Pulseway Aims to Alter RMM Economics for MSPs

Most managed service providers live and die by the quality of IT support they can remotely deliver. The difference between success and failure often comes down to how many end users each technician can quickly support.

Looking to transform those economics, Pulseway launched an edition of its remote monitoring and management (RMM) software that is optimized for MSPs in a way that enables them to support any platform using anything from a full-blown desktop to a smartphone.

Pulseway CEO Marius Mihalec said the goal is to reduce total costs for the MSP while also increasing the end-user satisfaction by lessening the amount of time it takes to respond to any given issue or crisis.

“We basically allow IT technicians to have a NOC [network operations center] in their pockets,” said Mihalec.

Pulseway frees MSPs from onerous RMM contract commitments, he said. The MSP edition of the Pulseway RMM tool is priced starting at $2.40 per server per month on a pay-as-you-go model. There are no contracts or setup fees, and MSPs can easily upgrade or alter their plans based on client requirements. That approach means the MSP does not have to absorb any costs should clients suddenly reduce the number of seats they want an MSP to support, said Mihalic.

Previously, Pulseway offered an RMM that had been designed for use by internal IT organizations. By working with a select group of MSPs, Pulseway has been optimizing the tool for use by IT service providers such as Integrated IT Solutions.

“Pulseway is a godsend,” said Chris Martinez, founder of Integrated IT Solutions. “RMM has been a long, dirty road for us. We must have been through seven tools in the last two to three years.”

The two best things about Pulseway are the fact that the agent software developed by Pulseway supports any platform a customer might have, and no matter where a technician is, they can support a customer in the event of an emergency request for service, Martinez said.

All told, today, the average MSP expects to be able to monitor 100 seats per technician, but with Pulseway, that number could easily reach 300 seats per technician, Martinez said.

These days, there is clearly no shortage of options when it comes to RMM tools. The real issue facing MSPs is not so much whether they need an RMM tool, but rather how flexibly that tool enables them to support customers that are becoming less inclined with each passing day to commit to anything more than a month-to-month IT services contract.

Mike Vizard has covered IT for more than 25 years, and has edited or contributed to a number of tech publications, including InfoWorld, CRN and eWEEK. He currently blogs daily for IT Business Edge and contributes to CIOinsight, Channel Insider and Baseline.