IT Nation London Recap: Join us in getting comfortable with chaos

Posted:

03/22/2023

| By:

Dan Scott

It was my pleasure to recently attend IT Nation London March 20-22, 2023—it’s always a great place to get inspired. Whenever our community gets together, there’s a palpable energy driven by a spirit of true collaboration.

We welcomed over 468 partners and 106 sponsors representing 28 countries who came together to discover business-building insights and plan for the future. Over three days of sessions, networking, and in-depth product training, we heard from delegates, industry leaders, and ConnectWise colleagues discussed the current state of our global industry and the top challenges we’re facing.

Check out these exciting highlights and announcements from IT Nation London.

Opening keynote takeaways

As usual, we started the conference with a keynote address from ConnectWise leadership. Ameer Karim, Dan Scott, Ciaran Chu, and Geoffrey Willison talked about how the industry has reached an “infinite edge.” They covered the resulting main challenges IT solution providers (TSPs) are facing now and in the future (regionally and globally) and the commitments ConnectWise is making to help.

The infinite edge: It’s time to get comfortable with chaos

Over the past three years, we’ve drifted into new social norms, habits, and behaviors. This includes changes in how companies are doing business with a huge shift in digital transformation. Consider this: the number of connected devices in 2022 was twice the size of the world population! With no slowdown in sight, how will you manage it? 

The fact is that changes in our industry have reached an “infinite edge.” Previously, the clearly defined start and stop points of the prevalent managed services model existed within the four walls of the end client’s office. As end-client technology has expanded well beyond a physical office, TSPs are now encountering a rapidly changing, boundaryless, and increasingly competitive industry. This often-chaotic, ever-changing environment is referred to as the “infinite edge”—there is no finish line. While TSPs cannot control the infinite edge, they can manage the chaos and opportunity it brings through the right partners, solutions, service, and organizational preparedness. 

You can’t control the chaos, but you can manage it. At ConnectWise, we are ready to help you lean in, get comfortable, and thrive in this new reality.

3 key TPS challenges

We covered many challenges at IT Nation, but three key challenges stood out for our delegates:

The talent gap: When hiring the experts you need is difficult and expensive, it may not seem like a good time to scale and grow your business. But it is possible (and probably) for you to do just that. Despite the infinite edge, MSPs are thriving. More than 78% are hiring due to growth, and 78% project 10% more growth in 2023, according to the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ analysis: “The Partner Opportunity of ConnectWise Cybersecurity Management.”
Doing more with less: Relentless automation can be an essential aspect of an MSP growth strategy to combat the talent gap. Creating efficiencies through automation and other tactics can make growth and scalability affordable and realistic.
Accelerating and strengthening cybersecurity posture: It’s not a matter of if but when you or a client will be directly affected by a cyberattack. Attackers will continue to become more sophisticated, but creating proactive defense and recovery plans can put you in a position to limit disruptions and protect your customers.

Our commitment to helping you tackle these challenges

You are not alone; we are ready to help you navigate and manage the chaos. Whatever your goals, ConnectWise is your supportive partner. We are committed to powering connections that drive your most ambitious vision of success. We connect you to the following:

The largest like-minded community
Leading software solutions
Consultation and expert services
Innovative and reimagined solutions

ConnectWise product updates

Our goal at ConnectWise is to provide an entire ecosystem—from products to community—to help TSPs navigate the ever-changing technology landscape. Here are some key updates we unveiled during the event.

ConnectWise Asio™ platform

The Asio platform is the foundation and cornerstone of our strategy to help you achieve your most ambitious vision of success. The microservices architecture allows for rapid innovation and unmatched extensibility and performance. We’re thrilled that over 15,000 MSPs with hundreds of thousands of end users are experiencing the value of the industry’s only modern, unified platform.

ConnectWise Business Management

End User Customer Portal

New categories give you the ability to display ConnectWise PSA™ parameters and the support of custom fields.
A new form builder is rolling out in Q1, making it easier to build, preview, and test forms.
New dynamic forms will save you time and improve end-user experience.

ITBoost™, a ConnectWise solution

Generate two-factor authentication and one-time passwords to make your team more efficient, effective, and secure while working on customers’ issues

BrightGauge™, a ConnectWise solution

New parent-child dashboards let you make changes that apply across all child dashboards, from a single parent dashboard, making gauge adjustments easier and more streamlined.
New ITBoost integration that provides deep documentation insights so that you can easily ensure knowledge base article health and stay on top of upcoming expirations.

SmileBack™, a ConnectWise solution

Extend the simplicity of SmileBack surveys to your ConnectWise PSA Projects. Initiate it from an email, and gain customer insights throughout your entire project lifecycle to create more impactful, exceptional customer experiences.

ConnectWise CPQ™

The ConnectWise CPQ and Ingram Micro integration has been rewritten. It extends the functionality of the integration to the UK region, including real-time pricing and electronic ordering.

ConnectWise Unified Monitoring and Management

Enhanced third-party patching

New third-party patching policies have already been added, along with support for major applications for Windows and Mac.
Next quarter, we are releasing new reports and datasets, so you can easily see what’s installed, what was missed, and what failed.
Our goal is to keep expanding the list of applications every month so that all major applications are covered, as well as other important apps identified by our partners.

ConnectWise Automate to RMM migration

This year, we’ll expand on the initial version of our ConnectWise Automate to RMM self-service migration utility, which reduced effort by nearly 50% to make it even easier.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

We are in the early access stage of releasing an integration with OpenAI to create easy-to-understand PowerShell scripts and easy-to-generate, fully documented scripts with error handling included within the console. Look for more information in April!

Network Monitoring and Management

ConnectWise RMM will now have built-in network monitoring in some of our product packages. With this new capability, you can easily discover your devices, see network alerts, and even see the full topology map all within RMM.

ConnectWise Cybersecurity Management

ConnectWise SIEM™ Hero Reports 2.0

This elevated version includes sending reports in email format, generating reports directly in PDF format and landscape format, and scheduling for automatic reporting.

ConnectWise Vulnerability Management™

Built on the Asio platform, the latest version of Vulnerability Management has more features, including found vulnerabilities that can be mitigated with the Asio patching service.

ConnectWise SaaS Security Essentials™ now in Asio

We’ve expanded the coverage of SaaS applications to include an easier-to-consume, self-serve version.

SentinelOne integrations

A new integration with ConnectWise RMM means you can manage SentinelOne endpoints directly in RMM.
ConnectWise PSA also has a new integration that generates tickets for SentinelOne alerts, including ticket enrichment with info such as threat intelligence.

We all must move forward in managing the chaos of the infinite edge. If I learned anything at IT Nation London, it’s that our partners are ready for these challenges, and we’ll all work together every step of the way to help you achieve your most ambitious vision of success. On behalf ConnectWise, I invite everyone to check out our upcoming events and experience the inspirational and supportive community that gathers at our IT Nation conferences.

Upcoming IT Nation events

IT Nation Secure in Orlando | June 5-7, 2023

The must-attend cybersecurity conference for MSPs interested in securing their business and clients and building cybersecurity services.

Event info | Pricing | Save your spot ⧉

IT Nation Connect in Orlando | November 8-10, 2023

The premier thought-leadership conference for TSPs designed to promote education, inspiration, and networking in the community.

Event info | Save your spot ⧉

ConnectWise User Groups | Quarterly in a city near you

Regional product training in a city near you.