Uncle Marv's IT Business Podcast (Products, stories, and tips for the MSP and IT Professional)

You don’t need to overhaul your MSP to start getting value from AI. You need to find one task your team is tired of repeating. Meredith Payne returns to the show at TD SYNNEX Inspire in Greenville to talk about her work leading digital growth and customer success, what’s changing inside Partner First, and how MSPs can put automation to work without making everything more complicated. I ask Meredith where smaller providers should start, whether human help is sticking around, and how to know if these tools are actually improving the business. Her advice is to start small, learn as you go, and look beyond placing orders to see what your customer data can help you do next. === Chapters 00:11 Welcome and Meredith Payne Returns 01:57 PartnerFirst, Agent Bridge, and MCP 06:20 Keeping Human Help Alongside AI 07:33 Learning From Failure and Starting Small 09:28 Exploring Greenville and Fall for Greenville 12:28 Customer Insights Beyond Quotes and Orders 14:59 Helping Partners Adopt Digital Tools 16:18 What Should Your MSP Fix First? 18:27 Inspire Vendor Floor and Favorite Swag 21:02 Closing Thoughts and Thank You === Guest: Meredith Payne, TD SYNNEX, Vice President, Digital Growth & Customer Success Website: https://www.tdsynnex.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredithnpayne === Resources / Books / Podcasts / Apps Partner with TD SYNNEX: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/en/partnerfirst.html MSP Evolve: https://site.tdsynnex.com/msp-evolve/p/1 PartnerFirst Digital Bridge: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/digital-bridge/ai-agent/ Agent Bridge: https://news.tdsynnex.com/news/td-synnex-unveils-ai-that-works-alongside-partners-expanding-partnerfirst-with-agentic-capabilities/ PartnerFirst MCP Connector: https://news.tdsynnex.com/news/td-synnex-unveils-ai-that-works-alongside-partners-expanding-partnerfirst-with-agentic-capabilities/ PartnerFirst Customer Lifecycle Offering: https://news.tdsynnex.com/news/td-synnex-unveils-ai-that-works-alongside-partners-expanding-partnerfirst-with-agentic-capabilities/ TD SYNNEX Inspire: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/inspire/ Fall for Greenville: https://www.fallforgreenville.net/ Falls Park on the Reedy: https://www.greenvillesc.gov/falls-park === SPONSORS: Technology Partner, NetAlly: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/netally/ Technology Partner: Bvoip: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/bvoip Travel Partner: TruGrid: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/trugrid Digital Partner, Designer Ready: http://itbusinesspodcast.com/designerready === SHOW MUSIC: Item Title: Upbeat & Fun Sports Rock Logo Item URL: https://elements.envato.com/upbeat-fun-sports-rock-logo-CSR3UET Author Username: AlexanderRufire Item License Code: 7X9F52DNML === Connect with Uncle Marv 🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/ 🎙 Host: Marvin Bee 🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ ☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Before you buy another AI tool or help a client deploy agents, take a hard look at the environment supporting them. Recording from Greenville, South Carolina, I talk with Joseph Vlajcic about what happens when businesses chase individual AI use cases without considering how those systems will work together. We discuss why disappointing returns can come from more than choosing the wrong tool. Sometimes the surrounding infrastructure needs attention first. Joseph walks through AI running in the data center, public cloud, and at the edge, with the network connecting all three. That brings up questions MSPs need to ask about traffic, access, security, and visibility. I also raise something we haven’t spent enough time discussing: we’re watching AI-driven threats coming in, but what about the activity our own AI tools generate going out? We wrap up with the business conversations that can be harder than the technical work. How do you handle clients who want AI but resist your recommendations? What belongs in the discussion around service agreements? And what should you never promise about an AI future nobody can fully predict? Joseph brings it back to segmentation, identity, patching, and making investments that support the use case in front of you. === Guest: Joseph Vlajcic, TD SYNNEX Title: Vice President, Cisco. Website: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/cisco/sso/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-vlajcic-6099136 === Companies / Vendors / Products / Books TD SYNNEX: https://ir.tdsynnex.com/overview/default.aspx Cisco: https://www.cisco.com/ FinOps Fusion: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008565728/en/TD-SYNNEX-Introduces-FinOps-Fusion-to-Optimize-AI-Token-Spend-Across-Cloud-and-Core-Infrastructure Amazon Bedrock: https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/ Claude Mythos Preview: https://www.anthropic.com/glasswing === Resources / Training / Initiatives Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA): https://www.cisco.com/site/us/en/learn/training-certifications/certifications/enterprise/ccna/index.html Project Glasswing: https://www.anthropic.com/project/glasswing === Events / Conferences TD SYNNEX Inspire: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/inspire/ === SPONSORS: Technology Partner, NetAlly: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/netally/ Technology Partner: Bvoip: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/bvoip Travel Partner: TruGrid: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/trugrid Digital Partner, Designer Ready: http://itbusinesspodcast.com/designerready === SHOW MUSIC: Item Title: Upbeat & Fun Sports Rock Logo Item URL: https://elements.envato.com/upbeat-fun-sports-rock-logo-CSR3UET Author Username: AlexanderRufire Item License Code: 7X9F52DNML === Connect with Uncle Marv 🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/ 🎙 Host: Marvin Bee 🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ ☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Saving money on AI does not mean much if you are still using it the wrong way. That was one of my biggest takeaways from TD SYNNEX Inspire in Greenville, South Carolina. Erick Simpson joins me to unpack the announcements that caught our attention, including FinOps Fusion and Agent Bridge. We discuss the potential to better understand AI spending, reduce manual work around quoting and ordering, and spot client opportunities that get buried when we are busy putting out fires. I also explain why I want to see the AI spending conversation go beyond cutting costs to improving prompts, automations, and results. The vendor floor gave us another reason to rethink what we bring to clients. Ergonomic workspaces, healthcare carts, branded device cases, and other hardware sparked conversations we do not usually have at MSP events. Before the recap, I share how I moved a client’s Access-based application to V2 Cloud, what was still unfinished, and how a $15 cable helped another client avoid replacing an external drive. And yes, Erick and I get into the swag, including a few things I will actually use. === Guest: Erick Simpson, MSP Mastered / Channel Mastered Website: https://ericksimpson.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericksimpson === Companies / Vendors / Products / Books V2 Cloud: https://v2cloud.com/ TD SYNNEX Inspire — official conference site. https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/inspire/ Channel Mastered — About. https://channelmastered.com/about/ MSP Mastered — official site. https://mspmastered.com/ Digi — TD SYNNEX Inspire 2026 event overview. https://www.digi.com/resources/events/2026/td-synnex-inspire-2026 TD SYNNEX — PartnerFirst agentic capabilities announcement. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008201780/en/TD-SYNNEX-Unveils-AI-That-Works-Alongside-Partners-Expanding-PartnerFirst-with-Agentic-Capabilities TD SYNNEX — FinOps Fusion announcement. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008565728/en/TD-SYNNEX-Introduces-FinOps-Fusion-to-Optimize-AI-Token-Spend-Across-Cloud-and-Core-Infrastructure TD SYNNEX — Space Tech Initiative announcement. https://news.tdsynnex.com/news/td-synnex-launches-space-tech-initiative-to-help-partners-capitalize-on-the-growing-space-economy/ Uncle Marv’s IT Business Podcast — FinOps Fusion coverage. https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/blog/td-synnex-launches-finops-fusion/ === Swag Mentions Ergotron: https://www.ergotron.com/en-us/ KIOXIA: https://americas.kioxia.com/en-us/ Kingston Technology: https://www.kingston.com/en Omnissa: https://www.omnissa.com/ === SPONSORS: Technology Partner, NetAlly: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/netally/ Technology Partner: Bvoip: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/bvoip Travel Partner: TruGrid: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/trugrid Digital Partner, Designer Ready: http://itbusinesspodcast.com/designerready === SHOW MUSIC: Item Title: Upbeat & Fun Sports Rock Logo Item URL: https://elements.envato.com/upbeat-fun-sports-rock-logo-CSR3UET Author Username: AlexanderRufire Item License Code: 7X9F52DNML === Connect with Uncle Marv 🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/ 🎙 Host: Marvin Bee 🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ ☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Recurring revenue is nice. Recurring profitability is what pays the bills. I sat down with Augie Staab, Director of MSP Sales at TD SYNNEX, at Inspire in Greenville, South Carolina, to talk about the difference. We dug into cybersecurity stack standardization, what makes a vendor offering truly useful to MSPs, and why letting every customer pick a different tool can undermine your business. Augie also explained how TD SYNNEX’s dedicated MSP sales team and new MSP ARC program aim to help partners identify gaps and make better business decisions. Stop building a different stack for every customer I asked Augie about selling cybersecurity as a service rather than simply reselling a product. She pointed to a familiar problem: customers request their preferred vendors, and the MSP keeps making exceptions. Her advice was to standardize around technologies you understand, know the industries you serve well, and build something you can deliver repeatedly. The lesson is straightforward: recurring sales alone don’t prove your service model is profitable. === Guest: Augie Staab, TD SYNNEX, Director of MSP Sales Website: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritapena === Companies / Vendors / Products / Books / Events / Organizations Become a Partner: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/en/partnerfirst.html TD SYNNEX Inspire: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/inspire/ TD SYNNEX MSP Sales: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/smbconnect/msp-sales/ TD SYNNEX PartnerLINK: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/PartnerLINK/ TD SYNNEX MSP Evolve: https://site.tdsynnex.com/msp-evolve/p/1 === SPONSORS: Technology Partner, NetAlly: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/netally/ Technology Partner: Bvoip: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/bvoip Travel Partner: TruGrid: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/trugrid Digital Partner, Designer Ready: http://itbusinesspodcast.com/designerready === SHOW MUSIC: Item Title: Upbeat & Fun Sports Rock Logo Item URL: https://elements.envato.com/upbeat-fun-sports-rock-logo-CSR3UET Author Username: AlexanderRufire Item License Code: 7X9F52DNML === Connect with Uncle Marv 🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/ 🎙 Host: Marvin Bee 🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ ☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.

Using fewer AI tokens doesn’t automatically mean you’re saving money. I sat down with Andre Van der Post, Vice President of Cloud Solutions at TD SYNNEX, at Inspire in Greenville, South Carolina, to talk about FinOps Fusion and what it takes to manage AI spending beyond the token count. We get into infrastructure costs, poorly written prompts, governance, and the opportunity for MSPs to help clients make smarter decisions. Andre also gets honest about what’s still being built. The takeaway: managing AI costs means understanding the business value, not just watching usage. === Guest: Andre Van der Post, TD SYNNEX Website: https://tdsynnex.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrevanderpost === Companies / Vendors / Products / Books Sign Up for an account at TD SYNNEX: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/en/partnerfirst.html FinOps Fusion: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008565728/en/TD-SYNNEX-Introduces-FinOps-Fusion-to-Optimize-AI-Token-Spend-Across-Cloud-and-Core-Infrastructure TD SYNNEX Inspire: https://www.tdsynnex.com/na/us/inspire/ Microsoft Copilot: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot Google Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/ AI Token Consumption Assessment: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008565728/en/TD-SYNNEX-Introduces-FinOps-Fusion-to-Optimize-AI-Token-Spend-Across-Cloud-and-Core-Infrastructure Unified Visibility Dashboard: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008565728/en/TD-SYNNEX-Introduces-FinOps-Fusion-to-Optimize-AI-Token-Spend-Across-Cloud-and-Core-Infrastructure AI Spend Optimization Recommendations: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261008565728/en/TD-SYNNEX-Introduces-FinOps-Fusion-to-Optimize-AI-Token-Spend-Across-Cloud-and-Core-Infrastructure === SPONSORS: Technology Partner, NetAlly: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/netally/ Technology Partner: Bvoip: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/bvoip Travel Partner: TruGrid: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/trugrid Digital Partner, Designer Ready: http://itbusinesspodcast.com/designerready === SHOW MUSIC: Item Title: Upbeat & Fun Sports Rock Logo Item URL: https://elements.envato.com/upbeat-fun-sports-rock-logo-CSR3UET Author Username: AlexanderRufire Item License Code: 7X9F52DNML === Connect with Uncle Marv 🌐 Website: https://www.itbusinesspodcast.com/ 🎙 Host: Marvin Bee 🛒 Uncle Marv’s Amazon Store (gear & tools I recommend): https://amzn.to/3EiyKoZ ☕ Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/itbusinesspodcast If you found value in this episode, share it with another MSP, IT provider, or tech entrepreneur. Your support helps keep practical, no-nonsense IT business conversations coming every week.