Professional services automation platform provider Autotask is preparing a major update to its user interface designed to enable partners to configure their own data driven, real time dashboards and extract more value out of the Autotask platform.

Pat Burns, VP of product management for the company offered a preview of the new user interface and dashboards to partners at Autotask Community Live in Miami this week.  

“I lose sleep over customers not getting the full value out of Autotask,” Burns said during a keynote address on Monday. “This project is about unlocking the value for our customers.”

Burns said that partners should think of it as more than a dashboard. They should look at it as a tool.

The dashboards are made up of sets of data objects that enable managed service providers to visualize data in the way that they choose instantly. Then users can drill down deeper into data sets.

“It’s all about presenting the information and data that has high relevancy,” he said.

Longtime Autotask MSP Power Consulting expects the new UI to save on a top resource – time. “My operations and my help desk manager, the information they can capture in a second or in an hour using this will make a big difference,” Gary Powers, co-founder and owner told me. “They can catch issues before they happen.”

Powers’ company, based in New York City, served as a research stop for Burns as he watched how different types of users within MSPs worked with Autotask.

“He got our perspective on how our departments would use the dashboards and what were the analytics that were important to them,” Powers told me.

During his keynote address this week, Burns said that the new UI will include more than 50 predefined widgets and 12 total data indices that MSPs can configure in Autotask. In addition, use cases will be mapped to four user personas – in predefined dashboards that are useable right away for sales managers, service managers, owners and more.

A service manager dashboard would typically include widgets for open tickets, tickets due today, SLA performance and accounts with survey scores of less than 3.0

The dashboard will also include a search field to enable users to quickly locate the exact information they want – a certain ticket, for example.  The addition of a ticket work list eliminates the need for technicians to use multiple popup windows.

Burns said Autotask is targeting October for general release to all partners of the new UI. He expects a limited pilot in late September.

More information about the new UI is available at http://newui.autotask.com

Burns said the goal of the new UI is to simplify getting value out of Autotask’s software.  “This is foundational,” Burns told me. “…The dashboards are the beachhead.”