I never saw an answer as to whether or not CW was going to drop Kaseya suuport or not.

Or Kaseya rep has told us they are going to integrate a PSA solution into Kaseya and not to waste our money, but as we all know, the first version or two isn't going to get the job done. I've never been the guy who jumped in the pool first and I don't intend to when a lot of money is on the line.

So... can anyone verify if CW is going to drop Kaseya? Or maybe where this rumor came from to start with?

Jamie




Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: jamie177

Hi

The last time that I asked CW about a couple a months ago, there were no plans to drop Kaseya support.

Howard Cunningham

howardc@macrollc.com


Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: howardc

I have been torn between paying for Connectwise, Autotask, or using CRM myself.
I have been using the CRM 3 product for almost a month now.

I like the product, and I like its pricing, but it is a bare bones offering...i,e, you will have to mod it to meet your needs. In that modding part is additional time and cost.

I am not a fan of great pains... as it affectionately known to IT, but it is not a bad offering.

I am still trying to find something a little more to my liking.
Connectwise... expensive, but it sounds like people here like it a lot.
Autotask...not as expensive, but missing a few shiny baubles.
CRM - bring your wrench, and other tools becuase you are going to have to finish it out.


I actually liked the flexibility of the Microsoft offering the best, combined with its price point... it is the clear winner for customization.


I am experimenting with a open source freeware app on a linux box... I should have it up soon, and I will render an opinion.

I do not like the price of Connectwise at all. It is way to expensive to fit our model.
We are more like VPlaza and less like an individual company in that regard.

CRM 3 will ultimately be the best way to go on that, but autotask has a fine product as well...The downside again, is pay and pay and pay some more....


I want to know what Kaseya has in store.... I wish they would put in a competent PSA product in for the current ticketing system. That would make me one happy camper indeed.


Gamer-X

Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: Gamer-X

I use ConnectWise. All I can say is this. There's much more then ticketing to a PSA solution. I would imagine it would be a few years before Kaseya could build a similar feature set to ConnectWise. Of course, they could go acquire someone to add the functionality. However, either way it's not going to come without an add-on price tag. They are missing invoicing, scheduling, contact management, expense tracking, block time/agreement tracking, sales tools. This is only the basics.Companies like ConnectWise and AutoTask are not going to sit still and wait for Kaseya to get going. You can buy what's available today or you can wait for the next best thing.As I remember this was called "vaporware". There's always going to be something better on the horizon. Just remember the horizon never ends.

Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: connectex

connectex wrote:

I use ConnectWise. All I can say is this. There's much more then ticketing to a PSA solution. I would imagine it would be a few years before Kaseya could build a similar feature set to ConnectWise. Of course, they could go acquire someone to add the functionality. However, either way it's not going to come without an add-on price tag. They are missing invoicing, scheduling, contact management, expense tracking, block time/agreement tracking, sales tools. This is only the basics.Companies like ConnectWise and AutoTask are not going to sit still and wait for Kaseya to get going. You can buy what's available today or you can wait for the next best thing.As I remember this was called "vaporware". There's always going to be something better on the horizon. Just remember the horizon never ends.

While we love the products that Kaseya offers, and believe anything that Kaseya delivers will be top notch - I have to agree with this 100%. The value that connectwise brings far exceeds the price. The cost is NOTHING! Really, it's flat out nothing in compared to the value.

I too agree 100% that it will take many many years for any company"just starting now" will take far too long to get it together the way Connectwise and Autotask got it. I don't care if the kaseya offering was free. Free is WAY to expensive when you consider the "bottom line" impact of such a system to my company.

You have to think of these products like how you sell you clients your services. If your client just look your price tag for face value - we would all be doomed. It's about value. I would rather pay 1 million $ for somthing if it was going to make me 3 million - than to pay $1,000 to make $3,000.

-Farzon


Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: far182

First off, I really like what I've seen from the CW demo, especially integration with Kaseya. Tight integration ofKaseya with our PSA is critical to us.

This January, just after we signed on with Kaseya, we talked to a CW sales rep. Severalthings were inferred during that conversation which bothered us:

1.The story we were told was "The Kaseya guy" at CW had passed away, and CW decided to move from Kaseya to another product, potentially changing CW's product focus. With CW moving "away" from Kaseya, we began to wonder about CW providing future updates and support for us as a Kaseya customer. CW couldn't provide a direct answer at the time.

2.CW knows Kaseya is working on their own PSA offering, andexpressed concern CW would be "locked out" of the KaseyaAPI at a future time. With Kaseya developing their own tools, how much cooperation would they provide other developers?

That was our impression of the CW/Kaseya situation at that time. We have not heard anything further from either company, so if anything else has occurred, no one has told us.


Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: dataservcorp

If Kaseya was/is developing its own PSA offering, it would be a very bad decision to cut off existing PSA products from integration. That plus incentives other MSP software vendors are offering could have a definite impact on their user base.

Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: connectex

connectex wrote:

If Kaseya was/is developing its own PSA offering, it would be a very bad decision to cut off existing PSA products from integration. That plus incentives other MSP software vendors are offering could have a definite impact on their user base.

I don't think Kaseya has or will cut off anyone. The problem here is that Connectwise did 99.99% of the coding to make the integration work (from my understanding). Now, if Connectwise decides it's not worth to keep up with keeping everything working - then we are doomed.

Personally, I can't see how Connectwise would be willing todo that as they would be throwing away the sales of their MSP module which we all pay a pretty penny for. I do wish though that Kaseya made this relationship stronger.


Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: far182

Sorry, double post....

Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: connectex

far182 wrote:

I don't think Kaseya has or will cut off anyone. The problem here is that Connectwise did 99.99% of the coding to make the integration work (from my understanding). Now, if Connectwise decides it's not worth to keep up with keeping everything working - then we are doomed.

I think ConnectWise's approach to support of accounting packages could be a indicator. They continue to add support for additional accounting packages. I think it's the same with the MSP software offerings. No one offeringfor accounting or MSP software will satisify everyone. Hopefully they understand this and will continue to evolve.

BTW, your right from what I've heard about the ConnectWise MSP option. Supposedly Kaseya doesn't have a truly documented API available and ConnectWise pulls data directly out of the Kaseya SQL DB. It's ashame they had to go through all that extra work to do so. Kaseya get an API together and make it generally available to partners and developers!


Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: connectex

connectex wrote:

far182 wrote:

I don't think Kaseya has or will cut off anyone. The problem here is that Connectwise did 99.99% of the coding to make the integration work (from my understanding). Now, if Connectwise decides it's not worth to keep up with keeping everything working - then we are doomed.

I think ConnectWise's approach to support of accounting packages could be a indicator. They continue to add support for additional accounting packages. I think it's the same with the MSP software offerings. No one offeringfor accounting or MSP software will satisify everyone. Hopefully they understand this and will continue to evolve.

BTW, your right from what I've heard about the ConnectWise MSP option. Supposedly Kaseya doesn't have a truly documented API available and ConnectWise pulls data directly out of the Kaseya SQL DB. It's ashame they had to go through all that extra work to do so. Kaseya get an API together and make it generally available to partners and developers!

I believe the API is on it's way.

Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: far182

FYI: Oursoftware integrates with Kaseya, similar to CW and others.

A few items to add:

• The API details (or some of them) will be discussed at the upcoming Vegas conference.
  
• Kaseya integrates with Acronis, VNC and RAdmin. Everyone else (including us) either push/pull data from the DB or simulates the GUI. Kaseya is ASP plus SQL, so most (if not all) the code is available for viewing or changing.
  
• ConnectWise will be at the CMP XChange Solution Provider conference this week in San Deigo. I will be there and will certainly ask, but if anyone else will be there it couldn't hurt to repeat it.

FWIW: We provide a hosted-version of Kaseya to other IT firms and I approached CW in early December about integrating their On Demand solution with our OD solution. Everything was moving along at a rapid pace and then one day they stopped returning phone calls, emails, etc.. I never knew what happened, but maybe it was the "Kaseya guy."

Also, at the beginning, CW did want to know why we needed their solution since they metioned Kaseya would eventually have its own. I didn't know about K's future modules(it is just rumors anyway) and still wanted to work with them.

Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: bellcpa

Hi

To clarify, the CW "kaseya guy" was a long time CW employee that worked on the IT services side of CW (CW has real IT service clients in addition to their PSA software). The guy managed the day to day operation of KAseya for CW as well as other service management items. He was not invloved in the development of the CW PSA software.

Howard Cunningham

Macro Systems, LLC


Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: howardc

I've read most all of the comments but nothing specific on why AutoTask or Connectwise. Someone with the comment that the business model fit more with Autotask was probably the closest. I personally would like to hear from the person that used AutoTask for sometime then switched to Connectwise. Why did you switch, specifically. But at the end everyone has to look at what they need (requirements) and find the product that fits, versus finding a product and trying to mold your business around it.

My company uses AutoTask and I'll try to bulletize the pro's and con's. Then a reason why we chose one over the other.

Pro's

• Web based - we have multiple locations and Engineers scattered throughout the US
  
• No Client to Install
  
• Mobile Version that is web based
  
• Easy Maintenance: We don't have to do backup, etc...
  
• Responsive Support Team
  
• Responsive Sales - After the Sale

Con's

• Product is still somewhat juvenile - bugs here and there.
  
• Customizations can be complicated - but support will walk you through this.
  
• Email API strips attachments
  
• No ability to Merge a Ticket
  
• No threading of email tickets - This is possibly the most annoying issue.

To this day I still feel CW is a far better product but we still chose AutoTask. CW Sales and support are non-existent. If I'm a pre-sales customer and can't get a call back from sales then they must not want to sell. I left 4 messages and they only way we got ahold of sales was some random chance that one of the partners called in and talked to someone, then conferenced us in.

I also tend to test the support organization before hand by calling and sending in emails. Non of which ever got a response, not even a we can't find you in our customer database.

AutoTask was very responsive. 1:1 on calls and emails. Support helped me then when evaluating the product and I still call in and get a tech within 2 minutes.

So my decision was based more on that I want to spend time on growing the business versus tinkering and support another product. Also the training in Autotask is far better then what connectwise had to offer, which makes a difference when you want to train new Tech's. I don't have to sit there with them, I have them sign up for AutoTask Live Training which is Free and ask any questions there.

In the end I could see that AutoTask had a higher commitment to bettering their product. Monthly/bi-monthly releases to add functionality. Yes CW has integration with Kaseya, but I don't find it hard to login to Kaseya to check things out anyways. It didn't seem like a workflow problem that needed to be solved.

In terms of cost I would say they are both comparable. To say that with AutoTask you Pay and Pay. Heck run CW on the same server for 5 years without an upgrade you'll be paying more. Plus the backups, etc... With CW you can own the product, but I don't recommend ever discontinuing support or not paying the maintenance. If your business is in that bad a shape that you can't afford the cost of this, go back to a job as you shouldn't be in business. Every business has a cost of doing business and either of these products is just one of them.




Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: jbland

I've read most all of the comments but nothing specific on why AutoTask or Connectwise. Someone with the comment that the business model fit more with Autotask was probably the closest. I personally would like to hear from the person that used AutoTask for sometime then switched to Connectwise. Why did you switch, specifically. But at the end everyone has to look at what they need (requirements) and find the product that fits, versus finding a product and trying to mold your business around it.

My company uses AutoTask and I'll try to bulletize the pro's and con's. Then a reason why we chose one over the other.

Pro's

• Web based - we have multiple locations and Engineers scattered throughout the US
  
• No Client to Install
  
• Mobile Version that is web based
  
• Easy Maintenance: We don't have to do backup, etc...
  
• Responsive Support Team
  
• Responsive Sales - After the Sale

Con's

• Product is still somewhat juvenile - bugs here and there.
  
• Customizations can be complicated - but support will walk you through this.
  
• Email API strips attachments
  
• No ability to Merge a Ticket
  
• No threading of email tickets - This is possibly the most annoying issue.

To this day I still feel CW is a far better product but we still chose AutoTask. CW Sales and support are non-existent. If I'm a pre-sales customer and can't get a call back from sales then they must not want to sell. I left 4 messages and they only way we got ahold of sales was some random chance that one of the partners called in and talked to someone, then conferenced us in.

I also tend to test the support organization before hand by calling and sending in emails. Non of which ever got a response, not even a we can't find you in our customer database.

AutoTask was very responsive. 1:1 on calls and emails. Support helped me then when evaluating the product and I still call in and get a tech within 2 minutes.

So my decision was based more on that I want to spend time on growing the business versus tinkering and support another product. Also the training in Autotask is far better then what connectwise had to offer, which makes a difference when you want to train new Tech's. I don't have to sit there with them, I have them sign up for AutoTask Live Training which is Free and ask any questions there.

In the end I could see that AutoTask had a higher commitment to bettering their product. Monthly/bi-monthly releases to add functionality. Yes CW has integration with Kaseya, but I don't find it hard to login to Kaseya to check things out anyways. It didn't seem like a workflow problem that needed to be solved.

In terms of cost I would say they are both comparable. To say that with AutoTask you Pay and Pay. Heck run CW on the same server for 5 years without an upgrade you'll be paying more. Plus the backups, etc... With CW you can own the product, but I don't recommend ever discontinuing support or not paying the maintenance. If your business is in that bad a shape that you can't afford the cost of this, go back to a job as you shouldn't be in business. Every business has a cost of doing business and either of these products is just one of them.




Legacy Forum Name: Partner to Partner,
Legacy Posted By Username: jbland