How Overcoming the Fear of Change Lead to Skyrocketing Growth for One ITSP Realized Solutions

Founded in 2003, RSI was on the cutting-edge of the MSP market. A few years later, they adopted Continuum as their RMM solution, believing it was the best option at the time. Over the years, they noticed the product was being outpaced by competitors, but remained loyal. Although they were in the business of helping customers leverage IT to drive results, they struggled internally with the idea of changing such an important business tool. However, once RSI began to get serious about strategic growth, they reached a tipping point. Only a best-in-class RMM solution would allow them to achieve their goals.

Challenge

RSI’s success as a full-service IT solution provider (ITSP) was built by helping customers leverage IT to maximize ROI. Ironically, the remote monitoring and management (RMM) solution they used internally was not helping to maximize their own growth potential.

Solution

As RSI developed a formal growth strategy, they realized that switching to a best-in-class RMM solution was necessary to achieve their profit goals.

Results

RSI has grown 20% and improved their margins on managed service engagements since implementing ConnectWise Automate™ because their management team has been able to switch their focus to working on the business instead of in it.

“Our average ticket times are WAY down. We close most tickets in less than an hour.”

– JOHN BEYER, President Realized Solutions, Inc.

Fear is Overrated

After watching demonstrations, learning about integrations, and evaluating over six competitive options, they decided on ConnectWise Automate and, according to John Beyer, RSI President, “We haven’t looked back.” Even though RSI identified weaknesses in Continuum, they were hesitant to make a change, fearing a painful transition. Luckily, the implementation of ConnectWise Automate was easy. The staff was spun up quickly and after a brief transition period, they were all onboard. Since then, much has changed.

Manage More – With Continuum, RSI was limited in their ability to manage large engagements; their largest customers had 50 machines each. With ConnectWise Automate, their bandwidth grew, enabling them to support dozens of customers with 75-100 machines each.

Automate It – With ConnectWise Automate, ticket times are down; most close in an hour or less. Processes that were once manual have been automated. Agents are installed automatically using a group policy when a new machine is added to a client, which ensures account accuracy, faster installation, and peace of mind knowing the machine is protected from day one. Many routine functions, such as hard drive defrags, are also set to auto-run so a technician never needs to engage with the ticket.

Enhance Visibility – With Continuum, RSI never had holistic visibility into their clients’ systems. When searching for a new RMM solution, they were determined to find one offering a single-pane-of-glass for various add-ons and plug-ins such as antivirus and security. ConnectWise Automate allowed RSI to stop hunting for pieces of information related to client health. Instead, everything is visible in the solutions center for quick correlation, diagnosis, and problem-solving.

Write A Script. Fix A Problem. Fast. – WannaCry ransomware and Intel AMT firmware vulnerabilities sent many IT professionals into a panic. Within one hour of learning about these issues, RSI simply wrote a script for ConnectWise Automate that identified and listed vulnerable machines. In less than 24 hours, all were patched and protected. “We were able to patch vulnerabilities immediately,” said John Beyer. “With Continuum, we’d have had to wait weeks for a custom script.”

Find Seamless Integration – RSI had been using ConnectWise Manage since 2009, but not until they implemented ConnectWise Automate were they able to benefit from seamless integration between their business management platform and RMM solution. Being able to granularly differentiate between service boards and auto-assign tickets more effectively allows technicians to start jobs faster and reduce the ticket queue. “With Continuum, things were falling through the cracks,” according to John Beyer. “With ConnectWise Manage and Automate, that never happens.”

The Price for Sticking with the Devil You Know

Just as there is a literal price to pay when switching to a new IT solution, there is also a missed opportunity cost associated with sticking to a product you’ve outgrown. RSI achieved 20% growth and increased their average margin on managed service engagements to 18% after switching to ConnectWise Automate. “Most people are hesitant to make a change, sticking with the devil they know,” says John Beyer. “I would say, ‘Take the jump. Do yourself a favor.’