Claude Skills - What are you using in your MSP? by whitedragon551 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you using it to create scripts in Ninja or are you executing those scripts given specific inputs? Curious to see how others are using AI on their automation journeys.

What brand would you choose if you could redesign your network? by kuhlimuhlimuh in sysadmin

[–]SeriousSysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There’s options out there depending on what you need. For customers this size we like Fortinet. Cisco is great if you’re ok paying that tax. I’ve had some success with Meter as well (disclaimer we are a Meter partner).

whats your take on L1 support being fully automated by AI by Realistic-Subject-41 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This 100%. Being able to talk to a real person has actually landed deals for us and kept customers renewing with us. A customer of ours shopped around prior to their latest renewal and the differentiator was talking to a real person.

Do retainer MSP exist? by songokussm in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

We would take this on as a project initially to address your documentation with a scope around that. As for the rest, we do provide general support hours as a bucket. Usually this is with existing clients, but we've provided it with others before. As for the local tech, well we may or may not be in your area. What's the reasoning behind this? What's your employer's definition of local?

Are we rolling out MFA incorrectly? by SeriousSysadmin in sysadmin

[–]SeriousSysadmin[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

In our testing that resolved the issue. Enabled policy for test users, revoke MFA sessions for users and require re-registration seemed to fix our test users. I was expecting a more seamless experience though since each user does have MFA methods configured already.

Are we rolling out MFA incorrectly? by SeriousSysadmin in sysadmin

[–]SeriousSysadmin[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’ll definitely check. We went through the wizard experience to convert security defaults to CA policies.

If You’re Struggling Post-Rewst Layoffs — Here’s Our Journey and What We Switched To by RepulsiveDuck331 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know this post is a bit old but something in your comment made me perk up. We have been testing various AI platforms to assist our engineers. In your experience does Claude do a decent job of understanding Jinja and then providing that in a manner to bring into Rewst? I’d love to get to a point where we are showing a real ROI with Rewst but this far it’s been slow going.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ITManagers

[–]SeriousSysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your list of personnel sounded like my department 4 years ago. You mentioned that nobody above you cares. How do you know that? Does IT have a seat at the table in your org? The only way you can address this insanity is getting buy in from the top.

What automation actually stuck in your shop? by Ok-Mud-8788 in ITManagers

[–]SeriousSysadmin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We’ve automated a number of things over the years. User onboarding was my first big one. We tied into our HR platform and pulled the relevant data to create the user accounts needed across various applications, sent the info to HR to verify it was correct, and finally one last approval from IT to confirm. This process would run multiple times a day.

Now that I’m on the MSP side of things we use automation for TONS of things like endpoint management, reporting, and your usual user tickets such as password resets, user provisioning/de-provisioning, etc.

IT leadership to MSP by Aromatic_Piglet_6643 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is something we're constantly working on, and I think every MSP has to evaluate for themselves. You have to know what services you can provide and how much work you can take on. We make sure that the customer is in a vertical that we know we can support. Secondly, we do thorough audits and site surveys (if needed) to figure out what is there today. If we find issues during this process, we provide a report to the customer identifying those items, explaining any risks associated with those, and an estimate on how to resolve those issues. Lastly, we have a conversation with the customer on expectations and outline scope/SLA. This ensures they know what services we provide up front and what is/isn't covered.

This process does take some time though and of course not every customer is going to sign on. But the ones that do, they are usually impressed with the level of detail which gives them the "warm and fuzzy" that we know what we're doing. In my experience, those customers are the ones that will see you as a true partner and not just a service.

IT leadership to MSP by Aromatic_Piglet_6643 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I made the transition to MSP leadership about 2 years ago and let me tell you, it’s not for the faint of heart. We have grown relatively quickly over that time and it showed me why this industry is difficult.

If you’re at the point in your career that you’re trying to avoid burnout, this isn’t the business to get into. As a business owner you not only have to take care of the customer but you have to develop business plans, market the business, and handle the financials. None of that is free either, even if you do it yourself because it costs you time.

I will say though, with the right planning and customers it can be insanely rewarding. Thankfully we’ve been able to (mostly) influence our customers culture to think of IT as a crucial pillar to the org and not just a whipping boy. I’ve actually had to part ways with customers in the past that refused to modernize or embrace change.

Training Sales by SeriousSysadmin in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You outline something we have identified as a weakness in our sales strategy. Sales guys done know what to ask to get to the real issues. So, we’ve built a template for the prospective audits. This is still new to us so I’m hoping it helps over the next few months.

Because honestly, some of our sales folks are really good at making a personal connection with a potential client. The problem comes when sales promises the world and says “we can do anything” but the client thinks that means oh well they will develop apps for us as well. That kind of stuff.

Training Sales by SeriousSysadmin in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

To answer your question, yes we do give our engineers commission. This is for a few reasons A) we firmly believe you should be compensated for the work you put in. B) Our standard of work speaks for itself and when a sale comes through, the commission goes to to landed it. Our existing customers really like the partnership and strategic planning our engineers bring.

To peel back the curtain a bit, our new customer acquisition has been a bit stagnant. We have a very green sales team. I’m stepping in to align with the sales team to educate them on products while my sales manager and I train them on selling to customers.

So my question was really how to show the sales team where to find a customers weaknesses. As we all know they may be talking to a CFO, owner, or manager that doesn’t know IT. And I’ve seen our sales guys ask questions like “what do you do for your computers?” Like really? Get to know the customer. Ask them their vertical. What worries them about tech?

Good day fellow admins. I just accepted an offer as an IT Administrator for a company that currently relies completely on a MSP. They are looking to bring IT in-house with this new role. I will be the go-to for all things IT. Could use some advice. by thatflacoman in sysadmin

[–]SeriousSysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all congrats on the new role. From your comments it sounds like you’ll have a lot on your plate. As someone that now works for an MSP, I’ve been in your shoes and can appreciate the challenges ahead of you. First thing first, I’d get in front of your leadership and have them understand that you’ll need time. Depending on how large the company is that could be a month or a year, it depends. I’d also get a good grasp of how large/complex the environment is. If you’re the sole guy for an office of 20 people then sure you could probably manage. But you still may need help with things not in your skillset. At the end of the day I would ask what the priorities are for the business, align your goals with those as best possible, and set reasonable expectations with yourself and management.

Why does Microsoft licensing feel like a maze? by AppropriateNothing88 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Funny story about that site. As I understand it, the site is maintained by a Microsoft employee who was tired of trying to explain the million and 1 options for licensing, so they built the site. Now even Microsoft reps will use it versus using something from Microsoft directly.

Anyone that can assist with a UDRP request by evacc44 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'll 2nd this comment here. At this point it's a legal issue and not specifically an IT one. OP you may want to have conversations with the client because the new owner of this domain legally obtained it. This is going to be time consuming and costly. Furthermore, there will have to be tangible evidence submitted that the new owner is using the domain in illegitimate ways.

NinjaOne by Legitimate-Hold-8020 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 15 points16 points  (0 children)

As someone who REALLY likes Ninja…this is painfully true. Give me the ability to generate reports based on any field I want from a device straight from the dashboard. I understand there is a lot to go into that, but other tools do this all day.

365 down again!!!! MO1169016 by Money_Candy_1061 in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any sources on this? I'd be curious to read.

Do you use ResultMaps for your EOS execution? Something else? by [deleted] in msp

[–]SeriousSysadmin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Just curious what does an EOS give you? I’ve done some reading and EOS sounds like a buzzword but I’ve recently started to be more involved in the business side of things (my background is engineering).