ConnectWise Tips for MSP Teams

ConnectWise MSP

In order to be competitive and achieve long-term success MSPs need to attain complete control and transparency in its processes. They need to make sure that every incident, no matter how chaotic can be controlled with tried and tested processes. The only way to do this is to learn from past experiences. ConnectWise is a great tool that lets you catalog incidents and update tickets as they happen giving the MSP a look into what is happening with the incident, what was done in the past to resolve it and what can be tweaked to speed up the processes.
With ConnectWise, MSP teams are now able to change their traditional break-fix philosophy to one that involves being prepared. But is that enough? If clients see you only as a provider of hardware, fixes, and solutions and not a trusted advisor, then the relationship is limited in terms of its growth and its potential for profitability.

This whitepaper is written based on our conversations with numerous MSPs who use ConnectWise and have left us with some pearls of wisdom on how to use the ticketing tool for seamless and profitable incident management. From using ConnectWise to get the most out of it to simple enhancements, we cover simple but effective techniques that you’ll be using on a daily basis!
When you automate workflows there is very little room for error and it speeds up the processes of incident management.

TIP 1 – Automate as much as you can

Set notifications for service tickets

When a service ticket is created and updated it is imperative that notifications be sent to the concerned people on the service team so that they can be aware of the incident taking place. Engineers can even refer to past notifications at any given point as a reference. By automating the notification you save the service team time and avoid having to individually route notifications to the people on the service team.

If you want to take this one step further you can use a 3rd party critical alerting tool that seamlessly connects to ConnectWise through the service desk and intelligently routes alerts to the right person.

Set alert escalation

All alerts sent out through ConnectWise stops being effective if the recipient of the alert is unavailable or unable to get to the incident. If faster incident resolution is the goal then the automation of alerts to escalate to another recipient must be a part of the plan to combat a critical incident.
Automation of alert escalation is something that ConnectWise doesn’t provide but third-party applications added to the service desk would eliminate the need to send out alerts manually to a list of individuals responsible for an incident.
Using a third party application to automate the alert also eliminates human error and quickens the process of contacting the right person if the initial alert is not acknowledged. Ideally, the tool used to automate the alert should have customizable parameters like the interval of time between escalations and the action that begins/stops the escalation of alerts.

Imagine having to manually call a person on your team or calling the office or the operator to make sure the emergency was handled by someone else if you can’t get to it. This is a time consuming and unnecessary process. With a tool that lets you automatically assign and set up escalations you no longer have to make that call or worry that the incident isn’t going to get resolved if the alert leaves your busy hands.

Set automatic ticket updates

A key component of cataloging the incident resolution process is to ticket every step of the way. This allows you to track the progress of the event. Ideally, any third party application you use should automatically update the ticket. This eliminates human error, saves time and provides for almost immediate updates.

If you choose to make these updates available to your clients imagine how relieved they would feel knowing that the incident is being taken care off and that it is being worked on. In this kind of customer service, assuring your customer that you have a handle on things helps build their confidence in you.

Automate notification to clients

As your team works away at the incidents it is important to keep your clients notified. Depending on the triggers you set you can customize the notifications to go out to those who want such information on the client’s side. Not only are they kept updated but they are also assured that your team is actively working on the incident.