On the strength of a new integration with ConnectWise, AgentDealer believes it is providing a valuable tool for dealers to not only simplify but more effectively handle their managed IT client relationships. With ConnectWise’s reputation as a preferred ERP for managed IT providers, AgentDealer believed it to be the perfect complement to elevate its CRM to the next level.
The solution, currently in beta testing, enables users to view managed IT customer contacts, agreements and related information; enables users to create reports and dashboards for managed IT data in the CRM; and syncs ConnectWise opportunities and products for forecasting/pipeline management. The integration also provides a single point of management for managed IT as well as imaging services opportunities.
AgentDealer is confident the tool’s ability to track and manage all sales in one place will resonate with dealers. We sat down with Rohan Santora, director of sales for The Sailor Group/AgentDealer, for a Two-Minute Drill segment to delve deeper into the genesis of the ConnectWise integration, its potential impact for navigating managed IT clients, how it stacks up against the competition and future avenues for partnerships.
What led you to partner with ConnectWise? How did this integration come together?
Santora: This integration and partnership really came together like most other evolutions to our AgentDealer CRM over the years in that it was driven by dealer needs. So many dealers are selling managed IT solutions, and most CRM platforms don’t handle the differences in how those products are proposed and sold in comparison to traditional imaging hardware. We started to address this by adding the capability to price, propose and forecast these types of MRR and professional services-based offerings from within AgentDealer but realized that more was going to be needed to truly help sales departments [handle] managed IT offerings.
We are constantly speaking to dealer leadership and over the last several years, it became very apparent to us that ConnectWise was going to become the default ERP for managed IT providers. We decided that ConnectWise would be something we needed to have an integration with so that in addition to their traditional imaging customers, sales departments would have visibility into their managed IT customers’ contracts, activities, support tickets, invoicing, etc., which are all being managed within ConnectWise.
How has this integration been received by your dealer clients?
Santora: Even though we are in beta currently and just getting ready to release to the general dealer population, the dealers that know this is coming are excited about what we are about to provide for them. They have all struggled with how to bring their managed IT and sales divisions together, much like the struggle with marketing and sales, and how to get these different platforms all aligned so that there aren’t duplicate efforts across multiple platforms. Our AgentDealer platform is built to bring systems like this together, so the thought of being able to manage all of these processes from a single point has everyone excited.
How do you feel this combination stacks up against competing business tracking/management solutions? What makes it unique?
Santora: We feel that one of the benefits of AgentDealer being built upon the top CRM data platform in the world, SalesForce, gives us the ability to do this in a completely different way than other systems traditionally still developed in the 1990s-style software world. We can all build “integrations” into other systems, but the uniqueness really lies with how our platform can accomplish that. There are many things in our platform that we can do with no code or low code-type solutions for integration and workflow, which enables us to add features and enhancements at a per-dealer level, sometimes on the fly. With integrations like the one we are releasing for ConnectWise, it enables us to tap into every area of that platform that is desired for CRM visibility and bring it over into the existing CRM processes. Then, with those same processes, we can also move data from the CRM back over into ConnectWise to keep the platforms, and personnel that may only work in one of each of the two platforms, connected and collaborative in those individual and separate business processes.
Just as with our eAutomate, Sales ScoreKeeper, Hubspot, Evolved Office and other integrations, we feel that these capabilities are quickly going to become a requirement from the dealer community as managed IT and sales need to come together for business continuity. Our platform puts us in a unique position with how and to what extent we can accomplish things like this.
Are you looking at other potential partnerships in the coming year? What area(s) might they address?
Santora: We are always looking at what’s ahead because dealers are always asking us if we can tackle new challenges that they have. As things progress forward, the things we are currently doing sometimes need to be evaluated for improvements in how we accomplish those capabilities. We have integrations many people don’t even realize for things like LinkedIn, Vidyard, VoIP phone systems, GoToMeeting and others right inside the CRM already. For others on our roadmap, I can’t get into specifics since most of these are in some form of preliminary or working phase, but we are working with Keypoint Intelligence to enhance our data integrations for things like our QuoteBuilder price book items list for the manufacturer’s model, and accessory items being automatically maintained to a certain degree.
Since e-commerce is starting to gain traction throughout the dealer community Keypoint is working with us for an industry-specific solution. We are always speaking with the industry’s financial entities, in addition to our GreatAmerica, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo integrations, as dealers request more ways to interact with leasing approval or buyout request direct submissions from the CRM, as well as keeping up those portfolios in the CRM. We are also getting ready to launch our Managed TCO for MPS Printer list integration with InTimeTec, which has been in the works for a while so that dealers don’t have to maintain the basic list of A4 printers out in the wild or those associated street costs per page when they are evaluating MPS opportunities. We have many more things on our radar and would love to hear from the dealer community on what’s going to be needed next.
