One of the first things an MSP does when searching for a new product or analyzing a new solution is to look for vendors who are already integrated with the tools they're utilizing to run their day-to-day business.
This has been reinforced at numerous trade shows I've attended over the past six years. In fact, one of the most frequent questions that MSPs ask me is, does Gradient's product integrate into my PSA? (PSA, as I'm sure you know, stands for Professional Services Automation, a tool used to automate and run an MSPs business.) My answer to that is HELL YEAH! Gradient’s Synthesize Platform is the bridge that connects vendors and MSPs, creating an ecosystem of opportunity for the IT Channel.
After talking to hundreds of vendors about some of the obstacles they face when trying to push out integrations with other vendors, we uncovered a list of common challenges that discourages them from integrating.
Here are the top five:
- Time
- The need to approach each vendor individually in order to build the integration requires a significant investment of time.
- It also takes time to get keys and responses from PSA vendors and it takes time to actually build out each integration.
- Development Resources
- Like many organizations, vendors are hurting for good development help. In fact, most of the vendors in the Synthesize program find themselves in the position of needing to hire and train new development staff to help manage integrations.
- Product Feature Requests
- Product feature enhancements are necessary to help a business grow and expand. The need to balance that with integration demands can be very challenging.
- Learning the characteristics of individual APIs and determining the priority of first PSA integrations
- To get the best tool for your business, you need to know what each PSA does and how it differs from another. You also need to understand the terminology used by each, since terms are not ubiquitous across PSAs (Agreement vs Contract, Account vs Organization, Service vs Product, etc.).
- Partner Feedback
- Getting the necessary feedback from your partners regarding which PSA vendors they should integrate with and why, can often be a challenge for vendors.