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**pyro77** · October 29, 2010, 07:30 AM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

After 3 phone calls to Kaseya and multiple emails which went unanswered, we went with Level Platforms. Nice people and super support so far!

**bkendall** · October 29, 2010, 02:52 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

Dealing with the people at Kaseya was one of the worst experiences I have had. I don't know if I just had a bad salesperson assigned to me but they would constantly badger us. Even after we told them we were not interested (Kaseya is ridiculously over-priced) they would still call us and try to pressure us into purchasing their software. They were even threatening the company that we ended up purchasing our MSP software from with lawsuits.

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

**I-Netcs** · October 30, 2010, 06:07 AM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

I hate the high presssure sales. They all give the free 30-60 trail, but it takes atleast that long to really learn and utilize the tools.

I persoanlly object to the large upfront investment they are all looking for. I'm tempted to wait until they change their business model to a pay as you go. Kind of like the remote software (ie logmein etc.). Most of these solutions want you to buy 50, 100 or more licenses. None will sell me 10 - 20 as a starter to see if there is any interest on the part of my clients.

I've got a trial of Kaseya going, so far I'm not too impressed. I had tried n-able once before and i think that was a little more user friendly. I saw a video demo of labtech seems pretty nice.

Has anyone tried GFI's solutions? It used to be hound dog, but GFI supposedly revamed the whole thing.

**wtbservices** · October 30, 2010, 01:54 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

We just switched to GFI from Zenith. We didn't use the help desk stuff from Zenith so we didn't miss it going to GFI.

What I can say about GFI is that they are very responsive to feature requests. In the past few months I have seen several cases where people will ask in the forum for a feature and it is available within a couple of weeks. Same with support, you never have trouble getting in touch with someone who has an answer.

Feature wise I think it is very close to Zenith but the layout and logic behind it is much better and far more usable than Zenith is. For the server side of things the price is about the same as Zenith but the workstation fees are much cheaper.

GFI recently bought out Sunbelt so I asked if there was a possibility of bundling Vipre with GFI Max. One of the reps emailed me off list and told me that it was coming in the near future. They want to be able to install, remove, schedule scans, update and manage the anti-virus on workstations right from the dashboard. He also told me they want to cap all workstation fees at $1 per month. It's hard to beat an RMM, TeamViewer, anti-virus, and reporting that costs $1 a month.

**bkendall** · October 30, 2010, 03:55 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

We use both Labtech and GFI. I tend to be leaning to GFI more and more everyday. I like the simplicity of GFI and the fact that is a hosted service. I tend to avoid any company that uses high pressure sales tactics.

I agree with I-Netcs about the upfront investment. When I implement a new solution, be it network monitoring, backup or whatever I should be making money right away, not waiting for a certain number of users to become profitable.

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

**MachTen** · November 6, 2010, 09:10 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

Do you feel like you can get the same functionality out of GFI that you can Labtech? We are presently evaluating GFI and so far it certainly does do what it can rather well. Seems like there are not as many features. It looks like a lot of scripting would have to be written since the community script sources seem rather limited.

The new Teamview integration appears to work well.

**natrat** · November 9, 2010, 03:07 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

GFI is good and incredibly cheap. I am having some trouble getting a fix in for a feature i thought would already be there though, its been with support for a month now and they still haven't come back.

In SBS2008 the POP3 Connector event log entries are in their own log (SBS operational or similar) and you can't choose this event log in order to receive alerts based on particular errors in that log, which i need for a particular client. They are writing me a custom script to get around this missing feature.

what i partuclarly like about it is workstation monitoring costs 60 cents a month (including team viewer remote support integration) which is a great basis for SOHO/Home Monitoring Packages.

nathan

**I-Netcs** · November 9, 2010, 08:14 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

Right now i'm using GFI in 30 day Demo, there is a learning curve, so i may not be fully proficent in it yet. Some of the remote management tools aren't mature yet.

Yes we can do patch managment with it, but unauthorized apps can't be removed, and some maintenance tasks can't be automated like other patforms, or am i missing it? (ie defrag, scan disk's etc.)

**MachTen** · November 9, 2010, 10:52 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

You can do that with GFI.

Here is a link on how to setup automates tasks:

https://www.hound-dog.us/dashboard/h...utomated_tasks

Simple really but it has only three tasks to choose from right now.

Like I said, it does what it does well but it's rather limited in it's scope.

I just watched a few videos on LabTech software and that software seems like it can do just about anything.

Problem is:
#1 Cost
#2 Deployment. Need a server to run the software. Though they now offer hosted service in the US but if you have less than 100 nodes you get hit with a $100/month idle server fee after three months of deployment. This is really a deal breaker for us or I would jump on this especially with the CommitCRM integration.

**MachTen** · November 9, 2010, 11:00 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

GFI doesn't give you the ability to get hands on a machine without interrupting the end user. Anti-virus integration is practically nil at this point.

I think over time GFI will mature into a very nice product but it just seems like things are missing right now that other packages have. I am sure a lot of this could be managed via scripting - I wish I had the time to sit around all day writing scripts but I don't. :(

Printers are not discovered yet with the software.

Looks like network devices are not discovered and would have to manually be added some how.

**bkendall** · November 10, 2010, 02:06 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

We host our Labtech server with infinitely virtual http://www.infinitelyvirtual.com for ~$12.00 / month. We also host CommitCRM on the same server.

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

**MachTen** · November 10, 2010, 05:41 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

bkendall,

Why are you now leaning towards GFI over labtech? Do you feel like you can achieve the same level of service for your customers with GFI over labtech?

**I-Netcs** · November 10, 2010, 08:30 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

bkendall, Mach is right forst you swore by Labtech, and now you seem to be leaning towrd GFI.

From what i see, GFI is a good starting point to get your feet wet moving into an affordable MSP model. But once you have enough clients on board you can move over to something more robust.

It appears to be a nice stepping stone.

**bkendall** · November 14, 2010, 04:53 PM

Re: Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

I am starting to use GFI more and more because it is easier to use. It is easier to access, easier to setup, easier to train technicians, and the reporting is easy and hassle free.

I know Labtech does 10x what GFI does, but I have found using Labtech for 2 years that I only use 1/10th of the features. The 1/10th that GFI does do, it does very well. I know I can give my clients better service. It is the "less is more" mentality.

Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

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Which MSP would you guy's reccomend?

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