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Agile methodology is now so firmly entrenched in software development culture that any challenge or deviation from the “Agile Manifesto” is seen as heresy.

And that’s fine, we agree that Agile has its place in delivery of software - we use it internally ourselves.

The challenge comes when the approach is applied to the type of projects generally running in your PSA system; namely customer-driven billable ones.

Why a traffic jam?

Well, this image is more than just a traffic jam. Look closely and you will see many vehicles of different sizes, even a bus, individual scooters and people walking, all going round in circles trying to get somewhere and not doing very well.

This seemed to us a perfect pictorial analogy for a DevPS business.

At HarmonyPSA we have been working hard on Harmony version 4.19, bringing you many new features and fixes. We run through some of the major changes in this article.  You can access the full list of releases and bug fixes by clicking here.

If your business deals with customer queries, complaints or issues, you probably have some sort of help desk software.

If your business provides technical support, whether infrastructure, environmental or software, you will most certainly have a one.

There are dozens of SAAS-based service desk solutions available. It is probably one of the most common software verticals. Solutions are available for a broad range of requirements, with very different levels of sophistication and price disparity to match.

Given such a plethora of choice, why would anyone consider Harmony, which is not a service desk application but a business management solution that has an integral service desk?

Every company needs a CRM. Indeed, it may be the first system a new start-up buys.

CRM systems are great - they allow you to track contacts, record interactions, add opportunities and give them statuses so you have a clear understanding of the potential business the sales team is working on, i.e. the new business pipeline report.

They are easy to use standalone systems that help the sales team organise their work. What could be wrong with that?

One of the common questions we are asked during our sales process is: does Harmony integrate with this or that CRM system? The answer is “No”.

Professional services companies use timesheet systems; they need to know what their staff are working on. Without time recording, how would they know how much to charge each month?

Given that this is the air these companies breathe and the app stores of the world are full to the brim with timesheets systems, it is surprising how many companies we speak to simply cannot get this process right without extensive manual manipulation and post-timesheet editing.

What are the challenges associated with a growing trend in the MSP world: partial technical support, or from a client’s perspective, partial outsourcing of their technology services?

With small businesses it makes sense to pass everything over to an MSP; large organisations will have the scope to employ a full team of technology support staff and keep the problem internal. The challenge comes where a medium-sized organisation retains some technical skills in-house (say desktop support), but hires an MSP for more specialist areas such as networks or security. Where they cannot afford the depth of resource necessary to cover a topic fully, they will outsource that aspect of their internal support to a specialist MSP.

My last post was dedicated to the future of authentication. We discussed passwords, two-factor authentication and newer password-less authentication protocols.

Authentication is an important subject because, as of today, it is often a significant cost center for enterprises and MSPs.

A new survey conducted by Yubico suggests that employees spend around 11 hours per year resetting passwords. Based on the average headcount in this research of almost 15,000, Yubico estimate that the annual cost of productivity and labour loss associated with password resets per company averages £4 million annually.

On the other end, this activity is reflected almost 1-1 on an MSP’s help desk. As an MSP, you are probably spending time addressing access provisioning and password resets, which cuts into your productivity bandwidth and margins.

At Harmony we probably take the benefits of using a modern and flexible PSA too much for granted, it’s what we spend our lives perfecting.

Because of this, it always comes as a surprise when people ask us what the benefits are.

We’ve written material on this subject before, but actually not for a while. So here are 8 key benefits you should expect from your PSA, assuming you have bought one that is correctly matched and aligned to your business.

At the start of a brand new year, we're excited to present you with our latest release of Harmony PSA. As always, we have included a range of changes from general bug fixes to new feature implementations and functional improvements. The major changes are explained in this article while you will be able to read through the general bug fixes here.