| 09 February 2012
SaaS-based Professional Services Automation and Service Intelligence Software Helps IT Channel Increase Profitability in the Rush to Managed Services and Cloud
RICHMOND, UK: Since opening its first UK office in May of 2011, Autotask Corporation, the world’s leading provider of hosted IT business management software, yesterday announced that it has signed its 500th IT channel partner customer in the UK.
Autotask software is currently used by thousands of IT service providers, value-added resellers (VARs) and managed services providers (MSPs) in 54 countries. “As demand for new and innovative technologies has grown and evolved among small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), so has the demand for software that enables IT service providers to deliver those products and services more efficiently and more profitably,” explains Mark Banfield, Managing Director for International at Autotask Corporation. “As a result, we have grown from the UK launch team of 3 people to more than 15 in just over 6 months.”
Banfield attributes much of the growth to an increased focus on cloud and managed services by VARs and believes that Autotask's low cost £50 per-seat-per-month pricing model allows its customers to try the software without risk before rolling it out across an organisation.
“IT solution providers need to understand the forces and trends that affect their clients’ businesses and their own, and to be able to answer questions like, “who are my most profitable clients?”, “how do I correctly price my services to ensure proper margins?”, and “do I have technicians and engineers who are under-utilized?” Banfield said. “Without an integrated system that gives them a 360-degree view into their business, those questions are very hard to answer.” Autotask, Banfield says, estimates that less than 1 in 5 VARs, MSPs or IT services providers in the UK currently has an accurate picture of their business and the true profitability of their services.
Autotask is a true multi-tenant SaaS that is accessible anywhere, any time with nothing to maintain, install or update. The software integrates a broad range of critical business systems, including customer relationship management (CRM), service desk, human resource scheduling, project management, billing and reporting, and provides real-time service delivery intelligence to help users understand the factors that drive their business and their profitability.
Autotask also integrates with financial software from 20 leading vendors including Sage, Microsoft Dynamics and QuickBooks to help provide a complete picture of the business. The software is also available in six languages; German, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese.
For Tony Poole, Managing Director of Synergy Technology, Autotask has been instrumental in helping his business increase profitability from services, “One of the key benefits for us was working out how we spend resources in terms of delivering against our service level agreements. Some of our clients were clearly over serviced while others offered potential to take more products. Autotask gives us much better visibility across our business and has allowed us to increase our overall profitability.”
Banfield believes that demand for IT business management software will continue to grow in the UK in step with the adoption of more cloud based services, “We are the only comprehensive SaaS offering for the channel with a dedicated UK office and localised focus,” he explains, “This allows us to work closely with our customers and support them as they integrate the platform into their wider business processes.”
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