Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Major Autotask Release Extends the Power of its Open Platform

Delivers expanded accessibility, workflow automation and service intelligence
 
EAST GREENBUSH - August 30, 2011 - Autotask Corporation, the world’s leading provider of hosted IT business management software, today announced the latest features and functionality that will be available to users around the world later this week. The release includes significant enhancements to Autotask’s multi-browser platform, workflow automation engine, client portal usability, service-level agreements, reporting tools, quote and expenses API, and a new Daily Alerts feature to help optimize service delivery and improve customer retention.
 
Multi-Browser Support

The August release expands Autotask’s support of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari browsers for its Home, CRM, Service Desk, Projects, Contracts, Timesheets and Directory modules, ensuring users can access Autotask from virtually any device connected to the Internet.
“As we announced at Autotask Community Live in May, multi-browser support is key to our strategy of creating a robust IT business management platform that is open to the way our customers want to do business,” said Mark Cattini, Autotask CEO. “Open on the front end to the computers, mobile devices and browsers they use to access Autotask. Open on the backend to give users greater choice in integrating the tools, services and partners they use to deliver products and services to their clients.”

Workflow Automation

The workflow engine, which is central to Autotask and allows users to automate and optimize critical business processes, has been extended to the service desk and sales opportunities modules and includes even more granular triggers based on time and/or note type entries, more refined service level agreement targets, a broader range of conditional operators, and offers more flexible action, update and notification options.

Expanded API

Autotask’s application programming interface (API), which currently supports integrations with dozens of leading remote monitoring and management (RMM), backup and disaster recovery (BDR), email protection, CRM and other business applications, has been extended to enable deeper workflow integrations with a broader variety of quoting software and accounting packages.
“Improved automation, easier integrations and greater flexibility are exactly the things our customers and prospects ask for, and exactly what they need to be successful in a competitive technology marketplace,” said Kevin Donovan, senior vice president of global sales and services at Autotask. “This new release significantly increases our users’ ability to shape their businesses in a way that makes sense for their market, for their customers and for their bottom line.”

New! Daily Alerts

Autotask Daily Alerts is an entirely new feature that provides automated oversight of a user’s business and offers a level of service delivery intelligence that was previously unavailable. The Daily Alerts function proactively mines users’ system data and checks the status of a wide variety of business conditions – from pending contract expirations, to device discovery, to inactive resources and client accounts and more. When a suboptimal condition is detected, Daily Alerts automatically notifies users of potential problems and provides links and other information to help quickly resolve open issues.

Client Portal & Taskfire®

Both the Client Access Portal, which facilitates clear and easy two-way communication between IT service providers and their clients, and the Taskfire co-managed service desk for clients with significant internal IT resources, have been upgraded with advanced filtering and expanded ticket search capabilities, an improved user interface and significant improvements in speed and performance.

“The scope of this release is significant, and reflects our capacity and commitment to invest in the success of our users,” said Patrick Burns, Autotask’s Director of Product Management. “It strikes a strong balance between new product innovations and improving our existing platform, and builds a stronger product experience for everyone.”

The new features will be instantly available to users in North America on Tuesday, August 30 and in the rest of the world on Thursday, September 1. No updates or downloads are required. Customers who would like more information about these and other new features may access the August 2011 Product Release Notes and register for complimentary new-features webinars by logging into www.autotask.net. Non-customers are encouraged to call +1 518 720 3500 Ext. 1 or visit www.autotask.com/contact_us/request_demo.htm to request an online demonstration at their convenience.

About Autotask Corporation
Autotask Corporation provides the world's leading hosted IT business management software to streamline and optimize business processes for technology solution providers. The software integrates a broad range of critical business systems, including customer relationship management (CRM), service desk, tech scheduling, project management, billing and reporting, and provides real-time service delivery intelligence to help users understand the factors that drive their business and their profitability.

Autotask is accessible from virtually any computing or mobile device connected to the Internet and features a world-class API that seamlessly integrates with the other systems and tools that providers rely on to run their businesses.
For more information about Autotask Corporation and products, please visit http://www.autotask.com or call 518-720-3500 Ext. 1

Autotask® and VARStreet® are registered trademarks of Autotask Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Monday, August 29, 2011

CompTIA Cloud Foundations Workshop & Certification: Module 2 - Marketing

Take advantage of the substantial business opportunities in delivering cloud solutions to customers!
 
Dave Sobel of Evolve Technologies will lead this second module of the Cloud Foundations Workshop, and broaden your understanding of the implications of cloud computing on your marketing strategy.
 
Len DiCostanzo of Autotask Corporation will also be on hand to share how IT business management software can be the central platform for managing your evolution to the cloud and delivering a whole new range of services more profitably.
 
Learn how to align your marketing goals, tactics and investments to be consistent with a new cloud services sakes model, plus:
  • Various marketing messages and approaches to cloud solutions
  • How to target new buyers and market to your installed base
  • Review marketing tactics and assess your business with a marketing readiness checklist
 
Attendees must be present for the duration of this webinar to receive educational credit for this module. After completing all modules of workshop, attendees will receive a certificate of completion.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Killer Sales Offer for IT Services: A Proven Way to Win New Business

What makes an offer so good and compelling that your prospect can’t say no to a meeting? And what kind of offer can you deliver that will have your new prospects and customers chomping at the bit to sign up for new services?

Please join us for an important marketing webinar just for IT service providers on Thursday, August 18 at 1 PM ET. During the webinar, you'll learnhow marketing offers work in general, and how to best leverage Network Assessments to get in the door and win new business.

Rich Akullian of Autotask will be joined by Autotask MVP Win Pham of PerformanceIT, who will share a new and exciting network assessment tool he developed that is fast and inexpensive for you, but impressive and super persuasive to your prospects and customers. Join us live for this event and find out:
  • Why your marketing offer is so important and how offers work
  • Whether or not to charge for an assessment
  • The New Network Assessment Tool – your secret new business weapon
  • How to turn your network assessment report into a sales presentation
  • Turning your Network Assessment from a lead gen tool into profitable service
By the end of this session, you will walk away with a scalable, repeatable and affordable process for marketing your IT, Managed Services or consulting practice and get a special offer reserved just for attending!

Register now!

Build Your Business Management Capabilities: Add PacketTrap 6.0 to Your Toolset

At CompTIA Breakaway, Autotask won the coveted 'Best Software' award - notably for providing an open and robust business management platform that integrates with the tools you use to deliver and manage your products and services - including remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools.
Autotask is proud to announce a powerful new integration - with Quest Software's PacketTrap MSP 6.0!

Please join us Wednesday, August 24 at 2 PM US ET, when Mike Byrne of Quest Software and Steve Noel of Autotask reveal the features and benefits of this 360-degree monitoring and management program. Alexander Petras of MyManagedTech will walk through how he uses the two solutions together to drive his MSP business.
In this webinar, you'll learn:
  • Why managed services are critical to building your business
  • How PacketTrap 6.0 can help you maximize your managed services practice
  • How Autotask helps you automate, streamline, and optimize every aspect of your solutions processes
  • How one successful MSP is using both tools to drive his business forward
Register now!

9 Essential Skills Every MSP Needs to Close More Deals

Why do some VARs and MSPs outsell the industry average many times over? What do they do that lets them enjoy greater business stability, bigger profits, and better lifestyles than their competitors?
 
On Tuesday, August 30 at 1 PM US ET, join Kutenda CEO Mike Cooch and Autotask Technical Product Manager Steve Noel and learn what only a small number of highly successful businesses understand:
  • The #1 lesson about sales that all IT solution providers must learn
  • The 3 skills that top salespeople always focus on and mediocre salespeople rarely do
  • Why the Natural Born Seller is a myth, and what you can do if you think "I'm just not a salesperson"
  • The 4 techniques to use when clients pressure you to lower your fees
  • The keys to developing a predictable flow of clients
  • How to know when the time is right to close the deal and how to do it right
  • The top 3 misconceptions preventing most VARs and MSPs from reaching the tops of their sales game
 Register now so you don't miss this webinar, packed with informative, actionable content!
 
Plus, get a free report on how buyers evaluate and decide on managed services providers when you register for this webinar!
 
Mike secured access to the groundbreaking report How Clients Buy from sales performance improvement company RAIN Group. Register for the webinar and Mike will send you an abbreviated version explaining how the report data applies specifically to winning more managed services deals!

How to Succeed with Managed Services: Part 5 - Marketing Managed Services

Autotask Academy and MSP University have teamed up to create an 8-part webinar series to help you build and improve your Managed Services practice and your success!

Each month, Autotask's Len DiCostanzo and Steve Noel and MSPU's Erick Simpson will cover a topic central to developing your Managed Services practice and adding recurring revenue to your bottom line.

Part 5 - Marketing Managed Services

This training session on Thursday, September 22 at 1 PM ET will cover how to create and correctly use direct and passive marketing techniques such as case studies, white papers, newsletters, news releases, email and direct mail to successfully attract a target market.
By the end of this webinar, you'll know:
  • How search engine optimization (SEO) can increase your website's search engine rankings
  • How to save hundreds of dollars from your marketing budget by using a tremendously cost-effective method to print, address, post, and mail postcards and direct-mail pieces for a campaign of any size
Register now!

BYOD and BYOA – The Consumerization of Business IT is Happening. Now.

By: Jay McBain, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Community
If you haven’t been following the debate on BYOD – Bring Your Own Device – you soon will. The debate was inspired by the proliferation of $300 Netbooks 4 years ago and Managed Service Providers were successful, for the most part, in keeping these consumer devices off the corporate network due to lack of security, manageability as well as raw horsepower. 

Fast forward 4 years and the IT world is changing significantly. Connectivity is moving towards ubiquity, the cloud business model is real and the Tablet was released in 2009 that forever changed the hardware landscape.  

The Tablet market is growing at a dizzying pace. Gartner is calling for 294 Million units worldwide within 4 years, while Forrester is expecting 82 Million of them in the US alone by 2015. Apple commands almost 90% share, but over 125 other Tablets have come to market by mid-2011. 

Some of the early limitations of Tablets, like Netbooks before them, included lack of security, manageability and compatibility. Newer devices have improved and now offer PKI authentication certificates, biometrics and remote wipe capabilities making them acceptable to several IT departments. One lesser known limitation that still exists is if the device is subject to a legal hold – the company is in a legal dispute of some kind - the end user will lose the device for an extended time. 

Smaller companies, for the most part, do not have these policies and were the first to adopt BYOD. The proliferation into industries such as healthcare has taken less than a year to happen. 

The story isn’t just about managing secondary and tertiary devices from the consumer market. Industry experts as well as futurists are calling for more devices, perhaps dozens per individual . 

What is BYOA? 
The consumerization of IT isn’t just about hardware – we are at the beginning of another interesting trend: BYOA – Bring Your Own App. Some have predicted that the explosion of over 1 Million apps may spell the end of the traditional desktop internet. While that is likely premature, apps could provide some real advantages in the business world including cutting down on training time, allowing employees to feel more invested, and replacing costly software licensing with cheaper apps.

However, there are several issues with BYOA including:

- Compliance and regulations in several industries blocking adoption

- Security of the data on public clouds and intermixed with consumer data

- Portability of the output

- Information fragmentation

We are already seeing examples of the where corporate communication has been fragmented into public clouds including personal email, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and a growing number of other social media tools. As other app categories get more popular, such as human resources, expense reporting and CRM, the Channel will be challenged with supporting this rapidly growing ecosystem. 

Managed Service Providers will be crucial in managing this complexity of dozens of devices and perhaps hundreds of apps per person. New services and practices will evolve that focus on vendor management, security, compliance, data organization and protection in this increasingly fragmented world. New revenue models will also evolve including micropayments by device and app – in many cases pennies per month.

To be effective in managing this potential chaos and, more importantly, profiting from it, Managed Service Providers will need to have built a solid business foundation with predictable and repeatable business workflows. The adoption of a PSA (Professional Service Automation) and RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management) toolset that can manage this ecosystem will be crucial in being successful.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Autotask Takes the Show on the Road – 15-city “Community On Tour” Launches this September!

By: Jay McBain, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Community

One of the most common requests by the 700 attendees at Autotask Community Live! 2011 was to be able to engage Autotask more than once a year. Several people commented that they wished their entire staff was in Miami to learn more about the solution and interact with peers in the industry.

The feedback received in our post-event survey says it all:

  • 97% plan to return to Autotask Community Live! 2012
  • 92% will action a new feature in Autotask
  • 85% willing to be a reference in the new Referral program (earning up to $1000 uncapped!)
  • 90% interested in local User Groups

In the past, Autotask has embarked on several local events including sales road shows, product “jam sessions”, user groups and regional boot camps. We are now consolidating all four into a 15-city tour that includes business building keynotes, vendor integrations, customer best practices, product updates and roadmaps, user groups, as well as boot camps in four cities across the US.

The 15 cities on stage 1 of the tour are:

  • Cincinnati – Sept 13
  • *Indianapolis – Sept 20
  • Minneapolis – Sept 22
  • *NY/NJ – Oct 4
  • Tampa – Oct 6
  • Toronto – Oct 12
  • Washington, DC – Oct 13
  • Atlanta – Oct 18
  • Boston – Oct 20
  • Seattle – Nov 8
  • San Francisco – Nov 10
  • *LA/Orange County – Nov 15
  • Phoenix – Nov 17
  • Denver – Dec 6
  • *Dallas – Dec 8

*Boot Camp locations (day before above dates)

We are looking to engage local Autotask users as well as those in the market for IT Business software (PSA – Professional Services Automation) in these regions. The agenda will be action packed and will be focused on sharing best practices from local Autotask MVPs, technical specialists, as well as User Group leaders.
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Register now!