As many managed service providers (MSPs) can attest, as your business grows, so does your complexity. An increasing roster of clients can require more technicians, new software tools, and various service offerings. If you’re looking at a convoluted tech stack after a few years—with technicians wasting precious hours switching between systems for ticketing, sales, maintenance, and more—then it’s time to simplify your tools.
A unified IT management approach, also known as an all-in-one approach, can be a boon to MSP owners by creating a centralized platform for all your tools, streamlining tasks, and integrating multiple business functions. It automates routine MSP services and makes them much easier, freeing up technicians’ time to focus on more important issues and on what they truly love—working with technology.
Of course, we know switching to new technology can be intimidating. It takes time, money, and effort to not only select the right IT management platform, but also adopt the technology and transition over employees, clients, and information.
Before making the transition, we often have MSPs ask us: What is the ROI of a management platform? In this blog, we’ll tackle three of the main ways an IT management platform will deliver future gains for your business.
1. Save Time on Ticketing
Tickets. Tickets. Tickets. You need them to track, answer, and resolve client issues. The problem? Many of these tickets represent routine issues with simple, clearly defined rules, but your technicians still end up spending hours on them.
Let’s take password resets as an example. These common requests represent the bulk of helpdesk requests—in fact, according to Gartner Group, up to 50% of all IT tickets are for resetting passwords. Without the right software in place, the process for resetting a password looks like this: the client forgets their password and calls the technician, who offers instructions over the phone. The client struggles to follow these instructions and becomes frustrated—they’re losing time from their work day. Meanwhile, more client requests are piling up in the technician’s queue.
With a unified IT management platform, technicians can easily navigate to client accounts and reset the password directly. The client is satisfied with the quick solution, and the technician can focus on larger priority issues. Also, if you pick a platform that allows for automation, many routine tickets can be handled by scripts. In fact, our recent study, The Total Economic Impact™ of the ConnectWise Platform, found that 20 percent of tickets were resolved via automation, resulting in $1.2M saved over three years. A management platform not only provides your customers with more timely assistance, but also makes technicians’ jobs easy, so they can focus on what they enjoy doing.
2. Increase Sales Productivity
Winning new business and expanding existing business are core priorities for MSPs. But sales can become a laborious process when you need to spin up quotes individually, track down pricing and availability for parts, and build out the full scope, even if the scope or services are similar to earlier proposals. The pace of business is increasing, and you don’t want to miss out on opportunities due to an unnecessarily manual sales process.
If you want to increase sales velocity, a unified IT management platform can help you identify opportunities and pursue them.
In addition to building proposals, transitioning the client to work after winning business is one of the biggest pain points for MSPs. There can be miscommunication with functions downstream from sales, such as procurement, professional services, service delivery, and billing. Errors cause frustration with the client, and they certainly don’t build confidence.
From obtaining real-time pricing and packaging from distributors, to generating quotes, to smoothly handing the account over to technicians to deliver the work and bill accurately, an all-in-one IT management platform gives the entire MSP team—and your clients—a seamless experience. Automation helps boost sales by handling routine tasks and auto-populating information. It’s no surprise the Forrester Total Economic Cost™ report found the ConnectWise platform delivered up to a 10 percent increase in sales productivity for MSPs.
3. Reduce Routine Device Maintenance
Maintaining customers’ devices, servers, and other hardware to prevent potential problems is a big part of any MSP business. Your technicians likely spend a lot of time on this core service, much of which consists of routine updates. And when things are routine, automation can help.
With an IT management platform, you can create scripts for repetitive or common maintenance tasks—similar to simple tickets—allowing your technicians to focus on more complex challenges for clients. A management platform will also allow your technicians to check up on multiple devices through a centralized location, so instead of spending hours switching between systems, they can use their time to address issues or updates.
ConnectWise’s Total Economic Impact™ study found that our IT management platform reduced the amount of time engineers spent on routine device maintenance by a whopping 60 percent. This reduction in technician time added up to $1.2M saved over three years.
IT Management Platforms: A Worthy Investment
In just a few months of transitioning to an IT management platform, you’ll likely begin to see your investment come back to you. Sales management, service delivery, and financial management are the key ways in which an all-in-one IT management platform can support your MSP’s growth and deliver direct ROI.
Not to mention, an integrated approach also offers qualitative benefits, such as improved employee morale—thanks to easy-to-use tools and processes—and customer satisfaction, thanks to proactive and timely service. When your employees are able to use their time in more enjoyable and productive ways, your clients are bound to notice the difference. Also, because an IT management platform creates efficiencies, it empowers MSPs to add more clients without having to increase costs at the same time, which can lead to greater profits.
Regardless of which type of ROI motivates you the most, an IT management platform is guaranteed to form a strong foundation for your company’s long-term success. If you’re looking to scale your MSP business in 2021 and beyond, consider adopting an IT management platform this year.
Author Craig Fulton is chief customer officer at ConnectWise. See more ConnectWise guest blogs here.
