For two days in Miami, more than 500 Autotask partners gathered at the InterContinental Hotel on Biscayne Bay for lively discussions, workshops and vendor networking. While most of the partners who attended were from North America (those traveling from Europe were detained by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, which halted airline travel for several days), the event was well-attended and covered all of the current hot topics within the channel -- mainly hardware, software and services.

During the event's opening day on Monday, April 19, Autotask CEO Bob Godgart welcomed the standing-room only crowd in his Keynote address with a run-down on a "by the numbers" overview of the company. With 3,200 customers, 170 staff and 180 marketing events per year, Godgart stated that his company's vision (for its users) is to manage your whole business...maximize your total opportunity and deliver superior bottom-line results. However, despite this, Godgart mentioned that the average customer uses less than 25 percent of Autotask's services. Therefore, the challenge that Godgart laid out during his address was his aim (and that of his company's) is to help attendees to use more of the product’s offerings.

Godgart noted that one of the programs currently available to users is the Autotask Academy, which held its kick-off session on Sunday, April 18, during the pre-conference events. Run by Len DiCostanzo, Senior Vice President & Dean of Autotask Academy, the Autotask Academy Accelerator Bootcamp is designed to help users learn more about Autotask, and how to automate and optimize business workflow. The program also teaches attendees how to realize more value from their investments. According to DiCostanzo, whom VSR had the chance to meet with at the event, the bootcamp "was sold out, with approximately 104 attendees."

Following the Keynote, VSR spent a few moments with Godgart who conducted an exclusive interview at the Intercontinental. He of course discussed the bootcamp, as well as the company's recent acquisition of the VARStreet hosted e-commerce platform. This cloud-based technology enables Autotask users to automate and streamline the entire IT product sales and procurement process -- from start to finish. The acquisition allows users access via a trio of products:

VARStreet Back-Office, VARStreet e-Commerce and VARStreet XC platform. The back-office product platform includes real-time pricing and availability from distributors, advanced product quoting, sourcing and fulfillment. The acquisition is something that Godgart says he's very excited about. "In order to take our business to the next level, we had to have the (VARStreet) product," he says. "It's a huge time savings for our users, and speeds internal processes, especially when a customer is looking for a quote."

 
Godgart also noted how VARStreet, at just $99 per month, can tap the user directly into their distributor partners feeds and also offer real-time pricing availability. This way, if a customer is looking for a quote, it doesn't take the solution provider several hours to achieve. They simply log on to the VARStreet account and can pull the information directly. This includes technical specs, photos and current availability.

While some may think that VARStreet is simply an online store that is not the case, according to Bob Vogel, Autotask's CMO. When meeting with VSR at the event, Vogel also stressed the importance of the tool's features, especially its ability fully automate internal processes. "VARStreet can pull together the information for the solution provider (when a customer requests a quote) into one centralized location." Like Godgart, Vogel also noted the time savings the product offers, as well as the solution provider being able to confirm (online) that the product is available for the customer.

The VARStreet by Autotask e-commerce platform is currently available only in North America, as announced last month. However, the company has a global roll-out of the technology on the product roadmap in the near future.