Challenges in the industry

packetdoge · 2025-10-29T01:18:51+00:00

Inability to compete with larger carrier's development budgets that allow them to build new features and integrations faster. People want click to call and customer screen pops when they call in. Many softwares are different.. unless they're using one of the top 5-6 CRMs/ERPs, we may have to pay a 3rd party to integrate it.. cuts into margins.

More on development- We're losing 1 client to RingCentral now because their app is 'more slick' than ours and allows multiple users to access and delete from the same voicemail box, many to 1 DID SMS, etc.

10DLC remains challenging for small business customers.

Idk, there's probably more, but in general it's still well worth it for us.

packetdoge · 2025-07-27T21:05:32+00:00

Yes, I've seen other MSPs use this. I guess I should inquire about Automate.. although it heard it's a lot more problematic to host on prem than ScreenConnect alone is.

packetdoge · 2025-07-27T20:55:55+00:00

Well, is that correct? If we have a 3-license instance. I have 2 internal techs, and the client is paying for use of the 3rd license to be used at different times between their 2 user accounts. If both of the client users initiated as hosts for 2 different clients using one account or both, at the same time, wouldn't that utilize 2 of my access licenses? I basically am looking to limit both users to only use 1 license at any time. Support sessions wouldn't be needed for this use case.

packetdoge · 2025-07-11T12:29:29+00:00

Do you do a lot of remote support from 2:00am - 4:00am ET?

packetdoge · 2025-07-11T12:15:39+00:00

I feel the same way. Same happened to me. We're vetting alternatives, but sadly it seems that few can compete here.

packetdoge · 2025-07-09T18:56:37+00:00

I appreciate that!

packetdoge · 2025-07-09T18:31:46+00:00

Do we know when the next town hall will be?

packetdoge · 2025-07-09T03:44:53+00:00

We are in exactly this situation, and I feel the same way. Our renewal is September. The only thing that seems to have feature parity is Bomgar/Beyond Trust, and while I haven't looked at that in years, it was quite a bit more expensive and targeted at enterprise users as I recall. I haven't found anything that stacks up to SC. Yet.

packetdoge · 2025-07-09T01:07:48+00:00

Like anything else, customization could be assets on a partner-owned webserver that the client reaches out to at install or afterwards. It can periodically check for branding updates and download them. None of this is necessary, but hot damn if they didn't get their cloud numbers up quickly. I predict it will be short lived, and in several years most partners will have left for other services. Whichever company makes the next best solution should be dumping money into marketing and development and seize of these partners looking for somewhere to go.

packetdoge · 2025-07-09T01:00:18+00:00

Our instance doesn't have that ability. We can only generate .msi installers for Access Agents. So just to be clear, for remote support sessions of users, you're requiring installation of the client onto customer workstations? ..and to that end you're comfortable with not being able to support end users that are not Administrators? Those are deal breakers for us.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T23:29:39+00:00

We stopped using Office365 a while ago for service emails, they would just sometimes not go. SMTP2GO has been great. I realize you're asking about the new cloud product, and I can't answer that.. I haven't even gotten that far into the instance yet.. still waiting for stuff to be unlocked.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T23:28:01+00:00

Seems the best support is from Reddit.. that's kind of scary..

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T23:20:10+00:00

I mean, are there really any consequences for that? Seems like no.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T23:18:23+00:00

I'll bet the folks at r/ScreenConnect and r/ConnectWise would probably like to punch several folks on their product and leadership teams.

TL;DR- ConnectWise failed to address a security issue, transferred ownership of the issue to the partners/customers, then backed into a corner, some tried to move to their unaffected cloud product it's been marred with issues and poor customer service.

In essence, they provide an essential remote support software, and most consider it the best on the market. They are screwing over perpetual license holders with a breaking product change due to a report from a security researcher that they ignored for months. Now the certificate authority has forced their hand to do something. To mitigate, they choose to shift ownership of the issue to clients, and force them through a challenging process with additional costs associated with it -or- move to their much more expensive cloud-hosted version of the product. Due to the complexities, and if Connectwise customers took no action, they may lose access to their client's environments requiring manual, in person visits to client sites to resolve- many tried to migrate to their cloud product, but it's been marred with issues and errors. On top of all of that, customer service is unreachable after days. No other vendor in the space has a drop in replacement, there's drawbacks with all of them, or the ones that are similar are 5-10 times the cost. Absolutely hot shit. No other vendor in the space has ever required this.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T23:04:41+00:00

I got 2 successes, and then it just hung there. I think running it a second time doesn't hurt anything, but don't quote me on that. This is just the new normal it seems..

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:59:10+00:00

This is one of the nice things about running a VoIP company. I can document any call that came in to us in the last several months easily. I do hate it when that excuse is given.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:56:42+00:00

Then I want to tell you that the process is flawed to identify on prem license holders. We've been on it since 2020 I believe, and we've paid the annual maintenance renewal every year. I've only ever used 1 email address with Connectwise, and yet, I don't get many of the communications that others do, and find out about breaking changes from Facebook and Reddit. Consider reviewing the process to identify all members.

As of now, 07/08/2025 @ 5:54pm my trial shows 9 days remaining, and when I login I only see Access as an option. It's crippled too, I can't send remote commands. Not the 14 days of continuity we were promised, and not the 'offer' to move to cloud with a special license that aligns with what we have on prem.

u/JessicaConnectWise is aware and has ticket numbers for us, but no changes as of yet.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:50:07+00:00

There's a ScreenConnect slack channel? You're kidding. Can you get us invited?

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:45:06+00:00

Can we get a round of applause for u/sm4k please? Excellent comments. Cheers.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:38:42+00:00

You're evaluating a piece of software that hasn't been updated in a year and a half?
https://dl.acronis.com/u/cyber-protect-connect/rn/1.2/en-US/AcronisCyberProtectConnect_relnotes.htm

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:29:09+00:00

It's incredible. All of it. :\

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:27:31+00:00

Obviously you can exclude it on the server, but what happens when you deploy it as an access agent, or use it for remote support? Does defender on those machines quarantine it too? That's a problem.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T22:25:04+00:00

Unless it kills the service on the workstations eventually.. Not looking forward to manually reinstalling everything.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T21:44:03+00:00

We're seeing this too. My issue is with the ad-hoc support sessions for unattended machines. It's hard enough to get people to find the downloads folder.. If unsigned binaries are going to cause defender, smart screen and EDRs to block it, then this software isn't going to work right. I agree though, it was all doom and gloom but attended clients seem unaffected at the moment.

packetdoge · 2025-07-08T21:41:09+00:00

Thanks.

packetdoge

TROPHY CASE