It’s probably no coincidence that ever since CEO Dave Stamm started using the ConnectWise Manage software platform in 2004, his companies—Stamm Media and Stamm Technologies—have gone from what he calls “organized chaos” to a well-oiled machine that’s winning projects he knows they never would have before he started using it.
“When we first moved to the ConnectWise platform, everything was very chaotic for us,” says Stamm. “We were stuck, even with a few employees. We knew we couldn’t grow without figuring something out that would help us move forward and grow the business.”
Stamm calls ConnectWise services annual IT Nation Conference “the single-biggest selling point” of his relationship with ConnectWise and its staff, noting it’s a function he uses regularly to stay ahead of his competitors. [related]
“I don’t know how we’d stay current on some of the trends in the industry without it,” he says.
“It helps us stay motivated and connected with our peers. To me, it’s the single most important part of the ConnectWise services platform because it helps us find companies that are similar to us in other parts of the world that can help us have feet on the street when we can’t actually be there ourselves.
“We live solely in projects and everything we do now moves from a ConnectWise Sell quote to a ConnectWise Manage project. We can see where we are on a real-time basis. Without that, it would be hard for us to continue taking on projects,” says Stamm.
Without projects, Stamm Media and Stamm Technologies wouldn’t be where they are today: thriving and continuing to be part of exciting opportunities that are more diverse than ever.
“If you don’t have a good handle on the numbers, a bigger job represents a bigger risk,” says Stamm. “If you go for a quarter-million-dollar job and you’re wrong, you could be underwater significantly.” That mistake can multiply and cause ripple effects for the company’s ability to take on future work, he says.
Other ConnectWise Services
In addition to being the proud owner of a suite of software that’s added efficiency to his business, Stamm also has access to a team of ConnectWise consultants who make it their mission to help their customers run their businesses better, including coaching them on being better at their jobs, whether CEO, accountant, engineer or IT guru.
“We felt like we were dealing with people who were smarter than us, and that’s not the case for all software platforms or vendors,” says Stamm. “[ConnectWise Manage] is a business operating system, not purely software. They’re helping you run a better business and coaching you to be better craftsmen. It’s about way more than the software itself.”
That’s another big advantage of being part of the ConnectWise family.
“The software has all the features and more that we could ever want,” says Stamm. “There’s an easy-to-use interface, but it’s about a lot more than that. Through the ConnectWise Network, we can find other partners outside our areas [Milwaukee and Chicago] and we can assign tickets to them.”
Stamm calls on the ConnectWise Network two to four times a month, he says, and sometimes as often as two or three times a week during peak season. He estimates relying on the network for about 10 nationwide projects every year and says Stamm Media itself serves as the so-called local partner four or five times every year, too.
“[Network members] have the desire run their businesses well at a very minimum,” says Stamm. “It really is a competitive advantage for us to have access to the other companies in that network.”
The ConnectWise Network isn’t just about helping Stamm Media and its other members with large jobs. It’s also a boon to smaller jobs, says Stamm.
“On the large jobs, the budget can handle us flying in our core team to do the job ourselves,” he says. “At the same time, you have to make sure the small jobs are very successful, too.”
As part of his work with ConnectWise services, Stamm has been a regular attendee since 2006 at the annual ConnectWise IT Nation conference, which features a mix of business celebrities “teaching you how to run your business better,” he says.
That event can sometimes lead to future job opportunities he might not have otherwise have known about.
“They’ve helped us figure out the best practices for running a business,” says Stamm. “We usually talk to them if we’re adding a new capability to our business model.” That includes Stamm Media building infrastructure division, which was launched about two years ago.
“There were a couple of nuances I wanted to talk to them about, from quoting to project management to inventory,” says Stamm. “We wanted to set it up right from the beginning and they helped us do that.”
