Leveraging IT solution providers who join the ConnectWisePSA Partner Network will now be able to communicate and collaborate dynamically with each other to extend the reach of their businesses using the ConnectWisePSA. Currently in beta, the ConnectWisePSA Partner Network is the latest extension of ConnectWisePSA business automation software for IT Solutions companies. The company plans to release it around the end of October.

Without ever having to leave the ConnectWisePSA software, Partner Network members will get fully integrated and automated access to functionality such as service ticketing, time entry, project management and billing, for example, when working jointly.

"VARs have been working informally with other VARs forever. The ConnectWisePSA Partner Network is going to help formalize a VAR partner community with no fees or barriers and promote significant collaboration and sharing of best practices," said Arnie Bellini, CEO of ConnectWise, Tampa, Fla.

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With about 1,200 ConnectWisePSA customers using the software, Bellini hopes to build a significant VAR partner network. "In the VAR community there are so many needs that go unfulfilled. The Partner Network will help solution providers find each other to extend their geographic reach and expertise," he added.

Curtis Hicks, president and CEO of Center for Computer Resources, a 26-year-old IT services firm based in Oak Park, Mich., is doing just that as a beta site. The solution provider completed two projects using the Partner Network. Both projects involved doing work locally for ConnectWisePSA partners located out of state.

"Partnering with other VARs is something we've always done, but the communication was manual--either sending e-mails back and forth or over the telephone. Using the ConnectWisePSA Partner Network dashboard we can query the system to find the right partner, view the ratings on their performance, send a service request, monitor the work in progress and bill the partner," said Hicks.

The two-way automated communication that's easily viewed from a dashboard creates efficiencies and accountability that VARs working with other VARs never had before, according to Hicks. "The network makes working together seamless," he added.

Being a ConnectWisePSA user is a prerequisite to being able to join the Partner Network. Partners Network members will complete a business profile that includes technical specialties, services and certifications, for example, which will be used to populate a searchable database for VARs to use to find partner VARs.

Solution providers also will rate each other, on a scale of 1 to 5, on how well they provided instruction to the partner VAR and how well they performed their service to establish a business reputation profile.

From the get-go, Partner Network members will be required to agree to terms of using the network by signing the ConnectWise Membership agreement as well as comply with a professional code of ethics.

The code of ethics is designed to fortify the trust between VAR partners by strictly enforcing standards of practice such as fairness, honesty and cooperation. It includes language about not stealing employees or clients and about paying bills.

By agreeing to the code of ethics, members of the Partner Network also agree to be subject to an independent arbitration in the event that a Partner Network member breaches the agreement.

Hicks believes that the Partner Network gives his company new marketing opportunities and the capability to expand its reach in the metropolitan Detroit region by being able to work with clients who may, for example, have multiple offices outside of his company's reach. "The partner network will aggregate business that we wouldn't have had otherwise or might not have chosen to take on," he said.