Seamless project management is essential for MSPs. Maintaining consistency, executing on-time; and delivering without fail and without human error---well, that’s tablestakes.

Kevin Thetford, a project engineer, oversees and orchestrates these key responsibilities for UK-based, San-iT. "Any customer-facing projects, including onboarding, offboarding, Azure migrations, and email migrations are handled by me,” said Thetford. “Ensuring these projects run smoothly and efficiently is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and trust in our services."

Overcoming Operational Challenges

Initially, San-iT faced several significant challenges. “Our onboarding and offboarding processes were time-consuming and prone to errors,” leading to delays and customer dissatisfaction. San-iT used ConnectWise PSA™ to incorporate project communication tickets into their templates. These tickets facilitate structured communication with clients, ensuring that all phases of the project are clearly communicated.  

Despite losing a few staff members over the past year, ConnectWise solutions have enabled San-iT to maintain their service levels without needing to hire additional personnel. This has provided them with breathing room and allowed them to do more with less staff, ensuring continued customer satisfaction.

Unifying MSP processes powered by Asio™

San-iT faced an obstacle in their daily operations, noting that extensive manual effort was needed, particularly in scripting and project ticket management when onboarding and offboarding customers, resulting in longer task completion times.  

“We lacked the solutions to provide effective communication, often leaving customers feeling uninformed and disconnected from the progress of their projects, negatively impacting their overall experience,” said Thetford. “We needed a more streamlined and integrated approach to project management and customer interactions.”  Using fragmented systems requires switching between multiple platforms for different tasks, compounding inefficiencies and hindering productivity.

Enhancing Customer Communication and Internal Automation with ConnectWise PSA

To address these challenges, San-iT first the implemented ConnectWise PSA. The customer-facing portal is seen as a game-changer, addressing one of their major pain points and ensuring a good first impression. “We’ve been able to enhance communication, streamline workflows, and provide real-time updates” during onboarding using the end-user portal. Customers can see all the phases and parts of the projects, allowing them to “access status reports 24/7 and ensuring they are always informed without needing to contact a project engineer,” Thetford added.  

After tackling their customer communication challenges for work in progress, including onboarding projects, they focused on internal needs for advanced automation, like scripting, and onboarding process management via workflows.

Streamlining Operations with ConnectWise RMM and RPA, powered by the Asio Platform 

At the time, they used fragmented systems requiring switching between multiple platforms for different tasks, compounding inefficiencies and hindering productivity. By implementing RMM and RPA, they were able to achieve a consolidated solution for powerful workflow, script, and device management on the Asio platform, a first-of-its-kind platform built for MSPs that unifies solutions and processes, critical to ensuring the devices customers rely on have maximum uptime. 

“The platform is helping us simplify processes, create a unified view of business operations, enhance efficiency, and automate repetitive tasks. ConnectWise RMMTM capabilities specifically have simplified administration." Automated patch management with NOC testing of OS security updates and over 1.2K pre-built intelligent alerts simplifies daily management tasks and identifies a wide range of issues quickly.

Thetford favors the solution, spending “an estimated 80% of the day using RMM, as a mechanism to centralize control of workstations and servers.” This dedication to automation and seamless device access ensures that issues are quickly identified, remediated, and ideally prevented in the future through automation.

Complementing the expanded visibility and scripting in RMM, the ConnectWise RPA workflow builder allowed them to automate custom processes, which led to immediate results.

“We reduced manual processes, like checking backups and Windows updates,” said Thetford. “This automation freed up our highly skilled technicians' time so they could address more complex issues. The workflow builder on the ConnectWise Asio platform acts as the glue that pulls everything together, making entire processes more efficient and cohesive. "We've implemented workflows that automate repetitive process tasks and triage tickets in PSA to increase their help desk team's efficiency."

San-iT was never alone in building out their processes and automation, for onboarding and more. “ConnectWise team members provided guidance and use cases that helped us optimize our processes.” They also lean on the vast community of partners using ConnectWise solutions today to run their business. Webinars hosted by the education teams and discussions on the ConnectWise Virtual Community “provided us valuable insights and allowed us to connect with others using the same tools.”

Stepping Into The Future: A Phased Approach  

Thetford noted that San-iT intentionally adopted a phased approach to implementing ConnectWise solutions. They wanted to avoid frequent changes to procedures and policies, which could disrupt operations. “By aligning our workflows with Asio, we’ve ensured a smooth transition and minimized the need for re-training staff.”

The phased approach ensured smooth transitions and minimized disruptions, while automation and intelligent alerts improved efficiency and staff utilization. "We are confident [ConnectWise Asio™] has saved us time," Thetford emphasized. According to Thetford, “tasks that previously took half a day now take a maximum of one hour,” showcasing substantial time savings.

San-iT is excited about the future with ConnectWise solutions. As we align our workflows with the new Asio tools and templates, we ex to see significant improvements in project management efficiency and customer satisfaction.