ML
    • Recent
    • Categories
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Groups
    • Register
    • Login

    How MSPs provide their services

    IT Discussion
    msp itsp asset management remote access remote management
    10
    33
    4.1k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • Mike DavisM
      Mike Davis @scottalanmiller
      last edited by

      @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

      Having just been forced to use ConnectWise, we found it to be horrible. The tech works, but the overall integration and system was so bad that there is no way we could work if we had to use that all of the time. The theory is great, but the execution failed.

      Which piece of ConnectWise? ConnectWise has a bunch of "formerly known as" products under their umbrella. LabTech, ScreenConnect, and Manage to name a few.

      scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • bbigfordB
        bbigford @EddieJennings
        last edited by

        We use ScreenConnect for remote management. I like it a lot more than Kaseya and some others I've used. There is a baseline to what you should do to support a client, but really every engineer can do what they feel is best for the client.

        I'll use other tools as needed, such as a VPN or whatever. But my workstation has few tools. Each environment has its own setup, so I have a password manager/remote tools (Remote Desktop Manager... Does SSH, HTTP/S, ADSM, etc. All pre-configured connections). I treat every network as if I don't have a laptop on site, and I have to rapidly support them. They have their own service accounts for services, which alert me externally with things expiring. That makes it easy for any other company to waltz in and take over, if the client is not happy with us.

        What I despise is company's who hold a client hostage, and some how lock them in. I give over network diagrams and passwords in a nice, readable format. Alerts to my external account are all changed, based on which services are currently documented. So that means my documentation is really well kept for internal as well; any of our engineers can take over very easily if I'm sick or unreachable. Consequently, I've also never lost a client. If I did, they'd be happy with the transition though.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • scottalanmillerS
          scottalanmiller @Mike Davis
          last edited by

          @mike-davis said in How MSPs provide their services:

          @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

          Having just been forced to use ConnectWise, we found it to be horrible. The tech works, but the overall integration and system was so bad that there is no way we could work if we had to use that all of the time. The theory is great, but the execution failed.

          Which piece of ConnectWise? ConnectWise has a bunch of "formerly known as" products under their umbrella. LabTech, ScreenConnect, and Manage to name a few.

          Their helpdesk specifically was unusable. And that's a pretty important piece, the part we need to work to know to use the rest of it.

          Minion QueenM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Minion QueenM
            Minion Queen Banned @scottalanmiller
            last edited by

            @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

            @mike-davis said in How MSPs provide their services:

            @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

            Having just been forced to use ConnectWise, we found it to be horrible. The tech works, but the overall integration and system was so bad that there is no way we could work if we had to use that all of the time. The theory is great, but the execution failed.

            Which piece of ConnectWise? ConnectWise has a bunch of "formerly known as" products under their umbrella. LabTech, ScreenConnect, and Manage to name a few.

            Their helpdesk specifically was unusable. And that's a pretty important piece, the part we need to work to know to use the rest of it.

            To be fair the MSP we were pitching in with might not have done a good job setting anything up so it could be because they didn't know what they were doing with it.

            bbigfordB Mike DavisM 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • bbigfordB
              bbigford @Minion Queen
              last edited by

              @minion-queen said in How MSPs provide their services:

              @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

              @mike-davis said in How MSPs provide their services:

              @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

              Having just been forced to use ConnectWise, we found it to be horrible. The tech works, but the overall integration and system was so bad that there is no way we could work if we had to use that all of the time. The theory is great, but the execution failed.

              Which piece of ConnectWise? ConnectWise has a bunch of "formerly known as" products under their umbrella. LabTech, ScreenConnect, and Manage to name a few.

              Their helpdesk specifically was unusable. And that's a pretty important piece, the part we need to work to know to use the rest of it.

              they didn't know what they were doing with it.

              If they screw up alot, follow them around to their clients. Easy pickins. 😄

              Minion QueenM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Minion QueenM
                Minion Queen Banned @bbigford
                last edited by

                @bbigford said in How MSPs provide their services:

                @minion-queen said in How MSPs provide their services:

                @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

                @mike-davis said in How MSPs provide their services:

                @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

                Having just been forced to use ConnectWise, we found it to be horrible. The tech works, but the overall integration and system was so bad that there is no way we could work if we had to use that all of the time. The theory is great, but the execution failed.

                Which piece of ConnectWise? ConnectWise has a bunch of "formerly known as" products under their umbrella. LabTech, ScreenConnect, and Manage to name a few.

                Their helpdesk specifically was unusable. And that's a pretty important piece, the part we need to work to know to use the rest of it.

                they didn't know what they were doing with it.

                If they screw up alot, follow them around to their clients. Easy pickins. 😄

                If that wasn't a totally douchy thing to do I totally would

                travisdh1T 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • travisdh1T
                  travisdh1 @Minion Queen
                  last edited by

                  @minion-queen said in How MSPs provide their services:

                  @bbigford said in How MSPs provide their services:

                  @minion-queen said in How MSPs provide their services:

                  @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

                  @mike-davis said in How MSPs provide their services:

                  @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

                  Having just been forced to use ConnectWise, we found it to be horrible. The tech works, but the overall integration and system was so bad that there is no way we could work if we had to use that all of the time. The theory is great, but the execution failed.

                  Which piece of ConnectWise? ConnectWise has a bunch of "formerly known as" products under their umbrella. LabTech, ScreenConnect, and Manage to name a few.

                  Their helpdesk specifically was unusable. And that's a pretty important piece, the part we need to work to know to use the rest of it.

                  they didn't know what they were doing with it.

                  If they screw up alot, follow them around to their clients. Easy pickins. 😄

                  If that wasn't a totally douchy thing to do I totally would

                  Guess I'm being a douch then. Of course the MSP I'm stalking thinks Inverted Pyramids of Doom are a fine and dandy thing to foist on suckers (customers).

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Mike DavisM
                    Mike Davis @Minion Queen
                    last edited by

                    @minion-queen said in How MSPs provide their services:

                    To be fair the MSP we were pitching in with might not have done a good job setting anything up so it could be because they didn't know what they were doing with it.

                    Their is a fair amount of set up and tweaking to be done to make it work like you want it to. It took me a month of learning what it could do and the advantages of doing it one way or another to make all the decisions and set mine up.

                    Today I finished building my first project proposal out of it. The client accepted, so now all the steps in the project turn in to tickets that I can take notes on and track time on. It's really cool.

                    scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • scottalanmillerS
                      scottalanmiller @Mike Davis
                      last edited by

                      @mike-davis said in How MSPs provide their services:

                      @minion-queen said in How MSPs provide their services:

                      To be fair the MSP we were pitching in with might not have done a good job setting anything up so it could be because they didn't know what they were doing with it.

                      Their is a fair amount of set up and tweaking to be done to make it work like you want it to. It took me a month of learning what it could do and the advantages of doing it one way or another to make all the decisions and set mine up.

                      Today I finished building my first project proposal out of it. The client accepted, so now all the steps in the project turn in to tickets that I can take notes on and track time on. It's really cool.

                      That's a lot of investment for a system like that. If you have hundreds of customers, it can make sense. But it takes a lot of customers to recoup the lost time into that system. It can work out well for a traditional MSP, but depends on large scale standardization to justify the investment.

                      Mike DavisM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Mike DavisM
                        Mike Davis @scottalanmiller
                        last edited by

                        @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

                        That's a lot of investment for a system like that. If you have hundreds of customers, it can make sense. But it takes a lot of customers to recoup the lost time into that system. It can work out well for a traditional MSP, but depends on large scale standardization to justify the investment.

                        I don't know about hundreds of customers. The number of end points might be more relevant. For me at about 10 MSP customers I can justify the investment. When you look at the time it takes to set up something like a zabbix server and maintaining a WSUS server vs not having to that helps make it worth it. Missed revenue because you didn't have a system in place to capture every minute hurts.

                        scottalanmillerS 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • scottalanmillerS
                          scottalanmiller @Mike Davis
                          last edited by

                          @mike-davis said in How MSPs provide their services:

                          @scottalanmiller said in How MSPs provide their services:

                          That's a lot of investment for a system like that. If you have hundreds of customers, it can make sense. But it takes a lot of customers to recoup the lost time into that system. It can work out well for a traditional MSP, but depends on large scale standardization to justify the investment.

                          I don't know about hundreds of customers. The number of end points might be more relevant. For me at about 10 MSP customers I can justify the investment. When you look at the time it takes to set up something like a zabbix server and maintaining a WSUS server vs not having to that helps make it worth it. Missed revenue because you didn't have a system in place to capture every minute hurts.

                          It would be a blend, I'm sure. A single customer with a million end points wouldn't make sense because you'd use more traditional tools in a single customer scenario. And a hundred with only one end point each wouldn't do it either. So some combination of enough end points for volume and enough customers for complexity put together.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • 1
                          • 2
                          • 2 / 2
                          • First post
                            Last post