Kaseya is seeking to help MSPs (managed IT services providers) with two big priorities -- driving profits and managing costs. With those goals in mind, the company has launched ProfitFuel and BudgetFuel initiatives for IT Complete -- Kaseya's suite of software for IT monitoring, management, security, cloud, continuity, compliance and more.
The ProfitFuel and BudgetFuel initiatives arrive at a key time. Amid the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic fallout, small businesses have been forced to accelerate full digital transformations, Kaseya asserts. MSPs, in turn, are uniquely positioned to assist those digital transformation journeys.
But how will MSPs find the time and money to focus more on digital transformation initiatives? The short answer involves workflow automation between integrated tools -- which "allow technicians to be substantially more efficient so that they can increase output and do more with less," Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola asserts. "It has to be very cost effective enabling you to reduce the cost of your overall IT software kit. That’s what Kaseya delivers with IT Complete.”
During partner and media briefings, Voccola has spent more than a year evangelizing those workflow integrations. The integrations allow users to reclaim an average of 25% of their time to focus on work that directly impacts their business’ bottom line, Kaseya says. Moreover, IT Complete users see an average of 74% higher customer retention and business user satisfaction rates, and spend approximately 33% less than they would with competing point solutions, the company adds. (Note: Deeper benchmark details and source material were not disclosed.)
Kaseya and ServiceNow: Digital Workflow Initiatives
Kaseya's workflow messaging is particularly interesting. In some ways, it resembles ServiceNow's IT service management (ITSM) software strategy.
ServiceNow sells mostly into enterprise accounts, while Kaseya supports MSPs in the SMB sector and IT professionals in the midmarket. Still, ServiceNow also has growing momentum with large MSPs. And in the midmarket, ServiceNow partner Fully Managed has customized the ITSM software for easier MSP partner consumption.
Where does workflow automation fit into the conversation? New ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott is positioning the company's software to "deliver digital workflows that create great experiences and unlock productivity for employees and the enterprise." That sounds quite a bit like Kaseya's ProfitFuel and BudgetFuel efforts, and associated integrated workflow focus.
Kaseya Integrated Workflows: Example Developments for MSPs
Meanwhile, Kaseya is backing up its workflow integration push with R&D milestones. MSPs seeking examples of the work should ask the company about such developments as:
- Kaseya VSA & Kaseya BMS - Automated Remediation
- Kaseya VSA & IT Glue – Execute VSA Agent Procedures within IT Glue
- Kaseya BMS & IT Glue – Suggested Documentation:
- Unitrends MSP & Kaseya VSA – Advanced Integration
- IT Glue & Unitrends MSP
Admittedly, most of the major MSP software platform providers -- names like Barracuda MSP, ConnectWise, Datto and SolarWinds MSP -- now offer integrations within their respective software suites. Plus, upstarts like Atera and SyncroMSP have developed integrated PSA-RMM solutions that were born in the cloud. And venture-backed firms like Liongard have bet their entire businesses on MSP automation tools.
Kaseya: MSP Software Updates
Meanwhile, Kaseya is reinforcing the ProfitFuel and BudgetFuel efforts with multiple product upgrades. Example developments include:
- Kaseya VSA for Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM): The new VSA release provides a topology map visualization of both the network and endpoint environments to speed troubleshooting, understand asset relationships, and actively manage devices from a single, unified view.
- Unitrends & Spanning for Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR): A new Unitrends Unified Backup Portal allows MSPs to manage all types of backups -- including appliances, direct to cloud, and Microsoft Office 365 application backups. Additional Unitrends enhancements include conditional alerts to reduce alert noise, and the recently announced Unitrends Helix self-healing remediation platform. Also, a recent Spanning Dark Web Monitoring release addresses Dark Web Monitoring for Microsoft Office 365, Google G Suite support is planned for June 2020.
- IT Glue for Documentation and Password Management: New Password Folder Security allows MSPs to manage passwords with macro (folders) and micro (individual passwords) controls to ensure credentials map to specific user and team policies.
- RapidFire Tools for Network Assessments: A new cloud module for Network Detective focuses on Azure Active Directory and Office 365 components such as SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook Mail and Microsoft Teams. Resulting reports document and assess the configuration of the various Microsoft Cloud aspects and include a Risk Report and Management Plan similar to other Network Detective modules, Kaseya says. Also, a recent Network Detective Work from Home update features a self-service portal. The portal empowers employees, who are working off home computers, to initiate network and security scans to be analyzed and documented by MSPs or their companies’ IT support team before they connect to the corporate network.
Rival MSP Software Updates: What's Next
It's safe to expect rival MSP software companies to announce new developments and product roadmaps within the next few weeks. Datto, for instance, was prepping to unveil multiple developments during an early June 2020 conference. Although that DattoCon20 Atlanta conference has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, the associated Datto product R&D still needs to be announced at some point.
Similarly, ConnectWise is scheduled to host a virtual IT Nation Explore 2020 conference in late June. (An associated face-to-face gathering is canceled.) It's a safe bet the company will discuss integrations and product roadmaps involving the Continuum and IT Boost acquisitions of 2019.
