MSP Client Onboarding and Documentation

Hello all,

I wanted to start a discussion to inquire what methods various other MSP’s use for client onboarding and documentation. I think these 2 things are massively critical when taking on a new managed client. As with most things, there are a bunch of different tools and methodology’s around this. I will start off by detailing what I do and the tools I use. This isnt the full process, more just the technical side of the process (for example Im omitting help desk onboarding phases) and each step has its own set of sub processes (like site survey…etc). I’m a big fan of using as much automation as possible via tools/scripts or efficient process. Feel free to use this info if helpful, or recommend improvements.

Process

Here is a rough/draft outline of my current process

Tools Used

Network device discovery

  • Rapidfire Tools Network Detective - Would LOVE to replace this with the Comodo Network Assessment tool as the comodo tool is just a (VERY) stripped down version of Network Detective. Rapidfire tools are very expensive, not worth it for the money IMO likely wont keep it.
  • Lansweeper - 2nd opinion scan tool as it sometimes catches things network detective doesnt and vice versa. Cost effective and had good consistent results
  • Would love opinions on other tools MSP's use - especially if free/cheap
Health/Best Practice Checks
  • Once ITSM is deployed, I'll generally run a collection of procedures and scripts to do various health checks. For example:
    • Hardware diagnostic (HD health, memory/cpu stress tests..etc)
    • AD/DNS/DHCP health check scripts (for domains)
    • Review of recent critical event logs
    • Network diagnostics (bandwidth, latency tests..etc)
    • Security/Permission checks
  • Warranty Review - really wish ITSM could pull this info....
  • Security AV scans - Comodo unknown file hunter, nmap port scan
Documentation
  • IT Glue - I have a love/hate relationship with this software. For the cost I feel like it should do alot more, and have better integrations/API access (without paying for enterprise). But overall works well. I know there is a feature request, but having ITSM integrate with IT Glue would be fantastic.
  • Open to hear what other MSP's are using. Something more than onenote or ms word documents. An IT documentation system to me should be easily accessible, easy to enter data, import data, integrate with other tools, have versioning, secure (password vault..etc) workflow/automation/change control, good reporting and ability to give secure client access. In my perfect world, an IT Documentation system and RMM tool would be one in the same. The RMM side would keep the documentation up to date automatically (aside from info like passwords..etc)
  • I've looked into Docusnap, which I like the idea of creating diagrams automatically but wonder how effective it is.
  • I've used Auvik, which is nice for auto diagraming and inventory of network devices (can auto backup firewall/switch configs..etc). Also quite expensive and redundant in some ways to other tools.
Please feel free to share your thoughts!

Hi @eztech
This is a very valuable information, really appreciate that.
We’ll analyze all utilities you mentioned and decide how we can integrate them into C1. Good to understand what else is missing and how we can further improve C1 to make it more usable for you and all C1 customers.