In development
A PSA built by people who had to use one.
ServiceStack is a professional services automation platform for
managed service providers — the system an MSP runs its own
business on. Tickets, the time spent on them, what that time is
worth against a contract, what you had to buy to do the work, and
what the month actually left you.
It is not for sale yet. It is, however, the system this company's
own service desk runs on, which is the short version of why it
works the way it does: every decision in it was made by somebody
who had to live with the last one.
In use here
A desk that works out of the inbox
Mail to the support address becomes a ticket, filed against the
right client, with the attachments kept. Replies thread back
onto the same ticket even when the client’s mail software
drops the headers, and a reply to a closed one reopens it rather
than vanishing.
In use here
Time logged against what was said
Minutes go on the reply or the note they belong to, not onto a
timesheet somebody fills in on Friday. Billable, covered by the
agreement, or written off — decided once, while the work
is fresh, rather than argued over at month end.
In use here
Contracts, and what they promise
By the hour, a block of prepaid hours that draws down, or a
monthly allowance with the overage billed at the rate. Response
and fix targets per priority, with the clock on the ticket
— because an SLA nobody can see is an SLA nobody meets.
In use here
Clients who have signed nothing
Most of an MSP’s revenue is contracted and some of it is
not, and the some is what gets forgotten. Pay-as-you-go tickets
carry your list price, with on-site and remote priced apart
— an hour at a client’s premises includes the drive.
In use here
Invoices that leave the building
The month’s unbilled work becomes an invoice, emailed to
the address on the contract with a PDF attached — your
letterhead, both addresses, every ticket itemized, and a
tear-off remittance slip for whoever still pays by check.
In use here
What each client actually has
The server, the switch, the laptop on reception — with the
serial, the warranty date, and which of their buildings it is
actually in. A ticket names the kit it is about and the site it
is at, so “out of warranty since March” and
“that one is at the Brandon office” are both on the
screen before anybody drives anywhere.
In use here
The renewal nobody noticed
Warranties expire quietly, and the first anybody hears of it is
usually a dead server and an argument about who pays. The count
of what runs out in the next sixty days sits on the screen
whether or not anybody went looking — long enough to quote
it, have it agreed, and get the part ordered at a price you
chose rather than the one you were left with.
In use here
A portal your clients will use
Their tickets, their replies, a way to raise a new one without
writing an email, and the list of what you look after for them
with what is still under warranty — showing them their own
and nothing else. No internal notes, no time, no figures, and
nothing belonging to anybody but them.
In use here
Quotes a client can say yes to
A quote goes out as a PDF with a link under it. They tick the
lines they want, decline the ones they don’t, and type their
name — and what comes back is a record of who agreed to what,
and when, line by line. Nothing to print, sign and scan back.
In use here
What you had to buy to sell it
An accepted quote raises the purchase order, carrying the parts
they agreed to and not the ones they refused — and not the
labor, which is not a thing anybody receives into stock. Counts
move as orders arrive and as work goes out, so an item sitting at
minus two is something sold and not yet reordered.
In use here
The number that matters
What you billed each month, what the parts behind it cost, and
what that leaves — month against month, so this March can be
read against last March. Labeled margin and not profit, because
wages, the rent and the van are not in it, and a figure that
flatters you is worse than no figure at all.
In use here
Who changed it, and what it was before
A rate, a status, an address — recorded with the name of
whoever changed it and the value it held before. On the record
itself rather than in a log you have to go and search, because
the moment anybody wants it is the moment they are looking at a
figure they don’t recognize.
Built on the work above rather than in place of it — if you run a
service desk and this sounds like the one you wish you had,
tell us what yours gets wrong.
