Gain control over your managed and unmanaged devices with Network Glue

Network Glue has evolved into more than just a network diagramming solution. It can help you gain comprehensive visibility into your network with features like automatic discovery, documentation, diagramming and more.

IT Glue can ensure secure and quickly accessible documentation, and Network Glue can automate all your network information. Having Network Glue data automated right into IT Glue will enhance your ability to centralize the network information you need to do your work efficiently.

In this blog, we’ll explore some Network Glue feature updates that can make network documentation simpler and more efficient.

Unmatched Devices Notification

IT professionals typically maintain a well-kept list of managed devices since they can get that information from their RMM solution. But what about unmanaged devices like VoIP, firewall, servers and more?

To provide proper service to their clients, IT professionals need to get a complete picture of all the devices in their clients’ networks, both managed and unmanaged. This helps them understand how these devices relate to each other. This high-level visualization of networks and devices will prevent unresolved issues and benefit your clients as well as your business.

MSPs must have enhanced visibility into their clients’ networks, and that starts with identifying every single device in their clients’ networks. This is now possible with our new automatic notification of unmatched devices. You can set this up as a new workflow type to receive regular emails that will show you a list of unmatched devices.

Once Network Glue detects a device that is not already documented in IT Glue or an unmatched device, it will be listed in your automated email notification. Your technicians can then decide whether to match the device or document it in IT Glue.

This will give you the peace of mind you need to focus on bigger, more important tasks, knowing that the possibility of missing new devices in your network has been eliminated.

Switch Port Enhancement

Knowing what is connected to each port on a switch is important for you to troubleshoot easily. Not only does Network Glue automate the documentation of devices & Active Directory contacts, but it also automates the documentation of ports and interfaces.

With the latest Switch Port update, now under any IT Glue device, you can easily see anything the device is connected to, including other IT Glue configurations or even unmatched devices discovered by Network Glue.

If the unmatched device is key to your IT documentation, you can now add this newly discovered unmatched device right away to your IT Glue account. Using the “Add to IT Glue” button, you will be redirected to the Network Glue diagram with the selected device, and you can then match it there. However, even if you do not do this, the connected port information will still show.

To learn more about these new updates, request a demo.

Request Demo Here!

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The post Feature Release: Network Glue Unmatched Device Notification and Switch Port Enhancement appeared first on IT Glue.

Physical audit of network infrastructure was a challenging and time-consuming process at the best of times.  The pandemic has only added several new layers of complexity. You have to deal with remote workers, rotational shift workers, and on top of that, site walks are a potential health hazard.

With the situation likely to carry on in 2021, it is time to minimize site visits and replace it with regularly updated network documentation. It’s the only way to make sure you’re billing correctly and securing client environments properly.

Effectively deal with the security threats posed by remote work

The shift to remote work has made businesses more vulnerable to breaches and security threats. To effectively deal with these threats, you need to document every device, including hidden ones, connected to your network. Only then would you be able to secure the environment from external and internal threats.

Manage rotational shift workers with minimum fuss

We are already seeing companies opening up their premises and allowing employees to work in rotational shifts. If you thought the devices on client networks changed a lot before, now you know it’s guaranteed new devices every single day. That means your manual network documentation and diagrams are out of date. However, you can eliminate this problem with proper network documentation.

Save your technicians from site walks

With the pandemic raging on, technicians should be minimizing site walks or physical audits. It is a health risk. Instead, by using network documentation solutions, technicians will be able to do just about everything from discovering all the devices on clients’ networks to documenting them remotely.

Achieve more billing precision

These are challenging times for everyone. You can’t afford to undercharge anyone or take on more work than initially agreed for. A robust network documentation solution can help prevent such incidents. It discovers and documents every user and device on each client’s network. Continuously updated network documentation facilitates billing precision, even when the devices on the network change daily.

The network documentation solution that you should go for

Network Glue. It solves every challenge listed above and many more.

Once you install Network Glue, the software automatically detects every device connected to a network and documents them on IT Glue. That’s not all, it routinely updates the device information and generates a comprehensive network diagram that dynamically updates itself.

Whether it is troubleshooting network issues or securing remote connections, your team will be able to handle it seamlessly, no matter where they are.

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue now!

“We have only deployed Network Glue on 5 clients so far, but we saw the value right away. Within a day, we have complete, live network diagrams that are a living representation of their system. This has already helped us identify some issues and anomalies that we can do further research on.”

Frank J. Hannaford, CoreTech, Omaha NE

The post Why Network Documentation Software is Essential in 2021 appeared first on IT Glue.

While they function as an invaluable touchpoint with the client and the best opportunities to gain an accurate understanding of what’s happening on the ground, the drawbacks are many. It doesn’t help that site visits begin and end with a commute.

Network Glue has a profound impact on assessment and onboarding. This automated network discovery, documentation, and diagramming tool alleviates much of the grunt work that onsite technicians had to perform before.

Once installed, the Network Glue collector automatically detects devices on a client’s network, regardless of vendor, and pulls this information into IT Glue. This means that manual entries based on documentation made during site-walks are now done within mere keystrokes. Work that once took anywhere from 3 to 5 hours depending on the size of a network, is now done in minutes. What’s more is that Network Glue pulls this information into IT Glue regardless of whether an RMM agent has been installed on a machine.

When all this information is automatic, your technician can focus on building a relationship with the client, and can be sure the assessment and onboarding has been comprehensive and nothing has fallen through the cracks. Plus, having the network diagram allows you to analyze and describe to the client where network optimization can occur, showcasing your expertise from the very beginning.

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue now!

Network Glue gives you automated discovery, documentation and diagramming of all network devices, regardless of vendor. Document all clients for one low, flat fee.

The post Network Glue Use Cases #5: Assessment and Onboarding appeared first on IT Glue.

We’ve already established that Network Glue automatically documents and diagrams client networks, but things change, and we know that. That’s why by default Network Glue automatically synchronizes network information into IT Glue each day. Further to this, if you need up-to-the-minute updates, manual synchronization is also possible. You can be sure that the network documentation you’re seeing on the screen is accurate to what’s at a client’s site.

This is one of the most valuable features of Network Glue because it allows your on and off-site technicians to work with the same perfect synchronicity that Network Glue allows your documentation to have with on-site hardware. If someone onsite makes a change to a client’s network, your service desk employees can automatically see this change in the documentation and graphically in the diagram.

You save time since you don’t have to spend hours manually creating and updating documentation and diagrams, and also since network documentation updates have been eliminated from your to-do list for good.

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue now!

Network Glue gives you automated discovery, documentation and diagramming of all network devices, regardless of vendor. Document all clients for one low, flat fee.

The post Network Glue Use Cases #4: Ongoing Updates appeared first on IT Glue.

Strategic Network Planning

Network Glue allows you to identify opportunities for change, especially in terms of network hardware. These changes are often revenue opportunities for you, but they can also be compelling improvements for the customer because they represent investments that support internal teams, and mitigate future expenses due to equipment failure. The network diagrams that come with Network Glue can be used to concretely demonstrate to your clients specific areas for improvement. Having this piece of tangible evidence that shows the client how one out-of-date piece of hardware can affect the performance of an entire location or pod can increase your sales both during the onboarding process and as part of ongoing quarterly business reviews.

Showcase Expertise

A lot of IT service providers have clients that haven’t yet been converted to recurring revenue. Whether legacy clients or new ones, clients on break-fix or piecemeal plans aren’t as lucrative as those on managed services plans. Furthermore, it takes more effort on your part to offer a larger range of services. While there are many potential barriers to converting clients to managed services, if you can show the value in taking a proactive approach, you should be able to build more trust with your clients. Network Glue doesn’t just give you expertise over your clients’ networks, but allows you to showcase that expertise as well. It can be an effective tool for your account management team to showcase expertise and convert more of those legacy, piecemeal clients into steady, recurring revenue clients.

Free Up Resources

We always recommend that a standardized stack is the ideal. Not that getting there 100% is ever really going to happen but it should be something you are constantly moving towards. Network Glue helps you move towards that. As your clients all get on the same page, and shift towards proactively addressing issues to reduce dependence on reactionary fixes at the service desk level, you’ll find that you have more resources – especially time – to dedicate to things like sharpening up your lead gen or sales pitches. Whether it’s spending more money on your sales team, or spending more time building out your marketing, migrating towards a standardized stack helps you refocus resources towards revenue-generating activities. The visibility afforded by Network Glue helps you get there.

While on the surface of things, Network Glue is mostly about saving time and improving profitability that way, it’s worth thinking about how you can take the information that Network Glue gives you and use it to increase sales, because those opportunities are certainly out there for the majority of MSPs.

To see for yourself how Network Glue works its magic, sign up for a free trial today.

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue now!

Network Glue gives you automated discovery, documentation and diagramming of all network devices, regardless of vendor. Document all clients for one low, flat fee.

The post How Network Glue Helps Your Revenue Picture appeared first on IT Glue.

Network Glue is an automated network discovery and documentation tool that introduces more benefits to your MSP than you might expect. While your technicians may be adroit at sleuthing out the nooks and crannies of a network, there may be components that elude even the most observant eye. Of course, the client themselves can be a useful resource for pointing you in the right direction, but let’s be real, IT infrastructure isn’t their area of expertise, and more often than not it’s like asking an aeronautical engineer to perform open heart surgery.

Once the Network Glue collector is deployed on a client’s network, every connected device is identified, documented in IT Glue, and presented in an easy to interpret visual diagram. You have full visibility and no longer have to wonder if there’s a device hiding in an unused conference room, or stashed above a ceiling tile. You have a complete and live representation of a client’s system.

When you have a complete picture and all the information you need at your disposal, identifying issues and anomalies can be done with ease. Spend less time manually mapping out networks, and more time impressing your clients with your ability to troubleshoot issues and have their IT infrastructure operating flawlessly.

Why not eliminate network blind spots, starting today?

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue now!

Network Glue gives you automated discovery, documentation and diagramming of all network devices, regardless of vendor. Document all clients for one low, flat fee.

The post Network Glue Use Cases #3: Blind Spots appeared first on IT Glue.

Network Glue automatically collects the components of a client’s network, brings it into IT Glue, and automatically updates just in case there are any further changes to the network. This reinforces IT Glue as the go-to source of client information, mitigating the need to add another piece of tech to your stack. This centralized hub for information ensures that everyone on your team has access to client network information.

No matter if it’s a client-dedicated technician, an on-call worker who does rotations, or someone working onsite who’s unfamiliar with the client’s network, all the need-to-know information is right there for those who need to know. If a problem ever arises, anyone on your team can deliver immediate service and troubleshoot problems using complete and accurate information.

Simply access Network Glue in the IT Glue app, and use the network diagram as a launchpad for your team to view all configurations and related information. If you need to search for a specific device type or drill into a specific location, you can easily single out the information you need and all on the same screen.

Say goodbye to the days when unique client network information was confined to only a few technicians who had physically been to that client’s office.

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue here.

IT Glue is an award-winning documentation platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation you need to help your MSP run better. By integrating PSA and RMM data, we can help increase your efficiency, and reduce onboarding times by even more. By eliminating wasted time from your business, IT Glue gives you more time to focus on what matters – growing your business.

The post Network Glue Use Cases #2 – Access for Everyone appeared first on IT Glue.

When you first run Network Glue, you’ll probably find some things at most client sites that need to be replaced – every workplace has out of date tech just sitting there, creating a security risk. You’ll point this out to the client, and start the process of upgrading.

Why not do this regularly? If you’re conducting quarterly business reviews or SLA reviews, networks should be included in the conversation. Here’s why.

Think about the times you recommend to your clients that they proactively replace their tech. Do they do it right away? Or do they stall because it’s not in the budget? And only 6-9 months later, if not more, do they finally say yes.

The visibility afforded by Network Glue allows you to pinpoint upcoming issues well ahead of time. This way, you’re talking to them today about their 2020 plans, making sure that those upgrades they need next summer make it into their budget from the start.

Plus, when you have full visibility, and a network diagram, you have a visual cue to help them understand the issues. Network Glue is proven to make account managers’ lives easier, because it allows them to show clients exactly what needs to be done and when. An account manager can enter into the QBR armed with the information they need to make proactive recommendations, and give the client time to go through their budgeting and approval process.

It’s better for the client, because they get the runway they need to make critical IT decisions and the ability to maintain security. It’s better for you because you can improve both service and revenue.

Strategic network planning. Just one more benefit of deploying Network Glue.

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue here.

IT Glue is an award-winning documentation platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation you need to help your MSP run better. By integrating PSA and RMM data, we can help increase your efficiency, and reduce onboarding times by even more. By eliminating wasted time from your business, IT Glue gives you more time to focus on what matters – growing your business.

The post Strategic Network Planning appeared first on IT Glue.

All of Your Clients

Network Glue is offered at a low flat fee, making it possible to deploy the network collector on all your clients’ networks. As a result, you have complete visibility over your entire client base, not just certain ones. Being able to drill into all the details of all your clients’ networks gives you a level of insight you may never have had before.

Automated Processes For the Win

The alternative to automation is manual processes. If you’re doing IP scans then storing the information in Excel, or just entering everything into IT Glue by hand, you know that there has to be a better way. Especially since manual methods mean that information is often out of date by the time it is documented, you aren’t going to document every client, and you probably won’t be able to document everything because you don’t have perfect visibility. Network Glue’s automated diagramming solves all of these problems.

We Can’t All Be Artists

Network diagrams are something most MSPs struggle with. We can’t all be artists, and working with diagramming software to create a visual representation of every client network is a huge ordeal. Drawing your own network diagrams can easily take multiple hours, and if any changes are made to the network, diagram updates require going back into the file to manually make changes. With Network Glue, this operation is automated and for all your clients.

When you have the granularities of all your clients’ networks documented, you can then offer the same level of service to your whole client base. Precision and efficiency become a baseline standard when delivering value to your clients.

This benefit of Network Glue only scratches the surface of how this tool can positively impact your MSP. Stay tuned for future blog posts elaborating on other areas of benefit you can expect from Network Glue.

Sign up for a free trial of Network Glue here.

IT Glue is an award-winning documentation platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation you need to help your MSP run better. By integrating PSA and RMM data, we can help increase your efficiency, and reduce onboarding times by even more. By eliminating wasted time from your business, IT Glue gives you more time to focus on what matters – growing your business.

The post Network Glue Use Cases #1 – Full Client Visibility appeared first on IT Glue.

Hot on the heels of the exciting release of Network Glue (our new automatic network documentation tool), we announced that RapidFire Tools had built an integration between their popular Network Detective Reporter appliance and IT Glue. With this integration, Network Glue and Network Detective bridge the gap between documentation and diagnostics. Both of these releases complement each other to grant you an unbeatable level of network visibility. So how do they differ and why do they work so well together? We’re going to break it down for you.

Network Glue
Network Glue automatically detects and maps out all devices on a client’s networks, including (but not limited to) printers, routers, and switches. Network Glue then creates a comprehensive network diagram allowing you to easily visualize the network and troubleshoot issues with accurate, up-to-date information. With Network Glue, you can be sure that your network administrators have a complete birds-eye view of each network, without blindspots.

Network Detective
Many of you are already using Network Detective by RapidFire Tools to perform IT assessments for onboarding new clients, or as a sales tool. It provides an independent review of your clients’ network health, and may uncover issues that they are unaware of, highlighting not just security risks but the severity of those security risks. In doing so, the assessment creates potential sales opportunities for you to ensure you’re helping your clients bring their network up to par.

Network Detective Reporter Integration
We partnered with Rapid Fire Tools to create an integration that uses our API – to automate the manual documentation of applications and services – also known as Flexible assets – in IT Glue. The Network Detective Reporter integration pulls in the network assessment information into IT Glue as structured Flexible Assets. This includes things like applications, SQL servers, service configurations, and active directory. Not only that, everything is automatically related, making it easier for you to find anything. For example, a Virtual Machine Configuration is automatically related to the following Flexible Assets: AD Computer, Hyper-V Guest, License Key, Missing Windows Patch, Network Share, and Web Server.

Bringing all of it together
Network Glue specializes in the documentation of network devices, and in the production of an up-to-date network diagram.

Network Detective’s network and security assessment component specializes in providing you with a detailed overview of your clients’ network as well as security vulnerabilities.

The Network Detective & Reporter integration automates the applications and services documentation in IT Glue as Flexible Assets.

Putting all of the above together will give you have truly comprehensive visibility into your clients’ networks – all automatically updated as well.

The best way to supercharge your network documentation is to get both of these tools working for you at once. Drop us a line and we’ll let you know the best way to do that.

To sign up for Network Glue, just fill out the form on the Network Glue site and one of our reps will contact you in order to go over your options.

IT Glue is an award-winning documentation platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation you need to help your MSP run better. By integrating PSA and RMM data, we can help increase your efficiency, and reduce onboarding times by even more. By eliminating wasted time from your business, IT Glue gives you more time to focus on what matters – growing your business.

The post Supercharge Your Network Documentation: Using Network Glue and Network Detective Together appeared first on IT Glue.