If you’re a solution provider already using business automation software from Autotask or ConnectWise, Frank Coker is OK with that, even though his company competes with both those vendors.

At least, Coker, the president and CEO of CoreConnex would urge you to give his company’s financial management product, Corelytics, a try. Especially during the current economic crisis, when good financial tracking and planning are critical, he says.

“This is the difference between steering your car by looking out the rearview mirror, which is what most accounting is all about, versus steering your car by looking out the windshield,” Coker says.

As with CoreConnex’s flagship product, a professional services automation platform (PSA) called ConnexIT, Corelytics was designed with solution providers’ specific needs in mind. But because Corelytics integrates with other platforms, Coker points out that switching to ConnexIT is not a requirement.

“We would encourage you to stay with whatever you have,” Coker says.

Of course, should you happen to decide to switch to ConnexIT, Coker won’t mind. ConnexIT helps solution providers get organized by automating things such as project management, service call ticketing, resource scheduling and help desk. A third product, CoreMobile, makes the ConnexIT platform accessible from mobile devices.

CoreConnex has been in business since January 2005, and is now vying for its place in the market against other PSA vendors Autotask and ConnectWise. “We’re still the new kid on the block,” says Coker.

What separates ConnexIT from competitors, he says, is the level of integration between solution provider and client.

“In effect, it really integrates the service company into the business of their client,” he says.

The software lets client and solution provider assign tasks to each other and set milestones to be met. “If the client is planning to open a new branch office, there would be some target date to have that occur,” Coker says.

That level of integration and collaboration, Coker says, makes the solution provider’s role indispensable to the client. Practically speaking, the provider becomes another division in the client’s organization.

Mark Jagger, president of solution provider Cyberstreams in Bellevue, Wash., says the software gives the client day-to-day visibility into what his company is doing for the client.

“They have an open view into what’s going on,” he says, adding that as a result, Cyberstreams has improved some of its processes in response to customer feedback.

ConnexIT integrates with the managed services platforms of vendors such as N-able Technologies, Zenith InfoTech and Level Platforms. Through managed services, providers remotely monitor and manage their clients’ IT environments and charge them monthly or quarterly fees for the service.

To keep a good handle on the stream of information collected through the remote monitoring and management platforms, solution providers find they need to automate their own processes.

And that’s why automation has been a priority for a lot of solution providers. These days, in light of the ongoing economic crisis, another priority is getting a solid handle on a business’ finances.

“You really need to be on top of it now,” says Mark Jagger, president of solution provider Cyberstreams in Bellevue, Wash.

Jagger has used Corelytics for about a month, and he already has seen results, he says. “It’s been helpful, in the short term, for me to a get top-down management perspective of my company,” he says.

Based on data collected through Corelytics, Jagger says he has been able to keep better track of accounts receivable and to distribute project work more evenly across his engineering staff. The software, for which he pays a $29 monthly fee, allows him to take a step back from the daily pressures of running the business to review performance trends and make sound financial projections, he says.

At its core, Corelytics operates on the principle that financial planning shouldn’t be a guessing game. The software pulls data from QuickBooks or a similar accounting application to be analyzed, parsed and applied to decisions that affect a solution provider’s spending and revenue-generating activities.

The application uses benchmarks based on other companies across the IT channel against which solution providers can measure themselves. It also takes into account best practices by other companies that use CoreConnex software.