As MSPs tackle new challenges in their quest to grow and sustain their business, they need the right tools for the job. Richard Fleischman and Associates, Inc (RFA) needed a ConnectWise reporting solution to get the data visibility needed to grow revenue.
The solution they found was Cognition360.
After using Cognition360 for more than a year, it is now fully integrated into RFA’s operations. Now, the company has seen a 15% to 20% efficiency increase across the business.
RFA is a global IT, financial cloud, and cybersecurity provider to the financial services and alternative investment sectors. RFA has more than 250 people working from headquarters in New York and London.
Why do MSPs need business analysis?
Gregory Milis, Chief Technology Officer at RFA, said the company has used ConnectWise as its PSA for a very long time. They developed ad-hoc reporting, but as the business grew they needed improved reporting in their business.
“We realized that to develop a comprehensive set of operational, financial, productivity, and project management reporting across the entire company, we would need an army of business analysts to work on it! Without proper reporting, we couldn’t manage the company very well, and we couldn’t continue to efficiently grow and expand our operations.”
Researching reporting options for ConnectWise led RFA to find Cognition360 on the ConnectWise Marketplace Partner Exchange.
‘It became quickly apparent that it’s a very comprehensive product and easy to deploy, and Coginiton360 was willing to make adjustments for our reporting requirements. The price point also made sense. So, we decided to go ahead.”
Cognition360 was implemented at RFA in July 2021. Milis said the process of fully implementing it into their business was fast and simple.
Saving money and boosting productivity
Within a year, RFA had significant financial and productivity gains. Milis said that if they had to build the same type of reporting themselves, it would have cost three times as much just on labor.
The major benefit they’ve seen is the speed of reporting, covering a wide range of KPIs and metrics.
“For example, our support teams rely on the productivity reporting and utilization reporting,” he said. “This reporting drives not just the KPIs for tech utilization but also drives our hiring decisions, and our expansion decisions. Cognition360 reporting is very deeply integrated into the company’s operations.”
Increased efficiency business-wide
RFA is using Cognition360 reporting to identify the metrics it needs to increase efficiencies across the business.
If the manager or director of a department requests specific information, they rely on Cognition360 reporting to validate the request. RFA uses the insights that Cognition360 surfaces to optimize their business efficiency.
According to Milis, RFA relies on Cognition360 reporting to see the statistics and identify the top five service ticket types. With those reports, they focus on the tasks these tickets cover to see how they can get them done quickly with automation.
RFA has seen at least a 15% to 20% benefit in increasing efficiency across the business, Milis said.
“We’re very happy – it’s a really helpful tool. Every department uses some reporting function of Cognition360. It gives us very clear visibility into a wide range of operational parameters. Cognition360 was a good win for us.”
Quick, professional support
Cognition 360 support is always there when MSPs need it. Milis said interactions with their dedicated project manager were very helpful in onboarding the process.
“We haven’t experienced any issues – it just works,” he said. “Since the initial onboarding and work on getting the data right, we haven’t needed to go to Cognition360 much for support, but when we have, the response is always good – very quick, very professional, and our requests are resolved promptly.
“We’re very happy – it’s a really helpful tool. Cognition360 was a good win for us.”
