Shane Naugher
25 years building and securing the technology small businesses run on. Now helping them automate it.
Author, speaker, and host of two podcasts on IT, cybersecurity, and AI for the businesses that never get a Fortune 500 budget.
Channel Futures MSP 501 · CRN MSP 500 · MSP Titans of the Industry Finalist
Who Is Shane Naugher?
Shane Naugher has spent his entire career on the unglamorous side of technology: making it work, keeping it secure, and explaining it to the business owner who has to sign the check.
He founded DaZZee I.T. Services in July 2000 in the Branson, Missouri area, back when the internet still arrived over a phone line. What started as infrastructure work with partners like Cisco, EMC, VMware, and Southwestern Bell became one of southwest Missouri’s most established managed IT and cybersecurity providers, recognized nationally on the Channel Futures MSP 501 and the CRN MSP 500.
In 2024, after an eight-month internal beta, he launched Innovative Automations. Same philosophy, new problem. Businesses were drowning in manual processes and being sold AI tools nobody could tie back to a dollar.
Today Shane works with owners and executive teams on one question: where does technology actually create leverage in this business, and where is it just expense?
Why This Work
I have watched three full technology cycles from the inside.
Dial-up to broadband. On-premise to cloud. And now whatever we end up calling this one.
Every cycle follows the same pattern. A wave of hype, a wave of vendors, and a wave of small business owners who spend real money on tools that never get adopted. The businesses that win are not the ones that move first. They are the ones that understand their own processes well enough to know what is worth automating.
That is the work. Not selling software. Figuring out what is broken, what it costs, and what should happen next.
What I Do Now
I run two companies that solve two halves of the same problem.
DaZZee I.T. Services
Managed IT, cybersecurity, and compliance for small businesses and city governments across Missouri, Arkansas, and Kansas, with offices in Branson, Springfield, and Kansas City. This is the work that keeps an organization operational and defensible.
Explore DaZZee I.T. ServicesInnovative Automations
AI strategy, process automation, and the Virtual AI Officer program, which gives companies executive-level AI guidance without an executive-level hire.
Visit Innovative AutomationsMost providers pick one lane. I believe the two are inseparable. You cannot responsibly automate a business you have not secured, and you cannot compete long-term on security alone.
Recognition
Channel Futures MSP 501
2018 (ranked #402, listed as DaZZee Integrations), 2023, and 2024 (ranked #372)
The longest running and most respected ranking of managed service providers in North America, scored on audited financial and operational metrics.
CRN MSP 500
2015 and 2022
ChannelCo's annual list recognizing the top managed service providers in North America.
MSP 501 Vanguard of the Year
Award candidate
Recognizes individual MSP leaders judged to be moving the industry forward.
View the announcementMSP Titans of the Industry
Finalist three consecutive years, most recently in 2025 for AI Powered Innovation
Honors managed service providers setting the standard for innovation and client outcomes.
Published Work
The Cyber Playbook
A No-Nonsense Guide To Cybersecurity And Compliance For Business Owners
Contributing author
Written alongside a group of IT and cybersecurity practitioners from across the country, for owners and executives who need to make defensible security decisions without a technical background.
The Business Owner's Guide To AI and Automation
Author
A practical framework for identifying automation opportunities, evaluating technologies, and building a strategy before buying tools.
Podcasts
Give IT To Me Straight
The DaZZee podcast
Straight answers on IT, cybersecurity, and the technology decisions business owners actually have to make, without the vendor spin.
Listen to episodesAI and Automation in Action
The Innovative Automations podcast
Conversations with operators about what AI and automation actually look like inside a working business. Not predictions, not demos. Implementations, results, and what did not work.
Visit Innovative AutomationsGuest Appearances
MSP Mindset with Damien Stevens
He Built an AI Business From His MSP
On spinning a second company out of an established managed services practice, and what it takes operationally to do it.
MSP Business School
Automation or Extinction
On why the window for competitive advantage through automation is shorter than most owners assume.
From Automation to Intelligence: The Evolution of Business Processes (2024)
On why service providers must run AI internally before recommending it to clients, including how AI-driven sales call analysis reshaped DaZZee's own sales process.
From Dial Up to Data Protection
On evolving a technology company across 25 years of industry shifts, including the ones that drew internal pushback.
MSP Success
Top AI And Automation Strategies To Grow Your MSP
On the automation plays that produce measurable operational return for service providers.
Sphere Rocket Network
The Evolving IT Landscape: Navigating the Shift to Cloud, Cybersecurity, and AI
On the three technology shifts small businesses have absorbed in twenty years, and what the current one demands of them.
Featured In
Case Study: How Integrations Build EOS Culture With DaZZee (2024)
An interview on rebuilding DaZZee’s technology stack, moving off a legacy PSA and a legacy EOS platform, and turning the Entrepreneurial Operating System from a directive into something the team runs on its own.
Read it21 Pioneering MSPs Up For MSP 501 Vanguard Of The Year
Coverage of the MSP 501 Vanguard of the Year award candidates, recognizing leaders judged to be moving the managed services industry forward.
Read itDaZZee Named MSP Titans of the Industry Finalist for AI Powered Innovation
Announcement of the MSP Titans of the Industry finalist recognition for AI Powered Innovation.
Read itSpeaking
Shane speaks to business audiences, industry associations, and executive teams on AI adoption, automation strategy, and cybersecurity accountability.
Automation or Extinction
Why the window on competitive advantage is shorter than owners think, and how to tell which processes are worth automating first.
From Tools to Strategy
Building an AI roadmap before you buy anything, with a framework for measuring return instead of hoping for it.
The Owner's Cybersecurity Playbook
Making defensible security and compliance decisions without a technical background.
Shadow AI
What your team is already using, what it exposes, and why it is a governance problem before it is a technology problem.
Recent engagements
- Credit Union Thrive Conference, 2025
- Connell's Cyber Summer Seminar, Connell Insurance
Audiences
Financial institutions and credit unions, insurance and professional services, manufacturing and construction, industry peer groups and associations.
Invite Shane to speakBackground and Credentials
- Founder and CEO, DaZZee I.T. Services, July 2000 to present
- Founder, Innovative Automations, 2024 to present
- 25+ years in networking, managed IT, and cybersecurity
- Certified and partnered across Cisco, EMC, and VMware
- Large-scale infrastructure delivery with Cisco and Southwestern Bell, pre-AT&T merger
Outside the Office
More than 15 years ago, Shane helped found the Ozarks Running Club and the Branson Turkey Trot. The Turkey Trot has since donated over $100,000 to local charities.
Bio Library
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Shane Naugher is the founder of DaZZee I.T. Services and Innovative Automations, with 25+ years in managed IT, cybersecurity, and automation. He is a contributing author of The Cyber Playbook, author of The Business Owner’s Guide To AI and Automation, and hosts the Give IT To Me Straight and AI and Automation in Action podcasts.
Let’s talk about what is actually slowing your business down.
Most conversations start the same way. Something is not working, and it is not clear whether it is a technology problem, a process problem, or a people problem. That is a good place to start.