Channel Tech Center

Last week, hundreds of solution providers and dozens of vendors invaded the Buena Vista Palace resort in Florida for the ConnectWise Partner Summit. Some were there to learn, others to sell, and some to buy, but – I was there to observe, and by just observing I learned a lot about Professional Services Automation (PSA) and ConnectWise’s commitment to their partners (both solution providers and vendors).

One of my first observations was how many VARs  were rabid proponents of what ConnectWise has to offer. The general consensus was that ConnectWise is a company that listens to their partners, implements partner generated ideas and offers outstanding support. Many of the partners there also came in to the fold from competing or home grown PSA products and have not looked back since.

When a company has such a loyal following, I have to wonder if someone has been sneaking something into the fruit punch, I tried a few cups myself and came to the conclusion whatever ConnectWise is doing, it isn’t in the water.

So, I sat down with a few ConnectWise Partners and discussed what they thought was so great about ConnectWise, the answers were surprisingly simple.

Beyond the great support and productive partner interaction offered by the company, most partners commented on how easy ConnectWise’s PSA makes it to run their businesses and when coupled with MSP or other hosted services, increase profits. What’s more, the partners saw tremendous benefits from how ConnectWise is building their ecosystem of technology vendors, bringing companies such as SonicWall, Level Platforms, N-Able, Reflexion and many others into the fold. Making it that much easier for partners to offer complete managed and hosted solutions that generate recurring revenue. And besides, ConnectWise knows how to throw a heck of a good event!

While I may not have become a disciple of ConnectWise, I do have to say that if you are looking at PSA for your business and making the move into the cloud, then it sure doesn’t hurt to give a long hard look at Connectwise. As for myself,  I’ll be taking a closer look at ConnectWise and their technology partners in the near future just to see how well it works.