Speaking from Kaseya Connect Europe in Barcelona, Spain, Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola offered the following remarks last week when announcing the availability of his company’s new PSA-to-PSA migration tool:

“ConnectWise has misinformed the market that migrating among PSAs is a Herculean task. It’s just a structured database. It’s not that hard…I’ve done it. What we’ve done is invested a lot of money on building our PSA…data, workflows and getting (MSPs) off of a first-gen, legacy product like ConnectWise.” 

This morning, ConnectWise vice president of product Craig Fulton issued the following statement:

Today, technology solution providers (TSP) have more options than ever when choosing software for their business (historically a PSA provider). This is good. More choice means they are more likely to find a provider that better fits their specific business needs.

Craig Fulton, VP Product, ConnectWise

This is especially important when a TSP reaches the point where it’s time to move beyond a PSA to a complete business management platform that gives them the ability to increase efficiency and productivity – as well as grow their business – in a way not possible with a less functional, limited feature application that really is not much more than a database.

We’re finding that some TSPs worry about the complexity of moving from their current PSA system to a complete business management platform. Part of this worry is likely because of the amount of misinformation out there about how complicated the migration can be when it comes time to move databases.   

To be honest, moving a business’s database from one system to another is a straightforward process. The challenging part of a migration – and what some PSA providers fail to discuss – is the time required to develop new processes, the time required to train the people, and the time required to add more automation that is available with a more robust solution.   

The software and database is one part of a complete solution – there also must be consulting, implementation, training and support to make a complete solution.

So as companies think about making a move from one system to another, we always like to remind them that it’s not the database that drives business. It’s the processes that drive business.

For a TSP to grow, its new application must take advantage of so many functional areas – marketing, quoting, sales, procurement, professional services, service and help desk, finance, accounting, automation, and remote control – that go way beyond a PSA solution.

These functional parts rely upon business automation to be efficient and deliver an exceptional customer experience throughout the entire journey of any practice area. The new system also should support a variety of TSP practice areas, including VAR, MSP, systems integrator, software development, project work, and more.

This is why we always recommend selecting a solution that you imagine being in your business five years out. It needs to not just solve today’s problems, but also must be able to solve future challenges as your business grows. 

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