Kaseya Financial Software Strategy Comes Into Focus for MSPs

Kaseya continues to push beyond its traditional remote monitoring and IT automation software market. By leveraging two acquisitions plus home-grown code, Kaseya may eventually blur the line between RMM (remote monitoring and management) and certain PSA (professional services automation) software capabilities. Just this week, Kaseya has launched two new modules — Service Billing 1.0 and Service Desk 1.3 — to help MSPs manage billable time against open tickets and work orders, while also automating billing processes. But I suspect Kaeya’s financial software strategy won’t end there. Here’s why.

Rewind the clock a bit:

• In 2009, Kaseya quietly acquired Datatune, Inc.’s assets. Datatune had developed a Billing for IT Services application — which sounds somewhat similar to PSA (professional services automation) software.
• In August 2010, Kaseya described a long-term Business Center PSA strategy.
• By November 2010, Kaseya disclosed a multi-million-dollar financial software acquisition involving ObjAcct, Inc., which develops an XML-based accounting software suite. Eventually, Kaseya said, the software will allow MSPs and corporate IT managers to track and monetize the costs associated with delivering IT services.

Lump the Datatune and ObjAcct buyouts together, and Kaseya seemed serious about linking financial management to the IT services industry. Updated April 20, 9:23 a.m. eastern : Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie explains the acquisitions and financial software components here.

Here and Now

Now, fast-forward to the present. Kaseya this week unveiled Service Billing 1.0 and Service Desk 1.3, which are positioned for SMB customers and MSPs.

“These two products are target toward locally-focused and regionally-focused SMB’s. Their teams tend to know the technical side of things but not so much the account accounting and business side,” said Kaseya’s Director of Product Marketing Gerald Beaulieu. For example, MSPs that run Quickbooks — the accounting program made by Intuit — can use Service Billing 1.0 to create invoices and then flow the invoices into Quickbooks  to process receipts and generate tax and financial statements.

Beaulieu stressed that the Service Billing 1.0 and Service Desk 1.3 will not be sold on their own as point solutions. Instead, they will be available as part of the broader on-premise or cloud-based Kaseya platform. “It’s easier than buying point solutions and then having to weave them together,” asserted Beaulieu.

What’s Next?

Meanwhile, I need to concede some key points:

• I’m not sure if the new Service Desk and Service Billing solutions are related to the so-called Kaseya Business Center PSA effort and the ObjAcct acquisition of 2010.
• MSPmentor is checking in with Kaseya for an update on the Business Center PSA and ObjAcct efforts. UPDATED April 20, 9:23 a.m. eastern: Kaseya CEO Gerald Blackie offers his perspectives here.

Either way, the lines between PSA and RMM seem destined to blur, though MSPmentor is not suggesting that Kaseya’s Service Desk and Service Billing solutions are full-blown replacements for more sophisticated PSA offerings.

Additional reporting by Nicholas Mukhar. Sign up for MSPmentor’s Weekly Enewsletter, Webcasts and Resource Center. Follow us via RSS, Facebook and Twitter. Check out more MSP voices at www.MSPtweet.com. Read our editorial disclosure here.