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Why is QuoteWerks not certified with ConnectWise?

I've tried to resolve numerous issues between CW and QW over the last 2 years and every single time it's CW saying it's QW fault and QW saying it's CW fault and I end up with constant emails for tickets being closed because i'm left battling both sides with closed doors.


https://marketplace.connectwise.com/quotewerks#support


Is there a reason QW is not recognized by CW as a tool that works well with it? I'd be interested to see what % of Quotewerks users are integrating with CW, i'd say it's quite high?


There must be a reason, either they tried and didn't meet requirements or have not yet started this? 


Best Answer

Owen,

Good Question. QuoteWerks is part of the ConnectWise Invent program under the "Open" category - https://developer.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Invent


The Open Category provides our developers access to the ConnectWise Manage API. It also enables us to test against pre-release versions of ConnectWise Manage. We communicate on the forums with other developers. We also report issues to ConnectWise Development when there are bugs in their API  - this benefits the entire ecosystem.  In fact, there are several open ConnectWise Tickets that ConnectWise Development is currently working on - these issues include issues with Document Attachments, Opportunity Close Dates, Sales Oder Dates, and others (please feel free to email support@quotewerks.com to obtain the actual ConnectWise ticket numbers). 


So the question is, "Why doesn't QuoteWerks pay ConnectWise to be a "Certified" Member of the Invent Program?"

The answer to this is that the main benefit that we would have is from a Marketing perspective, but this would be limited because we compete in the Quoting space even though we would be paying the full partner program cost. I have had multiple conversations with several ConnectWise team members about the program. If this changes, we would consider upgrading within the program. 


The other aspect is that ConnectWise in theory would provide some support for QuoteWerks, but that would also be limited and we would prefer that our customers work directly with our technicians. We would still run into the same finger pointing (as experienced by other integration partners in the community). Front-line support people at most organizations will normally try to blame an integration once they hear that an issue involves an integration.


Our customers would not see any actual benefit from QuoteWerks paying to upgrade within the program.


The take-away here is that QuoteWerks does have full access to the ConnectWise Manage Documentation. QuoteWerks Development also has contacts within ConnectWise Development and API teams. There is open communication when bugs in ConnectWise are reported or when clarification is needed on a feature.  


Whenever you have a question about QuoteWerks and ConnectWise, please contact our Technical Support first. Our support team will be able to diagnose if it is a one-off issue, if it involves an incomplete ConnectWise Manage version update, or if our development team needs to investigate and communicate with ConnectWise development.


I would be happy to go into more detail offline.


Thank you for being a QuoteWerks customer,

Brian Laufer


Answer

Owen,

Good Question. QuoteWerks is part of the ConnectWise Invent program under the "Open" category - https://developer.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Invent


The Open Category provides our developers access to the ConnectWise Manage API. It also enables us to test against pre-release versions of ConnectWise Manage. We communicate on the forums with other developers. We also report issues to ConnectWise Development when there are bugs in their API  - this benefits the entire ecosystem.  In fact, there are several open ConnectWise Tickets that ConnectWise Development is currently working on - these issues include issues with Document Attachments, Opportunity Close Dates, Sales Oder Dates, and others (please feel free to email support@quotewerks.com to obtain the actual ConnectWise ticket numbers). 


So the question is, "Why doesn't QuoteWerks pay ConnectWise to be a "Certified" Member of the Invent Program?"

The answer to this is that the main benefit that we would have is from a Marketing perspective, but this would be limited because we compete in the Quoting space even though we would be paying the full partner program cost. I have had multiple conversations with several ConnectWise team members about the program. If this changes, we would consider upgrading within the program. 


The other aspect is that ConnectWise in theory would provide some support for QuoteWerks, but that would also be limited and we would prefer that our customers work directly with our technicians. We would still run into the same finger pointing (as experienced by other integration partners in the community). Front-line support people at most organizations will normally try to blame an integration once they hear that an issue involves an integration.


Our customers would not see any actual benefit from QuoteWerks paying to upgrade within the program.


The take-away here is that QuoteWerks does have full access to the ConnectWise Manage Documentation. QuoteWerks Development also has contacts within ConnectWise Development and API teams. There is open communication when bugs in ConnectWise are reported or when clarification is needed on a feature.  


Whenever you have a question about QuoteWerks and ConnectWise, please contact our Technical Support first. Our support team will be able to diagnose if it is a one-off issue, if it involves an incomplete ConnectWise Manage version update, or if our development team needs to investigate and communicate with ConnectWise development.


I would be happy to go into more detail offline.


Thank you for being a QuoteWerks customer,

Brian Laufer

My experience, FWIW, is that the majority of issues with QW and CW integration are introduced by CW updates/changes/bugs to their API - or CW (Cloud) simply being down.


Whenever there's been an issue, the finger pointing from CW -> QW is a simple finger point, a 'shrug' and that's where the conversation seems to stop.

Whenever I talk to QW, the 'finger is pointed' at CW - but always followed up with something along the lines of "We've raised a ticket with CW and they've confirmed the issue".


Whenever QW identify an issue on the QW side, a fix is often available within a few days (if not same day in a couple of cases I can recall).


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(I know clients that have migrated to QW from another quoting tool, a little closer to CW Manage, that got fed up of waiting for integration bugs to be fixed months after they were reported... What I'm trying to say is that the grass is certainly no more green on the other side)


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Thanks for the honest and transparent response, this does make sense.


I have been in a situation where both CW and QW just couldn't do anything for our issue due to the stonewalling of he said she said.


These tickets end up getting constant "you haven't' replied" emails and then finally closed. I know the issue, however, is always on the CW side but they seem to have a "Not our problem" mentality for their system, especially as they seem to design it for a certain regional use, for example, the system works the way I'd expect a lot of systems would work in a US region. Certain processes are done over there due to accessibility to larger vendor/supply chains, whereas in little old NZ we have to do things slightly differently (nothing major) but when it comes to them making upgrades that break things for us, their response is "Nah that was a bug for you guys, it's never supposed to be that way" despite using it like that for years.


Prime example: We use to raise PO's in CW and it would default "Drop-ship" to the company that is set on the ticket you've targeted to make a PO. An update in Dec 2017 made "Ship to warehouse" the default and we now have an extra step of manually changing this to the drop ship option.


According to CW Reddit, others have noticed this change too but didn't put up a fuss, CW support saying it's a bug just for us.


I've also heard from an internal account manager at CW that management there seem to think things are running smoothly with support due to all the ticket being closed quickly, which is a stat that the support reps need to meet, it's a bad way to do it.

We strive to provide the honest answer (I know not always the answer one wants to hear). 


Thank you for understanding what I was attempting to convey. I do want to stress that the ConnectWise Development team has been rather responsive over the last year or so on fixing API bugs which has benefited the entire ConnectWise Community. We too have had "difficulties" with the front-line support people, however.


As far as your PO "Drop-Ship" issue is concerned, I believe I saw some internal notes about that, but not a full feature request as of yet. If this is something that you would like for us to look into, could you create a feature request on our forum (https://tickets.quotewerks.com/support/discussions/forums/9000203521)  and include the link to it? If you could outline with the workflow and screenshots, I will see what I can do for you... 


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Brian,

Ticket https://tickets.quotewerks.com/support/tickets/38041 has some screen shots.


My client Scopelogic are having this issue as well.

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