Remote Monitoring Gains Ties to Professional Services Automation (PSA)

The worlds of professional services automation and remote monitoring and management (RMM) came together in the form of integration between LabTech and Connectwise software.

LabTech, a managed service provider (MSP), plays in the RMM space with a tool it developed specifically for MSPs. “LabTech was built by a managed service provider for how today's managed service providers work and with our knowledge, we designed a total RMM platform to take your business from reactive to preemptive. With LabTech, you can gradually transition into the managed services world while retaining your current customer base and still experience the advantages of proactive versus reactive problem resolution,” the company explains.

LabTech didn’t just build the software to sell, it was originally to use by its own employees. The tool isn’t aimed at general monitoring, but is more tailored to system admin needs such as trouble ticketing, software management and tracking user info.

MSPs aren’t just about technology – they also run businesses, which is where Connectwise comes in. PSA software is all about managing key business functions from a single platform, and is particularly suited for IT consultants, of which MSPs tend to have many.

Apps that can be automated include accounts such as billing and invoicing, calendaring and scheduling and time tracking, and doing work estimates. The tool, aimed at IT, pulls together information from these disparate apps, and creates a sort of portal view.

Like LabTech, Connectwise was written by IT folks for IT folks. The tool runs either in the cloud or on premises, and is now in use by some 5,000 partners.

With the integration, handled via a plug-in, information on trouble tickets, clients, and billing can be shared and synchronized between the two systems. Essentially they are blending the insight that LabTech offers into the network and key systems with PSA-based workflows.

The plug-in is free of charge.

LabTech is currently on a roll. As MSPToday reported last month, the company grew 176 percent last year.

Connectwise is no stranger to integration. In fact it has some 60 integration partners, in areas from accounting to disaster recovery, cloud provisioning to security.

Old timers might be most familiar with the name Connectwise. Thirty one years, just as the first business PCs were emerging, the Bellini brothers, Arnie and David, started the company to focus on IT services and still run it today.