Pax8’s new relationship with Autotask builds on their existing distribution relationship with Datto, and the distributor is confident it will lead to a major increase in business.
Craig Donovan, Pax8’s VP of Product Development
Denver-based cloud distributor Pax8 has announced a new integration with Autotask’s Professional Services Automation [PSA] offering, with its prime advantage being the granularity of the integrated system’s billing capabilities.
“This is a brand new integration for Pax8,” said Craig Donovan, Pax8’s VP of Product Development. “We launched Version 1 of Autotask integration just this week, and it was in beta for approximately six weeks before that.”
Pax8 has a deep relationship with Datto, which merged with Autotask near the end of last year. Earlier in the year, Datto selected Pax8 as their first distributor. While Autotask already has distribution, Donovan said it is not extensive, and that they are far from overdistributed.
“The Autotask integration was something that was in the works before the merger with Datto, as we had been talking throughout 2017,” he said. “Certainly, our relationship with Datto made it easier to complete this one. Autotask already has some distribution, but we consider that they have been underserved in terms of their integration with distribution.”
Donovan indicated that the specifics of this integration were all based on partner feedback.
“The integration enhances efficiency by both importing data from Autotask and exporting our services from our Command Console down to the catalogue, but the real value here is all about synchronizing billing in the billing platform,” he indicated. “With MSPs constantly adding and subtracting seats, its easy to overlook individual transactions and wind up not billing for seats. However, we have closely tied our provisioning system into the Autotask billing system, and with a couple of clicks, you can update everything. This is also all in the reporting functionality, so provisioning agents don’t have to worry about the contracts. It pushes the seat changes down.”
One Pax8 innovation around consumption-based billing, that was introduced into their long-standing ConnectWise PSA integration earlier this year, will not be available out of the gate with Autotask – but is scheduled to make its appearance soon. It offers MSPs a choice in how they handle consumption-based cloud billing, allowing hem to bill customers in arrears or forward in a recurring-revenue, SaaS model.
“The team is working on this to have it available for Autotask in the late summer time frame,” Donovan said.
Pax8 is expecting a significant upsurge in business from the Autotask integration.
“Many of our partners have asked us about integrating with Autotask, and this will make us more attractive to other MSPs not working with us now who are focused on Autotask,” Donovan indicated. “Specific PSA tools are important to MSP. We saw tremendous growth from our ConnectWise integration and I expect similar gains from this one as well.”
