Sales and marketing, MSP

ConnectWise Sell: One Piece In Bigger IT Automation Puzzle

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ConnectWise Sell, the company's quoting and sales proposal platform, has gained several new capabilities to help IT solutions providers win more business. The update is part of ConnectWise's broader strategy to help VARs and MSPs to manage and automate their businesses -- and associated customer engagements.

The ConnectWise Sell (formerly Quosal) update, unveiled today, includes:

  • A user interface that shares a common look and feel with other solutions in the ConnectWise product suite.
  • The ability to import information directly from Tech Data into customer quotes and proposals.
  • Instant access to business intelligence (BI) data from any page within ConnectWise Sell.

The update is available immediately to partners, the company said today.

ConnectWise: The Bigger Picture

ConnectWise Sell is a key piece in ConnectWise's overall IT lifecycle management, automation and monetization strategy for partners. The lifecycle looks something like this:

  • ConnectWise Sell to help partners accelerate their sales engagements.
  • ConnectWise Manage, which essentially is like an ERP, PSA and CRM system for IT solutions providers to manage their businesses.
  • ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech), for remotely monitoring and managing customer systems.
  • ConnectWise Control (formerly ScreenConnect) for remote control of customer systems.
  • ConnectWise CloudConsole to assist customers with Office 365 and Azure management.

Roll all those products together, ConnectWise asserts, and technology solutions providers (VARs, MSPs, etc.) have everything they need to manage their own businesses, while also automating, managing and monetizing customer engagements.

Beyond 'MSP' Software

ConnectWise's software and community-centric business model helped to pioneer the MSP market, helping solutions providers to shift from traditional product sales to recurring revenue services. But more recently, the company has expanded its messaging and positing beyond the core MSP market.

For example, poke around and you'll notice ConnectWise Sell positioned for all types of technology sales teams. Also, ConnectWise Manage has gained traction with more traditional VARs and IT consulting firms that still focus quite a bit on project management, though most partners these days are at least dabbling in recurring revenues.

Much like an Oracle or SAP in the enterprise market, ConnectWise in the SMB sector has to maintain a balancing act. Indeed, the company must offer end-to-end solutions for VARs and MSPs, while also remaining nimble enough to compete with upstarts like Atera and NinjaMSP, which offer easy consumption models for partners.

In terms of ConnectWise Sell, that product typically competes with QuoteWerks, and Salesforce.com tools like SteelBrick.

 

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.