ChannelE2E has watched FinancialForce closely to see if or how the cloud-based PSA and ERP software provider for Salesforce.com would embrace MSPs.
So far, FinancialForce doesn't appear to be competing head-on against ConnectWise and Datto's Autotask business. But this week, the company unveiled a Spring 2018 release featuring some new PSA (professional services automation) and ERP (enterprise resource planning) capabilities that bring the platform more in line with MSP requirements.
FinancialForce PSA, ERP Cloud Upgrades
Some of the newly announced features on the various platforms include:
Billing Central
- Improved subscription and usage billing management
- View and manage subscriptions and usage-based services from FinancialForce Financial Management Community
FinancialForce Professional Services Automation (PSA)
- New resource optimization capabilities
- 360-degree visibility across sales pipeline and unscheduled backlog based on actual delivery schedules
- More granular, streamlined resource mapping and added shift management capabilities for managed and technical services
FinancialForce Accounting
- New Payments Plus platform with streamlined data entry using a wizard-driven, shopping cart-like user interface
- New modern user interface
- Greater configuration capabilities utilizing the latest Salesforce Lightning Components
FinancialForce for Service Providers?
The new streamlined resource mapping and shift management capabilities for managed and technical services could help FinancialForce bridge the gap between the old service model and the new way MSPs are marketing their services.
As MSPs continue to move away from break-fix business models and embrace service subscriptions that allow them to prevent issues from arising, the PSA platform they use will need to allow them to manage both sides of the business effectively.
The company states that the Spring 2018 Release continues FinancialForce’s overall product vision for enabling organizations to thrive at speed in the ‘everything-as-as-service’ economy. By running their businesses on an integrated, customer-centric ERP platform, customers can adapt to unlimited revenue models, optimize resources for dynamic service delivery, and derive predictive business signals with visibility into all their systems and operations, FinancialForce asserts.
