From One-Man Team to Efficiency Powerhouse: Excellent Networks' MSPbots Journey

Company Overview

What started in 2007 as a one-man show with three side clients has grown into Excellent Networks — a 7-person MSP managing roughly 90 businesses and 1,800 devices across multiple verticals. Mark built the company almost entirely on referrals over 16 years — but as the business scaled, he realized that growth alone wasn't the same as running a tight operation. The data to prove it just wasn't there.

‍

‍

Flying Blind at the Wheel

For years, Excellent Networks ran on instinct. ConnectWise had been the ticketing system from the start, but nobody was really measuring anything. It took outside coaching to surface what was missing: actual KPIs, visibility into profitability, and a way to hold the team accountable without Mark having to be everywhere at once.

A business coach pointed him toward BrightGauge as a first step. It worked — up to a point. Basic dashboards were achievable, especially with the coach's help. But anything beyond the basics meant going it alone. Custom dashboards required figuring things out independently, and the alert system — bells in an open-plan office — was too blunt to be useful. Nobody knew if a bell was meant for them.

• No consistent measurement of KPIs or technician performance
• Profitability by client was invisible — some clients were quietly losing money
• Technicians could sit on stuck tickets indefinitely with no escalation path
• Dispatching relied on a human coordinator with no way to prioritize by client value
• Alerts in BrightGauge were shared and context-free in an open office

"At a certain point of our growth I was really blind to a lot of factors. I wasn't measuring anything." — Mark Luna, Owner, Excellent Networks

‍

‍

Why MSPbots Changed the Equation

The bots were the first thing that stood out to Mark. Not just dashboards — actual automation that could reach a technician directly in Teams, with context, at the right moment. For a small shop without a service desk manager, that was the gap MSPbots could fill.

The onboarding experience helped too. Excellent Networks' existing BrightGauge dashboards migrated over cleanly, so nothing built with the coach was lost. From there, the platform kept delivering new widgets and integrations — sometimes surfacing data Mark didn't even know he should be tracking.

"Sometimes there's data I didn't even know I should be checking. I go through the new dashboards and I'm like — wow, this is really useful." — Mark Luna, Owner, Excellent Networks

‍

‍

How Excellent Networks Put It to Work

Escalation bots — a virtual service desk manager

Without a dedicated service desk manager, accountability on stuck tickets fell entirely on Mark. He built a bot that fires a Teams message — to both the technician and himself — if a Level 1 ticket isn't resolved within 30 minutes. The result: technicians escalate on their own, without being asked, because they know Mark already has visibility.

"Before, a tech could stay on a ticket a long time. Now they know I have eyes on them even when I'm not in the office." — Mark Luna, Owner, Excellent Networks

‍

Next Ticket — replacing a full-time dispatcher

Excellent Networks used to have a dedicated dispatcher. Next Ticket made that role unnecessary. Higher-revenue clients are now automatically prioritized in the queue. Specialist tickets — like phone system issues — route only to the technicians trained to handle them. Technicians hit "next ticket" when they're free and the system handles the rest.

The result was a full salary saved, faster response times for top-tier clients, and a dispatching workflow that runs without anyone managing it manually.

‍

Profitability visibility — fixing agreements that were quietly bleeding money

Once agreement profitability data was visible, Mark identified clients — mostly long-tenured ones — where pricing had never been updated to reflect current costs. Those conversations happened. Rates were adjusted. The data made the case.

‍

‍

The Results

Next Ticket eliminated the need for a full-time dispatcher. Escalation bots reduced the time technicians spend stuck on tickets they should have handed off. Profitability reporting surfaced pricing issues with legacy clients that had gone undetected for years. And Mark now has visibility into Excellent Networks' operation whether he's in the office or not.

For a 7-person team competing against larger MSPs, the leverage MSPbots provides isn't just operational — it's structural.

"In order for us to compete with bigger MSPs we don't have the manpower — so we have to be quick. MSPbots help us do that." — Mark Luna, Owner, Excellent Networks

‍

‍

Rolling It Out: What Actually Works

Start with one or two bots, not all of them. Pick the area where accountability is weakest and build there first. Complexity can come later.

‍

Explain the why to your team. Technicians at Excellent Networks pushed back on escalation bots initially — it felt like their tickets were being taken away. Once Mark explained that speed is how a small shop competes, buy-in followed.

‍

Don't assume your pricing is right. The profitability dashboards may surface clients you've underpriced for years. The data makes those conversations easier.

Use your account manager. Monthly check-ins with a dedicated contact — proactive updates on new features, a channel to push on open support items — is something most software vendors don't offer. Mark calls it out specifically as something that makes MSPbots feel different from every other tool in the stack.

‍

‍

Watch The Full Interview

‍

‍

‍

Ready to See What You've Been Missing?

Mark Luna didn't need more staff to run a tighter operation. He needed better visibility and smarter automation. MSPbots gave him both.

Book a demo or start your free trial at mspbots.ai

‍