Heartland Technology Groups in the UK

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Have you heard about the Heartland Technology Group (HTG)?

The HTG peer group experience is a unique forum for technology industry resellers who are serious about implementing a model for success in their own businesses through sharing and collaboration of best practices. They network similar companies based on their size, number of employees, relative lines of service, ownership structure, and markets served to find unique solutions to common problems. Because HTG peer groups are national in scope, members are not seen as operating in competing markets. The result is an intimate network where the expectation of confidentiality is an underlying facet of the group’s inherent design. The agenda for each meeting is designed around the felt-needs of the group and toward meeting the concerns and issues that face you in a fast-paced, increasingly complex business.

According to CRN, “VAR consortium the Heartland Technology Group (HTG) is kick-starting its plans for international growth with a UK operation. Announcing its UK group ­ dubbed HTG11 ­ last October with seven members, HTG is on the hunt for more local resellers.”

Microsoft UK has been approached by HTG as they are keen to engage with SBSC partners. In fact, one or two familiar SBSC partners are already signed up to their first UK group, HTG11, and have nothing but good things to say about it. We therefore wanted to highlight what they had to say, and you can make your own decision as to whether or not this may be something that can benefit you and your business:

Success by association Richard Tubb, IT consultant at Microsoft small business specialist Netlink IT , said: “[We] discovered HTG at Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference in July. We met some other members there too.

“We quickly realised there are a number of benefits to associating successful businesses with other successful businesses. Some members in the group achieve £1m annual turnover.”

Tubb said joining HTG11 has opened the reseller’s eyes to what can be achieved, by discussing things such as the pros and cons of mergers and hiring more staff.

“One idea that has thoroughly helped Netlink IT was based on having a tighter control of our finances. Previously we may have been lacking in certain areas. The other businesses revealed how they conduct weekly reports, which we have taken on board, as well as implementing a system to track overdue invoices,” said Tubb.

Vijay Singh Royait, technical director at software outsourcing firm and HTG11 member Ardent-Isys , said everyone in the group is accountable to everyone else.

“There are many peer-to-peer networking groups in the Microsoft small business community,” he said. “HTG11 offers the next step beyond that. It is a group that focuses on developing and growing your business.”

As with NetlinkIT, Ardent-Isys discovered HTG at Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference last year.

“Microsoft was promoting HTG to its business specialist community,” said Royait. “The group has helped Ardent-Isys organise a structure for its business processes; for example, for its financial management and revenue growth achieved each month. We have rebuilt our business plan around this.”

Hand on your Heartland - 08 May 2009 - CRN

There is a membership fee of $1200 per year plus the prorated cost of the HTG UK group’s meeting expenses each quarter.   Membership occurs by unanimous vote following a first time attending.  Potential members participate fully and will share in preparation and meeting costs.  After the meeting ends, the group will vote on membership.

Here are some other resources you might want to check out:

If any of this interests you, why not speak directly with Dave Sobel, who leads HTG11 in the UK and find out more or how you might get involved: dave@evolvetech.com.

*Please note that the offer above is provided by a third-party partner and is not under the control of Microsoft. Accordingly Microsoft does not assume any responsibility or liability for the offer and is providing it solely as a convenience, and the inclusion of such content does not imply endorsement by Microsoft of the offer or of the third party advertiser. Individuals may be subject to additional and/or different terms, conditions, and privacy policies when using third party products, services, content, software, or sites.