Choose your fighter: PSA, RMM, or RPA for maximum automation impact

How MSPs can eliminate automation overlap and match the right tool to the right task

Professional service automation (PSA) workflows, remote monitoring and management (RMM) scripts, and robotic process automation (RPA) workflows and bots are powerful tools for automation in business operations. When teams create automation without a plan or a clear understanding of which tool is best for which task, they run the risk of automation creating confusion instead of efficiency. Without a strategy and solid processes in place, teams can end up duplicating effort, second-guessing outcomes, and intervening to fix issues manually or untangle process gaps that were expected to run seamlessly.

This challenge was a central theme during an IT Nation Connect™ Global 2025 session, “Choose Your Fighter: PSA, RMM, or RPA for Maximum Automation Impact.” Making the most of your automation tools starts with a strategy and selecting the right tool for each job. This foundation is the key to reliable, scalable operations.

PSA, the heart of your business operations

PSA is the system that brings order to daily operations and sets the foundation for strategic business improvements, as it contains all records related to customers and service delivery. PSA automation used well can reduce manual handoffs, improve service delivery consistency, and help prevent issues such as billing leakage or missed response times.

PSA excels at structured operational workflows because it can:

• Continuously check records (e.g., date fields, SLA timers)
• Monitor for things that didn’t happen (e.g., missed SLAs)
• Notify the right roles (e.g., dispatchers) when action is needed

PSA software is often the right automation tool when the problem is:

• Business process inconsistency (e.g., project management, SLA tracking)
• Billing or time entry issues (e.g., agreement expirations, missing time entries)
• Manual, inconsistent, or delayed service triage or escalations

When automation exclusively concerns the management of service delivery records, billing, or other PSA records, PSA is often the strongest fighter.

RMM, your endpoint control center

RMM software is designed to automate device management and streamline access at scale, helping partners keep endpoints secure and functioning optimally so their end users can be more productive. The automation capabilities, particularly around alerting and maintenance, reduce manual steps and strengthen your security posture, which comes up often in our conversations with managed service providers (MSPs) dealing with alert fatigue and pressures to protect margins by reducing labor costs. Visibility across endpoints and networks enables proactive service instead of reactive firefighting to save time and reduce alert fatigue, while delivering better outcomes to customers.

RMM is often the right tool when the problem is:

• Errors encountered on endpoints
• Recurring maintenance tasks, such as patch management
• Alert fatigue or too many tickets
• Missed SLAs

When automation centers around device health, performance, or maintenance, RMM is often the strongest fighter.  

RPA, your cross-system automation multiplier

Looking at automation from the perspective of information stored in PSA records or device health tracked in RMM can help IT teams save hours and deliver more repeatable, high-quality service to customers. RPA software can take automation across PSA and RMM to the next level by automating entire processes, even ones that rely on human intervention or significant scripting investment when using PSA or RMM alone. RPA workflows enable our partners to visually map entire processes across multiple solutions and carry out standard procedures with precision. It increases technician capacity by completing processes at scale.

RPA is often the right tool when the problem is:

• Manual data entry or tasks (e.g., cloning a user in Microsoft 365)
• Repeated, consistent multi-step processes (e.g., onboarding or offboarding)
• Tasks that span multiple tools
• Work that drains technician time or is prone to error

When you need to intelligently automate entire business processes spanning multiple tools, RPA is the strongest fighter.

How to take the next step

PSA, RMM, and RPA operate together across three layers of automation. Immediate actions, which include tasks such as low disk cleanup or ticket status changes, proactive monitoring and alerting, which include device checks or workflows that monitor records, and workflow orchestration, which includes multi-step processes such as onboarding users or managing device lifecycles. This framework helped attendees see where each tool fits and cleared up the confusion we often hear around overlaps.

Step one: Identify your goals and gain buy-in

In preparation for this presentation, we revisited advice from a partner who was critical to the development of some of our pre-built workflows in ConnectWise RPA™, Brad Bell at Workplace IT Management. He had this advice to share with other partners:

• Gain tech buy-in. “They’re on the front lines of support to your customers. Their reputation is on the line, and they need to build trust with automation.” 
• Start slow. “Find an opportunity that’s a repeatable task and try to just build that out. Then, develop some success stories and engage your frontline staff to suggest more automation opportunities.” 

Read his story here: Workplace IT | ConnectWise Partner Success Story >>

The solutions that have the biggest positive impact on your customers and business processes often come from the teams that talk to customers every day and are responsible for completing repetitive tasks flawlessly amid growing demands.

Step two: Define the type of work and ideal tool

As a starting point, ask yourself if the work is specific to managing devices or records.

• Device management or technology issues are often handled by RMM (e.g., low disk space cleanup detection and automated resolution)
• Business management task automation is often handled in PSA (e.g., changing ticket status and triggering SLA timer)
• When you find yourself thinking that the automation requires process automation that could impact multiple areas of the business, or require steps that involve human interaction, this might be a sign that RPA is the right tool (e.g., device or user onboarding, ticket triage, etc.)

Validating your assumptions with your frontline team can help confirm that the tool you plan to use is the best tool for the job. They’ll be essential in determining the effectiveness of the automation, so checking in with them throughout the process can ensure the end result meets their needs and doesn’t inadvertently complicate their workflow.

Step three: Identify necessary steps and results

Any workflow that requires unnecessary human input is a candidate for additional automation, but it’s just as critical to avoid outsourcing tasks to AI that require judgment or could negatively impact customer relationships. Hyperautomation, which is a term used to describe tools such as AI, RPA, and others that intelligently automate entire business processes, follows three guiding principles:

1. Start with business goals, clearly defining what good looks like
2. Optimize manual process flows before automating them
3. Keep it simple

With these in mind, you can identify areas where multiple tools connect, how the process should run, and what can be automated vs. where human intervention is necessary or truly adds value.

Step four: Prioritize tasks based on measurable impact

Now that you have suggestions from your frontline staff and have compared those to your business goals and tools, it’s time to prioritize and execute.
Starting slow can mean choosing to focus on one process or goal first. Testing and confirming success and tech buy-in before moving on to more challenging processes sets your team up for success and reduces the likelihood of any business disruption. You can start by focusing on repetitive tasks that take up technician time, such as:

• End user onboarding in Microsoft 365
• Device restarts
• Using AI to summarize tickets

Note: For current ConnectWise partners, you can import workflow templates for these processes and more. Review the documentation for more information.

Step five: Track success

Using technician feedback and reporting, you can create baselines and track usage or time savings to test your assumptions and prioritize future efforts against optimizing current automation. Here are two recommendations for finding opportunities and tracking success using the reports and dashboards in ConnectWise:

• The ConnectWise PSA™ service type, subtype, and item report is a great way to identify common ticket types or ticket types with the most billable or non-billable hours
• The hyperautomation dashboard available in the ConnectWise platform displays the most used RPA workflows and bots, so you can track usage over time, which is a helpful indication of technician adoption or automation relevance

Interviewing technicians and customers is ultimately the best way to validate success, but reporting showing reduced ticket counts or the number of tasks completed without human intervention can be helpful in showing value and alignment with business goals.

Real outcomes when MSPs choose the right fighter

Partners who choose the right tool and automate intelligently can see results such as fewer manual steps, faster issue remediation, and improved technician and customer satisfaction.

When Workplace IT implemented the customer onboarding RPA workflow, they reduced Microsoft 365 onboarding time from 20 minutes to five, allowing them to focus technician time on more critical efforts that required their expertise, relationships, and judgment.

How to move forward

It’s essential to audit your processes. Automating ineffective processes can cause more harm than good, but critically evaluating where work gets stuck, where you repeat the same action each day, and where staff experience frustration is a great place to start for quick wins.

Think of automation as strategic infrastructure. When you match the task to the right tool, you build a durable, scalable foundation that supports growth without adding overhead. It’s recommended to gain technician buy-in early because they are responsible for delivering outcomes to customers and advancing automation maturity. Start small with one repeatable task and use those wins to build momentum. Use reports and dashboards to identify patterns and track usage. This gives you clarity as you scale automation across your business.

Join a live demo and see how the ConnectWise platform can transform your team’s productivity with comprehensive visibility and advanced automation.