I got a meeting with the Bobs in a couple of minutes.

What a day! I'm sitting in the Albany airport waiting for my delayed flight finishing an over-priced sandwich and a not-strong-enough vodka tonic reflecting on the 8 hours I just spent with Bob Godgart and the team from Autotask. What would I do with our my air card?

So Autotask invites me up to spend a day learning and sharing with their staff. I'm not sure what to expect and wasn't sure what to share during my 1 hour presentation to their entire 85 person staff. Oh well, I've winged it before and would like to see if they live up to my expectation from occasional meetings at SMB events so I agree to endure the travel hell of US Air.. Let me tell you this. They blew me away! The faculties, the staff, the executive vision, the desire to learn from end users and their road map for 2007 all were simply amazing. The "Bobs" have created not only an astounding product but an office culture that make me what to quit my gig and go work for them ( I wonder if they would pay me to play foosball or race RC cars all day?).

Now I would really like to share with you all the kewl technical details that I learned for the future of Autotask the product and the company but I'm not. would say it's all NDA but the honest truth is I'm too tired to remember what I can and can't share. What I will share is that after 4 years for running my business on their product and seeing their desire to work with their customers I don't consider them a vendor, I consider them a partner. And I'm really proud of their association. I've seen their competitors and I'm not even a little tempted. You see, what I saw and learned today was why. Why the people that work there are so proud of their product. Why they are able to have a regular version update every month and nothing breaks (try that one Microsoft). Why they seem to read my mind with each new version release. They truly get it when it come to being both a developer, ASP and partner. Their QA process, their commitment to excellence, their desire to make their UI simpler and efficient and their focus on adapting to the MSP's workflow processes all make me proud to work with them. If you having made up your mind about a PSA and your considering going with one that is run by somebody you're not sure you want to do business with (you know who I'm talking about) then you should give the good folks at Autotask a holler or go to www.mobilizesmb.com and let them help you get started. Thanks again Bob, I'll share the tie story with the race track pics in another post.

Now if you will excuse me I saw a couple of massage chairs down by terminal A. I'm going to go put a dollar in one and unplug the other to recharge my laptop.