4 benefits of an RMM

In this highly remote, highly mobile day and age, many business functions, tasks, and jobs are performed in a distributed way. Both managed service providers (MSPs) and their clients are trying to do more with less, from locations all over the country and the world. A remote monitoring management (RMM) tool is a crucial part of any MSP’s growth to support smooth business operations, efficient technicians, and client satisfaction.

If you’re considering whether an RMM can solve your challenges as an MSP, you’re not alone. In this post, we highlight the top four benefits of an RMM.

Make integrated ticketing pain free

Your customer’s email goes down—what do you do? All too often, a technician spends time gathering details via the phone and patching together the next steps based on an incomplete set of information.

With an RMM, MSPs can:

• Empower their customers to create tickets instantly, with all the information a technician needs to start fixing the problem
• Automatically dispatch tickets to specific technicians, ensuring the right reps work on the client’s problem
• Create a record of attempted automation tasks by automatically documenting them, giving technicians a head start
• Link tickets to the client’s full history and background, so that technicians can understand the bigger picture. This integrated approach makes tickets pain-free.

Take, for example, our PSA solution, ConnectWise PSA™ (formerly Manage). It integrates with ConnectWise Automate®. to solve issues quickly and monitor for future problems. It also integrates with ConnectWise Control® so technicians can start a remote session. Check out our eBook on ConnectWise PSA and ConnectWise Automate for more information.

Automate routine actions

Finding qualified IT workers is difficult. MSPs need to focus their employees’ time on the biggest client challenges and needs. But if the staff is tied up with routine tasks—like patching, network scans, agent deployment, and more—then bigger issues can fall by the wayside or take too long to resolve.

Since customers expect speed when it comes to solving IT challenges, any delay can decrease their satisfaction. An RMM can automate many daily, routine tasks, freeing up your team’s time for more pressing, high-skill work.

Support security

Automation has an additional benefit: security. As more and more work becomes digitized, virtual, and remote, security threats only grow. With routine but essential security tasks like software patching handled automatically, MSPs have peace of mind that clients’ endpoints are safe and up-to-date.

RMMs allow MSPs to identify and address a number of IT issues that pose security risks, including:

• Configuring policies and automatic patching for Windows®, Microsoft®, and other third-party software providers
• Identifying out-of-warranty devices
• Monitoring and managing passwords and mailboxes
• Managing general memory, CPU, and other health metrics for endpoints
• Flagging any “strange” behavior, such as server outages, that may indicate a cybersecurity threat

It’s also worth noting that MSPs handle sensitive client information and have access to crucial systems. So, it’s vital that MSPs not only offer secure solutions to their clients, but that the MSP itself is also secure. As we like to say: You need to protect your own house before you can protect others.

Scale efficiently

RMMs enable process-oriented operations by:

• Keeping issues from ever happening with proactive monitoring
• Automatically fixing issues after they occur with scripting
• Saving technicians time by scripting basic tasks and documenting the results

With more efficient processes, automated tasks, and integrated operations, the right RMM is a powerful tool in helping MSPs scale up and reduce costs.

Beyond cost savings, however, an RMM leads to faster, better resolutions, which provides customers with a better experience, leading to happier customers who value the MSP’s support. This, in turn, leads to a better pricing model for an MSP’s services. In short, happy customers are good for growth, and an RMM is an integral part of any MSP’s success and good reputation.

An RMM can also be a powerful selling point. By demonstrating the ability to put a few agents on devices and pick up issues, MSPs can show potential clients where they have IT gaps and where the MSP can help.

RMMs: a crucial tool for any MSP

Organizations today face an increasingly complex IT landscape. Everyone from the smallest dentist’s office to a large hospital needs to ensure secure and efficient operations. Any technical glitch or problem can significantly slow their business and hurt their customers.

MSPs supporting these organizations are now expected to prevent issues from ever happening and, if/when they do occur, they must respond instantly and solve the problem efficiently. RMM tools support MSPs by putting in place process-oriented operations. And, ultimately, what’s good for you as an MSP is good for your clients.