"What I like about ConnectWise Manage is that it allows us to perform every function of our business from one tool."
– BEN SONG, Managing Director, SquareAlpha
Song began experimenting with various tools to see if they’d fit the needs of the business. ‘I had actually used ConnectWise before starting SquareAlpha,’ admits Song. However, he and his team first tested out alternatives to see how they’d fare. ‘I had used some custom developed tools,’ says Song, ‘which were lacking features, lacking stability, and were quite terrible.’ Afterwards, SquareAlpha tried some more well-known tools. ‘Life with some of those tools was very difficult because they were buggy, they were extremely difficult to use and lacking in the more complicated features like project management or invoicing.’
Eventually, Song and his team turned to ConnectWise. ‘We wanted a platform that did everything,’ explains Song. ‘We decided to go with ConnectWise because it was the most fully-featured solution.’ What’s more, choosing ConnectWise also meant Song could ‘double’ his employees like he’d originally wanted. ‘The work that we do with the number of staff that we have, with ConnectWise, it allows us to do much more with our resources,’ says Song.
Having previously used ConnectWise, Song already had a good idea of the functionality and capabilities ConnectWise could provide, but Song hadn’t worked with ConnectWise CloudConsole™ before. ‘One of the features I love would be ConnectWise CloudConsole,’ he says. ‘The level of automation that’s built into that tool and the amount of time that it saves us is tremendous. The name of the game in many services is to do as much as possible with the resources that you have available. ConnectWise CloudConsole is one of the features that allow us to really do a lot.’
Solving problems before they’re problems
Alongside ConnectWise Manage® and ConnectWise CloudConsole, SquareAlpha also uses ConnectWise Automate® and ConnectWise ScreenConnect™. ConnectWise Automate allows us to be more proactive in the service that we provide to our clients, and that’s very impressive to them,’ Song says. ‘We have been able to identify problems before the client notices them and take action to resolve them.’
According to Song, taking care of the problems before they’re even noticed creates great value in the business, plus it means their clients become very loyal to them. When it comes to ConnectWise ScreenConnect, however, Song has something a bit humorous to say. ‘The best thing about ConnectWise ScreenConnect,’ he says ‘is that it just works. We’ve used other remote-control tools in the past, and they have not been anywhere near as reliable as ConnectWise ScreenConnect.’
One more to complete the set
With nearly the full ConnectWise suite under their belt, SquareAlpha completed the set by adding ConnectWise Sell®. ‘We’ve always found the sales and procurement process extremely labour-intensive and time consuming,’ explains Song. ‘The turnaround on quotes and proposals for our clients is too long. ConnectWise Sell allows us to shorten that process - sell more to our clients and sell it faster.’
A helpful community
It’s not just superior software and five-star customer service with ConnectWise. The partner community is also a key selling point for many businesses, SquareAlpha included. ‘I’ve attended lots of user groups over the last few years,’ says Song. ‘It’s great to speak to people from ConnectWise and within the industry who understand the difficulties we face as a business.’ User groups are a great way to share ideas with fellow IT professionals and possibly come away with new or different ideas. ‘I always learn about delivering better services to our clients and using the ConnectWise products better.’
In conjunction with user groups, there is also ConnectWise University, a fantastic online portal that answers most product-related questions plus houses many tutorials to better educate partners on the features each product has. ‘The ConnectWise University is absolutely full of ideas, processes, and techniques that we can use to run our business more efficiently,’ says Song. ‘I think that ConnectWise has built a unique community around the products and it gives us access to a huge variety of people with a huge variety of ideas.’
