This feature release is one of the biggest, “You asked for it” feature releases I’ve ever seen. Some places where our hands were tied we are now free (return email addresses, cross browser support, etc.). In other cases we’ve had complex workarounds for years that are now possible to implement with straight forward settings. This is one of the best Autotask releases to date!
Next Business Day SLA
For years we’ve asked Autotask to allow us to have an SLA option to make a ticket due before the end of the next business day. Now we can.
SLA based Workflow rules and new Workflow rules triggers, conditions and filters
With SLA based workflow rules you can make workflow rules fire based on SLA events other than the ticket due date. Workflow triggers will allow us to trigger rules to fire based on more specific changes to a ticket, like adding notes, time or making changes to specific parts (like status). Configuration Items now can play a part in service desk workflow rules. No longer are we limited to just having the ticket edited (all of those prior events). This is an enormous improvement in how to program Autotask workflow rules.
Workflow rules that create To-Do’s
This is a very unique feature that may be answering a feature request to make service desk tickets into mini projects. At present there is no way to automate the creation of To-Do items outside of this feature. Release notes suggest using issue types to trigger the correct workflow rules. The problem with that is that different clients need different things done when deploying a workstation. No solution is perfect but this is definitely a tool that our processes could be wrapped around in order to improve service delivery quality and automation.
Send from custom template notification
Master MSP companies, aka companies that do work for other MSP companies, have frequently requested an ability to send email as their clients. Now with custom templates that allow you to specify any from address you want you can do just that!
Client Access Portal / Taskfire Speed Improvements
The client access portal was so slow for many of our clients and taskfire users that they simply stopped using it all together. With the new grids design we should be able to get people back into the system!
Enhanced Browser Support
With this release of Autotask your users can use every module of Autotask (assuming they’re not Admins). Users outside if IE8 will not have the same experience, IE9 has bugs and Firefox, Chrome and Safari have limited support within the modules, it’s still MUCH better than it was before.
Improvements in the Quickbooks Integration
The Quickbooks Integration has always done what we want but with this new release we may be able to do more. This will most likely be a new blog article to cover how we use the new integration.
Outside of these features, which we really wanted, there is a new Daily alerts feature which will help us stay on top of information that is important to us as individual resources. Managed Service Account Owners can be notified if their accounts are receiving any attention, People responsible for contracts can keep tabs on expiring contracts and contracts that are out of compliance.
Last but not least fellow QuoteWerks users even got a treat with a new API feature allowing Quoted Items to be deleted. This may not seem like a big deal, but with ConnectWise Capital having invested in Quosal Autotask users may find QuoteWerks to be the defacto solution to the limitations in Autotask Quotes.
August Release Notes
Hey just to let you know, Quosal remains committed to making improvements to its Autotask integration. We introduced our integration nearly 2 years ago, right before the Varstreet acquisition, and have supported updates this whole time. In our newly released version 2012, we added the ability to create contracts from Quotes, which is important for MSP’s and other types of Quotes. We will also have the line item delete out in our next maintenance release, which should be next week.
Sam,
Thanks for posting regarding Quosal. I did 2 regional user group meeting presentations on Quoting tools in Autotask (Autotask, Varstreet, Quosal and QuoteWerks). At the time Quosal had the best solution integration with Autotask. QuoteWerks has done a great job responding to your integration. I wrote blog articles for Autotask Quoting and QuoteWerks. I wanted to write Quosal next but Quosal Autotask users I asked did not come through to support the write up. If you have a suggestion or would like to assist with the write up yourself please feel free to call or email me brian@byteharmony.com I would love to get that posted for you.
Best Regards,
Brian