Frequently Asked Questions

Q) What is the difference between ConnectSMART for Tigerpaw and ConnectSMART for ConnectWise?

A) Both are great products.  We provide dashboards which take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of each PSA platform.  No matter which one you prefer, ConnectSMART will help you get the most out of your favorite PSA client.  

Q) What is ConnectSMART's relationship to ConnectWise?

A) ConnectSMART is a product developed by Connections for Business, Inc. founded in 1976. We've been building enhancements for products in CRM, accounting and line of business applications. ConnectSMART's Visualize IT for ConnectWise was the first product brought to market and has since grown to cater other business platforms.  Stay tuned for announcements for other products in the ConnectSMART family.

Q) I have ConnectWise Hosted in the cloud.  Will ConnectSMART work for me?

A) No.  We currently only support ConnectWise servers that are on-premise. 

Q) How long will the install take?

A) The initial software install usually takes about 30 minutes.  We walk you through this via a remote session.  Additional workstations after that take about 5-7 minutes on average.

There’s a lifetime of learning in the product since once you get your appetite whetted for metrics you always want more, but it’s safe to say you’ll be up and creating your own dashboards in under an hour. From there you can start to dig into everything the product can show you and make business decisions of what’s relevant to you. That’s as quick or as slow as you want to make it. Some folks have just installed and been happy with everything as it is out of the box, others have tweaked and configured and posted for help on the forums and ended up with some amazing dashboards.

Q) Do I have to purchase the same number of ConnectSMART seats as I have in my PSA?

A) Nope! ConnectSMART is actually a site license. It doesn't matter how many seats you have in your PSA. However, the graphical gadgets that are included in ConnectSMART use a runtime engine called PowerGadgets, and PowerGadgets is licensed for each machine you want to run gadgets on. We've negotiated a special price with the makers of PowerGadgets and include a 10 seat license of that product with ConnectSMART.

We've found that most firms are fine with the 10 seat license. At our own shop, we've got 16 people, but only seven machines are "gadgetized" (one in the NOC driving three large monitors, one in the conference room driving a monitor their as well as in our lobby, our order entry person, our service manager, and my two partners and myself).

Q) If I purchase 10 seats, but decide I want to put a gadget on all my technicians' machines (like their personal utilization!) and need more licenses, what do I do?

A) Simple enough... you can pay the DIFFERENCE between the 10 and 25 seat license ($600) and we'll get you the additional 15 licenses for PowerGadgets. 

Q) I already own PowerGadgets... can I purchase ConnectSMART without the PowerGadgets license?

A) YES! We have a special unbundled SKU where you can purchase a ConnectSMART site license for $1995. You'll need your own licenses, which you can purchase directly as noted above.

Q) I love this stuff, but I don't have time to create some custom reports that I want to have... can you do it for me?

A) Absolutely! Drop us a note or give us a call and we can help you define exactly what you want to do. We can develop reports in SQL Reporting Services, Crystal Reports, Excel pivot tables, as well as custom gadgets. The easiest way to think about it is: If you can envision it, we can build it!

Q) Can it/must it be installed on the ConnectWise server? I know Connectwise has been sensitive about this in the past.

A) The heart of the product is a set of sql server views and functions which pull from the ConnectWise database. This is all that gets put on the ConnectWise server. We don’t actually install anything onto the server.  You don’t install Microsoft Excel or the gadgets onto the server. We also script all our views and functions to access the database using a specific sql server username, so it’s very easy to tell what’s accessing the database at any time. We’ve installed our product for ConnectWise themselves, so this is a proven and accepted methodology.

Q) Will it work installed at a downstream IT customer site with multiple service boards?

A) You can setup the gadgets to write out a PNG graphics file. It would be a simple matter to transfer those to a website directory, and setup a web page that auto-refreshes every minute or so. Then you can give access to the web page to your client, so they can see key numbers that affect them. They will NOT be able to drill down to the data behind the gadget graphic (like you can with a real gadget), but it's a great way to give a web based dashboard to your clients!

Q) How does Maintenance work?

A) Maintenance guarantees you access to support via the support forums, as well as new updates to the product that we do (ie new gadgets and database views). The first year of maintenance is included when you purchase ConnectSMART. After that, maintenance runs a flat price of $750/year.

Q) How do I get support?

A) We have a team of experts managing our ConnectSMART forums. The forum features questions, requests, tips & tricks, webinars, gadget downloads, and much more. After purchasing ConnectSMART you are given unlimited electronic support in addition to access to the forums. There is direct phone support available at the discretion of our team leader.