TruMethods Launches Process Standardization Tool For MSPs

TruMethods is developing a secure, multi-tenant tool to help managed service providers deisgn, implement and manage customers in their own "company way," according to company executives.

Through a series of mostly yes/no questions, the myITprocess tool will collect and analyzes data based on what technology customers have in place, how that technology fits into an MSPs offerings and whether that legacy technology has a negative impact on their customers' business and should be repalced, said Bob Penland, CTO at TruMethods, during the company's annual Schnizzfest conference in Philadelphia.

The goal is to develop a standards-based solutions approach in order to ensure the same level of support across all customers, executives said.

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"It's a way to ask pointed questions to have your staff follow through the same way every time to deliver a business impact," Penland said. "We're calling it an IT provider template. It's standards you have for your clients."

After an alpha test, myITprocess is now going through a second phase of development to be followed by a beta test this summer. TruMethods hopes to have the tool available to MSPs by ConnectWise's IT Nation conference this fall, said Gary Pica, CEO of TruMethods.

A design portion within the myITprocess tool allows MSPs to define sections for review, such as disaster recovery, and then subsections within those secsions. For example, data backup and generator power within disaster recovery, Penland added.

"We want you to define your best practices for technology and have a process for evaluating that technology. Then you have a way to ask pointed technical question to have your staff follow through the same way every time to clients," Penland said.

After the tool helps MSPs design a process, it can help a staff implement that process, executives said.

"The way myITprocess does this is to evaluate your client. Are they in alignment with your technology, your best practices and what is the business impact of them being out of alignment with that," Penland said.

For example, if a customer has a five-year-old server it's a business risk if that server handles critical e-mail but not as much a risk if it handles a business function that's only run once a year, he said.

"That's the detail we're looking to get to. What is the impact of the client? The way we do that is through a standard review process for the company," he said. Instead of having an engineer's own review that could vary by engineer, it's a standard company-wide review, Penland said.

NEXT: PSA Integration Will Come

The last piece is a technology summary that generates a report to highlight important issues, Penland said.

During a Q&A session with members, Penland and Pica said myITprocess will be able to integrate into PSA tools such as ConnectWise or Autotask.

"We want it for scheduling, for tickets. So we can say 'Here's a review. You need to assign it to someone and makes sure it gets done.' Penland said.

Pica added that the tool would only be available to TruMethods members, which drew applause from Schnizzfest attendees, but he was not sure how much it would cost them.

"We don't know our costs yet for on-boarding or support. I can say we will make it based on the value you get, how many customers you are managing so it matches up with your ROI," Pica said. "The way we come up with a price is we need to charge enough to develop, support and onboard people by our standards. The goal is to make it available to every single member. We hope you trust that our pricing will be by [our strategy] 'members first.'"