Can’t Advanced Global’ s Coaches get along? Nope. And that’s a good thing
Leveraging Autotask is not a simple decision
Designing software with flexibility (Autotask) as opposed to “We know best, do it our way” (Arnie Bellini, 2015 IT Nation, ConnectWise), has its downside.
The disadvantage is: In order to Optimize the Service Delivery Operation, you must make lots of decisions.
The benefit is: In order to Optimize the Service Delivery Operation, you have an opportunity to make lots of decisions.
Now, I am confused!
Right…and that’s the point: Having choices causes conflict and confusion - until you take the time to work through what’s best in every situation.
For example, we have “Friends” that follow our articles, join the Autotask/Datto RMM Ask the Expert conference calls, hang around for a year or so, and never spend a dime with us – and we love it!
Anytime we can help an MSP leverage Autotask to Resolve Service Delivery Issues, we’re following our passion and having a positive impact on the MSP world.
Which is the same reason you became an MSP – so you could follow your passion and have a positive impact on the world.
We also have Customers who partner with us to guide them on leveraging Autotask to Resolve Service Delivery Issues in less than 4 months.
So, what’s the difference? Making decisions on how best to leverage Autotask to Resolve Service Delivery Issues takes time. Knowing which way is best depends on the situation and the maturity level of the MSP (see the most recent 5 blog articles on the optimal MSP Organizational Structure).
To make matters worse, around the time you figure out the answer, things change, like:
Major Releases
Hiring a new Team Player
Shifting the targeted marketing audience
Adding new products to the product portfolio
and the list goes on…
What you need is someone who’s been there, done that, who’s in touch with MSPs from around the world and has worked through the conflict already.
Leveraging Autotask is not easy and at times fights break out (what is worse is going to a boxing match and a hockey game breaks out)
Truth be told, Carol and I (and now Duncan Bruce) probably disagree more than people realize. And that’s good for you: our Customers, Friends, and the rest of the Advanced Global Community.
The reason?
Leveraging Autotask to Resolve Service Delivery Issues is NOT a simple task, and more than likely we’ve already worked through the conflict and have solutions ready for you, for any given situation or change.
Now, that’s not to say you have to hire us. Everyone has direct access to us any time they need it – Schedule a Call with us from the website, book a call with us from our email signature, or join one of our weekly Ask the Expert conference calls.
Recurring Master Tickets:
Take, for example, the new options with Recurrence Master Ticket. For years, when creating a Recurrence Master Ticket, the Autotask software (you know...the one you pay a LOT for and end up leveraging very little...) also created all the instances (aka child tickets).
If not managed properly (in a recurrence ticket queue and uncheck the “Include Recurring Tickets” checkbox), the tickets would always be in the way. Even if you followed Autotask “Best Practices” and had a workflow rule that moved them to a Support Queue when the due date arrived, they’d still need to be dealt with again. Feels like rework to me, but that’s ultimately what it took to get it done with this approach.
I’m a strong proponent of assigning them to a Tech and add a Service Call to the child tickets when the recurrence master ticket is created, along with managing them properly. The justification for this position is that with the recurrence in the dispatch calendar, the time required to complete the engagement is allocated, thus knowing how much time is available for project work. Now you have data that’s needed for the Project Availability Forecast report, which can forecast project availability weeks in advance.
Carol, on the other hand, was doing cartwheels when the new Recurrence Master Ticket feature was released where Recurring Tickets could be created as needed and added to the Ready to Engage widget.
So, there you have it: Conflict and confusion until you take the time to work through what’s best. And thank goodness I have nothing better to do than to figure it out for you!
I’ve known for years if the regularly scheduled preventive maintenance was remote work and did not need the Customer to be available for the engagement, it’d be best to put it in the Ready to Engage widget on a Monday with a next SLA Event Due Date of Friday.
This way, on some slow day (yes, once you have your Service Delivery operation optimized, you do have slow days), the remote desktop support Team can pull it forward and work it in. If chaos reigns, then it will still be there on that Friday afternoon. Whether you create them a year in advance or just in time makes no difference to me, but just in time makes Carol happy – so that’s my final decision – or as Craig S says – “When in doubt, Carol is right”.
However, if the preventive maintenance requires an onsite visit (even if for relationship building reasons), then the Service Call scheduled a year in advance is the best way to go. Why? It blocks out the time and facilitates Customer Communications, including reminders.
How do we know how to help MSPs grow their business? Because we have 22+ years of MSP Service Delivery Coordinator/Manager experience on staff, and 17+ years Autotask System Administration experience. Which is another way of saying we have been there and done that, and we know how to leverage the Autotask software to Resolve Service Delivery Issues.
And just when it sounds like we are a bunch of know-it-alls, we have not figured out the best solution yet for the daily alert follow-ups. These take just a few minutes a day for each Customer, and the problem is, the check takes less time than the time it takes to create the time entry. Where we’re at is one ticket in the Zero account to capture the time, and then divide the time by the number of Customers in profitability reporting. But that doesn’t feel like the best solution…
Hmmm…