I just received an email regarding changes of Billing.
It say’s also to delete all the inactive devices under ‘Applications->Device managent’
I’m still a little puzzled and maybe one of you can explain:
I have 180 licenses. Billed per whole year.
When I look under ‘Applications->Device managent’, like stated in the email, I see 188 records/devices:
When looking in ‘Applications->RMM->LICENSE MANAGEMENT->License Management’, I see 175 allocated devices:
And when clicking on ‘175’, I am also directed to ‘Applications->Device managent’, but then I get a list of 175 devices:
Why is there a mismatch? And how do I know what’s going to be billed?
Which number is leading? The number under ‘Enrolled endpoint count’, or the device count under ‘Applications->Device managent’???
And tip: make the button with ‘Need Help?’ floating and/or removable: It doesn’t have any functional help function, but it only stands in the way.
I’m the product manager for ITarian and there are changes happening here as you can see from the email you have received.
On the stance of our new help agent in the bottom corner we are looking at this to see what is the best way to have help while also hiding it for the seasoned users.
On the billing side this has always been a confusing topic for our platform.
We are currently looking at the best way to simplify this while making sure we deliver a good service and improved features.
The current but changing system has two types of devices
Enrolled
Active
Enrolled as you can guess are devices you have installed on, and active are devices that have been active in the last x number of days.
Soon there will be a simple change based on enrolled devices instead of this odd maths we apply to remove active devices.
Under license manager there is a forecast manager that should let you know what to expect billing wise with accurate information. The other parts of license manager are a built in tool to allow you to “assign” and track how many licenses each customer has so you can bill onwards as needed.
In your case your saying you have 180 license, so if the device count is 188 you have an over usage of 8 that will need to be paid for upfront or a post paid invoice will be sent.
The email should have included information on how to remove devices so your count reduces so your not billed.
I hope this helps but if not please respond and I’ll look at this more when back in the office for you.
It’s just a buggy system: I think that all enrolled devices are displayed in the ‘Device Management list’. Whether they are active recently or long time ago.
If I delete a device from the system, it won’t appear in this list. So there should not be a mismatch in the enrolled are device management list.
So I agree with you that this is a confusing topic and must be simplified.
There also has to be a warning system or cap when you enrol more devices than you have licenses for.
So please implement that also.
Regarding the ‘help agent’ button:
As you can see in the images, it stands in the way when looking at the sum of entries…
You can’t get rid of it, even with resizing the windows.
So the place is bad chosen. If it can’t be floating or moved, that place it somewhere else where you do can see the sum of entries.
We have also received the same communication, but we only have 46 devices. Does this mean that you intend to remove the 50-devices free and bill us for all the devices enrolled?
Please clarify. Thanks in advance!
Regards,
– Javier Llorente
Endpoint Security - Devoteam
The email should have been sent to ALL customers no matter how many devices they have installed so all understand the small change we are making. This change was made due to a huge overhead placed on the team to constantly be checking invoices and what devices are active to make sure all is correct or spending time answering questions over the bills.
The plan is to try and make this easier so we can re-allocate resources into making this platform great again!
Our aim at the moment is to improve ITarian for all, so Make ITarian Great Again #MIGA !!!
We need to know this because, in that case, we will need to decide if we are going to keep those 46 devices managed on ITarian Endpoint Manager or not.
Thanks for clarifying this point.
Regards,
– Javier Llorente
Endpoint Security - Devoteam
At the moment there is no official decision that has been made currently on this. My job and role is to look at the platform and design its future features and help guide price.
My question to you is what are you using the platform for in these 46 devices?
And in return I shall share that I’m looking at big RMM improvements with additional modules and stuff to come as we aim to create a PSA.
As you can imagine we cannot give an entire PSA away, we need funds to host all this as well as pay for development. Something we want to do from CEO to developers is give you the best free ticketing system with remote control access (remote desktop).
Outside of this no choice has been made, but let us know your use chase so we can analyse to help us decide.
Well, we are mainly using ITarian as a backup EM platform for our testing devices, just to keep an eye on the evolution of the platform. We migrated around 3500 endpoints to a different platform back in November 2021, and we are still keeping some test devices in Comodo. This is a personal decision: I like this platform a lot, so I wanted to keep using it even though not for production. But in case we are billed, I will be forced to delete all the endpoints and definitely close our instance.
By the way, what does PSA mean in this context?
Our aim at the moment is to improve ITarian for all, so Make ITarian Great Again #MIGA !!!
Well, to me this is already a great platform, though there is always space for improvement to make it greater.
Regards,
– Javier Llorente
Endpoint Security - Devoteam
Thank you so much for coming back to me with the information below.
I would love to connect to you more to understand the platform you are using more and what you feel ITarian is missing that is stopping you from making it the main / only product that you use.
In regards to your PSA question, please see the below text which I have just published internally as part of our movement forwards in making this platform great! #MIGA
I know it might be wooly, but there is a “Must” have list of tools/functions as well as need to be invested / created tools; hence the wooly but hopefully helpful description.
What is a PSA?
Professional services automation (PSA) is software designed to assist professionals, such as lawyers, auditors, and IT consultants, with project management and resource management for client projects and utilization rate management for billable staff. This is accomplished by developing metrics to quantify and qualify basic business processes that can then be used to streamline and improve those processes.
Typical PSA functions include project management and documentation, time recording, billing, reporting, and resource utilization. These features are often integrated with accounting, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, and payroll systems in order to improve efficiency of overall operations. As a result, in addition to better managing client projects, independent contractors can prevent lost revenue and slow billing cycles.
Focusing more on the IT industry, features that are starting to be included are integrations with clients environments like Microsoft 365 so passwords and other user management functions can be performed from inside the PSA without leaving the ecosystem. A good PSA platform should allow the team to perform all basic tasks from within leaving only specialist items needing access to manufactures systems.
Just keep in mind that, while Small and Medium Businesses can find it great to have everything integrated into a single tool, bigger companies might already have some other tools and want to have only some specific features, like the Endpoint Management part.
So, if you can find a way to make it fully modular so a company can pay and use only the features they need, that would be great. :)
Have a nice day!
Regards,
– Javier Llorente
Endpoint Security - Devoteam
