I’ve known Lane for only a tad over a year, but we’ve had several good conversations, and I’ve had a chance to speak with plenty of his staff. I really respect Lane and value our relationship. He is among a handful of names that come to mind when thinking of this industry as a whole.

I don’t know what PR’s issue might be, but in working with Lane on some educational projects at MSPA, and speaking with some of his support staff, who are, by the way, highly knowledgeable, I can’t imagine anyone having a legit gripe with the service that Do IT Smarter provides. Everything I’ve seen from them, and Lane, always shows me that they are a class operation and that he’s a class act.

The anonymous attack on Lane/Do IT Smarter certainly backfired.

Ironically, Do IT Smarter was the first Master MSP that Amy and I ever met. It happened at your San Jose event (I think?) in Fall 2007. It was a chance encounter at a Kinko’s, and we were impressed as one of Lane’s employees described the company’s business model and focus to us while we were waiting on line for some materials.

Full disclosure: I’ve never used or tested Master MSP services from Do IT Smarter or any other Master MSP. So I’m not in a position to say whether Do IT Smarter runs a great or less-than-great business.

Readers should draw their own conclusions through careful first-hand research. But I think the stream of positive comments above offers some clues about Lane’s business. And I generally dismiss attacks from anonymous readers.

Good luck with MSPWorld. We’ll be tracking the news. The SAS 70 announcement seems to have caught the industry’s attention ahead of the show. It certainly caught mine.

Joe,
Kudos to you for handling this in a professional manner. We appreciate your continued efforts in the managed services industry.

Lane,
As always, you exemplify the standards to which you promised to uphold.

Having met your personnally, I have no doubt of your commitment to raising the bar in the Managed Services market. Herb’s testimony is great and a testament to your team. Keep up the great work.

Support – First some facts; we have been an MSP for 10 years now and a Master MSP for 4 years. Our very first customer is still under contract with us, we are an Accredited Master MSP by the MSP Alliance, we send customer satisfaction surveys to all of our customers and are constantly scored above industry average (this is a 3rd party survey completed by The Help Desk Institute). Not that any of this proves that we provide high quality support but I think it is safe to say it is not “crap”.

The simple fact when it comes to support is that there is always a chance for someone to have a bad experience, and I have no doubt that we have had resellers that have had these bad experiences. The challenge of an MSP (and any business for that matter) is that when this happens we must take steps to learn from our mistakes and improve on these services. This however does require an open two-way communication with the customer, as if we are not made aware of the issue we have no idea it needs to be fixed. The management team at Do IT Smarter makes itself available to all of our customers, our email addresses and cell phones are published and all customers are welcome to contact us directly if they have concerns. In fact the majority of my time is spent working with existing resellers in an effort to help them grow their businesses.

In regards to the “no refund” comment, within 30 days of engaging with Do IT Smarter we do offer refunds on a case-by-case basis. That being said I don’t recall anyone that has asked for one within that time frame.

PR if you do have some legitimate concerns I would love to hear them as your feedback will only help my company. You can reach me at lsmith@doitsmarter.com or 858-751-2258 anytime.
P.S. Herb thanks for the kind words.

Lane Smith
President
Do IT Smarter

If you have a legitimate issue, state it without hiding behind generic posts and give Lane/Do IT Smarter the fair opportunity to respond.