How Connexus Cloud onboards clients in under two hours with Kaseya 365

Case study Highlights

• - Under two hours to fully onboard a new five-person client, including 365 tenant, backups, security, training and device setup
• - Microsoft Secure Score increased from 40% to 80%+ within the onboarding window
• - Scaled from 8 to 17 staff, with plans to reach 20 within 12 months
• - Manages 1,250 endpoints across 120 clients with a team of 7 technicians
• - Upgraded every existing client with additional security, backup and training services from Kaseya 365 at no price increase

The MSP built to get it right 

Connexus Cloud is a UK-based MSP based in West Sussex, founded in 2023 by Nick Hatton and CEO Steve Maton. The company manages approximately 1,250 endpoints across 120 clients with a team of 17  with plans to reach 25 in the next 18 months. Alongside its managed IT practice, Connexus also provides digital marketing and telecoms services, applying the same bundled, standardized approach across each. 

Nick Hatton, Connexus Cloud’s CTO, says they focus on selling the outcomes of all their work, not just the tech.  

Rather than selling a load of stuff that people think they need, we’re selling an objective. We’re going to make your whole IT better, more productive and more secure.

Hatton

This isn’t Hatton’s first MSP. It’s his third. He has purchased, built and implemented Autotask and Datto RMM three separate times across three different companies. Each situation taught him what worked, what could be streamlined, and what he’d avoid. 

Connexus Cloud was built to get it right. 

 “Standardize everything or drown in complexity” 

Hatton’s first MSP grew out of 5 rings, a telecoms company where he introduced IT services using Autotask and Datto RMM. That company was eventually acquired by a larger MSP where Hatton stayed for 18 months. 

What he found shaped everything he built afterward.  

“The larger MSP had five RMM systems, none of which talked to each other or connected to a centralized CRM or ticket system,” said Hatton.  

Their ticketing ran on a CRM built for Sales and a bolt-on that didn’t integrate, required heavy customization and was fundamentally the wrong tool for the job. Every system was its own silo. 

The lesson was clear: standardize everything or drown in complexity. When Hatton setup Connexus Cloud, he built the entire operation around one principle. 

“Standardize how services are sold, standardize the support process and standardize the operations,” said Hatton. “That was my big takeaway.” 

The packaging model: Three-tier offering 

Building Connexus Cloud’s approach from scratch gave Hatton an advantage most MSPs don’t have: no legacy tools, no inherited contracts and no clients on mismatched stacks. He designed his service model, called Cloud IT, as a bundled offering where clients don’t pick from a menu. They get a package that covers everything. 

 Connexus has since extended the same bundled approach to organizational-level packages covering pen testing, DMARC and Cyber Essentials certification, all structured in the same three-tier model. 

Every tier is built on Kaseya 365. When Kaseya 365 Endpoint launched, it aligned directly with the model Hatton had already designed. 

I could ditch one or two other providers and get everything we wanted with Kaseya 365, It saved us a huge amount of money and immediately increased our margins.

Hatton

The economics of doing it right 

The financial impact of building around Kaseya 365 has been direct and measurable. 

Around 30% margin increase. Hatton compared his pre-Kaseya 365 cost model to his current pricing. The bundled economics drove the improvement. “The price point absolutely obliterates if you were picking different solutions,” he said. 

Higher margins fund higher-caliber staff. Connexus deliberately has not hired Level 1 technicians in its initial growth phase. Every engineer is senior, which means they’re more expensive. The margin from Kaseya 365 makes that sustainable.

I have more margin to put into the service,” said Hatton. “I can have more resources and more people, but also more experienced staff.

Hatton

Existing customers upgraded for free. When Kaseya 365 launched, the bundled cost was cheaper than what Connexus was paying for individual tools. Hatton upgraded every existing customer with additional services at no extra charge. They doubled what they were getting without a price increase. 

Competitors displaced from day one. Within months of launching, Connexus won a 120-user legal sector client away from two separate incumbent IT providers. The combination of lower cost, better coverage and unified operations made the difference. 

We comprehensively undercut the existing IT companies and gave them more visibility and more service. We came in with all the integrated workflows, standardized everything, found all the gaps and now they absolutely love it.

Hatton

Two hours from signed contract to fully deployed 

The most concrete proof point in Connexus Cloud’s model is its onboarding speed. A five-person startup client went from signed contract to fully operational in under two hours: MIcrosoft 365 tenant-built, licenses provisioned, users created, backups running, security configured, training enrolled and devices set up. 

That speed comes from how tightly Microsoft 365 and Kaseya 365 work together. Once the  tenant is built and connected into the Kaseya stack, everything cascades automatically. SaaS Protection starts backing up the 365 environment. IT Glue ingests the client data. BullPhish enrolls users in security awareness training. Datto RMM picks up devices as they connect. 

“You set up Kaseya 365, you connect it in, and then bang, it’s done,” said Hatton. “RMM is integrated into 365, so when their computer connects, it puts the RMM on for us. Easy.” 

Second, the standardization. Because Connexus invested time upfront in checklists, documentation and repeatable processes (supported by IT Glue and Kaseya 365 Ops), the onboarding experience is consistent regardless of who executes it. 

The result is measurable.  

” Within that two-hour window, we take the Microsoft Secure Score from around 40% to over 80%. That’s not any one product doing it. It’s because everything is integrated and everything just works together. You connect the tenant, and it all just happens ” 

Adding a new user to an existing client is even faster. A new starter form gets filled out, and within minutes the user has a license, backup, training enrollment and a fully configured device. 

The integration advantage 

Hatton evaluated N-central, NinjaOne and Halo before committing to Datto RMM and Autotask. The deciding factor was integration. 

“N-central just didn’t integrate out of the box. Very clunky to do simple tasks, no automation components store,” he said. “Halo is a pretty tool but lacking a lot of out-of-box features. You have to configure yourself and solve problems that shouldn’t need solving.” 

The Datto RMM and Autotask integration, by contrast, works natively because both products are built under the same roof. With IT Glue (part of Kaseya 365 Ops), the automated IT service delivery solution gives Connexus a single environment where technicians move from ticket to documentation to remote session without switching tools or context. 

“We probably take it for granted,” Hatton admitted. “Everything you just end up clicking through, and everything goes in. Even starting up in the morning, it’s one login.” 

The integration has also become a recruiting tool. Connexus targets senior engineers who want to work with modern tooling, and the platform becomes part of the pitch during interviews. 

“The recent hires, as part of the interview process, I showed some of the platform. That got them interested,” said Hatton. “When I do a deep dive, that’s when they went, ‘wow!’ Every workflow presented, every module, they were like, ‘this is really good.’ From an engineer satisfaction standpoint, they love it.” 

Sticky for clients, sticky for the business 

Three years in, Connexus Cloud is growing rapidly, hiring ahead of demand and continuously expanding services..  

The model creates compounding loyalty. Clients get more value over time without being sold to. The business retains clients without friction with healthy margins. And the economics of Kaseya 365 fund the investment in staff, tools, and service quality that makes it all work. 

It increases customer loyalty. We keep being able to offer more comprehensive support. I don’t want to talk to customers about stuff being broken. I want to talk to them about their business.

Hatton

For Hatton, the platform advantage comes down to one thing: Kaseya understands the MSP business from the inside out. “Kaseya is in a better position to understand an MSP than anyone else,” said Hatton. “They have cybersecurity, they have backup, they have RMM, they have ticketing. That is a real advantage, because when you have all of that under one roof, it just works for an IT provider.”