9 Steps to Better Business Automation

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.