Product Updates

You asked, we listened: New plans for Lifecycle Manager  At ScalePad, the MSP community's voices have power. As we continue developing Lifecycle Manager as a client engagement platform, we haven't lost sight of its position as the leading warranty lookup tool, offered initially as a feature set called Warranty Master. The overwhelming community response to the loss of Warranty Master has directly influenced our decision to develop a new offering — Essentials — that returns to those roots in a more thoughtful way.  Along with Essentials, we've sharpened our Pro plan with new tracking features for client engagement (hint: SaaS management and vendor contracts) — more on those below.  As a bonus for our Free and Essentials plan users, we're including all the Pro features to try for one client.  Here's what you need to know about Lifecycle Manager's new plans.  Essentials Just the essentials (clever, right?) for asset management. Automatically track IT assets throughout their lifecycle and get accurate data for strategic planning and client conversations. What you get: Instant warranty expiry date lookups from 40+ OEMs Color-coded asset health Insights Filterable views of asset purchase dates Automated client-friendly hardware lifecycle reports Report-scheduling functionality Infrastructure Protection available in-app Workstation Assurance available in-app Bonus: All Pro Features for 1 Client What it costs: Plans start at $79.00/month for 250 assets Pro The account management powerhouse. Everything you need to elevate your value as a strategic partner for your clients. What you get:Everything in Essentials, plus: 5-year Roadmap project planning Color-coded Scorecards for client-friendly QBR collateral Software and user data reporting 20% off ScalePad Marketplace purchases Free IT asset disposal, available to book in-appWe've also added new features to help Pro users automate a complete view of their clients' operational environment. With SaaS and vendor management, seeing the whole picture is possible with a few clicks. SaaS Management Track your clients' Software as a Service (SaaS) usage and license consumption automatically so you can make informed recommendations for their SaaS license purchases. SaaS Management currently supports integration with Microsoft 365 with plans to expand to other popular applications throughout 2025.  Vendor ContractsIntegrate your PSA with Lifecycle Manager to easily visualize vendor contract details, including costs and renewal dates, in an easy-to-read dashboard view. See the overview. What it costs: Plans start at $149.00/month for 250 assets. Thank you to the ScalePad community for advocating for the solutions they need. We're inspired, and we're listening.  

TL;DR: What’s New For Cognition360?We just released enhancements to four reports for Cognition360, providing your MSP with improved analysis of your operations and financial situation. Four reports for our fourth and final release of 2024 for Cognition360, and just like the previous releases, you have to ask for the reports to get them. Let’s take a quick look at each and see exactly what’s new and improved. Which four reports have been enhanced?Here’s the list: Technology Business Review Project Summary Report Team Utilization Report Work Type Usage Team Utilization is one of our most popular and important reports, and the other three are valuable core reports as well.  Also, there are no references to 90s pop music or films anywhere in this update. Think that was leaned into a little too hard last time around, so we’ll keep it on topic this time. No more 1992 references. At least, not many. Maybe just A Few Good Men references. How does one access these updated reports?The Cognition360 Support team kindly set up a request form (shout out to ​@Marnel Catlett for setting this up in literally minutes!), as we’ve found it worked well the last couple of updates we did.  Please fill in this form and request the reports you want to have updated to the latest version.  Boom, next thing you know, you’re in and using them. What’s new-and-or-improved in each of these four reports?Our running joke is that “these improvements will improve customer retention, enhance your quality of life, and empower you to make more informed and strategic business decisions.” But you know what? In every joke, there’s a grain of truth, and in this case, more than just a grain – the enhancements will help you make more informed decisions for your MSP. We’ll go through the four of these in detail below. Did you take advantage of the last reports that we updated? If you missed out,  here’s the form to get the updates from October. You’ll want those ones too. Technology Business ReviewWe’ve added a new Configuration Type filter to the Computer Information page inside the Technology Business Review.  Technology Business Review | Computer Information – new Configuration Type filter The added Configuration Type filter allows you to quickly filter device data, helping you understand which devices warrant additional attention and discussion with clients during a business review conversation. Lifecycle Manager also helps identify opportunities and provides you with a workflow to renew warranties or replace end-of-life devices, and you should definitely check it out if you haven’t already. There may be problem (or opportunity) areas within specific Configuration Types, and this gives you a way to identify those. You likely already have a plan in place for your MSP to capitalize on opportunities with Windows 10 going EOL in October next year, but here’s a way to identify potential problematic hardware and encourage clients to budget for replacements. Project Summary ReportProject Management Hours are now added to the Project Details Report under the Project Summary in Project Details as a separate column. Project Summary Report | Project Details – new Project Management Hours column It wasn’t straightforward to compare actual project spend vs the budget, schedule, and estimated hours, and project management overhead hours are a necessary evil that need to be tracked and accounted for.  Adding this additional column of data will allow users to understand how many hours a technician spends as a project manager. Ultimately, you need to account for these hours when planning and quoting future projects, so this will provide a useful actual measure on project management overhead for current and past projects. It can be easy to forget about or underestimate management hours when calculating margin at the outset, so we wanted to make this clearer right in the high-level Project Details. Team Utilization ReportA drill-through to the Total Labor per Hour has now been added to the Hourly Labor page in the Team Utilization Report, showing labor per hour by technician.  Team Utilization Report | Hourly Labor – new drill-through to Hourly Labor data This drill-down view lets you see your entire tech team, and how many hours they’re utilized. In the example above, we’ve set the Labor Hours to the time from 08:00 to 17:00, and Joseph, Shon, and Catherina are the highest utilized over the last week. Work Type UsageA yes/no filter for Child Tickets has been added to the Customer page of the Work Type Usage Report. Work Type Usage Report | Customer – new Child Ticket filter The addition of this filter allows you to toggle child tickets off or on when viewing / reviewing your technicians’ work by work type. Some service desk teams make extensive use of child tickets as part of their workflows, but feel these shouldn’t necessarily “count” as they weren’t created by client users. Other times (on projects, for example), including child tickets may be desirable. The addition of this filter gives your team another option on viewing information. Winter is ComingWinter has very much arrived here in Canada, and our American friends have celebrated Thanksgiving now, so as mentioned at the top, these are the last updated reports of the year. Please use the form to request any of these that interest you, and keep an eye out for more enhancements to Cognition360 in the New Year.  If you’re already a Cognition360 partner, we’d appreciate your feedback – start the conversation below. Not a Cognition360 partner yet? Join us for a personalized demo, or check out this quick overview here. We’d love to help you unlock insights hidden in your ConnectWise PSA data so you can grow a more profitable MSP business in 2025. 

Managing Security Awareness Training (SAT) for clients can be a tedious task for MSPs. ControlMap simplifies this by integrating with Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training, a leading SAT platform, allowing MSPs to pull SAT data directly into ControlMap. What can MSPs do with the Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training Integration?Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training delivers engaging, animated episodes designed to educate users on staying secure online. With this integration, MSPs can now pull SAT data into ControlMap, reducing the need for manual tracking. What this means:Automated Tracking: MSPs can monitor which users have completed their required training. Assignment Management: MSPs can view and track assignments from Huntress within ControlMap, helping them ensure their clients are meeting their security training requirements. Automated Data SynchronizationOnce connected, ControlMap pulls the following training data from Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training every week:Training Completion Status Employees Enrolled Training Assignments & Progress Ready to Get Started?Bring the power of Huntress Managed Security Awareness Training and ControlMap together today. Log in to ControlMap to activate the integration. For more information on how this integration can elevate your compliance management, request a demo.

Ever wish you could just hit “copy and paste” for tenant setups? Now you can! With ControlMap’s new tenant cloning feature, you can replicate entire tenant configurations in a few clicks — no more manual setups. The Benefits of Tenant CloningSetting up a new tenant can be time-consuming, but with tenant cloning, you can duplicate entire setups— settings, controls, and policies.Save time: Forget spending hours setting up new tenants. Consistency at scale: Ensure the same setup across all tenants, keeping everything uniform and straightforward. Fewer headaches: Just duplicate, tweak where needed, and you’re ready to roll. Want to Give it a Try?Tenant cloning is available now! Head to your ControlMap dashboard and pick the tenant you want to clone.

ScalePad has launched the next step towards a unified experience across our product suite – the ScalePad Hub. Now, all ScalePad app users have access to all of their products through a single centralized account, which we’re calling the ScalePad Hub. What is the ScalePad Hub? The ScalePad Hub is a centralized portal for all ScalePad apps. It is the entry point into the ScalePad app ecosystem for Partners. It’s the first step in our vision of an integrated product suite that allows the seamless flow of crucial data and information between our apps.  We strive to provide our Partners with the most advanced automation so they can spend less time cobbling together data and more time on high-value work that supports their clients. The ScalePad Hub is a stepping stone into tighter app integrations, expanded automation, and an enhanced experience for all of our Partners – something we’re calling the ScalePad OS. We have lots more in store (read more at the bottom of this update) and the ScalePad Hub is the foundational first step. ScalePad Hub What can I do in the ScalePad Hub?The Hub grants ScalePad Partners the following:Centralized App Access User Management Subscription Management Centralized App AccessPartners with subscriptions to multiple ScalePad applications can now quickly navigate between apps without the need to sign in to separate app-specific portals. Users will only have to sign in to the ScalePad Hub once to have access to all of their apps from their account. By centralizing the access point for all the apps, Partners no longer have to store multiple app-specific credentials or bookmark several sign-in pages – every ScalePad app can be accessed from a single screen (or pane of glass for those who prefer the term… we know it’s polarizing).ScalePad Hub Sign In From within any ScalePad, users can seamlessly navigate to their other subscriptions. Partners only need to click the Bento Box menu in the top nav to open any of their other subscribed apps quickly. A centralized sign-in streamlines app switching as there is no longer the need to enter another set of credentials from another sign-in page. ScalePad Hub with the bento box menu expanded. User ManagementThe ScalePad Hub is the portal for adding new users and granting them permission to access the apps necessary for their role and responsibilities. Admins are able to manage their ScalePad app users from one place, easily update their entitlements, and enforce security settings for MFA and SSO. Individual users can update their profile details, password, and MFA settings all in the ScalePad Hub. Note that access permissions to specific features in each app are still configured in each app. The ScalePad Hub simply adds (or removes) users to each Partners ScalePad account. The individual app-based permissions are still managed in each app. For more details, visit our new ScalePad Hub Help Center. Subscription ManagementWithin the ScalePad Hub, Partners can manage their ScalePad app subscriptions and entitlements. On the Billing tab, you can view details of your current ScalePad subscription, manage your plans, and even add new ScalePad apps to your stack.  Where do I find the ScalePad Hub?The URL for the ScalePad Hub is app.scalepad.com. All users signing into their ScalePad apps will be automatically redirected to app.scalepad.com for sign-in.  From within your ScalePad apps, clicking on the ScalePad icon in the top nav bar will take you back to the Hub. Access the ScalePad Hub by clicking the ScalePad logo in the top nav bar.  I still have questions…We have answers! Visit this FAQ to find the answer all your questions about the ScalePad Hub. You can also find more detailed information in our new ScalePad Help Center or get in touch with our team at support@scalepad.com. What’s next for ScalePad?The launch of the ScalePad Hub sets the stage for unified billing. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be migrating to a centralized billing system so Partners can manage all of their app subscriptions in one place. Keep an eye out for in-app messages as we migrate each app's billing to the ScalePad Hub. At the ScalePad Innovate event in June, we outlined our vision for the ScalePad platform - a deeply integrated suite of apps that helps MSPs truly grow while providing the highest level of service to their clients. The Hub is just the first step towards achieving this vision.  We’ll continue working on the rest of the ScalePad vision, which includes developing the ScalePad OS to unify integrations in the Hub instead of each separate app. This is a critical piece of our platform that will connect your tech stack to all of our apps internally to allow free flow of information to eliminate information silos. Keep tabs on our updates page for more exciting releases as we continue rolling out enhancements to our product suite.  ScalePad will be hosting our next All Partners Conference, Ignition, on January 23, 2025. Join us as we bring insight into the key trends, challenges, and opportunities for MSPs. We’ll also be giving a peek into our 2025 product roadmap. Register here to save your seat for this virtual event. 

Quoter just released their October Product Update which includes recent product release updates, wins, and Partner impact. Delivered straight from the source – Ash, Quoter’s Senior Product Manager.  Our team has been busy in October making the Quoter product better.  Some highlights from this month’s release:Some highlights from this month’s release: Support for Bundles in our single-select Sections: Even more updates to our HaloPSA integration: Streamline ACH payments with Quoter + QuickBooks Online integration: Have your zero-value unit prices recognized in quotes as zero: Send quotes from your Android device with ease: Support for Bundles in our single-select Sections: This update allows you to package up hardware, software, or other services in Bundles and then provide those to the end customer within single-select Section options. It’s convenient for you and gives customers more flexibility to customize the deal. Even more updates to our HaloPSA integration: This month, we released an update that populates our Quote Line Item description on the corresponding Notes field of the line item on the Halo Quote. When there’s a match to an existing product in Halo, we’re following the same logic and using Quoter’s Line Item description as the source of truth for what we’re populating in the notes field of the Halo Quote’s line item. This provides more robust continuity between the Quoter and Halo Quotes. We’re working hard to get complete parity between the two Quotes — stay tuned. We’re now setting the income and expense accounts on new Halo products we create on push when we create a new product based on the Halo product group. We are now attaching the Quote PDF to the Halo Quote and Opportunity so you can access it in both locations to see exactly how it looks on the Quoter side of things. Streamline ACH payments with Quoter + QuickBooks Online integration: For our Partners utilizing the Quoter + QuickBooks Online (QBO) integration, we’re now recognizing ACH (Automated Clearing House) settings in QBO, so when an invoice is generated from Quoter, you won’t have to go in and modify the invoice in QBO to allow ACH payments. Instead, it will be created with ACH as the default setting. Have your zero-value unit prices recognized in quotes as zero:  CSV line item import tool now respects zeros on unit price, which means no more manual edits to those fields after the import is complete. We know this will save some valuable time for our Partners using our CSV Line Item Import tool. Send quotes from your Android device with ease: The mobile experience for our Partners who view and send Quotes from their Android devices wasn’t quite up to par — the responsiveness wasn’t ideal, and the experience could be better. This month’s mobile optimization release solves those minor workflow challenges, so it’s much easier to review and send Quotes while you’re on the go with your Android device.  Read the full article and learn more about October releases: https://www.quoter.com/quoter-product-update-october-2024/

ControlMap has introduced dark mode, designed to enhance your experience by providing a more comfortable and customizable display option. Dark mode offers an alternative view that can make longer sessions on the platform easier on the eyes.  How to Enable Dark Mode1. Click on the profile icon in the top right corner.2. Click on appearance.3. Select the appearance option – dark mode, light mode, or match system settings.  Get Started TodayTurn on dark mode in ControlMap and enjoy a more customizable, user-friendly experience.

These days, anything that will help an MSP do their work better and faster is a winning solution. Users of the BCDR tool Axcient x360Recover can now automate the monitoring of their x360Recover backups using a new and improved API, which was recently announced at the Axcient Xperience Summit event on October 3! Integrating Backup Radar and Axcient x360Recover collects backup results directly from the Axcient cloud portal for monitoring. See high-level backup trends, uncover risky, unreported backups, and report on results for your clients.This integration marks an expanded partnership with the Axcient ecosystem and allows an improved experience for our Partners using Axcient’s BCDR tools for their client’s data protection needs. Enhanced integration also enables MSPs to drastically reduce ticket noise from their backups, with integration to your PSA. Intelligent automatic ticketing opens, appends, groups, and closes resolved tickets related to your Axcient backups. You set the ticketing parameters on what and when you will be notified about something, and Backup Radar will take the stress and tediousness of sifting through ticket noise. What can you do with the Axcient API Integration with Backup Radar?This integration marks an expanded partnership with the Axcient team and allows an improved experience for our Partners using Axcient’s BCDR tools for their client’s data protection needs. This integration also enables MSPs to drastically reduce ticket noise from their backups, with intelligent automatic ticket opening, appending, grouping, and closing resolved backup-related tickets. You set the ticketing parameters on what and when you will be notified about something, and Backup Radar will take the stress and tediousness of sifting through ticket noise off of your, or your technicians’, plate. By using Backup Radar and Axcient together, MSPs can access the full suite of solutions available in Backup Radar to automate reporting, ticketing, alerting, dashboards, and our audit screen to review their clients’ backup data or take remedial actions. Use Backup Radar reports and visualizations to look for trends and anomalies in your Axcient backup statuses so that you can proactively remediate issues before they arise. See if backups are failing regularly over time or in a certain environment. You can start monitoring your Axcient x360Recover backups now by integrating in a few easy steps! Not yet signed up for Backup Radar? We can fix that! Let’s have a chat and get Backup Radar working for you. 

TL;DR: What’s New For Cognition360? 🎃Cognition360 has released enhancements to five reports that provide your MSP with improved analysis of your operations and financial measures, including four of our core reports. Just like the set of several reports we updated in March, and the four more we updated in July, however, you have to ask for them to get them. Let’s take a quick look at each of the new-and-improved reports and see exactly what’s new and improved.  Which five reports exactly?Here’s the list: Fixed Fee Tickets Report (add-on) Ticket Daily Stats Report (core) Customer Profitability Report (core) Time Entry Benchmark (core) Project Summary Report (core) You might not be using all of these reports now, but they’re all well worth a second look. How do I gain access to these reports?The Cognition360 Support team has just what you need. If you know exactly what you want, you can fill in this form and request to have the reports you want updated to the latest version. Next step, you’re in and using them. What’s new-and-or-improved in each of these five reports?Once again, the official word from our Product team is that “these improvements will improve customer retention, enhance your quality of life, and empower you to make more informed and strategic business decisions.”  Did you take advantage of the last reports that we updated (by the way, here’s the form if you missed out last time, and a link to read what you missed)? Did they enhance your life’s quality? These ones just might. Read on to learn more… and FYI, the best is saved for last.  “Save The Best For Last” was also a huge hit song in 1992 for actress, pop star, and former Miss America winner Vanessa Williams.   Fixed Fee Tickets ReportSpeaking of 1992, do you remember the 1992 Disney film Aladdin, when the titular character sang about “a new fantastic point of view” in the film’s Oscar and Grammy-winning signature song “A Whole New World”? Well, now in 2024, we’ve added a whole new Billable Technicians page that will give you a new fantastic point of view – the technicians who worked on those tickets, including the billable hours and the billable amount. Fixed Fee Tickets Report – new Billable Technicians page All the ticket details are linked here, along with bar charts for the number of billable tickets per technician, the billable hours per technician for these tickets, and the associated billable amounts.  You can also see in the table on the top right how many techs worked on bigger tickets, and this can help you find oddities… like our example, where 6 techs worked on a fixed-fee workstation update for 68.68 billable hours and billed nearly $10,000. Hopefully you don’t find alarming examples in your own business… feels like the client relationship could be in “A Whole New World” of pain. 😬 Tickets Daily Stats ReportThis is just a quick clean-up to the Entered | Resolved page: Ticket Daily Stats Report – Entered | Resolved page The Entered | Resolved page will now show tickets entered vs tickets resolved on the same date range selected for an easier visual comparison. Strongly recommend getting this fix as it makes the page much more useful. Customer Profitability ReportThe Customer Profitability Report has been updated with a new filter for Technical Account Manager added: Customer Profitability Report – new Technical Account Manager filter Technical Account Manager has been added as a filter just below Account Manager on the Summary page of the Customer Profitability Report. If your organization has both AMs and TAMs, with different customer responsibilities or lines of reporting, this will allow you to see how profitable each TAM’s portfolio of accounts is by month. Time Entry BenchmarkAn incorrect URL on the Report Information page had been used (which you’d find if you drill down), and refreshing the report with this updated one will correct the error. This one is just a fix so nothing is broken. No screenshot, but we’ll update it for you. Project Summary ReportSaving the best for last, but unrelated to Vanessa Williams, three enhancements have been made to Project Summary Report’s main Project Details page that improve oversight for projects: Billable Budget Hours Remaining and Billable Budget Hours % Remaining Added Engineer Hours and Project Management Hours Added a With Opportunity filter Project Summary Report – Billable Budget Hours highlighted Billable Budget Hours Remaining and Billable Budget Hours % Remaining have been added to the Project Details page of the Project Summary report. These two measures will indicate the Billable Hours compared to the budgeted hours for the project. This shows at a glance whether billable hours are over or under budget, how many billable hours are still left in the budget, and the percentage of remaining hours of budget.  This enhancement is useful for MSP project managers to communicate with stakeholders, allowing them to quickly highlight projects in the portfolio that are going well and get ahead of issues that have arisen on others (perhaps scope issues with the client, or resource challenges with internal team members). Project Summary Report – Project Management Hours & Engineer Hours added We’ve also added Project Management Hours and Engineer Hours to the Details page of the report. Again, this is great for portfolio-level project oversight – understanding overhead requirements / overruns and getting an at-a-glance look at the technical resources individual projects have consumed versus estimates / budgets for each. Take action on any projects that are moving in the wrong direction before they’re on fire . Project Summary Report – new With Opportunity filter A new With Opportunity filter has been created, which will allow you to view only projects with associated Opportunities that have been created in your PSA, or see those that don’t have any Opportunities at all. This will let you see projects that just got missed on updating Opportunities on the sales process side (or just aren’t linked correctly), or if you’ve moved ahead with a client-sourced project that wasn’t “sold” and never had an Opportunity at all (like a surprise office move).  And That’s The End of That ChapterSummer is over here in the northern hemisphere, so these are the last updated reports of the season. Please use the form to request any of these that interest you, and keep an eye out for more enhancements to Cognition360.  Not a Cognition360 partner yet? Join us for a personalized demo, or check out this quick overview here. We’d love to help you unlock your ConnectWise PSA data to make better decisions and grow a more profitable MSP business. 

Quoter just released their September Product Update which includes recent product release updates, wins, and Partner impact. Delivered straight from the source – Ash, Quoter’s Senior Product Manager.  Some highlights from this month’s release:Quoter Editor Enhancements for Nuanced Pricing Display: This month, as part of our larger Quote Editor enhancement project, we’ve released the ability to have bundles within single-select item groups. Coming (Very) Soon: Profitability Reporting, Leaderboard Updates: First up: salesperson Leaderboard updates. We’re enhancing the interface so that instead of just displaying the top 10 salespeople, the entire sales team is visible at a glance. Next: line item profitability reporting. We’re making it easy to know which products have the highest and lowest profitability to help you flag products to focus on selling or discontinuing.  Get Excited: Quoter + ScalePad Hub Is In Progress: For our Partners who use other ScalePad products, such as Lifecycle Manager or Backup Radar, centralized management is headed your way: Quoter’s integration with the ScalePad Hub is set to launch in the last quarter of 2024.  Read the full article and learn more about September releases:  https://www.quoter.com/quoter-product-update-september-2024/

ControlMap now includes three additional frameworks. With the addition of NIST SP 800-171 R3, NIST SP 800-161r1, and ISO/IEC 42001, it's easier to address security, supply chain, and AI governance challenges. NIST SP 800-171 R3NIST SP 800-171 R3 focuses on protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in nonfederal systems. Released in 2024, it provides comprehensive security controls for managing CUI, aligning with federal standards, and fostering a proactive approach to risk management. This framework supports meeting federal compliance requirements while safeguarding sensitive data.  NIST SP 800-161r1NIST SP 800-161r1 addresses cybersecurity supply chain risk management, offering guidelines for identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks across IT and OT environments. This framework helps improve resilience and reliability by securing the supply chain and ensuring alignment with federal standards.  ISO/IEC 42001ISO/IEC 42001 sets a structured approach for responsible AI management. Released in 2023, it provides guidelines for ethical AI governance, risk mitigation, and building trust in AI technologies. This framework supports aligning AI practices with global standards and regulatory requirements.  Get Started TodayImport these frameworks into client tenants, cross-map them with existing frameworks, and address gaps in compliance, supply chain security, and AI governance.

I'm pleased to announce some recent updates to Lifecycle Insights to improve the user experience and deliver better reporting for your clients. These enhancements aim to make your workflows more efficient and support meaningful client discussions. Let's explore the details of these updates: Save and create multiple recommendations faster: When creating a recommendation, you can save it and immediately start working on another recommendation for the same client. Minimizing the number of clicks will help you save time and reduce distractions.  Group assessment items by recommendation in the report builder: In response to user feedback for more contextual reporting, you can now group assessment items based on the recommendations in the report. This feature allows you to present assessment risks in the context of proposed solutions, making it easier to focus conversations on resolution and demonstrate the value of your work.  Simplified stack alignment table sorting: In the CS Module, you now have more flexibility in sorting the stack alignment table across all clients, enabling you to better understand which clients are showing risks or opportunities.Thank you to our community for your valuable feedback, which helps us continue to improve the Lifecycle Insights product.

Quoter just released their August Product Update which includes recent product release updates, wins, and Partner impact. Delivered straight from the source – Ash, Quoter’s Senior Product Manager.  Some highlights from this month’s release:Moving from CKEditor to Froala as the base of our WYSIWYG editor, which will help improve the usability and functionality of image formatting, pasting content from different sources such as Word or Google Docs, and delivering more flexibility for handling page breaks for PDF generation. We’re now pushing a range of additional fields for our Quoter + HaloPSA users, particularly for products, to help minimize repeat data entry and human error for the records in your HaloPSA account. You can add a rule to require manager approval of new ad hoc line items or bundles. It’s just one more way to ensure quote oversight when delegating the process to other team members.  For Amazon Business account holders (it’s free if you’re not one!), your procurement or ordering process just got an upgrade in speed and convenience.  Via our Quoter + Amazon integration, we now push the ASIN (Amazon’s unique identifier), to Quoter’s Procurement Pick List. With your quotes referencing ASIN numbers, you’ll have a much easier time identifying those products in your Amazon Business account for procurement.   Read the full article here: https://www.quoter.com/quoter-product-update-august-2024/

Calling all managers using Lifecycle Insights: Tracking Assessment Activity just got easier! As a manager, you need to see what is happening across all clients, not one client at a time.  Lifecycle Insights now has an aggregated Assessment view so you can view Assessment events across all clients in one place. Access it from the Assessments page. Where to find the Assessment Events for All Clients This below page can be filtered by team member and time period to ensure each member of your team is completing their client assessments promptly.The Assessment Events for All Clients Screen 

In-app Resource Centers are now available in 4 of our ScalePad apps:Lifecycle Manager Lifecycle Insights Backup Radar ControlMapOn the top nav bar on the right, you can now click the ‘?’ icon to access support resources directly in your apps. The Resource Center icon Once you click on the icon to open the Resource Center, you’ll be able to:Discover recommended help articles Search the Help Center Submit product ideas View product updates Connect with the ScalePad Community View the app status page Submit support requestsThe Resource Center menu 

Quoter just released their July Product Update which includes recent product release updates, wins, and Partner impact. Delivered straight from the source – Ash, Quoter’s Senior Product Manager.  Some highlights from this month’s release:Gain Greater Oversight with Multi-Stage Manager Approvals:  We’ve enhanced our existing Manager Approvals feature in Quoter by allowing more than one approver to be in the process and enabling constraints and rules to apply to the quote’s content. Stack and assign rules for quotes for multiple levels of approval to ensure nothing important to your process is missed. 7 New Quoter + HaloPSA Integration Updates:  This month, we released seven new updates to the integration to help our Partners who use HaloPSA save clicks while building quotes.  Opportunity Creation in Quoter - now our Partners can have Halo Opportunities created automatically upon Quoter Quote creation.  Supplier support, so products built in HaloPSA can be pulled over to a quote along with pricing, SKU, and cost details from an associated supplier.  HaloPSA Lead Support Sales Order (SO) Creation  Purchase Order (PO) Capture and Push  HaloPSA Authentication  Quoter Quote PDF Push to Halo Opportunity    Read the full article here: https://www.quoter.com/quoter-product-update-july-2024/

 Preparing for and completing audits of frameworks and controls requires meticulous planning and execution. ControlMap has upgraded the audit experience in-app to further streamline the process and eliminate more tedious tasks from the to-do list with internal audits, jumpstart expansions, evidence exports, and updated vendor reports. What’s new?Internal AuditsMSPs and their clients can now perform an internal audit based on either frameworks or controls. Previously, audits were limited to third-parties, but we’ve provided the ability to perform this internally for a framework or a control set. This offers MSPs and their clients the following benefits:Complete a thorough self-assessment – MSPs are able to do a self-assessment to allow them to self-attest compliance for certain security standards such as CIS Controls, NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF), and GDPR. The internal audit provides a thorough process to ensure no details are missed.Maximize audit readiness – Prior to a pricey third-party audit, MSPs and their clients are able to perform their own internal audit to benchmark their compliance status. They can identify security or areas for improvement and position themselves for success by addressing key issues before initiating the formal audit. Thorough preparation leads to a streamlined audit that saves the MSP time liaising with the auditor, as well as providing additional evidence or clarity around evidence and controls.  Not every MSP or client requires a third-party audit based on the organization, vertical, and compliance goals. While compliance with a certain standard may be the goal for many businesses, all organizations strive to improve their security operations. An internal audit helps support organizations earlier in their compliance journey to strengthen their security posture by identifying potential gaps and addressing them. The internal audit feature also allows MSPs and their clients to perform robust self-assessments to ensure they meet the required standards and guidelines of frameworks that rely on self-assessment. It documents evidence of assessment (or audit) history, risks, evidence, and more that can be referenced as required in their industry. Cross-mapping and Jumpstart ExpansionMany organizations need to satisfy the compliance requirements across multiple frameworks. ControlMap helps streamline the process by cross-mapping frameworks to identify common items required for assessment. Jumpstarts apply matching evidence to other frameworks to reduce the amount of labor. Support for the following jumpstarts is now available:NYDFS → SOC 2, NIST CSF 2, CIS V8 CIS v8 → ISO 27001 2022, CJIS Evidence ExportFor CMMC compliance audits, auditors require submission of all evidence of compliance. With a single click of a button, ControlMap users can export all evidence required by auditors including:A logical folder structure that includes all files and metadata; A spreadsheet with a description of all evidence, including when it was created and by whom.MSPs no longer have to cobble together and create an audit-friendly file & folder structure anymore – this is all automated to streamline the audit preparation process and remove friction from the audit itself. While developed particularly with CMMC in mind, the evidence export is useful across all compliance frameworks as it creates an evidence record that can be archived and accessed if required.  Vendor ReportsA key piece of compliance is tracking risks associated with vendors that have access to any sensitive information or data. Ad hoc export of vendor data had been possible, but ControlMap has now added the ability to schedule and save vendor reports. These reports are audit-ready making preparation for a third-party audit effortless – no more struggling to format excel sheets or word documents.  Get started now.Automation is the best friend of an MSP – it eliminates tedious manual work. With the latest enhancements to the audit experience, ControlMap will put hours back in your team’s day. Log in to ControlMap to start enjoying an enhanced audit experience. 

TL;DR: What’s New For Cognition360?Cognition360 has released enhancements to four reports that provide your MSP with improved analysis of your operations and financial measures, including updates to two core reports. Just like the set of reports we updated in March, however, you have to ask for them to get them. Let’s take a quick look at each of the new-and-improved reports and see exactly what’s new and improved.  Which four reports exactly?Here’s the list: Opportunity Dashboard (core report) Agreement Renewals Report (core report) Service Profitability Report (add-on) Ticket Daily Stats (add-on) You might not be using all of these reports now, but they’re all well worth a second look.  I’m interested… how do I actually get access?The Cognition360 Support team’s got what you need. If you know exactly what you want, you can fill in this form and request to have the reports you want updated to the latest version. Next step, you’re in and using them. What’s new-and-improved in each of these four reports?The official word from our Product team is that “these improvements will improve customer retention, enhance your quality of life, and empower you to make more informed and strategic business decisions.”  Are we over-promising? I’d sure like to enhance the quality of my life. Read on to learn more about each; you be the judge. Opportunity DashboardYes, we just updated this a few months ago, but it’s even better now.  Opportunity Dashboard The Opportunity Dashboard now shows the latest conversion stage with the latest conversion value. This will help avoid any confusion, as it will only show the latest stage and value instead of multiple conversion stages with different values. Feedback was that the granularity of multiple conversion stages was more trouble than it was worth. Agreement Renewals ReportThe report now uses the actual last invoiced amount to improve accuracy.  Agreement Renewals Report The enhancement to the Agreement Renewals Report improves it to use the actual last invoiced amount as renewal amount instead of amount of the agreement. This better represents true renewal values, as the actual amount can be different from agreement amount. This allows you to see the effects of discounts or deals – how much are your clients actually being charged? Service Profitability ReportThe Service Profitability Report has been updated with ticket summary, board, and billability status. Service Profitability Report The report itself has been updated to display Invoice Details with a ticket summary. Scroll to the right, and you’ll see  an at-a-glance overview of each ticket, and the ability to sort by which board tickets were assigned to – another way to look at cost/profit/margin by ticket on each service board. A "Is Ticket Billable" filter has also been added, allowing you to filter out ticketed-but-non-billable work that you may choose not to include in your profitability reporting. This allows you to maintain best practices of tracking all work with tickets and time entries without distorting your margin measures; for example, when team members may be assigned to non-revenue internal projects. Ticket Daily StatsThree enhancements have been made to Ticket Daily Stats: Identify the ticket contact and submitter Average age of tickets Ticket owners can now see resolved tickets Ticket Daily Stats – Ticket Details showing Contact for each ticket Want to see right from the Ticket Daily Stats report who’s been sending in tickets and get a hold of them for follow up? Contact is now listed right there. Ticket Daily Stats – Tickets Resolved showing average ticket age The Tickets Resolved page now displays the average age of resolved tickets and compares the average age of those resolved tickets by day, week, and month. The Ticket Age calculates the time elapsed between the ticket creation date and the resolution date.  Ticket Daily Stats – new Ticket Owner | Ticket Resolved page A new page, Ticket Owner | Ticket Resolved, allows a ticket owner to see all their resolved tickets, regardless of who actually resolved them. Perfect for when you’re coming back from summer vacation and you want to know who to thank for closing out some tough ones.Wrapping It All UpSpeaking of summer, we’ll have more updated reports at the end of it. Please use the form to request any of these that interest you, and keep your eyes peeled for more enhancements to Cognition360.  Not a Cognition360 partner yet? Join us for a personalized demo, or check out this quick overview here. We’d love to help you unlock your ConnectWise PSA data to make better decisions and grow a more profitable MSP business. 

The last check-in date is now available in the Lifecycle Manager Hardware Console.The last check-in date feature automatically pulls usage from your RMM to report when a device was last used. This will allow you to:Identify devices that are no longer in use Make more informed decisions about when to decommission or repurpose a device. Avoid purchasing unnecessary protection on unused devices.The last check-in date can be added as a field in your custom hardware report so you can give clients full visibility on workstation usage.  

Quoter just released their June Product Update which includes recent product release updates, wins, and Partner impact. Delivered straight from the source – Ash, Quoter’s Senior Product Manager.  Some highlights from this month’s release:Customize Your Quote Reminder Intervals: Set customized intervals to best fit your preferences with Automated Quote Reminder.  Calculate Line Item Pricing Based on Markup or Margin: Adding the ability to calculate a line item’s unit price based on a markup or margin calculation.  Make Bulk Update to Line Items: For Quoter Partners on Standard or above plans, an additional feature is now available: the ability to bulk update line items in a section.  Customize Your Quotes List View: Now you can save customized views and access new filter options so your Quotes List View delivers exactly the information you want to see.    Read the full article here: https://www.quoter.com/quoter-product-update-june-2024/

• NYDFS Cybersecurity RegulationMay 9, 2024ControlMap now supports the NYDFS Cybersecurity Regulation, enabling MSPs to tailor cybersecurity programs for clients operating under the New York State Department of Financial Services jurisdiction.• NIST AI Risk Management FrameworkMay 29, 2024ControlMap now supports the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, enabling MSPs to support cybersecurity programs related to AI.• Digital Operational Resilience ActMay 29, 2024ControlMap now supports the Digital Operational Resilience Act, enabling MSPs to implement cybersecurity programs for financial institutions operating within the European Union.• ThreatMate IntegrationMay 29, 2024ControlMap integrates with ThreatMate - an advanced attack surface management tool designed to monitor and secure networks from various cybersecurity threats that identifies security exposures and creates plans for vulnerability remediation.Partners can now connect ControlMap to automatically pull vulnerability & compliance checks required to achieve and maintain compliance.That’s all for May. See you in June!

• Centralized Ticket RulesMay 16, 2024We've streamlined how Backup Radar Partners create and manage ticketing rules by unifying email parsing and PSA ticketing into one, easier-to-use interface. Here's a summary of what's new with Backup Radar's improved ticketing rule creation workflow:Configured email notifications for management escalation reports are now found in the new Escalation Report. Ticket Rules now support selecting either a Status or a No Success value (not both), aiming to reduce support tickets due to unexpected ticket results. For more details, see Understanding Status Filters. The Global Ticket Subject menu interface has been updated to a more intuitive, what-you-see-is-what-you-get interface. For more details, see Working with Global Ticket Subjects. A Migration Wizard guides existing Partners to transfer their existing “Email Notifications” to either a ticket rule or an escalation report upon release. For more details, see Migrating your Email Notifications.That’s all for May. See you in June!

The survey should take about 3-5 minutes to complete, but you don't have to answer every question.  MSPs look to Business Intelligence (BI) tools to make data-informed decisions about their business to drive actionable results.  We at ScalePad are focussing efforts to expand the analytics available to MSPs and looking for Partner feedback to help us determine which analytics will be most useful for MSPs today. We recognize that goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) may differ for each MSP, but we would like to offer meaningful pre-built MSP business analytics which present immediate business insights. Within this survey, we will focus on learning about what’re the most important service delivery Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you as a business owner would like an BI/Analytics tool to answer. Thank you in advance for your time and appreciate your feedback! Share your feedback here: https://forms.gle/kUQhiU82W52zNb4b7

Quoter just released their May Product Update which includes recent product release updates, wins, and Partner impact. Delivered straight from the source – Ash, Quoter’s Senior Product Manager.  Some highlights from this month’s release:Refreshed Quotes List with Faster Quote Lookup: Our new Quotes List takes the same filtering and sorting functionality as before to a new level with a ultra-modern refreshed UI and the ability for Partners to save filtered views for quick at-a-glance access to the Quotes that require higher visibility.  Inventory Check for Autotask PSA: Our latest Quoter + Autotask PSA integration enhancement gives you the ability to look up your stock or inventory when adding items to a Quote. Giving you a faster product lookup from a single pane of glass. Contract Management, HaloPSA Integration Updates: We’ve added a delete function in Contract Management to remove draft and test templates along with improved fixes to the Quoter + HaloPSA integration. More to come on that shortly! Read the full article here: https://www.quoter.com/quoter-product-update-may-2024/

The heart of Lifecycle Manager has always been client engagement: whether you use it for warranty lookups, IT asset monitoring, or QBR preparation, it's about providing the best experience for the people you serve. That's why we're thrilled to announce the launch of the new Lifecycle Manager for Client Engagement. It's everything you love about Lifecycle Manager, with new features and enhancements to help you create, communicate, and deliver strategic client care with the ease of automation.  Updated Features Roadmaps: New filter controls let you customize the level of detail included in Roadmap PDFs, giving you more flexibility to personalize communication with clients.  To help you move quickly to respond to evolving client needs, we've removed multi-quarter scheduling and added the ability to plot out projects on Roadmaps for up to five years in advance. Initiatives: We've added an account-wide view of all Initiatives for all clients to give you a visual overview of projects in your pipeline.  Also, Initiatives are now downloadable as PDFs, so you can create and send proposals in a few clicks. Roadmaps + Initiatives: To save you even more clicks in delivering elevated client care, we've added Initiatives to the Roadmaps tab.  New Client DashboardThe new simplified menu gives you easier access to client engagement features.  We've also reorganized the display of the client page, prioritizing features that focus on client interactions so you have at-a-glance awareness at the client level. New Features Action Items: In the client view of Lifecycle Manager, you can create and manage tasks using Action Items, which integrates with ConnectWise Manage to turn these action items into PSA tickets.  Notes: Alongside Action Items, you can also type and organize meeting notes into a date-tracked note box. Account Team & Key Contacts:  Another addition to the client view is an area to set contact details for the corresponding client, including names, roles, and email addresses. Standardizing your workflows for client engagement encourages more frequent and accessible communication, which builds trust and reinforces your position as a strategic partner. We're thrilled to lead the way for MSP client engagement and look forward to hearing what our Partners think about this exciting new direction.  Want to learn more about Client Engagement? Read more about our newest release here!