The burden of responsibility placed on Managed Service Providers (MSPs) is immense. Not only does the MSP provide the people at the end of the line when the IT systems running a business go wrong, but the provider is, in most instances, responsible for implementing data protection, disaster recovery and cybersecurity of each of their clients. With ten clients, that’s a heavy burden; with 100 or 500 clients, the complexities and requirements are higher by an order of magnitude.
The irony is that no one ever calls their MSP to reassure (or thank) the company, saying that all systems are active and performing well. Yet when there’s a problem or any type of technology-related crisis, the first port of call is the support line at the MSP, which is expected to be available 24/7/365.
Running an MSP means accepting that burden of responsibility, and yet at the same time, the company needs to stay on top of all the normal aspects of running a business – invoicing and finance, billing, HR, supply partner management, administration, and the full range of back-office functions. Despite the range of IT systems that an MSP must support when it comes to choosing the technology that it relies on to fulfil its responsibilities, it has to make careful choices.
While some parts of an MSP’s business operations can be covered by standard, off-the-shelf choices, the specific business model of an MSP needs specific software. It will need to provide, for example, the ability to track work to minute-level accuracy and bill accordingly, and cybersecurity protections that cover multiple organisations, not just one.
From businessman to evangelist
At Tech Wire Asia, we spoke recently to a veteran of the MSP space, Nick Moran, who successfully started and ran his own MSP business in his native Australia before exiting the business after over two decades of hard work. Nick shared some of his battle stories and experiences with us on an episode of the Tech Means Business podcast, which you can listen to here. Since selling his thriving business, Nick has transitioned to a new role with ConnectWise, where he is Evangelism Director at IT Nation, based out of Melbourne, Australia. Nick’s role is advocating for the MSPs that are ConnectWise users, harnessing his long experience at the coal face in the industry.
ConnectWise supplies what is widely recognised as being the industry standard software that Managed Service Providers use to run every aspect of their operations, including the vital remote management of their client’s technology, as well as support ticket management, billing, HR, finance, security and system recovery. As a user of (and now advocate for) ConnectWise, Nick is well-placed to give us the lowdown on the ConnectWise suite of products designed specifically for the growing MSP, their pain points, what works and what software features are useful.
Rewriting the platform for growth
One of the things we spoke about was the complete, ground-up rewrite of the ConnectWise platform that took place recently, now available as ConnectWise Asio™. It’s based on cloud-native microservice infrastructure, which means the platform will scale quickly and easily according to the demands placed on it. Plus, thanks to the container-based underlying structure, ConnectWise can add new innovations and features quickly and efficiently.
“What we’ve traditionally had is a product that has been amazing for so many partners out there. But every time we wanted to enhance something, it was hard to unwind the previous 15 years of the platform and the product. So [Asio] allows us to be able to add enhancements [and] rapidly innovate. And to be able to build that automation, that hyper-automation piece on at the infrastructure level. It provides a security-first attitude towards everything we do now. And that gives us a platform advantage over our competitors. We’ve jumped [ahead] by three to four years.”
Automation for the MSP
The hyper-automation Nick referred to is the next logical evolution of the types of automation that MSPs rely on every day to keep their clients’ systems running smoothly and safely. Automations like the rollout of security patches to several thousand Windows clients, for example, are achieved by MSPs using a variety of tools, from homemade PowerShell scripts to, in ConnectWise’s case, the firing of automation capabilities baked into the management platform.
Hyperautomation takes the concept further, extending the range of automated actions to both customer-facing operations and the back office. Plus, with the aid of ConnectWise Sidekick, an AI companion designed to improve customer service and enhance efficiency, management of extensive fleets gets easier. “It could be as simple as creating a chatbot for [an MSP’s clients], to handle those customer inquiries, freeing up needing to have a human involved in every interaction, personalising those responses based on the data that you’ve got [and] the customer history,” Nick said. “As far as finance is concerned, you’ve got invoices, you’ve got fraud detection […] And let’s look at HR […] to be able to assist in some of that recruitment and onboarding is a major thing. Then it moves into sales: […] a lot of time is wasted in chasing potential leads that are never going to go anywhere. The stuff that has been untapped for a long time.”
And despite the best efforts of marketers the world over in the technology sector, Nick confirmed that using AI in a business context isn’t as simple as dropping in a new piece of software:
“The preparation for a business to be able to take on AI or RPA (robotic process automation) is an important one. We go back to the concept of garbage in garbage out. […] AI models can be trained over time. So, the experience may not be the best that it can be and that’s the advantage of using machine learning technology to improve that experience over time. That preparation for AI is vitally important and often a step that’s overlooked or skipped.”
Connecting at IT Nation, Sydney, August 2024
Despite its position as the de facto choice for Managed Service Provider business software globally, the company’s US roots may mean that the ConnectWise platform isn’t as well known in Australasia and the wider APAC region as it might be. That situation is set to change, however, in the next few months with the upcoming IT Nation Sydney Conference. Here, the company event will bring together MSPs from the region to learn best practice, exchange methods and experience, and learn about the software and techniques that the ConnectWise product stable can offer. The company is keen to stress its ongoing partnership with Microsoft, but beyond that, Nick would not be drawn on details of upcoming product announcements.
However, you can find out more about the IT Nation event here or research ConnectWise at the company’s website. If your business is relied on by dozens of others for all things IT, ConnectWise should be top of your list.
