From Two Platforms to One: A Cloud MSP’s PSA Transformation with Halo

A Google & Microsoft Cloud MSP Scaling for Growth

The client is a fast-growing IT Managed Services Provider specialising in Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure — holding top-tier partner status with both hyperscalers. Operating as a cloud-first MSP, the organisation delivers managed infrastructure, platform services, and data-driven business outcomes to customers across sectors including retail, media, public sector, and financial services.

Ambition sits at the centre of their model. The business is pursuing Azure Expert Managed Service Provider (AEMSP) accreditation — one of the most rigorous certifications in the Microsoft partner ecosystem — and needed its internal ITSM platform and service management maturity to match the standard of the services it delivers to customers.

Two Platforms, One Problem: A Fragmented Foundation for Managed Service Growth

The organisation had been running its service operations across two separate tools that had never been designed to integrate cleanly. SolarWinds handled monitoring and event management, while Salesforce ServiceCloud provided the ticketing and service desk function. In practice, the two platforms sat alongside each other rather than working together — creating operational friction, duplication of effort, and gaps in data quality that made consistent managed service delivery harder than it needed to be.

The challenge was not just technical. The MSP was growing quickly, with an increasingly ambitious customer base and formal accreditation targets that required a demonstrably mature service management operation. The existing toolset had been largely adopted ad hoc rather than built around structured ITSM processes, which meant the organisation was managing services reactively — relying on individual effort rather than repeatable, documented workflows.

Key pressures driving the decision to act:

• Two disconnected platforms creating operational friction — monitoring alerts not flowing cleanly into service management workflows
• Service management processes were informal and inconsistent — individual-led rather than workflow-driven, with limited data quality or auditability
• No structured service catalogue or request management framework — incidents and requests were handled in the same queue with no clear separation
• AEMSP accreditation ambitions required demonstrable ITIL-aligned service management maturity — something the current platforms could not evidence
• Growing customer expectations — as the MSP scaled, clients demanded the same structured, predictable service behaviours that larger providers could offer

The decision to consolidate was clear. The question was how to execute a migration that would retire both legacy tools, standardise service delivery, and avoid disrupting live customer services in the process.

A Blended Team, a Phased Plan, and a Single Platform Built for What Comes Next

Rather than a like-for-like technology swap, the team — working as a single blended unit of Halo Professional Services and Allied ESM — took a deliberate approach: use the platform consolidation as an opportunity to introduce genuine service management maturity from day one, not inherit the informal patterns of the legacy tools.

The programme was structured across three defined phases, each with clear outcomes, ensuring change remained manageable and the service operation could stabilise between capability uplifts. Phase 1 — now complete — focused on platform consolidation, customer migration, and the introduction of structured, workflow-driven processes to replace the largely ad hoc operation that existed before.

The following capabilities were delivered as part of Phase 1:

• Incident Management — standardised, workflow-based incident process with defined prioritisation, assignment routing, and Major Incident Management for critical service events
• Service Request Management — clear separation of requests from incidents, supported by defined request types, workflows, and SLA targets
• Service Catalogue & Self-Service Portal — initial service catalogue built to underpin request fulfilment and provide a structured view of services for end users
• Monitoring & Event Management — integration framework established to ensure monitoring alerts flow into Halo as managed events, reducing noise and enabling proper triage rather than direct incident creation
• Problem Management — introduction of basic problem management capability to support trend analysis and root cause identification, replacing the unused functionality in the legacy platforms
• Asset Management — structured asset and configuration item tracking to provide baseline visibility and control across customer environments
• Knowledge Management — knowledge base structure established to support consistent resolution and reduce the impact of repeat incidents
• Measurement & Reporting — consistent reporting framework configured to provide visibility of volumes, performance, and trends across incidents, problems, and requests

Throughout the programme, Allied ESM and Halo operated as a single delivery team. Halo’s Professional Services brought deep platform expertise and configuration capability, while Allied ESM contributed ITSM process design, ITIL 4 framework alignment, and programme governance — ensuring the implementation produced not just a working system, but a mature operational baseline the MSP could build on.

Change Enablement was deliberately deferred to Phase 2. The existing platforms had change capability that was not actively used, and introducing it in Phase 1 would have added unnecessary complexity to a programme focused on consolidation and stability. This was a conscious delivery decision, not an oversight — and it is one of the ways the team protected both the timeline and the quality of what was delivered.

One Platform Live. Two Legacy Tools Retired. A Foundation Built for Scale.

Phase 1 is complete. SolarWinds and Salesforce ServiceCloud have been retired, and all in-scope customers are now operating on a single, unified Halo PSA platform — underpinned by structured, documented processes for the first time in the organisation’s history.

• Both legacy platforms retired — SolarWinds and Salesforce ServiceCloud decommissioned following successful customer migration to Halo
• All existing customers migrated — operating on a single platform with consistent, workflow-driven processes across the managed service estate
• Monitoring integration live — alerts from the environment now flow into Halo as managed events, with appropriate triage rather than direct noise-to-ticket conversion
• Service management maturity meaningfully uplifted — structured processes, defined workflows, and a consistent data model now in place where informal workarounds previously existed
• Clear roadmap in place for Phases 2 and 3 — including Change Enablement, IT Asset Management, SOC integration, and full AEMSP audit readiness

The organisation is now in a fundamentally stronger position. The fragmented toolset has been replaced by a single platform that the team owns and understands. Service desk agents are working in an environment built around their operational model, with real workflows rather than workarounds. And for the first time, leadership has consistent, reliable data on how the service is performing.

Phase 2 work is already underway, introducing Change Enablement, a structured Knowledge Management programme, IT Asset Management, and improvements to the Service Desk model. Phase 3 will complete the roadmap — delivering the full ITIL 4-aligned capability required for AEMSP accreditation and long-term managed service maturity.