ConnectWise, LLC has a place in the software infrastructure of companies that handle IT for other organizations. Based in Tampa, Florida, the American company primarily serves managed service providers, or MSPs, as well as in-house IT teams. Its solutions help organize technicians’ work, monitor equipment and sell recurring services. Its website, connectwise.com, presents this suite designed for IT professionals.
From a local service provider to a specialized software vendor
The story of ConnectWise begins in 1982, with an IT services business founded by brothers Arnie and David Bellini. The needs encountered in this business drive the development of management tools tailored to service providers: tracking requests, scheduling service work and billing. The company then shifts toward a software vendor model, offering these applications to other companies in the sector.
Its scope gradually expands through internal development and acquisitions. The acquisition of ScreenConnect in 2015 strengthens its remote access capabilities. In 2019, ConnectWise is acquired by investment firm Thoma Bravo and also acquires Continuum, which specializes in services and tools for MSPs. This consolidation brings business management, technical operations and security services together within a single portfolio.
Connecting management, monitoring and cybersecurity
The core offering rests on two complementary product families. Professional services automation software, known by the acronym PSA, centralizes support tickets, contracts, time tracking and billing, among other functions. Remote monitoring and management tools, or RMM, make it possible to track the status of workstations and servers, deploy patches and automate certain maintenance operations.
ScreenConnect complements this setup with remote control capabilities, useful for troubleshooting a user’s issues without an on-site visit. ConnectWise also offers cybersecurity solutions and services, particularly for threat detection and support for service providers in their protection operations. The goal is to enable them to serve multiple clients while maintaining centralized visibility into their environments.
The Asio platform provides a foundation for unifying this offering, with shared services and automation capabilities. Integrations with third-party software round out the suite. For clients, its value depends as much on functional coverage as on the quality of communication between tools: a technical alert must be able to lead to documented service work and then be linked to the right contract.
What next?
The acquisitions of Axcient and SkyKick, announced in 2024, expand the portfolio in backup, business continuity and cloud environment management. The challenge now is to make this suite coherent without adding to service providers’ daily workload. Automation and artificial intelligence can help process requests and prioritize alerts, provided they remain controllable.
The security of administration tools also remains crucial. The critical ScreenConnect vulnerabilities disclosed in 2024 highlighted the risks associated with software that has privileged access. For ConnectWise, trust therefore rests on securing its products, delivering patches promptly and providing support for their deployment.