For a long time, IT solution providers talked but did not walk for
themselves. They automated the businesses of their clients, but neglected their
own businesses, often keeping track of billable time and trouble tickets on
loose pieces of paper and awkwardly constructed spreadsheets.
These bad habits started to change a few years ago when software companies
such as ConnectWise, Autotask, TigerPaw and CoreConnex got into the picture.
These vendors’ automation software specifically targets solution provider
businesses, enabling both managed and break/fix services.
Commonly referred to as PSA (professional
services automation), these applications have become increasingly sophisticated
with each release, and a growing number of solution providers rely on them to
keep their houses in order.
Different vendors’ PSA applications do
some different things, but in general solution providers use the technology to
keep track of all billable time, coordinate dispatch of technicians to trouble
sites, and document service calls and their resolution, as well as for invoicing.
PSA applications also integrate with managed
services platforms to manage the workflow of alerts from systems being
monitored and generate reports on services provided.
For every solution provider that has successfully deployed PSA
software, chances are there is a counterpart somewhere struggling with how to
put it to good use. It’s not an uncommon problem. The same has happened with
managed services platforms, which providers use to remotely monitor and manage
their clients’ IT environments. Some providers invest in the technology, then
realize they don’t really know what to do with it, and that sometimes leads to
an expensive application ending up on the shelf.
TigerPaw Vice President James Foxall says PSA
software touches so many different departments within a business that it’s hard
to grasp how much it does. “It’s critical that all departments realize the
power that has been made available to them,” he says.
The reason technology goes unused after a solution provider invests in it
often has to do with company culture, says Ken Sponsler, vice president of
engineering services at managed services provider Connecting Point of Greeley,
Colo. “It’s just a different way of doing things,” he says.
Businesses tend to get set in their ways, so change is hard, and inevitably
some people resist change.
“Change is a difficult thing to swallow if the engineers and managers are
used to doing things one way,” says Tony Lael, executive vice president at
CoreConnex.
To get the most value out of your PSA
software, therefore, requires a commitment to change. That’s one thing. But
it’s also important to understand the technology, what it does and how it fits
into your business. What solution providers have to do for clients day and in
day out, they must also do for themselves, and that is figuring out how the
technology will meet their business goals.
{mospagebreak title=The First Step to Better PSA
Use}
Channel Insider asked developers and users of PSA
software to share tips on how best to employ PSA
software. Naturally, responses varied. One recommendation was to assign a “PSA
champion” for the business, a staff member who lives and breathes the software
and makes sure it gets implemented and used correctly.
What follows is a nine-item compilation of recommendations collected by
Channel Insider. Solution providers looking to make the best use out of their PSA
software would do well to take them to heart.
1. Define existing processes: By documenting your existing processes,
you will get a handle on the challenges you are trying to overcome and start
thinking about how the software will address those challenges. This is a
crucial step because it’s hard to automate something that is undefined or that
you don’t understand.
2. Be methodical: Since PSA does
so much, it is wise to deploy the technology one department at a time. Start
with the areas that need it most, the so-called pain points that hurt business
productivity. “You can’t implement everything at once,” says TigerPaw’s Foxall.
“Prioritize first and create a strategy for approaching implementation.”
3. Get on the same page: Everyone in the organization, from
administrators to salespeople to engineers to top executives, must understand
the software and use it for their jobs. “An integrated and hosted business
management system used by everyone in an organization is inherently more
efficient than individuals working in individual applications,” says Bob Vogel,
Autotask’s chief marketing officer.
4. Use the features: Make sure all employees are using it properly to
document their work and track all billable time now, not later. Sponsler says
his company even has trained engineers to enter notes and time spent at a
client site into the PSA with their laptops
before leaving the site. That way they don’t have to rely on faulty memories to
update records later at the office.
5. Set goals: Use the PSA system
to track employee performance, and schedule meetings regularly with staff to go
over results. CoreConnex CEO Frank Coker
says, “An even more advanced approach is to build an incentive compensation
plan around specific performance measurements.”
6. Integrate all services: Whatever work you do for your customer
should be tracked by the PSA system. Some
service providers integrate PSA with some
services but not others, resulting in a chaotic approach. It’s best to set up
the system to handle everything from ticket creation to billing, and thereby
streamline processes that get convoluted and time-consuming when handled manually
or with disparate applications.
7. Assess constantly: It’s important to keep the PSA
current with whatever other tools you use. If you add a new managed services
platform for remote monitoring and management or a backup and recovery system,
make sure to evaluate whether it plugs into the PSA
system and how the systems interplay. Integration between systems allows
providers to expand customer services and, as a result, increase revenues.
8. Set parameters: Most solution providers use PSA
and managed services tools to handle both fixed-fee projects and services for
which they charge utilitylike monthly or quarterly fees. Mixing the records
from these disparate models can lead to trouble, so keep them separate. “If
these are lumped together, the results will get diluted and profits erode,”
says Coker. “This is a tough concept to manage because the psychology and the
motivations are diametrically opposed.”
9. Be transparent: Show all staff utilization numbers to the entire
staff, thereby creating peer pressure and motivating people to constantly
strive to improve their performance.
Managed Services 
