for 10, 15, 20 years at that time, who had always seen our way work, you know. So, for me to come in and I think if I wasn't here previously and tried to come in fresh, that I wouldn't have had the success that I had, but I already had some relationships built up, so it made it a whole lot easier from that standpoint. It was still, though, an uphill battle.
Speaker 1:I mean, you still got people that I'm like I'm not gonna have you now go out every day to a different company or go out of five Different companies in the day and work on things. I'm gonna have a guy sit here and be a help desk person, and they're gonna call us when there's a problem and we're gonna fix it right there, you know. So I mean people looked at us is taking money out of their pockets. You know I'm not building up hours. I you know I want to drive two hours because I like them build drive time, and it was a real culture shift for a lot of people, and some people bought in and a lot of people though it took a little while to get them. You know, on board with with what I was thinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's interesting that you came from the sales side and you were the one that was sort of the master planner behind this, because number one Like how you sell managed services is really what's gonna make or break you like a technician. Whether they're billing time against an agreement or the billing time against Just and like a time and materials type of a thing, doesn't really matter. They're doing this work right. But when you get out there and you talk to a customer that's not used to paying on a monthly basis for their IT, you got to have a good story right. Because the first question is gonna go is it cheaper? And you're gonna say no, it's not cheaper. Right, like it. Like it likely may be a little bit more expensive, but what you're gonna get is uptime. Right, like you're gonna.
Speaker 2:You're gonna have your business online. You're not gonna have to worry about it and we're gonna go well. Well, what about your on-site? And it's like we're gonna work a lot of this behind the scenes. You're not even know we're there, and so having that messaging is so important. And you from the sales side I think we even talked about it one of the reasons you were so excited about it is it's kind of what the partners, your, your customers were asking for. They were like we just we need to be Like always online. We need to have something, we need to ensure that our, our IT needs can be met, and the only way to do that is to sign up for a, an agreement, a contract right for the next X number of months or whatever. It's yeah, and it definitely is.
Speaker 1:You know, yeah, you're not going in saying, hey, I'm gonna save you, yeah, direct money. Here's where I can show you what it is. Actually I'm gonna double your cost or triple your cost. You know, right, it's going to be and I'll say it's a little bit different now as far as that, because I have a little bit easier time as far as a message goes but at that time you're not focusing on security. No, you're not focusing on, you know, this Cyber insurance and all these types of things that are coming out there. I'm really selling on the idea of I'm gonna keep you up and we keep you working and you know, along the way, also, I'm gonna do these patches and you know, maybe we'll we'll do some extra things. But you know, it really was focused on uptime, yeah, and that's really what it was. But we did have some clients that were starting to get that idea. I can't be down why we can't not be here.
Speaker 2:As you move up market which I'm sure entree did as well that you move away from them, the small mom and pop shops, that uptime piece becomes critical, right, and and you're actually talking about what applications can you not lose? Right, that are you know and that's what you're building your practice around. So when you came in, obviously you have the sales background, but did you have a partner that was sort of helping you on the operation side? Or was it really you saying this is what our managed service offerings gonna look like? How did, how did you build it? How did you sort of bring managed services like or elevate managed services? I know you were doing that a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, great thing about here and one of the main reasons I came back was the ownership, yeah, and the ownership that they give everybody as an individual. So this was really quickly became my baby and this just became what do you guys want to do? What do you want to do with it? And I worked at the very early stages on, you know, with getting on the phone with at that time it would have been you know the logic now people of who can I talk to, who can I pick brains from, who can I get invested with, who can I, you know, who can you set me up with? So I mean, we, I met with people.
Speaker 1:You know I would have phone calls with people. I would call my sales rep daily and just sit there and bother him and to pick, you know, for, for ideas and information and thought processes of you know what to do. Because I really had a clean slate to work with and it was really how do you see it working and how do you see it, you know, providing value and things like that. So I mean this was I had free reign. You know A lot of people don't get that, but I had a hundred percent control over what I wanted to do, as long as I can figure out a way To make money at it you know that's great.
Speaker 2:How long did it take you guys, chris, to really make managed services sort of a mainstay, or at least at least a point where it moved the needle enough to where the owners ago? Yeah, there's an opportunity here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, I would say probably. You know, I would think maybe a year or two, I think. Once we started getting some of these larger named clients you know, who were kind of coming towards us and understanding what it was, it wasn't any longer, you know, maybe a monitor of a couple servers and maybe a handful of workstations. Once you start hitting, you know, like all of a sudden it's like hey, here's a company that's got 10 servers and it person, 75 workstations. You know, you get a couple of those under your belt and they're like wait a minute, what is he doing? Like things are kind of working out here a little bit and I also want to. I would also say when the invoices started to get to be that second page, you know, then all of a sudden it's like there's a lot of money here. You know there's a lot of things that are coming through here, and then, outside of that, then you start looking at clients who get a lot more invested with us because they're starting to see the value that we're bringing.
Speaker 1:And now we're no longer talking transactions, we're talking strategic. So we're talking. You know, we're at the table of these conversations that we weren't at before because we're helping them drive. You know this is where good money can go into. This is where we can provide value to increase your competitiveness in the market. That's when I started to get you know, that's when I started to get in the sales people as well, so my outside people but ownership started really taking it a little bit closer. Look, which was weird at first, because then I'm like why are they so involved? Just like I had a year of just doing whatever I wanted. I was on. You guys have questions.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah. The predictability of managed services is such a beautiful thing too, especially once you have a finely tuned machine going right. I mean to be able to know like, like you know, in the early days you were signing folks to like 12, 24, even 36 month contracts, which I know you know that may be going by the wayside nowadays, but to be able to see like these folks are going to be paying us at least this much for the next however many months is really great. And then you've built that trust right, chris. And then you can say, hey, we've just released this new backup offering and it's better than the last backup offering and this is what we can do. We can actually replicate your data. And they said well, we trust you because we haven't had an issue in the last 12 months, so just give it to us, we'll pay more, and it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:There was, there's so much organic growth that came along with it, but building up by trust. I still have my first person that I signed up for managed services. Wow, still on that, that contract, and I mean anytime I see him, you know I still and he's a very small company but you know they're a big name here in Rockford as far as people know them and things like that, and that's the one I always look at. I'm like, as long as he's still here, I'm still doing everything, all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love. By the way, I love we sort of glossed over this, but you just mentioned your, your first company that you brought on when you were, when you came back. We talked a little bit about three months and you were given a specific target, right, like you needed to get six deals over that three month period of time. How quickly did you get those, those six deals?
Speaker 1:by the end of the month. Yeah, it was, you know, and in nowadays six deal sounds like, you know, small, small. You know I don't see it. But at that point in time when we're really trying to get it strong, you know, off the ground we've we've had some turnover and there maybe we've got you know a couple hundred devices. Maybe you know, across the board for us to try to go get six deals and in what they? They gave me three months to go do. It Sounded like a little bit of a daunting task but it did. And then it went back to what I was doing day one, inviting myself to meetings that I had no business being a part of, sitting in conversations that I wasn't supposed to be at. I had to create a culture and I had to create an idea, and I had to do it both internally and externally. So once I started, you know, getting people to buy into it, it was. It's like a truck going down downhill, you know, awesome, it continues to build steam.
Speaker 2:How obviously managed services is a big deal for Andre. Can you give us like just an approximate idea like what, how, how much of on trade sort of total revenue? Obviously you still do hardware resales and some pro serve project work, but about how much of it of your revenue is managed services, I would say probably it's getting closer to a third now of our revenue between our, you know, between enable and some of the other options that we have out there.
Speaker 1:As far as security goes, I mean my goal is to to make it all. I mean sure that's what I want, but I you know if I can continue to grow it and continue to show that value, that's where I want to be.
Speaker 2:It's beautiful when that project work in the managed services work and sort of feed off of each other. That's something that I have a ton of experience with. Like a lot of times we get brought in oh we need to help with this migration, no-transcript. You know what. Why don't you guys just continue to manage this for us? And so it's kind of a beautiful thing when ProServe can feed managed services and then, conversely, if you're doing managed services for a customer, every three years they need hardware replacements. So you're getting all that business and then you're getting that installation project. So it can work really good when you have both sort of finely tuned and clicking. And then it helps from a hiring perspective because over the number of years you know, you know when it's time to pull that trigger and bring that other body.
Speaker 1:Yeah or what can be done.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great. Just is, obviously you've grown the revenue to almost a third or over a third. Are there any doubters left Right? I mean I know the old Skoll crew was still left in entree Like have you justified managed services and has managed services become mainstream enough? I think it has. But are there like does everybody believe in managed services now?
Speaker 1:I think everybody gets it now. Yeah, and if they don't, I'll remind them to get it. Yeah. I have one of my senior engineers, though, who jokes around with me all the time and he goes I still, to this day, don't know how you did it and I still don't know if it's gonna, if it's gonna stick around, but it seems to be. Everybody wants it. I thought, personally, that when I finally made it and got the people in this area to understand, it was when I started getting phone calls asking are you guys doing that managed services thing that I keep on hearing about? That's going? I knew, okay, we're here. Well, we've, we've gotten to the point where I feel this is going to stay, it's going to stick around. You know it's. It was that nice reoccurring thing versus me calling up, trying to convince people to them just basically calling off, saying, hey, we need whatever you guys have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that referral side of the business is a beautiful thing when you're when you're growing up, when you're when you're starting to grow. And I love that, that feedback there, because what would have happened if they would have said, no, chris, we're not going to do managed services or we're going to quit on that, you wouldn't have those deals right. I mean, that's a yeah, yeah, that's great. So tell me a little. You talked a little bit about culture. I know that was one of the reasons. You know the other couple right, you had, you were ready for something new, something different back in the day, but the culture had also changed. What's the culture like today at Andre, and can you talk a little bit about? You know, maybe, how it's changed?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we have a really good culture going right now. We have a. We have a nice mix of young and veteran type like engineers people. People have been here for 30 plus years, people have been here for six months, you know, but I think everybody's buying into the general message and the idea. We're very involved with our client base to this day. I mean, we still want to be at in those meetings. I still do my QPRs, you know. I'm still making sure that we're involved with things. We just have, you know, kind of grown with what's out there and I think I've taken on more of a, you know, consulting type role versus a sales rep type role, where now it's working through insurance applications and, you know, trying to stay along the where everything's going and trying to stay up with it with everybody else and, you know, playing that MSSP type role. Maybe we're not fully in that, but we definitely have all of our, you know, I know where to find all of the docs that I need when I need them. So that's awesome.
Speaker 2:All right. So you've had a bunch of changes in your career. You're doing something. Your career is not what you went to school for. Mine isn't either. By the way, most most people I don't think are maybe doctors and lawyers are, but us commercial folks we find work where work is, but it's great. So you've turned into something that I think you should be really proud of. You built a great department, a great team there. When did you know that this was it? This is the question I always like to ask when did you know that you know I had done the right thing, I'd made the right change, that I had done it?
Speaker 1:I think there's a couple different things. When you start to see people directly hired because of what you've done from me from a professional standpoint, that was that was a huge moment. When I'm, when I'm starting to grow out like help desk team and I'm looking around the room and I'm like all of these people are here because of what we built along the way, you know, then you look at some of the relationships that you've built over. Sometimes, you know, and you got some milestones that come along. And when you start to be invited to different events and different you know talking points and being on you know podcasts with you and and making some, some lasting friendships in the community, I think that was a huge thing too. You know, that was a when I'm, when I'm having, you know conversations and people are asking me how did you do it? That was eye opening for me, especially when I'm.
Speaker 1:You know, when I started this early on, I was in my early 30s and I'm having people who are, you know, in their 50s and 60s running a business like, hey, wait, can we talk for a couple of minutes? I'm like, but this is, this is weird, you know, but it's all those moments that that you kind of have along the way and it's just like it's that reassurance every time you're looking for. You know, because I think I think that every sales rep goes through the process of I'm I can sell anything, you know, sure. But then you look at those points and you're like, well, I've made differences along the way. I mean it really helps. I mean it provides that sort of value.
Speaker 1:I take it personally when we, when we lose a client or I lose a deal, because I know what what we provide and I know who I have in the back, you know, helping me provide that, whether it be you guys, whether it be my help dust team, whether it be ownership, you know I know what we have and I know it's a solution that I can count on. I've always been able to count on, you know you guys.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. The MSP community is amazing. Like like it's one of these groups, like there's definitely competition. But when we all get into a room at like our event, like our empower event or one of our business transformation programs, there's this hey look, these are colleagues of mine. Like I'd love to tell them the mistakes I made and I don't want them to make the same lens, because that was awful for me. You've definitely been somebody that's been very involved in the enable community. You've helped staff and some of the others and shared your experiences and I appreciate that, chris, like that's great for you to be able to share that and that helps some of our other partners.
Speaker 2:But I just love this community. That that obviously has has developed over the number of years as managed services has become more popular. So, you know, as you mentioned, I love, I love that you have that personality. That is all about you know. Yeah, I'm here to make some money, but I also want to see the, the, the benefits, right. I want to see. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm helping a number of other people have, like support their families, right, because of what you've built there, and I think that's such a powerful thing to live by you know. So that's I love that?
Speaker 1:that that's not that cut throat. Hold all the secrets, you know right, we're all trying to, at the end of the day, do the same thing. Yeah, no like why not work together? Why not Right? You know we all want to help people be secure or do the right things, or you know. So let's all let's have our kumbaya moment. That's good, I'll get along.
Speaker 2:So we always get along over over a beer at the bar. To what? No matter what like, it's always good. So what's next for entree, and maybe yourself, chris? What's the future?
Speaker 1:hold it's continuing to build the security that's. I mean you hate to sound cliche, but that is where it's at right now and it's really, you know, staying as up to date as possible and staying as as far ahead as possible that you can. I mean, you know we're we're investing heavily within that. You know where we're trying to invest alongside with our clients.
Speaker 1:I feel like, in our area at least, we're a little bit ahead of the game, which is perfect, you know, because now I've seen some of the pitfalls and I've seen some of the. You know the mistakes that we made along the way, and I've been able to talk to people, maybe in a little bit more mature areas of the country or the world, you know, who have had success doing certain things. So I mean that's really our continued focus right now is just continuing to help our clients. I mean, our goal is to raise productivity and those lowest costs, you know, and if that helps, if productivity is keeping them online, keeping them safe, keeping them secure that's what, that's what our job is here and that's what my goal is is to continue to grow all of those platforms You're not ready to jump into the trucking industry again.
Speaker 2:I'm not.
Speaker 1:I hear it's really well paid. Now I'm a driver of our country, but I'm a little bit yeah, I'm a little bit past that, chris, I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for sharing your story today. I wish you and the rest of the entree team the absolute best. Thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you guys. I really appreciate everything you guys do for us, so thank you.