Birdview vs. Datto Autotask PSA

I think as a project management software, Easy Projects is great. We used spreadsheets before, and that led to a whole mess of confusion. Easy Projects gets everything in one place online -- you can access it from anywhere with an Internet connection and everyone is working off the same files. This works well for us as a marketing/graphic design group. Our colleagues in web design use it, as well, I'm told with success. So I know those two scenarios will work with the Easy Projects system. If you are selecting project management software, definitely know what you need a system to do in its most basic form -- then see what additional elements appeal to you. One thing you may want to investigate during your evaluation of Easy Projects is server space. We host this program and its files on an internal server, so we have to be sure there is enough space to accommodate open jobs and archive files.

Incentivized

In my opinion, Datto Autotask is exceptionally complicated to set up, manage, and use on a daily basis. I would think the target market for this product would be someone managing a team of 20 - 50 people, possibly more. In my experience, for it to run properly you will need to dedicate at least half an FTE to running this product in an organization of that size per month. I would not recommend it for companies with less than 10 people or for companies that value quick communication with their clients. I would not recommend it for companies using Datto's RMM product. The integration exists, but it is clearly a bolt-on. They were not developed together and they are slow to talk to each other. Frequently you cannot add details from RMM sessions into the PSA without manually copying the ticket number, and if the ticket is more than a week old, then you can't even find it with the ticket number.

Incentivized

• Easy Projects is great for project management. It allows you to assign users, set tasks and end dates, and keep it all together in one working file/job. It's a project manager's dream -- you can look inside and see exactly what is going on and any missed deadlines.
• Easy Projects allows good customization of the fields. We have worked it so that in a job file, we can enter info about things specific to publication design -- size, file format, delivery location, etc. And we've been able to change these further over time as our needs change.
• Easy Projects allows for archiving of completed jobs. You don't have to see them every time you log in, but it's great to be able to go back and search through completed jobs (even several years back) to see what was done last time, who was assigning, costs, etc.
• Easy Projects allows you to pull reports and export them. This has proved helpful when we needed an overall log of jobs for a client or to pull a large number of costs.

Incentivized

• AutoTask allows for us to receive and work support tickets very easily. We've setup various 'Issue Types' that in turn are bound to SLAs ensuring that items are worked appropriately as they are received.
• The automation that AutoTask allows for with regards to various emails/requests coming through has been great. It allows for us to not have to constantly "watch the queue" as when a critical item arrives the appropriate persons are notified and can work it.
• I feel that the management of AutoTask for both user setup, and various automations is done well. We're able to copy settings as needed, and create templates for multiple items.

Incentivized

• Would love to see a way to create a project plan that is user friendly with various colours
• More robust reporting that would provide easy view to budget by task by person
• Would like to view various projects in different windows without going back and forth

• The GUI is a little dated.
• Some integrations are limited for not being a Datto product.
• While not as complex to set up as Connectwise, it definitely requires some serious thought during the initial setup.
• Email processing could offer more options for parsing keywords and allow for more automation.
• The mobile app is just not worth using in my experience.

Incentivized

EP is great but could be better. EP has been a wonderful tool within our organization, it has helped us control expenses, resources, and the time needed to invest in each project, however when it comes to presenting reports and details it is a bit weak, there are more tools specialized in data visualization, and it would be good to make some kind of integration between EP and the other market alternatives

After using multiple products on the market, Autotask was intuitive and easy to manage.

Incentivized

EP is easy to use and adaptable, its menu is intuitive and the design is pleasant.

Datto Autotask PSA is a full featured product that can do almost anything you need. There is a significant learning curve to get started which requires several hours spent in product training. Additionally, several hours / days are needed to get clients imported, contracts configured, and integrations implemented. Once the setup and user training is complete, the product is very functional, but it's imperative to not get overwhelmed when starting out.

Incentivized

In my personal experience, I only needed EP support once and the truth is that they attended me very well and very quickly, they helped me with what I needed, it was a question regarding the use of WebServices, they solved my doubt and then they contacted me another agent to verify that everything was resolved and if they could help me with anything else

They are fairly quick at returning a response to a problem and have been able to fix all issues for the most part.

Incentivized

I am really satisfied with the implementation of EP in our organization, since it is a very useful tool in our day-to-day work

Most project management systems are fairly the same, however, this would be better than monday.com in that it is more suited for project management professionals, and monday.com is more for anyone to use because it's more simple. This means Easy Projects are better equipped for the details needed to manage a project. The only drawback if you are a small group is that monday.com offers a free version where Easy Projects does not.

Incentivized

The portion of Autotask that we've used other companies for prior to using Autotask is the Endpoint Management. The Autotask Endpoint Management (AEM) portal integrates perfectly with their PSA/CRM tools. It's alerting features are much better than the above software as there aren't a bunch of superfluous and unneeded alerts. Instead, it only alerts for things that you specify that you want. Alerts aside, for the PSA/CRM, I don't have much to compare it to as Autotask was the first PSA we tried. It's hard to imagine a PSA having more features or doing a better job than Autotask.

Incentivized

• Increased team collaboration improved the results significantly, because we managed to reduce the amount of time wasted on unnecessary iterations, therefore reducing costs.
• The reasonable pricing enabled us to enjoy the service we needed with with less impact on our budget than we've expected.

• We were able to identify the profitability of our entire client base.
• We identified a loss of over 1 million dollars for time unbilled consultancy fees using metrics derived from Autotask.
• Autotask helped us serve our client base in a professional manner, it's like having an entire department at your finger tips.
• Autotask is the heartbeat of our operation.

Incentivized