The 2nd Best Reason to Use Autotask for Operational Optimization
“There’s no substitute for hard work. If you want to be great, you’ve got to put in the work.”
– Jalen Hurts, Quarterback, Philadelphia Eagles
Welcome back, Autotask Gladiators!
I hope you all had a Super week.
Yes, I know many of you are extremely disappointed that your team didn’t win the big game (for our overseas readers, the professional league of American Football held its championship on Sunday). But you don’t win every game or every prospect proposal.
Yes, the Eagles are doing some well-deserved celebrating this week. But both teams are going to start focusing on next season soon enough. There will be conditioning, camps, and renewed work on the fundamentals.
There is no difference with MSPs. Whether you win or lose that Big Deal, you still need to scout talent, handle contract negotiations, sign new Clients, maintain existing Clients, and condition and train the team while managing social media, financial planning, and admin tasks. Whether you know it or not, Coach, you have a team. And like any team, you need and want raving fans.
The Goal
Our goal for 2025 is for you to be at the next Super Bowl in 2026 at Levi’s Stadium in sunny Santa Clara, California. Imagine yourself sitting on the 50-yard line with a cold one in one hand and one of those giant foam hands in the other. No laptops, no calls from the office - just a well-deserved, fully paid for vacation. Don’t like football? Then enjoy the Daytona 500 in sunny Daytona, Florida. Either way, both are in February in warm locations and should be enjoyed without being interrupted by calls from the office.
But how?
Well, I am glad you asked. Helping MSPs grow while delivering amazing service with raving fans is what I and my team at Advanced Global do around here. Just like football teams hire consulting Coaches to get better, our Clients use Advanced Global and the Autotask software to get better. We call this PSAutomation.
A Fundamental Problem
For the last few weeks, we’ve been talking about the 4 Pillars (mindset changes) of Operational Transformation, the best path for MSPs to find the freedom to grow.
A fundamental problem with most MSP Operations is how the worklists are organized. Either there is one list, and tickets are dumped on the list asking the Techs to figure it out (which is very inefficient and incredibly stressful for the Techs), or there are multiple boards, cards, or other flat non-automated views which are also very confusing and inefficient.
There are 5 reasons to use Autotask over any other PSAutomation option. The 2nd competitive advantage Autotask has is the Dashboard UI. Seeing all your responsibilities in a single view and quickly discerning the Right Next Ticket is huge. It is so significant that providing the Techs with the information they need, and making the Right Next Ticket decision for them, saves them at least 10% of their working hours, and maybe more.
One Tech said that he scanned his Queue View list of Tickets 300 times a day, just to make sure he was working on the Right Next Ticket. And even after all these searches, he was not certain he had made the right decision. Why? Was he stupid? Well, he happened to be very smart and was Lead Tech at the organization. Why then, could he not figure it out? More importantly, if he could not figure it, out who could?
The reason he could not be certain is that he did not have all the information at his fingertips or within his view. Things like, what is the relationship with all the Clients represented by the list of Client Requests? Where were they on the journey from New to Complete. How many were waiting on hold or escalated. And if they were escalated or expedited (two different things), does that trump what was already in the queue? And how do you cover the Intake/Triage queue or clear the Alerts queue if you have tickets sitting in your worklist? And how do you balance the finesse of Queue view vs Calendar view?
Autotask released the new Dashboard View UI in 2014 (and the 2025 dashboards are rolling out as I type this). I was not an early adoptor. I liked my Queue Views. I liked having 18-24 instances of Autotask open on my desktop at any one moment. However, that all changed in September 2016 when Evan Welch (still a good friend today) asked me to build my first widget rather than using a Ticket Search filter.
I was immediately sold on dashboards. By using dashboards, I could have 12 (today it is 20) lists of tickets, sorted differently at once. This eye-opening revelation opened my eyes to the benefit of the new (2-yr-old) Autotask Dashboard UI, replacing 12 of my instances of Autotask that I opened each morning. This is the final Pillar (Mindset Change) that every MSP needs to go through (#4) before they can make the leap to Operational Optimization.
Since this historical event (at least in my life), I have never looked back. Whether you are a Tech, Service Coordinator, Service Manager, Project Manager, Operational Manager, Salesperson, Manager, Finance Manager, Inventory/Procurement or Owner, having a Dashboard view showing you all the Information you are responsible for (sorted based on multiple priorities) in a single view that can be monitored and interpreted in a matter of seconds, is a huge game changer.
That is what we say, out of the 5 competitive advantage reasons to choose Autotask over all the other PSAutomation choices, the Dashboard UI is #2. By leaning in and leveraging the Autotask Dashboard UI, the multiple views required for Techs or Service Coordinators to organize their day can be Automated (without AI), easy to monitor in a single glance, and the Next Right Ticket/Action Item is clearly visible.
Leveraging Autotask Dashboards organically make the Techs 10% more efficient and puts the MSPs on the road to maximizing efficiency, as defined by Lean Process KPIs:
Resource Utilization between 80 & 85%
SLA Performance above 97%, 95%, and 90% respectively
Meant Time to Resolve less than 2 business days for all incidents
Reactive Hours per Endpoint per Month way below the old success criteria of 1 hour of work per 5 Endpoints
Beyond the Dashboards:
In my mind I can hear Forrest Gump saying, “Momma always said, ‘Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.’” But when it comes to making decisions, you need good, actionable data. It’s like having a map in a box of chocolates—you know exactly where the best pieces are. A well-written report is that map. It helps you see the big picture and make smart choices. Without it, you’re just guessing, and that ain’t no way to run a business.
The #1 competitive advantage is having a Live Report writer. Advanced Global may be a little biased in this area as we are the best group of Live Report Writers on the planet. Just like in professional football, someone who specializes in one position is going to be better than someone who takes support calls, manages the RMM, and writes Live Reports in their spare time. (If you are someone who writes Advanced Live Reports for fun and would like some extra experience/money, drop me a line.)
Other competitive advantages to choosing Autotask over all other PSAutomations are:
HR/PTO module – not because of the HR function, but how it ties into Operational Automation and Reporting
Categories – allowing the MSP to change the Skin/UI of Tickets, Tasks, Accounts, Opportunities, etc.
Amazing integration into ITGlue and Datto RMM (Yes, we speak those.)
Summary:
MSPs need to keep their eyes on the ball no matter what happens with that one Big Game/Prospect Sale.
As we complete this discussion on the 4 Pillars of Operational Optimization for MSPs, we reflect on what we have learned:
Categorize all Clients into groups of Workflows and then optimize each Workflow by documenting a repetitive Standard Operating Procedure for each
Allocate staffing for each Workflow to make sure all future Client Requests can be engaged and completed within Client Expectations, and schedule into Calendars 4 types of Client Requests that do not fit in the Worklists
Prioritize Client Requests on a multi-dimensional level taking into considering Urgency and Impact, Reasonable Response Times, Relationship with the Client, and where in the journey from the Cradle to the Grave the request is
Organize the dashboard views so everyone is aware of all their responsibilities and what is the right next action item to take
Whew! I know that was a lot, and now you think you are done and everything in the world is right. Think again. We still have a lot of work to do to take full advantage of the PSAutomation, Automated Mechanisms, Semi-Automated Mechanisms, and all the Operational Process Improvements they support-while not killing the Techs or wrecking your mental health. But that’s next week. Enjoy this week’s win, Eagles fans.
Steve & Co
At Advanced Global MSP Consulting, we are committed to helping you grow your MSP business by improving your service delivery experience and eliminating Chaos. We understand the unique challenges you face in the MSP industry, including the mental health struggles that can come with the territory.
Resources:
Unshackled e-book: https://www.agmspcoaching.com/unshackled
(Learn how to apply the 6 keys to MSP Service Delivery Optimization)
Richard Tubb: “Mental Health Resources for MSP Business Owners”
Our most recent blog post on MSP Mental Health
Our YouTube channel
Service Delivery Gladiator’s Community: Home - The Service Delivery Gladiators (agmspcoaching.com)