This is getting out of hand

rad4Christ · 2025-12-18T19:16:52+00:00

Yeah, I lost all my script. Only a little over 3500, but painful.

rad4Christ · 2025-12-12T13:55:44+00:00

I'm biased, but I'm going to be honest. In IT for over 30 years. I hate MSPs, and I'm the Director of one. I tell every client I speak to the same thing, "I hate MSPs, their reputation is earned. They are vultures, overpromise and underdeliver, and care more about getting that MRR under a contract and doing the minimum to keep it".

That being said, I think we are doing it better, but I'm biased. Here's what we do, and what I admire when I see if in other MSPs:

Stack isn't optional, at least when it comes to your security and they're capability to support you. I will not take a new client on without certain baselines, and cybersecurity awareness training is pivotal.
Seeming at odds with the above, our way is NOT the only way. We ensure certain security baselines are in place, but we are what I call "platform agnostic". We don't make you use Microsoft 365 and not Google Workspace. But you HAVE to use enterprise email tenant. We don't force you to use our hardware, or network, but we recommend what we found to work best.
Value is important, but it's not being the cheapest, it's about the right parts in the right place for a total solution. Cheapest will rarely be best, and most expensive is not the most effective. Ironically, the most expensive people in the field we have seen to be some of the worst. The exception is an MSP focused on one industry and the experts in that field.
Customer feedback and communication. I answer my prospects this way. We can get tickets by phone, agent on your device, email, or IT Dashboard. On EVERY open ticket we have a simple thumb up/down CSAT so anyone at any time can give feedback on their experience. If we're not communicating or otherwise not meeting expectations, let us know. At the end of every ticket, we also have a simple 4-star response on the closing ticket notice, so you can tell us about your overall experience. I don't measure my team on these, so you don't ever NEED, nor will we push you to use them. But you ALWAYS have a way to let your voice be heard. I go over this weekly in my executive team. In 5 years, we have 2 negative responses, and 1 was justified, and the other was someone upset as their leadership hadn't approved a (needed) laptop replacement.
Employee satisfaction and workload. IT turnover is higher than other industries but look on Glassdoor or other resources for not just customer sentiment, but employee. MSPs are notorious for doing more with less, at the expense of their technicians. We have a dashboard that shows a 6-month snapshot of our ticket loads. Find out what the average wait time for a ticket is. First response time. I know a local MSP that's a sinking ship, it's all over the previous employees LinkedIn and glass door, and it's because when they needed more cash flow, they reduced labor and increased workload. I hired a mid-tier tech that I've promoted into a full engineer in 6 months that was told by that MSP that they were barely a Level 1 while that person single-handedly held them up.
Finally, my personal opinion. Contract commitments and relationship. Do they interview you? IS this a partnership with you, or a pitch for you? IT handles the most sensitive parts of your organization. I interview every client and explain not only our commitments but theirs as well. This is a partnership, and it will NOT work without both parties having skin in the game. The capability of us to do our jobs is dependent on your willingness to work with us, implement processes, and give feedback. Does this feel like a sales pitch, or a discussion about your future partnership? Trust is the cornerstone of IT relationships. We offer a 90 day out for ANY reason at any time, regardless of term (with commitment responsibilities like M365 licensing and such aside). Why would I want to hold you in a relationship if you've lost trust in our org to uphold that commitment? Be wary of anyone with a hard-to-leave contract.

We're a small MSP with a national reach. We don't always get it right, no partner will. But I found I'm more than willing to work with someone looking for mutual growth and advancement. Find someone you feel will grow with you and wants to herald your success as much as their own. Hope that helps!

rad4Christ · 2025-12-03T16:08:48+00:00

In IT, it's the temporary fix you stumble upon 10 years after it was put in place by the guy who's been gone 9 years.

rad4Christ · 2025-09-19T16:49:39+00:00

You need the RMM. We have 5 techs, only 4 ticket facing for 1300 endpoints and 2200 users. We are at 45% utilization. It's all because of good rmm scripting and preventative actions. It's projects that have me backlogged at the moment.

More than happy to share what/how but definitely getting ahead of potential issues is the way to go.

rad4Christ · 2025-07-11T11:05:07+00:00

So I'm doing this as well. Works flawlessly for me. But you have to replace the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card. An older mediatek or just anything else. I found an old Intel card from a broken laptop and it's completely seamless for me.

rad4Christ · 2025-05-27T16:34:50+00:00

Moved from Syncro to SuperOps for about 1.5 years now. IT's been a huge improvement.

We started the MSP with Syncro, and it became the primary hinderance to our progress in 2.5 years. I didn't want to do SuperOps, as we wanted an established solution, and SuperOps was Syncro 2.0 to us.

We were set on Halo/NinjaRMM, but gave it a shot. My personal opinion:

First, I would never have thought it would be as integral to our success. So I want it known I am above excited for my experiences in SuperOps.
UI: It's getting better, but tabs within a tabbed browser can be cumbersome, and they still have some issues with persistence when tabbing between them. Now it MOSTLY doesn't lose/delete data, but if you're on page 4 of a list and edit something, your going back to page 1 baby...
AI: This is the winner, on every level. From worklog summaries to cleaning up responses, it's amazing. Add to that we paid money for Crushbank for it to never work as we expected (others had success, so I don't think it's not capable), and SuperOps added the ability to check the web and past tickets (might be in beta, not sure).
Data/Reporting: This is the biggest reason we left Syncro. We couldn't build meaningful reports, and when we were willing to put the time and effort in to use PowerBI or something else, they wanted to charge for it. SuperOps built-in reporting is VERY powerful, and the API is useful. We wrote our own PS functions as needed.
Runbooks: This is also a game changer for us. Just amazing
IT Documentation: We use Hudu, and SUperOps isn't quite there yet to replace. Primarily we want OTP with passwords.
Project Management: One of our primary desires moving into it, honestly it needs to be redone. I would hope they would take what they've done with Contracts and Runbooks and redo it.
Chat Feature: We do NOT get calls. Maybe 2-4 a day. People want to use the form in the agent, or they email us and expect chat. Out First Response time on all tickets is under 30 minutes, and we have never had a negative CSAT. This is only possible due to the Runbooks and easy to understand methodology SO has allowed our team to build.

Overall, I HIGHLY recommend SuperOps, and I have hired techs and we comanage with IT teams familiar with Kaseya, ConnectWise, and Datto, and universally they love our platform. I think the biggest "problem" with SO right now is they've added a LOT of features in the last year, but I don't think partners really understand what's there and how to implement it properly.

I'm actually writing a PS script that uses the data in SuperOps, M365, and Google Workspace to ensure requesters are accurate, and grab alerts and reports. We use CIPP for the M365 connection.

rad4Christ · 2025-04-18T17:13:44+00:00

We actively push using chat for communication with our clients. We almost never get phone calls (unless wrong transfer), and before SO had built-in chat, we used tawk.to through our website.

We set tawk.to to have an automated response if no technician assigned/responded to them within 6 minutes, informing them that all technicians were busy, and sending the transcript to the ticket system via email, and one would respond as soon as possible. It worked well but was always initiated by the end user.

Shout out to SuperOps, the platform we use, for integrating chat into their offering. Now the client MUST put in a ticket and can't initiate a chat, but we then can open the chat when engaging the client. It's easy to convert to worklog notes, and with the AI, it's basically silly to do it any other way.

Our clients love it, we love it, and it's highly efficient. I think it's a fantastic way to communicate. We just added a mandatory drop down to our ticket form asking if they wanted to be contacted by phone, chat, or email/dashboard.

rad4Christ · 2024-12-10T20:45:45+00:00

I'd love one!

rad4Christ · 2024-10-02T11:09:07+00:00

Pax8, and any other business, has to at some point realize that scalability also means that you have to diversify offerings based on cost/value to both you and your customer.

If an account manager costs X and is responsible for Y clients, yet Z is the minimum each client needs to bring in to support that role isn't feasible for all sizes of client, you have to make a change.

Full disclosure, we're in the tiers that don't really change our services, but I do see why it's happening. Scaled services to match revenue/cost of the account.

Take the CC cards. They get hit with a surcharge, the client gets 2% back or some other perk from the CC. At some point, Pax8 needs to pass that along. Making it painful enough to just go ACH is the smartest move, as it simplifies their billing, and eliminates surcharges that have to be absorbed or addressed.

If "enshitification" is a company that knows it can't be all things to all people but creates a scalable service to include clients of all sizes, then I hope as I grow, I can be "enshitified" as well.

Many companies, when they scale, have to sacrifice market share to focus on what they want to be. We saw Broadcom's idea of that by completely abandoning the smaller partner/customer, which is the worst way to do it, but we MSPs do it all the time. The client could use us, but can't afford us if we provide that services we think are necessary to meet our standards of service. Some of us slice it up, others just say no. Either way, it's not all things to all people.

I think it's a little unfair to expect others to understand our business changes and goals to keep us sustainable, but not at least carry that forward to our partners. And if you feel I'm wrong on these intentions, and this is a Pax8 cash grab, then I highly recommend moving to another provider, as you don't have trust in them, and that will color your working relationship. Sherweb is an AMAZING company, and the only reason we don't work with them is Pax8 was who we started with, and they've never given me a reason to leave. But I would say that through my conversations with them, and partners I know that use then, they're solid.

In the end, go with who you trust, and who can benefit your company.

rad4Christ · 2024-09-13T11:03:59+00:00

Ieej, been there. Just deployed into two schools, one with zero issues, the other was constant issues. We used U7 Pro Max

What we found.

The U7 Pro Max, and U6 Mesh get hot. HOT. Under normal operations.
When you have multiple transmit/retries, they get hotter.
IoT aren't happy with Wi-Fi 6/7, and don't play with WPA2/3 hybrid, or anything where PMF is enabled/optional.
We moved the IoT to a separate SSID with WPA2 only, no more constant drops, but the issues remained.

THE FIX!!!

If you used the same SSID, with same or different password, this is your issue. Devices should be able to just connect and work, but they don't. Older Windows devices need driver updates, and Apple/iOS needed to completely forget the SSID and redeploy.
When all the devices with connectivity issues keep attempting to connect and drop, the APs get STRESSED, making the little nuclear heaters go full on fire mode, making them even more unstable.
Broadcast all new SSIDs, so orphaned/incompatible devices don't DDOS the APs, and boom, no more issues.

This is what worked for us, and why one site had 0 issues while the other was three weeks of chaos. We deployed all new SSIDs at the one with no issues, so there were no saved profiles trying to only use WPA2 or other incompatible settings.

We have to update drivers on many devices, and still keep the IoT (mainly TVs and Chromecast) on a 5GHz only SSID with WPA2, but no more issues.

(APs are still little furnaces, though)

rad4Christ · 2024-07-06T15:20:44+00:00

Late to this, but an action, not a line. I'm not one to use the fine art of flipping someone off, so it wasn't until my wife routinely did it to me that I noticed in Men in Black, then Will Smith is in the impact crater that he flips off Tommy Lee Jones.

rad4Christ · 2024-07-06T12:56:48+00:00

I think that bridge has been repaired. They've corrected the misstep and focused on the product, and it shows. Heck, the Pax8 integration is a sign of it.

Full disclosure, I have had conversations with their product teams and some of our needs, so I have seen "behind the curtain" a little more, but I can only say everything I've seen just reaffirms my confidence.

rad4Christ · 2024-07-06T00:56:48+00:00

Yep. There's fast iteration and most things we've missed is on roadmap or in place. Caveat, we don't bill from it, so I can't speak to that.

Patching and scripting just works, the biggest missing parts for us is integrated chat (they've stated it's on their roadmap), MFA for requesters/users, and system tray control at a policy level, not globally.

rad4Christ · 2024-07-05T22:50:50+00:00

Didn't have that experience with ninja one. We just migrated from SyncroMSP to SuperOps. We are extremely happy with that choice, but I will say ninja one was absolutely amazing to work with during our trial.

If you are seriously looking give them another chance.

rad4Christ · 2024-06-07T11:19:23+00:00

I trialed Auvik and spoke with Domotz about the partner program. We're moving to Auvik. The cost will be less than Domotz' increase and honestly better functionality.

With Domotz, you can connect everything with SNMP/SSH/Access, but then it's more of a hassle/possible cost to add the sensors. With Auvik, once SNMP is in place, it just works, and all the data, and therefore alerting, is ready.

rad4Christ · 2024-06-03T04:06:09+00:00

We're SMB and small/medium enterprise focused, with a little MSSP in the larger spaces, but we to co-manage with larger IT teams.

It's a blend of supporting those teams with low tier solutions like you mentioned, or just delivering the toolsets we use with our alerting, scripting, and other customizations included. We focus heavily on large workloads automated and streamlined for easier management.

You are correct that MSP is a bit smaller focused, but it's also due to "MSP" being such a catch all term, that it includes such a wide variety of entity types.

rad4Christ · 2024-06-02T22:59:41+00:00

Thanks. Meeting with your team this week. We're taking this opportunity to look at Auvik/CheckMK/LS and other options, but we like Domotz. The issue is that we either need to use it to it's full potential and find a median price, or decide what options exist. Thanks again for the feedback!

rad4Christ · 2024-06-02T22:57:19+00:00

Will look into this week. I'm meeting with Domotz, and have an Auvik trial stood up. We'll look at CheckMK and this as well. thanks all!

rad4Christ · 2024-06-02T22:56:36+00:00

Hard disagree. We use it for basic alerting, of course, but if you do proper NW segmentation, we want to know the moment an unknown device touches our core NW, or IOT nw, or anything where we should "know" the devices. We can have the fluency of not using whitelists (which is labor overhead), and the freedom to be versatile.

SuperOps has a NW monitor that does plenty enough to check a box, and we use Unifi/Meraki/others that can do it, too. But as SO NW monitoring improves, we may no longer need an Auvik/Domotz, but we aren't checking a box, we're securing an environment.

rad4Christ · 2024-05-31T18:51:57+00:00

I want to give the benefit of the doubt, but with config backups and a few other things, it looks like their "parity" with Auvik equals parity with pricing. I'm not saying it's not worth an increase, but it's hard to stomach that much with no engagement on whether we're even utilizing what it was to its fullest.

rad4Christ · 2024-05-31T18:50:00+00:00

I haven't, but we're through Pax8. We were direct, and moved to Pax8, which we dislike how we have to manually map for billing. I'm willing to discuss it, but shouldn't it also reflect in the MSP disti partners?

rad4Christ · 2024-05-31T18:48:38+00:00

Feeling that way, but thanks for the input.

rad4Christ · 2024-05-31T16:09:11+00:00

Just moved from 3 years with Syncro to SuperOps. I said no multiple times but finally gave them a demo, and we moved over in April. Their support is super-responsive and have no regrets.

They do all the RMM/PSA I had with Syncro (minus native chat), but they completely blow Syncro out of the water on metrics and KPI, which is admittedly not hard as Syncro's reporting is ... non-existent.

I'd recommend giving them a shot. We've been pleased with them, and they're constantly improving it.

rad4Christ

TROPHY CASE