‘The Hidden Tax of the Channel:’ MSPCentric Aims To Fix PSA Integration Pain

‘And if you don’t integrate, you’re invisible. Vendors get passed over every day for that reason alone. If you’re not integrated, you’re not even in the conversation,’ says Colin Knox, co-founder and CEO of MSPCentric.

MSPCentric has officially launched to solve a major pain point with professional services automation (PSA) integrations and aims to streamline integration hubs for both vendors and MSPs.

The new platform enables vendors to connect with major PSA systems, including Autotask, ConnectWise, HaloPSA, Kaseya, Pulseway and Syncro, without the overhead of custom development. According to CEO, co-founder and channel veteran Colin Knox, that overhead has long been “the hidden tax of the channel.”

“Building just one PSA integration can cost a vendor upwards of $30,000 to $100,000, not to mention ongoing maintenance and support,” Knox told CRN. “Multiply that across five or six platforms and it becomes a major drain on innovation and budgets. We’re here to remove that tax.”

Instead of building integrations from scratch, vendors use MSPCentric to create a lightweight connection point. The platform then handles the downstream work of syncing with all supported PSAs, covering everything from ticketing and usage data to product catalogs and billing. This not only accelerates time to market but also improves performance and long-term supportability.

“Speed, scale, and reliability, that’s what vendors get with MSPCentric,” he said. “And we don’t just stop at the tech. We guide vendors through marketplace listings, certifications, API key management and all the other friction points that slow down go-to-market motion.”

And the timing, he said, couldn’t be more critical.

“It’s no longer just about integrating with ConnectWise and Autotask. Vendors today are being asked about Halo, Syncro, Pulseway and more,” he said. “And if they’re not integrated, they’re not even in the conversation.”

Knox said that MSPCentric is actively collaborating with PSA vendors to improve overall integration quality, even driving API enhancements in some cases to support better workflows for end users.

“MSPs use their PSA as the central nervous system of their business,” he said. “If vendor tools can’t integrate deeply, not just cosmetically, it impacts everything from ticket routing to billing automation. That’s why this matters. It’s not just about the vendor’s roadmap; it’s about the MSP’s day-to-day operations.”

CRN spoke further with Knox about MSPCentric, how it’s changing the game for PSA integrations and the added benefits for MSPs.

What exactly is the technology behind how MSPCentric integrates with PSAs? How does it work?

So, if you think about traditional enterprise middleware platforms, they’re built around APIs. At the core, we’re similar, our technology is API-driven. But where it gets really interesting is how we simplify the connection between vendors and PSAs.

Let’s say you’re a cybersecurity vendor. You want to integrate with the PSA your MSP partners use…ConnectWise, Kaseya, Halo, Syncro, whoever. You can either build that yourself, which is a monster effort, or you work with us. We essentially build one lightweight bridge, think of it as a mini-integration, and our software handles everything else downstream. We’ve already done the heavy lifting of figuring out how each PSA’s API works, how to map clients, products, ticketing, usage data, you name it. So instead of building a full-blown PSA integration from scratch, you build a sliver of it and we extend it across all supported platforms.

We also walk vendors through the whole technology alliance process: marketplace listings, API keys, certifications, everything. So they’re not just building faster, they’re also hitting the ground running with full ecosystem access. It’s like putting their PSA integration roadmap on autopilot.

You were quoted saying PSA integrations are the ‘hidden tax’ on the channel. Can you explain that?

Yeah and it really is a tax, just not one you can write off. When I was an MSP, and later when I built Passportal, I saw firsthand how painful PSA integrations were. As MSPs, we literally hired developers just to build basic API bridges between our tools and our PSA. It was expensive, messy and constantly breaking.

Then as a vendor, I saw it from the other side. You're building a great product and suddenly you're being asked, “Do you integrate with ConnectWise? What about Autotask?” It’s nonstop.

And if you don’t integrate, you’re invisible. Vendors get passed over every day for that reason alone. If you’re not integrated, you’re not even in the conversation. But here’s the kicker: building just one PSA integration can cost between $30,000 and $100,000, and that’s before you factor in maintenance, support, certification, all of it. Multiply that across the five or six PSAs that actually matter today and you’re looking at a massive resource drain. So yeah, it’s a hidden tax and it’s choking innovation. MSPCentric exists to eliminate that tax.

So what’s changed? Why is solving this problem urgent right now?

Because the PSA market itself has shifted. It used to be just ConnectWise and Autotask. You could get away with integrating with one or both and call it a day. But that’s no longer the case. Now you’ve got Halo, Syncro, Ninja, Pulseway and a few others all making real gains. Each of them has their own API structure, their own rules and their own ecosystems.

So vendors are stuck. They build for one or two, and then their partners come back saying, ‘What about Halo? What about Syncro?’ And leadership’s looking at the dev estimate and saying, ‘Not this quarter.’

We saw that mounting pressure and realized this is the right time. If we can reduce that cost and friction to near zero, vendors can finally keep up with demand. And MSPs win, because they get the workflows and automation they need.

What makes your approach different from what vendors have traditionally tried, like building in-house or outsourcing?

Honestly, it’s about experience and leverage. When you build in-house, you need a product manager who deeply understands how MSPs use their PSA. You need UI/UX designers who can map complex workflows. You need backend engineers to build data models for customer records, tickets, usage, SKUs…all of it. Then you need documentation, support tooling, ongoing maintenance.

It’s a nine-to-12 month project per PSA, and it doesn’t scale. We’ve already done all of that. We’ve built and mastered these integrations across multiple PSAs. Vendors come to us and within 30 to 90 days they’re live, not just with one integration but with six.

We’ve also built the internal tooling so their support teams can handle issues themselves without bugging engineering. Error logs, sync tools, reconnection flows, all done. It’s not just faster. It’s better and more maintainable. And vendors aren’t burning their product roadmap or R&D budget in the process.

Are you working directly with the PSA vendors themselves to make integrations better overall?

We are, and that’s one of the coolest parts of what we get to do. We’ve built strong relationships with the major PSAs. For some, we’ve helped shape their integration certification programs. For others, we’ve even had new API endpoints created at our request so we could deliver a better experience for the MSP.

It’s a win-win. They get more vendors integrated and we make sure the integrations actually work the way MSPs expect them to. It lifts the whole ecosystem.

So what kind of ROI should a vendor expect working with MSPCentric?

There’s a few key things. Speed to market: vendors launch integrations 9x faster with us, ecosystem access: they’re connected to multiple PSAs, not just one, massive cost savings: over a two-to-three year period, the cost is less than half of doing it internally… sometimes way less, ongoing innovation: as we add new PSAs or features, vendors get those automatically, and improved sales metrics: faster adoption, better retention and increased partner satisfaction because MSPs are finally getting the integration they need.

What about the MSPs themselves, how do they benefit?

They get to use the tools they love integrated exactly the way they need them. Think about it, MSPs use their PSA as the central nervous system of their business. Ticketing, billing, config management, automation…all of it ties back to that. If the vendor is integrated deeply, alerts go into the right queues, usage flows into billing, asset details sync to configs. Techs don’t have to learn new portals. Billing teams don’t have to manually enter usage. It just works. It saves time, reduces errors and makes the MSP more efficient. So while the vendor is our customer, we’re absolutely focused on making sure MSPs benefit.

What’s one thing most vendors still don’t fully understand about PSA integrations?

That not all integrations are created equal. A lot of vendors think, ‘Hey, we built something, we have an integration!’ But what they really built is what I call a cosmetic integration. It maps customers, maybe sends alerts. That’s not what MSPs want. MSPs want workflows that save time and drive real outcomes. If your alert integration just floods the ticket queue, they’re turning it off. If your usage doesn’t flow into billing, they’re manually keying it in or they’re switching vendors.

The other big thing vendors don’t get is how deal-breaking this really is. If an MSP hears, ‘No, we don’t integrate with your PSA,’ the conversation ends right there. I’ve lived that as a channel chief, it’s brutal. But when you’re integrated? Suddenly you're not just in the conversation, you’re closing deals.

Where do you want to see this a year from now?

I want to see more vendors connected, more PSAs supported and more MSPs benefitting from seamless, automated workflows. Ultimately, I want to see a world where any vendor can connect to any PSA, and any MSP can work with any vendor without giving up on automation or operational efficiency. We’re not trying to ‘own’ this, we’re trying to solve it. Once and for all.

And finally, what’s your message to the channel community about the evolving role of PSA integrations?

PSA integrations are no longer a nice-to-have, they’re a critical part of product-market fit in the MSP channel. If you’re a vendor and you’re not integrated, you’re invisible. If you’re an MSP, you’re demanding more automation, more efficiency and less swivel-chairing between portals. The future of the channel is interconnected. The vendors that embrace that, and invest in integrations that actually work, are going to win. We’re here to make that easy.