PSA - Stop Switching!

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had this conversation with people recently, so - I thought I’d just make a post about it, so I can just send them the link each time they ask me instead. 

The question - Which PSA should I be using?! 

Or rather, I currently use this PSA, I want to switch to that one. Do you think that’s a good idea? 

OK, so this one might get me in trouble with some of the companies I’m going to be talking about. But, as I’ve already said to a few people face to face, my job here is to help MSP Owners to run, grow and market their businesses. 

It’s not to help line the pocket of a few chosen vendors.

So lots of conversations I have been in; I use Connectwise or Autotask, should I move to one of these new generation PSAs like Halo or Superops? 

The answer to that question is ‘It Depends’ and most of the time, my answer is actually. No!

Connectwise and Autotask are great products that have been around for YEARS. And as such, they have YEARS worth of features and integrations which have been implemented over time. 

That means that those products can do a heck of a lot for your MSP. 

The downside is that these products are also old and can be a bit clunky, with lots of options - where so many features have been added, and because there’s so much going on, they can be a little slower to function sometimes. 

I used Connecwise for about 10 years, and the main issues we had were slowness at times, and also when updates were pushed to our instance, it would normally break other things, and those things would sometimes take months to resolve. 

I don’t know if that’s the same for Autotask by the way, but going on what I’ve seen with my own clients - it seems to be the same.

And that’s something you just kinda have to put up with. It’s slow. It doesn’t look pretty. And because of the size of each company, they’re just not going to rewrite their software to be fast and responsive. Not unless customers start jumping ship in masses. 

So what about the newcomers like Halo and Superops?

They’re sleek, they’re fast - they certainly LOOK pretty that’s for sure! But with new products, comes a very limited set of features. 

Whilst the likes of Connectwise have had time to develop, or perhaps buy and integrate tools like Connectwise Sell, to produce quotes. Automate for RMM, Connect for remote control. The others haven’t had that time yet. 

Halo, as far as I’m aware isn’t yet at feature parity with Connectwise Sell. And clients of mine who have moved to Halo have so many tickets open with Halo for broken features which have no ETA for a fix. 

So this isn’t to dig at any particular vendor - it’s to help MSPs make the right choice. 

And I believe that for many MSPs the better choice is to just stick with what you’ve got and learn to use it properly. 

Those who are on Connectwise and want to jump ship for a shiny new product, are you really prepared to lose half of the functionality that Connectwise DOES have? 

A really good and working quote system that integrates with all of the distributors. 

A reporting solution that genuinely looks beautiful and works brilliantly. 

And RMM that’s... Errr.. well it’s not the best RMM in my opinion but it’s an RMM.

And if you’re on Halo, and frustrated with the bugs and issues, are you really willing to switch and lose that fast and customisable interface? 

Because I bet both of you will probably switch, regret the switch, and then you’ll see an update come out on the one you’ve just left and wish you’d just stuck with that and waited it out in the first place. 

So, this is yet another reminder - before you jump ship, talk to people, make a list of features, a matrix of what you currently use your PSA for, and make sure you have an apples-for-apples comparison before you blindly change product and realise that it’s half baked compared to what you did use.

If you want to ask questions, feel free to ping me a message and ask - I actually have a discord channel now open to all, link down below, so feel free to join that and chat away - and I’ll see you in the next one.

For access to the Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/wmVvv2E2