Managed Services

IT Glue adds new functionality around custom SSL Branding, Office 365 licensing, and their Mobile App

by  • 

The Custom SSL branding overcomes an issue where browsers give insecure warnings when the customer accesses IT Glue documents. Initially, the branding is just for public documents, but will eventually cover everything.

ORLANDO – IT Glue was riding high at the IT Nation Connect show here. The market leader in the MSP-focused documentation platform space now reports over 5,000 MSP partners, which is up 150 per cent from the time of this same show two years ago. The company has announced a series of enhancements that are now available to clients on their flagship Enterprise plan. MSPs will now be able to use Custom SSL branding when sharing documents with clients, at first just for public documents, but eventually, on all documents. They also announced the integration of Office 365 licensing within IT Glue, and the availability of flexible assets within the IT Glue Mobile App.

Luis Giraldo, IT Glue’s VP of Product, said that the new features got a strong response at the show.

“We had a full house at my product update session, which was standing room only,” Giraldo said. “I did a 30-minute presentation, and there was a full, strong 30 minute Q&A, and a lot of talk about the product updates and where we are going.”

Custom SSL Branding has been one of the most requested features from IT Glue’s partners. It lets MSPs to retain control over their branding, while giving clients secure and easy access to their documentation that avoids the common problem of insecure message warnings.

“There was a time when web browsers did not have issues with SSL,” Giraldo said. “Now, users often get an insecure message, which can be disturbing. It’s an even bigger problem because in the current security climate, MSPs are inculcating their clients to not trust anything. As a result, a customer may not know what IT Glue is if they have a link to a public document. For example, MSPs would send customers to a public document that would explain how to set up their Outlook – and getting an invalid certificate warning was a problem. The ability to custom brand URL makes it instantly clear to the end user that it is a trusted document, and that it is signed and properly SSL protected. It eliminates some of that concern. Over time, we will make the rest of the app do this. Right now, it’s just for public documents.”

Giraldo also noted that this new functionality also has the impact of strengthening the MSP’s brand. It also doesn’t involve the MSP in any record keeping. IT Glue will automatically issue, manage and renew the SSL certificate

Office 365 licenses have now been integrated into IT Glue, something that Giraldo said was fairly complex technically.

“The Office 365 licensing integration was about synching contacts, and is one of the more complex integrations because the setup process is more convoluted,” Giraldo indicated. “The licensing integration shows the licenses and who they are assigned to. The importance of this came up yesterday during my product update session. Someone said that previously, any time someone wanted to know licensing status, a ticket would have to be escalated to one global person. This integration exposes all the licensing in IT Glue, where all the techs had access. It makes it much faster to find out about licensing, if something needs to be done through procurement. It’s much easier to troubleshoot, because you can see the licenses from someone making a ticket. You can also see licenses that are not in use and turn them off.”

IT Glue has been building functionality into its mobile app incrementally.

“Stats show that IT Glue use is mainly Web applications, but we are seeing an increase in mobile apps, and every time we add to the IT Mobile App, use  increases,” Giraldo said. “There are things like contacts, domains and SSL that are not yet available in the mobile app, but we have now delivered passwords, which we did first, configurations, and flexible assets – the three things customers told us that they want access to the most.”

Flexible assets are the latest addition to the IT Glue Mobile App.

“Flexible assets are a cornerstone of IT Glue,” Giraldo said. “We see lots of MSPS that are very vertically-focused like around dental practices. Flexible assets let them fully customize their database records to their needs. That’s what we just delivered.”