It’s my fundamental belief that your PSA and RMM are truly better together.
This pairing allows you to power your business from one central platform. That means there’s one source of truth for data and activity—and one technology vendor to work with.
As an MSP, you shouldn’t consider anything other than a combined solution. Running and growing your business will be more efficient, easier, and more profitable.
I’ll dive into the reasons why, plus divulge the dangers of trying to meld together two stand-alone platforms.
Operate your business more efficiently
You have too much to keep up with, staying up to date on the evolving technology, security, and client needs, to get bogged down by repetitive, manual tasks.
With a consolidated PSA and RMM platform, you can automate workflows, ticketing, remediations, client interactions, invoicing, reporting, and more by leveraging shared data.
If there’s a status change on one side or the other, the whole system will update without your intervention. You can automate the RMM to perform routine tasks and track those changes in the PSA all without human involvement. You can automate issue resolution or recurring tasks like dynamically counting client assets for monthly invoicing. This frees up your, or your staff’s time, to go find new clients and perform more complex projects that are higher margin.
When Paul Burgwin of ITConsec used separate systems, billing took him a whole day. “I used to do it on a weekend as well because obviously you can’t afford a day in the week, but now pretty much wherever day the first of the month falls on, I just start work a couple of hours early and it’s done before work.”
Automation not only reduces the workload but also reduces human errors and oversights. Work gets done faster and more accurately, eliminating the need for rework.
Better yet, your technicians will become more productive working within one core platform. Did you know that task switching between different applications kills productivity by 40%?
And when it’s time to hire a new technician? There is only one UI to learn so it’s quicker and easier to get up to speed.
When you save time, effort, energy—and headaches—on processes, your technicians can apply their expertise where it’s needed—providing value for your clients.
Build a strong relationship with one technology vendor
A combined platform means you only have to deal with one vendor for payment and support. When your PSA and RMM are owned by different vendors, you have to juggle multiple contracts and play ping pong when you run into an issue.
If you’re buying a separate RMM and PSA, the integration is now your responsibility. You might think there’s a problem with the RMM, but maybe it’s actually a PSA problem and now you’ve contacted the wrong vendor. There’s a lot of operational performance and visibility gained by having just one solution and one provider.
With one vendor, you can spend time building a strong relationship with the community and the vendor themselves, and they’ll be able to help you holistically in improving your business process.
Reddit user qfitness can attest to this hassle while trying to resolve an issue with his PSA. He had to consult both his RMM and PSA companies over several days, noting that the former’s “documentation in many cases did not match the installation screens.”
Improve your bottom line
Consolidating tools typically produces cost savings because you’re only buying one software package. Here we’re discussing your primary MSP business operations tool, so your return on investment gets even better.
SaaS platforms are continually expanding their offerings, and you may find even more savings when you can replace other peripheral tools you were previously paying for that are now available in the core PSA/RMM platform—like documentation, project management, billing automation, remote access, marketing automation tools, CSAT measurement, and more.
When your PSA and RMM are fully in sync and running efficiently, you have more time to spend on retaining your clients and selling your services to prospects.
Next thing you know, you’re onboarding new clients, expanding services, hiring new technicians, and growing revenue.
Since using an all-in-one PSA and RMM, Kimberly Chase of Edge ITM says the “automation and scripting makes it easier for us to make money,” especially compared to their previous separate tools.
Heed the limits of stand-alone solutions
So why isn’t it enough to use a PSA and RMM that can integrate with each other?
When PSA and RMM software companies started merging, integrations were created between the two systems.
But these products were built by different teams, with different technologies, at different times so they’re not going to sync data or workflows completely with each other all the time.
You’ll have to navigate multiple dashboards and data that doesn’t sync over accurately or isn’t displayed in a helpful way. Sometimes there are delays or double data entry required.
Reddit user DefJeff702 experienced convoluted workflows and was frustrated with not being able to auto-resolve tickets while using separate PSA and RMM tools. “[As a workaround], I’ve had to build dedicated scripts for each client and build a massive workflow for scripted app deployment.”
Companies that offer two stand-alone solutions are often catering to both MSPs and internal IT departments. And guess what? Internal IT departments don’t need a full PSA because they don’t need to take payment. So as an MSP, you end up with watered down capabilities because your provider is trying to please two different audiences with different needs.
An all-in-one platform designed solely for MSPs—even better if it’s designed by MSPs—will solve your challenges with precision and care. Are you ready to consolidate your PSA and RMM to optimize your business?
)
)