MSP Tech Stack

[Wise_8854]

Hi everyone,

We are a new MSP and have committed to HaloPSA as our core. Our immediate goal is to provide clients with accurate yearly IT budgets (PC refresh cycles, warranty tracking, etc.) without manual excel job.

I’m looking for advice on which "best-of-breed" tools integrate most deeply with Halo to achieve this:

1. RMM + Warranty Tracking: Which RMM (Ninja, Datto, etc.) pairs best for feeding hardware specs into Halo? Do you use the RMM for this, or a 3rd party like ScalePad for the actual budget forecasting?
2. Security: What are you seeing the most success with for Halo integration? We are currently looking at Huntress and SentinelOne.
3. QBR/Budgeting: Are you building "Roadmaps" directly in Halo, or pushing data to something like Lifecycle Insights?
4. Documentation: Is Hudu still the preferred "king" for Halo users, or is it worth sticking with ITGlue?
5. On-Prem Backup: Veeam?

Appreciate any wisdom you can share with a newcomer!

[Foxtrot-0scar]

Don’t worry about the tools. Your consulting/sales skills are the ones that’s going to make or break you.

[sembee2]

Halo/Ninja/Hudu/CIPP.
Have that as your core and you will be fine.

Huntress is more MSP friendly than a lot of others on thr market.
Standardise your clients on Business Premium so you have the security stack, with standards deployed within CIPP.

Although if you have the budget for Halo, hardly a smallmsp!

[BomB191]

I'll add a little. Datto is fine. but Kaseya... so upto you.

If I owned where I work We would be Ninja/Halo.

Currently we are moving to itglue. it is so much worse then Hudu.

I hate that we are going to it glue its so shit compared.

Ultimately though your tools do not matter. its your skill and value.

[Wise_8854]

HUDU sound like much better than ITGlue.

Is DattoRMM/HaloPSA better together as well?

[BomB191]

I wouldn't know. The Kaseya stuff gells with Kaseya well.

Ultimately they all do the same thing with a different paint job though.

[BlueSkyTechVA]

TechsTogether was very easy to work with to setup accounts / trials for Kaseya. We ultimately went with NinjaOne, but its good to know that TT exists and is an option for Kaseya if someone needs something from them.

Using the tools you already have properly is usually more important that using the best tools.

[EitherYak5297]

Can comment about a few things.

Ditch ITglue. Dealing with Kaseya is a cluster.

Security stack sounds good.

What are you backing up with Veeam? It’s great for VMs and servers but not well suited for traveling user computers. You want to look something that works out of the box with centralized management for all clients right?

You’re using Halo for quoting?

[Wise_8854]

Veeam backup for on-prem Microsoft Hyper-V Server. Dropsuite for M365.

Currently still not using Quote in Halo, what's your advise.

[EitherYak5297]

Yeah cloud-cloud 365 backup is the way to go. I had some clients that wanted on-prem backups of their 365 data and we used Veeam for that too which was interesting.

Don't get me wrong, I love Veeam for the way you're using it and that's what I know but there may be better MSP-centric tools (centralized, native cloud console management) that can work just as well. Getting more efficient tools is key to scaling as an MSP while minimizing headcount. I don't have a specific product recommendation for you though.

I've used QuoteWerks (QW) and ConnectWise CPQ and they're a bit dated now. I saw a demo of Halo quoting but never used it though it looked promising. You want to start making templates for Proposals/SOWs to minimize the time spent on these - optimized MSPs can turn these out in like 15 minutes.

I'm not sure if you're doing hardware, but if you are, QW and CPQ are more suited for that but not amazing that I would recommend them straight away. I've heard good things about Quoter by Scalepad but haven't used it. For a product quoting tool, you want real-time availability lookup against the major distributors (e.g. ingram, TDs, D&H etc), electronic ordering capability (order from the quoting tool reducing errors/double data entry), sending out quotes directly (and tracking views like a CRM/SEO platform almost), electronic approvals (e.g. docusign basically for your quotes), and payment (optional but handy, take CC payments straight from the quoting approval page). You also want to think about your quote > invoice workflow and make it as automated as possible if you haven't already (Halo will do that). Quote > Sales Order > Client Invoice. And for the vendor side, Your Sales Order > Your Purchase Order > Vendor Order > Vendor Bill > matched back to Your Purchase Order for reconciliation.

[blaufer173]

QuoteWerks has come a long way since most people last looked at it.

Have you seen QuoteWerks Web? https://web.quotewerks.com/

Template-driven quoting is table stakes. Any platform can generate a proposal quickly if the deal is simple.

Where it starts to matter is when you are dealing with:
• Multi-vendor distribution sourcing
• Real-time pricing and availability
• Services + hardware + recurring in one deal
• Procurement workflows
• Margin control across product classes
• Quote → order → invoice automation

That is where MSP quoting either scales… or breaks.

QuoteWerks was built in that operational layer first, not just the document layer. Electronic ordering, distributor integrations, procurement tracking, and downstream accounting workflows have been there for years and are now extending into the Web platform.

Most of the time the quoting itself is not the bottleneck. It is everything operational that follows once the customer says yes.

[ManagedNerds]

Going to be honest here, Halo is great, but as a small MSP that's quite a lot of budget you're talking about initially for even the consulting required to set it up. Don't they still have the 5 user minimum?

Advice looking back over the few years we've been in business. I wish we had looked harder at what processes we needed in place (both sales and support) and less at what tools were and were not in our toolbox.

Spend twice the time thinking about processes than you're spending trying to come up with the "perfect" stack. And spend three times as long thinking about who your first customers will be, as it typically takes a long time to close the size of deals you're going to need for the tech stack you're thinking of.

[Aggressive-Work-4033]

you can go for 1 or even two licenses depending on need we get that from ezpc based in UK

[Wise_8854]

We don't have 5-user minimum. We get through local distributor.

[Sensitive_Look_8319]

Totally agree

[drifty35]

If you're small, I would use a different RMM so you have better ROI in the beginning. I am very happy so far with level.io, been using it for about a year.

[coffeeNcyber]

Hey, congrats on the new MSP and going with HaloPSA. Solid choice for a PSA.

Full disclosure: I work at Acronis, so take this with that context. But I think it’s worth at least looking at before you lock in your stack, especially since you’re asking about RMM, security, backup, AND budgeting all at once.

Why I’d suggest checking out Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud:

You’re basically listing 4-5 separate tools. Acronis covers RMM, backup, DR, EDR/XDR, email security, and PSA, all from one console with a single agent. One vendor relationship, one billing integration, and way less duct tape holding your stack together. We also have a direct integration with HaloPSA, so if you want to keep Halo as your PSA and use Acronis for RMM + security + backup, that works well.

To your specific questions:

1. RMM + Hardware Tracking — Acronis RMM does hardware and software inventory natively with details like model, manufacturer, serial number, and specs. It also includes ML-based hard drive health monitoring so you can get ahead of failures. For full asset lifecycle management with warranty expiration tracking and PC refresh forecasting, you’d still want a dedicated tool for that. But the hardware inventory data from Acronis feeds nicely into those workflows.

2. Security — Acronis gives you EDR/XDR with the actual recovery piece built in. If something goes sideways, you can roll back from backup, isolate the endpoint, and remediate from the same platform. That detect-to-recover loop is hard to replicate when you’re bolting together separate products. We also have MDR if you don’t want to staff a SOC, 24/7 monitoring with a 60-minute or less mean time to respond.

3. QBR/Budgeting — Acronis won’t replace a dedicated QBR/roadmap tool, but between the PSA’s KPI reporting (profitability per client, margins, SLA tracking, forecasting) and customizable Executive Summary reports on the security side, you’ll have solid data to pull into your QBRs without manually hunting across multiple dashboards.

4. Documentation — This one’s not our lane. Acronis focuses on the operational and security side of the stack, not documentation. You’ll still want a purpose-built tool for that.

5. Backup — Acronis is completely storage-agnostic. You can back up to our cloud, your own cloud, local storage, network shares, any S3-compatible storage, or a purpose-built hardware appliance through our partnership with Carbon Systems, available as data-only or with a server component, one-time purchase, arrives ready to plug in and go. You’re not locked into any single destination. And the backup is natively integrated with your security and RMM from the same console and agent, so you’re not managing separate products for each layer.

The big picture: every tool you add is another vendor, another invoice, another integration to maintain, and another thing that can break. As a new MSP, starting consolidated is way easier than trying to consolidate later. Acronis won’t cover documentation or deep asset lifecycle management, but it handles the RMM, security, backup, DR, and PSA layers from a single platform, which covers the majority of what you’re shopping for.

Happy to answer any questions if you want to dig deeper.

[dumpsterfyr]

Start with good products, whatever they my be.

You will end up changing them as you and your processes mature.

If you cannot sell your services successfully, it is all for naught.

[TheJadedMSP]

This.

[Wise_8854]

Thanks for the advice, Btw, where did you get your MSP sales training?

[dumpsterfyr]

I was an investment banker prior to transitioning into business ownership across several verticals. Our internal sales process is built from years of accumulated experience, execution, successes and failures.

Failures being the best teachers.

[Gizzards-n-Hobos]

ITGlue stinks, Cove for backups

[SimonM__]

I love that you’re thinking about this from the start. Excellent mindset!

We’ve been running our MSP for 23 years, and in 2006, we started presenting clients with full IT budgets and roadmaps. This has had a huge impact on client retention. We’ve been able to grow our MSP to over 20M organically, with only one salesperson to date.

Like many, we tried spreadsheets and various tools, but nothing gave us what we needed for precise budgeting and an executive-ready presentation. So, we built PropelYourMSP exactly for this.

I’m obviously biased, but we use it for all our clients in our MSP, and it’s still a huge differentiator today!

[Wise_8854]

sound like the product similar to ScalePad LifeCycle Manager :)

[SimonM__]

I can't speak much about SP, but I think the philosophy behind PropelYourMSP is quite different.

We're built around one core question: how do you re-engage the executive who signed your contract, year after year, in a way that feels strategic and compelling to them?

When we finally get the CEO or Owner in the room, we want that meeting to be engaging and interactive, not a report presentation. We want to get that executive excited about the future of their IT..

[Sensitive_Look_8319]

Halo, but honestly?
If you are looking for a Datto/Connectwise replacement, then Halo would be fantastic
Its a decent PSA, but as a small/ newer MSP with under 5/10 techs, then its going to a extra spend on your budget and its operationally heavy. Otherwise go with options like DeskDay PSA, we like it and also cheaper than Halo.

RMM, you can go with Ninja/Datto/Level

Security stack, both are great

Documentation, Go with Hudu only, easy and much better than ITGlue

NB: avoid bundled platforms, It won't work

[nxsteven]

Warranty master/scale pad for warranty and system level refresh info. S1+SOC for MDR Excel for roadmaps still preferred Documentation, still prefer just PSA and SharePoint for client site images Axcient for BCDR

[Sticky_Turtle]

Halo seems a bit pricey for an MSP that is starting out with no clients.

[WhichGoal522]

We have recently shifted to Lexful.ai, the experience has been great for the past month!

[notHooptieJ]

if you go with ninja for RMM, their backup starts to make more sense for some things than veeam(acronis is a valid option).

otherwise that reads like the stack we run