ORLANDO – ConnectWise International co-founder, president, and managing director David Bellini understands that to keep up with the ever evolving technology, ConnectWise plays an important role in the education of its 100,000 partners across the globe.
Due to the nature of the beast, IT professionals have to constantly be relearning their practice. Everything from a technology standpoint changes every three years, so without relearning, those same IT professionals will fall to the wayside.
That is where ConnectWise comes in, Bellini told CDN. “You have got to make your people work more and more efficiently each and every day by providing them the tools necessary to succeed and meet demand.”
He understands this from first hand experience. It was only a few years ago that ConnectWise struggled with hiring IT who could pass certification tests, so the professional services automation provider set its focus on a new way to hire: an aptitude test.
Bellini gave the half-hour aptitude test to everyone in the company, not just IT, with the goal to score a 60 or higher out of 100. Why 60? Well, that’s Bellini’s score.
“Once we hire someone who can get over a 60 on our aptitude test, they can pass all the certifications they could need because we can train them too,” said Bellini. ConnectWise isn’t relying on only hiring IT who already have these certifications when the company knows that relearning and retraining is inescapable.
“We are trying to hire smart people who we can train in the technology required. They have to be quick learners, and continue to relearn and relearn. If you do well on the aptitude test, and have the desire to learn, we can most likely train you to be a great technical person. The aptitude test just shows that you have what it takes to learn, stay up to date, and pave the way with this technology.”
Bellini is going to make his own talent instead of waiting for someone perfect for the position to come along. He has a pool of talent waiting to be used in ConnectWise’s 850 employees.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to have a college degree to pass the aptitude test either,” he added.
Pass the aptitude test and the sky is the limit. With ConnectWise University, IT professionals can take any of the 1400 technical courses and certification tests. From teaching someone how to use and install ConnectWise software, to how to set up a help desk, or how to successfully hire new employees, ConnectWise University covers a broad spectrum.
ConnectWise employees aren’t the only ones who make up this core strategy. Educating ConnectWise partners is equally important. “Our job is to make the ecosystem stronger, and that makes us stronger. If we do a better job helping partners run their business, then they’ll have a lot more success and buy more units or seats.”
The majority of ConnectWise partners are technologists. They’re great at building and working with technology, but they may not be the best business or sales people. They can build technology for their customers, but many lack that business background and acumen needed to truly thrive as small MSP or CSPs.
“We say to ourselves, “how do we build our product suite out to make partner’s jobs easier,” said Bellini. “We are teaching partners how to run a business successfully. The better can do that with our tools and knowledge, the more successful they will be.”
