My First PSA - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

(and I mean UUUUUggggg-ly!)

- Lessons Learned, Episode 37

As I mentioned earlier in this series, I had used the Remedy Helpdesk ticketing system when I was running internal tech support at HP's Roseville, CA plant. We used it for both my PC Software Support team and the Unix Helpdesk team.

And, of course, all of use have been on the "end user" side of the helpdesk when it comes to vendor hardware, software, and services. You know how good and how bad (and how ugly) it can be.

Around the Century, we has built a rudimentary ticketing system in-house, as did many IT consultants at the time. It was certainly not high-end and did not even rely on a database. It was most a series of forms and automations I had built on our secure web site. We also had a place for technicians to download forms and checklists while they were at client offices, and a place for them to enter client notes and time. 

What I did not have was a PSA - Professional Services Automation - system. This is basically a CRM or "line of business" application dedicated to running an IT shop. A PSA combines the ticketing system with modules to track employee time, track contracts, invoice clients, and all the primary business functions in one big program.

Then I was introduced to ConnectWise. I first met Arnie Bellini at SMB Nation in 2004. He had a humble table with a sign and a computer. It was obvious, from working on many development projects, that this was not a "demo" or half built system. It was a mature program that was obviously deployed and real. There was no "Ignore that man behind the curtain" going on.

To be honest, the interface was ten years out of date in 2004. And, to be honest, it hasn't changed much since then. Despite being ugly, the program was extremely good with the most important things we needed to do in our business: Invoice clients, track time, and manage service delivery.

By the time the show was over, we had agreed to purchase ConnectWise and they had agreed to provide us with a plethora of support services and onboarding. 

First lesson learned: If it's not in writing, it doesn't exist. We deployed the system, but it turned out that any assistance beyond the most basic was billable. It was a disappointing onboarding process.

In addition to being an expensive piece of software, ConnectWise required a dedicated physical server (not virtual) and a support SQL server with requisite licensing. All in all, it was an expensive investment. 

But worth it.

The fundamental promises of a PSA were true with CW. Even today, I believe it is the best tool for tracking employee time and for providing client invoices in a format that details all the work and virtually eliminates client concerns about their billing.

We had to make a lot of configuration changes to customize the PSA for our processes and procedures. And, in some cases, we made minor changes to our processes in order to take full advantage of the software.

We did have a few instances where the program simply didn't work as it should. CW fought us on these until we proved to them that what we experienced was real. Getting things fixed and corrected, or getting billing straightened out, was always a hassle.

Within a year, we had fully implemented the system and relied on it to help our business grow. I'm not sure I'd ever say we loved CW, but it fundamentally allowed our business to operate at a higher level. We used it to make our technicians more accurate and efficient - and to get time cards turned in on time with no errors. We used it to make invoicing of managed services, time-and-materials contracts, and projects very smooth. And we used the ticketing system to improve service delivery while raising client expectations. 

In all of my IT businesses, since 1995, I have been a firm believer that hardware needs to be replaced after three years. Even the best, highest-end server becomes one of the slowest machines in the office after three years. I understand why clients want to stretch that out to four or five years, but three is really ideal.

Well, when that CW server was three years old, we'd only been using it efficiently for about 30 months. So we kept it around past the three year mark, but we knew we had to replace it eventually. 

Timing is important. When we bought into ConnectWise, no other product was close to them in functionality. There were essentially no competitors. Four years later, when we were looking at buying a new server, re-committing to CW for three or four more years, and having all the expenses of licensing, we decided it was time to look around and see what the competitors were up to.

By the end of 2008, there were real alternatives, the best of which was Autotask. So we started looking at that.

In all, we had ConnectWise for a full four years. It was a great investment and a great tool. And even today they continually add features and improve. But we found them difficult to work with. And that made the decision to look elsewhere a lot easier.

Lesson Learned: A great toolset can allow your business to mature to the right level. You need to invest at the right time, of course. When we had three people, I think CW would have been wasted on us. 

Lesson Learned: If you invest in a major system for running your business, dig in and learn it! Someone needs to be the master of the software. Rely on it for key functions. Don't be worried about what will happen if it becomes unavailable. Everyone has downtime sometime. Everybody has a bad day. That's the exception to the rule. Don't base major business decisions on the exceptions to the rule.

Lesson Learned: No decision is irreversible. We did move to Autotask after four years. And, no, it was not very painful at all. Just because you invested in something - and it was the right decision - doesn't mean that something else will never be the right decision in the future. Your business comes first. Old decisions should not keep you in the past.

All comments welcome.

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Episode 37

This Episode is part of the ongoing Lessons Learned series. For all the information, and an index of Lessons Learned episodes, go to the Lessons Learned Page. https://blog.smallbizthoughts.com/p/lessons-learned-blog-series.html

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