In this article about Autotask PSA review and alternatives, we will look at one of the leading PSA solutions on the market today. We will have a look at how it can help your business take control of all aspects of service delivery.
What is Autotask PSA?
Autotask PSA is a product from Datto that acts as a central hub for any Managed Service Provider (MSP). An MSP is a third-party company that remotely manages a client’s IT infrastructure and end-user systems. The management service may cover tasks like network and hardware management as well as security and monitoring of endpoint software solutions.
The “PSA” in Autotask PSA stands for “Professional Services Automation”.
A PSA solution integrates with the client’s mission-critical processes or processing applications and provides full visibility into data about customers, operations, and even profitability. It is usually customized or fine-tuned to the needs of the MSP as well as the systems and hardware that are being monitored to cater to unique workflows and business processes.
PSA is the technology used for managing and automating business processes surrounding service delivery. It aims to optimize these processes holistically to improve delivery execution and overall profitability.
Therefore, Autotask Professional Services Automation (PSA) is a powerful and intuitive cloud-based PSA platform that is used to provide a single view of an entire business and its infrastructure with the intent of improving its service delivery and overall profitability.
Why do businesses need MSPs?
The main reason businesses need MSPs is to handle management services daily so they can focus on improving their services without worrying about extended system downtimes or service interruptions.
They can focus on their core business processes and rest assured that the underlying infrastructure is being taken care of by professionals who have in-depth insight into the whole architecture. The MSPs can spot bottlenecks, and failures, and remedy them from a single, central dashboard or widget that enables them to make data-driven decisions.
What are its features?
Let’s have a look at some features that come with Autotask PSA:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) This tool works as a customer relations management solution for the improvement of relationships with customers, partners, and vendors and is extensible with other Datto products as well as numerous third-party solutions.
- Assets Management Autotask PSA gives control over the full hardware and software stack included in its product list. They are all manageable from one pane.
- Sales Control They can manage their sales right in Autotask PSA and monitor their sales pipelines from end-to-end with the help of tools that help with tasks like opportunity management for tracking and managing sales opportunities and a Contact Group Manager to organize contacts into flexible groups and communicate with all members at once.
- Contract Management Autotask helps users capture and manage every billable hour and expense that is associated with every billable hour, as well as expenses associated with other projects and services. The contracts and bills can be tracked and reconciled against accounts on a balance sheet or ledger.
- Knowledgebase and Documentation All information and experience garnered on a project can be used to build a knowledge base while configurations and changes can be tracked using a documentation manager. Users can even view all assets that have approaching expiration dates of warranties, SSL certificates, and domains under an expiration dates manager.
- Service Desk and Ticketing Users can track support issues, service requests, incidents, and problems for both internal and external customers. They can create service calls by either starting with the service call or with one or more tasks and tickets. The tool has workflow automation capabilities like form templates and speed codes to automatically populate fields on tickets and other forms. Those working with other service providers can use the ticket outsourcing module to keep track of the work they have transferred to partner companies.
- Service Desk Automation and Enhancement Autotask PSA offers tools that can automate many other manual processes that are also part of the ticketing workflow. It has a complete Service Desk solution, with service level management and built-in customer surveys.
- Project Management Autotask projects include elements like schedules with phases, assigned tasks with set deadlines, project teams, budgets, and reports to monitor progress which are all required to meet a specific business objective.
- Inventory Management Businesses can keep track of inventory, issue purchase orders, and manage procurement workflow. They can set up inventory products and locations and manage inventory products and stocked items. They can reserve and transfer inventory items to customers and manage returns from the customers.
- Billing With Autotask PSA, users have the capability of billing their customers. They can slash the time associated with their billing cycle and improve their cash flows through faster invoicing.
- Reports The tool has a large number of reports but also allows clients to create their own custom reports using its LiveReports feature.
Autotask PSA is highly flexible and can integrate into any infrastructure – it has a LiveMobile module that allows users to access their work on the go using browsers, Android, and iOS devices. It also has a wide array of applications that have been created by vendors and partners that can integrate with the tool.
What features make Autotask PSA stand out?
Although there are various versions of Autotask PSA that come with numerous features to enable, there are 4 key features that make Autotask PSA stand out. They are:
- Contract and License Management Users can manage various contract types, terms, and billing options to ensure compliance and service quality.
- Forecasting This tool has reports that can be used to forecast growths using various fields, categories, and parameters.
- IT Asset Management Autotask customers use configuration management in conjunction with Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software. When there is an issue with an asset and the monitoring software triggers an alert, a new ticket is automatically created with all related asset information already filled in.
- Vendor Management The tool can handle costs from invoices from vendors. There are many configurations and scenarios in which Autotask is created to handle outliers including sending tickets to service networks or vendors that do not fit the outsource partner model. It has an outsourcing network for outsourcing tickets to such businesses directly from within Autotask PSA.
What can businesses expect by implementing Autotask PSA?
Some advantages that can be expected from installing Autotask PSA include:
- They can win new business by taking charge of their sales pipelines from end to end – from onboarding new clients to after-sales customer relations management.
- Leveraging a complete Service Desk means they can improve on service delivery that can always be improved with service level management and customer surveys to ensure satisfaction remains high.
- Shorter billing times and no time wasted on non-billable time spent on preparing invoices as well as improved cash flows thanks to the faster invoicing. It also captures all billable hours and expenses of associated projects and services – all of which are reconcilable in ledgers.
- Streamlined documentation and knowledge base help clients build a fortress of knowledge that can be used to ensure accountability, standardization of service delivery, insightful troubleshooting as well as efficient issue resolution.
Businesses can rely on Autotask PSA to get a complete insight into their full operational stack. They will have information like due dates, billable hours, resource under-utilization, and non-optimal operation at a glance. All this information will help them take full control of their business.
Who is Autotask PSA for?
Autotask PSA is a solution for any type of business or organization regardless of whether they are mid-size businesses, small businesses, enterprises, nonprofits, or government institutions.
But, the most common users of Autotask PSA are small businesses with 1-50 employees, and the Information Technology and Services industry.
What is the pricing?
You can reach out to Datto for information on Autotask PSA pricing. You can try Autotask PSA by signing up for a Demo.
What are some Autotask PSA alternatives?
Let’s have a look at some of the best alternative PSA solutions that compete with Autotask PSA:
1. Atera (FREE TRIAL)
Atera is another popular PSA tool that is easy to use and implement. It offers a superb UX while also offering insightful and intuitive dashboards that make users’ jobs pleasant as well as backed by solid information.
Key Features:
- This is a simple Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software solution designed for MSPs and IT professionals.
- It also has modules for PSA, Remote Access, Billing, Reporting, and more – all on one platform to help manage a wide variety of services with a high degree of flexibility and without ever missing SLAs.
- All support provided can be captured, and billed, with the help of third-party integrations like QuickBooks, Xero, and Freshbooks.
- Its remote access capabilities allow for both attended and unattended integrated remote support which can be further enhanced with pre-configured administrative and maintenance tasks which can be applied to servers and workstations.
Start a 30-day free trial.
2. HaloPSA
HaloPSA is arguably one of the best help desk ticketing systems designed for MSPs and IT service providers. It is also easy to use and offers a simple UX.
Key Features:
- Users can easily manage incidents and meet SLAs through HaloPSA’s incident management features. They can automate their workflows and centralize communications.
- They can catalog and keep track of stock controls and costing analysis for easier traceability and seamless service.
- Billing processes become easier with the simple configuration of automatic time capture, monthly billing, and timesheets.
- It keeps track of all contracts throughout their lifecycle – software licenses, leases, maintenance contracts, and more –and helps with managing approval workflows
- It has centralized stock management that allows for tracking levels and selling to customers and billing them accordingly.
Try HaloPSA for FREE.
3. ConnectWise Manage
ConnectWise Manage is a PSA solution that connects all of a business’s operations. It creates a single view via a single data layer for a clearer and streamlined insight into all that is happening in the business.
Key Features:
- The help desk automation and workflow functionality is designed to streamline support operations by keeping the agents responsive and productive – no matter how challenging an issue is.
- It has a cloud billing feature to help with the management, monitoring, and billing of other public cloud services like Microsoft 365 and Cisco Cloud Solutions.
- Meanwhile, its sales and marketing features allow control of generating leads, which helps build a stronger, more predictable pipeline, and improve communication with prospects to ensure higher conversion rates.
- Users will love the procurement feature which optimizes internal purchasing and receiving workflows to keep both the operations department and customers in the know.
- It also has time tracking and billing features that are designed to reduce revenue loss and client skepticism. It simplifies the task of tracking a team’s billable hours by the minute—by client, project, and tasks.
Try Connectwise Manage for FREE.
4. FinancialForce PSA
FinancialForce PSA (now Certinia) is a tool that offers full visibility into a business’ service workflows to help connect the right resources with the right projects. It offers Enterprise-class scalability that allows it to be used by businesses of any size.
Key Features:
- It can connect sales and services for customer satisfaction and better resource management.
- It is optimized to manage multiple services-based billing models meaning users are free to develop custom pricing and billing processes. It can handle time and materials (T&M), subscription-based contracts, fixed-fee services – or a blend of models – as well as all sources of revenue and billing.
- It helps plug in revenue leakage by automating and streamlining processes across service-related billing. It speeds up the billing cycle and reduces risks associated with managing opportunities, engagements, billing, and revenue – even when disparate systems are involved.
- Automated sending of information between teams makes it available to all stakeholders with no manual intervention required and in real-time.
- FinancialForce PSA Communities allows businesses to collaborate, share, and communicate with their partners and clients. They can leverage partner and customer interactions using secure central access to relevant information, reports, and project plans.
Request a FinancialForce PSA demo for FREE.
5. Productive
Productive is a PSA tool for businesses of all sizes – big or small. It is a tool that is ideal for software development, marketing, and design agencies or consultancies that are looking for a “single source of truth” tool.
Key Features:
- It consolidates data in one agency management system to help run projects from prospecting to payment – and everything in between.
- It is the one tool for complex budgeting and resource planning as well as a single source of truth for all your financial data, leads, budgets, and team communication.
- Users monitor the state of their budgets and profit margins in real time while visualizing sales processes by setting up sales funnels in stages – this helps deliver data-driven decisions.
- Start and deliver each billable and non-billable service by centralizing communication. Collaborate with teammates on tasks in real-time, streamline best practices, and let clients in on progress.
- It performs accounting tasks like revenue recognition, revenue, and profit forecasting, and Invoiced revenue by month – all of which can be integrated into tools like XERO, QuickBooks, and Exact.
Try Productive for FREE.
Autotask PSA recommendation
A business that needs to take control of its financials, customers, and assets needs Autotask PSA. This is a recommended solution that puts all this information in easy reach of all stakeholders – from owners to support personnel – and under one platform.
The overall recommendation for users thinking of installing Autotask PSA is: go for it. It is worth the investment.
We would like your thoughts on this solution – leave us a comment below.
