Peer-To-Peer: Why PSA Is Worth The Investment
Business Solutions magazine interviewed Chris Rumpf, owner of Rumpf Computer Solutions, for the article “Give Your Company A Managed Service Makeover.” Rumpf, a POS VAR-turned-MSP, sells Hardware-as-a-Service and payment processing services.
He says a key to achieving the company’s goal of 100 percent revenue growth over the past year was its new partnership with PSA (professional services automation) vendor ConnectWise. Rumpf says, “One of the biggest mistakes we used to make with selling managed services was coupling our RMM (remote monitoring and management) services with manual processes.” The company’s former system involved paper-and-pencil notes transposed to Quickbooks, 30- to 90-day billing cycles, and incorrect or misunderstood billing. He says this slowed down communication and response times, but also contributed to low profit margins.
“Paying for a PSA is like paying a few hundred dollars per month for an extra employee, eliminating the need for additional support staff,” Rumpf explains. “I'd rather let ConnectWise take ownership of those functions in my business so we can be more profitable without having to increase sales.”
He adds that the ticketing function of the PSA is also beneficial. “In the service industry, most people know how important it is to meet customer expectations. I don't think a lot of people realize that setting those customer expectations is even more critical to the success of your business.”
He explains a PSA with ticketing is an automatic way to accomplish this. For example, after you order parts to repair a system, you can change the ticket status to “Waiting Parts/Repair.” The customer automatically gets a message indicating you have a plan in place to solve the problem, you ordered hardware, and you will send another message to let them know the date when you will make the repair. Rumpf says this enables your support team to meet customers’ expectations easily — and the PSA automatically adds the hardware you ordered to an invoice and bills it to the customer seven days after it arrives.
“It's all about streamlining your internal processes so that items are entered into your system one time, reviewed one time, and then sent out to customers,” Rumpf comments.