18 years in the making: Why GDR Group switched their PSA for Autotask

Case study highlights

• After 18 years on ConnectWise, GDR Group made a strategic move to Autotask to better align their PSA with a service-desk–first operating model.
• A smooth, team-driven migration led to rapid adoption, with minimal disruption and near-immediate productivity gains.
• Technician efficiency improved dramatically through deeper IT Glue integration and simplified, in-ticket workflows.
• Workflow rules delivered full visibility and flexibility, helping teams clearly understand what automation is running and why.
• Project delivery was streamlined, eliminating the need for a third-party project management tool.
• The switch unlocked growth opportunities, including four co-managed customers signing on for service desk services after seeing Autotask in action.

For nearly two decades, David Bell watched GDR Group grow with the same PSA at the center of operations. As President of the MSP division, he joined the company 18 years ago — and from day one, ConnectWise Manage powered the service desk.

Over the years, the stack around it evolved. GDR Group adopted VSA, later moved to VSA 10 and added IT Glue along the way. But the PSA remained unchanged. “Your PSA becomes the operating system of your business,” Bell says. “Once it’s embedded, switching feels like a huge undertaking.”

For a long time, there was little reason to question that foundation. But as GDR Group grew — and as their engagement with the broader MSP community deepened — the conversation began to shift.

When staying put started to feel riskier than changing

For most of their time as a ConnectWise customer, GDR Group had minimal interaction with Kaseya. That changed as they became more involved in our MSP community, attending Kaseya’s Connect Local and Connect Global events and speaking openly about the operational challenges they were facing.

Those conversations opened the door to direct dialogue with Kaseya leadership, shifting the relationship from transactional to truly collaborative.

By the time Kaseya Connect Global 2024 arrived, GDR Group was already at a crossroads. They were running ConnectWise on-prem and knew a move to the cloud was inevitable. They were also actively evaluating alternatives, including NinjaOne, and thinking critically about the long-term direction of the business.

Stopping by the Kaseya Autotask Solution Center felt casual at first — just a quick look. Instead, what was meant to be a five-minute conversation turned into a 45-minute discussion that changed everything.

What stood out wasn’t a checklist of features. It was the philosophy behind the platform. For a services-led MSP, that distinction mattered — a lot. It meant prioritizing a platform that puts service delivery first — because that’s where the business succeeds or fails.

A better experience for the business and technicians

The benefits of switching to Autotask were immediate.

GDR Group saw a lower overall cost compared to ConnectWise, access to a significantly broader integration ecosystem and a stronger, more responsive partnership with Kaseya.

But the most noticeable change showed up where it mattered most: the service desk.

Under ConnectWise, technicians frequently jumped between systems — logging into IT Glue separately, searching for documentation, navigating multiple portals and risking outdated or missed information.

With Autotask, documentation is embedded directly into ticket workflows through deep IT Glue integration. The information technicians need is right there, in context. “The day-to-day technician experience is night and day,” Bell says.

Autotask’s project functionality quickly became a core part of how GDR Group operates. It was robust enough to replace a third-party project management tool they had relied on for years.

A smooth transition built around the team

The migration took about four and a half months — not because it had to, but because GDR Group chose to be deliberate. “We could have done it faster,” Bell explains. “But we wanted to do it right.”

Working closely with Nicolas from the migration team, they took a structured, team-driven approach. They hosted lunch-and-learns, spun up a second Autotask environment for hands-on learning and created early “lightbulb moments” across the team — when technicians realized they no longer had to jump between systems to get their work done.

Rather than migrating all 18 years of legacy data, they reviewed workflows, service boards, contracts, statuses and recurring tickets together, deciding what was worth rebuilding and what wasn’t. Workflow recreation was split across team members, with bi-weekly check-ins to track progress. They also maintained a four-month overlap while their ConnectWise contract wrapped up, giving the team confidence and breathing room.

A launch week without surprises

GDR Group went live on March 3, 2025 — the first Monday of the month. Bell and the management team blocked out the entire week to support the launch.

They didn’t need it.

“Day one, I spent about three hours handling small issues,” Bell says. “After that, it was just quiet.”

Within the first 30 days, only minor adjustments were needed. At the 90-day mark, they ran an internal poll — and every team member agreed the switch was the right decision. Service desk, NOC, engineers and client services all embraced Autotask. Accounting faced a learning curve, as expected, but the transition didn’t disrupt billing or operations.

Why Autotask works differently

One of the biggest differentiators for GDR Group has been workflow rules.

In their previous PSA, workflow automation existed mostly behind the scenes. Each workflow was identified by an ID number, making it difficult for the team to see which workflows had actually run, what triggered them or what actions they took — often requiring multiple layers of investigation to figure it out. Autotask brought that visibility directly into the ticket. “You know exactly what happened,” Bell says. “Workflows in Autotask are game changers.”

Ticket categorization adds another layer of intelligence, dynamically surfacing relevant IT Glue documentation, VSA 10 data and Datto BCDR insights based on the type of ticket. AI capabilities further streamline the day by summarizing long ticket threads and internal notes, helping technicians act faster and with more confidence.

The result is a service desk that feels less reactive — and far more intentional.

Turning efficiency into scalable growth

The impact has extended beyond internal operations.

For co-managed customers, the difference wasn’t just the interface — it was the dashboards and built-in features Autotask made available. Under ConnectWise, engagement from co-managed clients had been low. With greater visibility into service activity and performance, conversations became more compelling, resulting in four co-managed clients signing up for service desk services.

Today, GDR Group operates on a tightly integrated platform that spans Autotask, IT Glue, VSA 10 and Datto BCDR, along with solutions such as SaaS Alerts, RocketCyber, Dark Web ID, INKY, BullPhish ID, KSIEM, Compliance Manager GRC, vPenTest and myITprocess. Rather than juggling disconnected tools, the team works within a connected ecosystem designed to support both service delivery and security.

With fewer redundancies and more automation, the focus going forward is profitability — reducing client wait times, improving technician productivity and continuing to streamline the business. “We’ve already eliminated tools we don’t need anymore,” Bell says. “And this is just the beginning.”

The right decision, at the right time

Switching PSAs after nearly 20 years isn’t easy. But for GDR Group, moving to Autotask marked a shift toward operating the business the way modern MSPs are expected to today.

Looking back, Bell doesn’t frame the migration as a disruption. “It feels like we made the decision we should have made sooner.”