Better data. Better insights. Better business.

You better believe it.

Not only does Lifecycle Insights believe it, we are doing it! We are:

1. Getting better data around hardware and software lifecycle management
2. Providing our partners and their customers with insights and budget forecasts
3. Growing better business(es!) –  for us, the MSP, and for our customers

Our problem:

As an MSP, we struggled to accurately prepare for Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs) in a timely fashion. It became such a problem that we changed QBRs to TBRs, because we simply weren’t getting them done quarterly! This was not better business.

Our process: 

First we needed to collect data from multiple systems (PSA, RMM, Document Management System) and compile it into a single client facing report – but we needed to get that data quickly and accurately.  In our MSP, we found that “cobbling together” lifecycle data about a single customer’s environment (Servers, Workstations, Network Equipment, Software Licenses, and User info) was a time consuming task – and we were left with gaps and inaccuracies on our reporting.

• We thought we had been diligent (mostly) in keeping our asset info up to date in our PSA (ConnectWise Manage).
• We hoped our user list was current. We (usually) had to pull users from Network Detective, Office 365 and our PSA manually.
• Software licensing and vendor contracts were changing faster than we could keep up with in our Document Management System (IT Glue).

Mostly. Hoped. Usually. Not words we wanted to build our MSP around… We didn’t need a patch, we needed a platform!

Our solution:

Lifecycle Insights integrates with the ConnectWise Manage (or IT Glue) platform and pulls our data, letting us know what’s there, what’s missing, and what is approaching a warranty expiration date or an end of life date. If for some reason, asset information is missing from the PSA, Lifecycle Insights also has automated purchase and warranty expiration lookups for leading vendors such as Dell, Lenovo and HP.  Instead of recreating or rediscovering this data every quarter for a customer meeting (QBR), the data in Lifecycle Insights is always up to date.

After our first pull of data, we had work to do, but the platform makes the tasks manageable. We used Lifecycle Insights’ printable reports to help our technical team identify gaps in the data and update that information. That improved our data quality tremendously. Seeing that data come to life in the Dashboard has helped our entire team see the impact that accurate data can make for our internal teams AND our customers. 

… Better data.

With accurate data we now had faster and improved insights. We found:

• New sales opportunities
• Budget forecasts for our customers
• Asset needs by customer, location, department or user
• Tracking of subscriptions/licenses
• And the biggest value add… overall health for a customer’s fleet of assets

… Better insights.

For sure this helps MSPs run a better business. In efficiency alone, we save hours per customer per quarter. But the insights shine a light for the sales team on new opportunities as well, allowing us to improve our overall operational maturity and continue to align growing networks with today’s standards.

But more importantly it is better business for our customers. The peace of mind knowing the status of their assets, users, and licenses along with a budgeting forecast has helped them become proactive. They can focus on their mission and grow their business without worrying about reacting to their technology asset issues. Finally, our clients know the actual cost of maintaining their existing technology, and our QBR time can be spent talking strategy and business development instead of trying to sales pitch them on upcoming upgrades that they should have seen coming. This makes asking for referrals at every QBR easy and helps you grow your MSP the right way.

… Better business.