Boost MSP efficiency with unified PSA and RMM solution

With advancements in technology and a surfeit of cloud application options available to MSPs and IT service providers, it is hard to determine what truly drives tangible results. Ask any managed service provider (MSP), and they'll tell you that a boost in efficiency in their day-to-day tasks would be received with open arms. It is one of the most important tangible business metrics one can measure.

A professional services automation (PSA) solution and remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform are essential tools for today's managed service providers looking to boost efficiency. These tools enable the complete management of your MSP business and your clients' networks. By unifying your PSA and RMM solutions, you can improve efficiency, among other benefits such as

• Reducing operational costs and human error
• Boosting productivity
• Improving billing accuracy
• Increasing cross-selling and upselling opportunities
• Meeting service level agreements (SLAs)Increasing response times
• Improving customer satisfaction

There is a growing need (particularly accelerated by the pandemic) among small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use technology to grow their business. However, they lack the support to them identify the right technology and tools to aid their growth.

This has turned into a more significant opportunity for managed service providers to capitalize on. However, this isn't without challenges. Face time with clients and staffing makes it difficult for MSP to deliver on the clients' growing needs while expanding their own revenue.

Let's talk tools for MSPs.

When you were planning out your MSP business, you'd have surely browsed through these two terms — Professional Services Automation (PSA) and Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM). It's like hiring the first employee for your MSP business that you need to trust entirely.

Professional services automation

A PSA solution sits at the core of any MSP business. It keeps track of and provides complete visibility into clients, internal operations, and profitability. A good Professional Services Automation solution is purpose-built for IT managed service providers; it provides a user experience optimized for each business's unique workflows and processes. For any business-oriented MSP, a PSA solution is a crucial tool.

Remote monitoring and management

An RMM tool, on the other hand, helps managed service providers remotely monitor and manage' their clients' networks, devices, and endpoints. It is particularly useful for managing clients with a hybrid IT environment — a mix of cloud, virtualized, and legacy parts. It provides visibility across all the silos in the infrastructure in a centralized and unified fashion.

Related reading: MSP tool stack

Get to the point already!

Your MSP would run better on a truly unified MSP platform with PSA and RMM that consolidates all mission-critical data, devices, people, and processes in a single view of what matters the most to your business.

Streamline IT efficiencies

What you want your PSA and RMM tools to do is help you streamline your business processes and build efficiency. Right? It means fewer engineers, NOC technicians, and employees for greater service delivery to a lot more clients. By simply streamlining your IT processes, you can add up to 20% to your net revenue.

Having your RMM tickets flow into your Professional Services Automation solution—whether a client calls in or the Remote Monitoring and Management platform pushes the ticket over—is that the data goes to the same place. This, to me, is easily the most exciting aspect of such a unified platform. Think about it — you now have a history for your managed endpoints. It allows you to review and analyze all the data that has been captured.

If a client calls in because something broke, all you need to do is pull up the configuration information, look at the history, see where the fault is, and fix it. Instead of spending hours troubleshooting a system from scratch, you can easily nail the issues because, hey, all the information you need is right there in your dashboard.

Related reading: Why else do you need a truly unified PSA + RMM solution?

Using automation, you can save countless hours of your technician's maintenance time. See a task that is done repeatedly using the same set of steps? Automate it. Why use your best technician's time installing patches or updates when you can automate it? This way, your technicians can use their time to focus and solve more complex tasks and provide more value to your clients.

By going the unified route, you can neutralize two birds with one stone, simplify management overhead, increase productivity, and enjoy higher returns on your investment. Sounds nice, eh?

Give it some thought. You'll see what I mean.