3 questions to ask when building out your MSP toolbox

Sam Lowe is Director of Channel Sales at Auvik Networks

If you look in your garage, are your tools all from the same brand? Chances are they’re not—mine is definitely a mixed bag. But we still need them to work together to get the job done.

An MSP’s toolbox is the same.

The challenge is in choosing your tools. For a handyman, a hammer is a hammer. But for an MSP, every PSA, RMM, and network monitoring tool will have a different look, feel, and functionality.

When there are so many tools on the market, how do you know which ones are right for you? Here are three things to consider:

1. Will it support everything in my client’s IT environment?

More business tools are migrating to the cloud, making network connectivity a critical need for most SMBs. And it’s your job to keep all of your clients’ network devices and workstations connected.

But there are hundreds of different vendors for network devices alone, and the majority of MSPs are managing four or more different network device vendors across their clients. Throw in a lack of industry standardization, and it gets increasingly difficult to manage all of your clients’ devices.

To better manage mixed-bag environments, you need to ensure your tools are as vendor-agnostic as possible. Auvik, for example, supports more than 15,000 network devices from over 700 vendors. By choosing vendors who support open integrations, you can be confident you’ll see everything, and you won’t need your clients to incur capital expenses to help you do your job.

2. Will it integrate with my other tools?

After identifying which vendor-agnostic tools will best enable you, the next step is to look at how—or if—they’ll work together. Fortunately, many MSP tools integrate with others.

Take Auvik’s integrations with ConnectWise Automate® and ConnectWise Manage®, for example. Our network monitoring and management tool integrates with ConnectWise’s RMM and PSA to collect all of the information you need in one place, improving your documentation and helping you close tickets faster.

By integrating your tools with one another, you’re able to make your workflow more productive and efficient. Which brings us to our last consideration.

3. Will it boost my MSP’s efficiency?

Today, uptime is everything. If your client’s connection goes down or they experience a network performance issue, they expect an answer immediately. So, it’s important for MSPs to have internal processes that maximize efficiency.

How do you know which tools will help you achieve maximum efficiency?

Look for tools that are easy to use (and don’t require a Tier 3 tech to operate), connect documentation across platforms, and allow you to solve issues before your client knows it’s a problem—no truck roll required. These are all qualities that can enable your team to solve problems at lightning speed.

If a tool checks all three of these boxes, it’s definitely one you should consider adding to your MSP toolbelt. Not only will it make your life easier, but it will also help boost your profitability—something we know all MSPs care about.

To get the most out of tools and integrations, you want to work with a company that believes in an open ecosystem, like the one ConnectWise has spent decades building. Having an open ecosystem at your fingertips gives you the freedom to find the right tools for all your MSP’s needs.