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It wasn’t the build. It was the upkeep, says MSP on ticket integration

Picture of Greg Rudakov By  Greg Rudakov  ·  2 minute read

Mid-to-large MSPs working with enterprise or government clients often run into the same roadblock: the client wants their service desk to talk to yours.

On paper, it’s a simple ask: "Can we sync tickets between ServiceNow and ConnectWise?"
In practice, it’s a decision with real cost and complexity behind it.

We recently spoke with one such MSP who shared their experience:

“We’ve done this before. It took two developers around a month to build a very basic, mostly one-way integration. It cost about $30 to $40k.”

That’s a single connection, with limited functionality. And that’s just the start.

The true cost of building integrations

When MSPs take on custom ticket integrations themselves, they’re signing up for more than a build. They’re committing to ongoing care and feeding.

Here’s what that typically involves:

  • Initial build: $30–40k in labour for a basic sync (e.g. ServiceNow → ConnectWise)

  • Ongoing maintenance: APIs change, field mappings break, workflows evolve. Someone has to keep the integration alive

  • Scalability limits: Every new customer needs a variation or rework, because no two implementations of ServiceNow are the same

  • Security risks: Homegrown code often lacks formal support for access controls, auditing, or multi-tenant separation

  • Opportunity cost: Internal engineers are pulled away from higher-value work

Even when a customer is willing to pay for the initial build - often as part of a tender - MSPs still wear the long-term risk and resource drain.

Why MSPs are shifting to buying instead

The same MSP told us:

“We could build it again - but we’d rather buy than build.”

That’s a mindset we’re hearing more often. As contracts get more complex, and expectations around reporting, SLAs, and escalation handling rise, MSPs are rethinking where their time is best spent.

They want:

  • A ready-to-deploy solution that works across ConnectWise, ServiceNow, HaloPSA etc.

  • No-code configuration that operations staff can own, not just developers

  • Pricing that aligns with service contracts, not transactional APIs

  • Support for multi-party contracts where the MSP may be integrating not with the client, but with another vendor in the mix

Buying brings predictability

With a productised integration layer like Support Fusion, MSPs avoid reinventing the wheel every time a client asks for ticket sync.

Instead, they get:

  • Clear onboarding workflows

  • Field mapping and comment handling out of the box

  • Support for two-way sync, even with custom workflows

  • Usage-based pricing that scales across their client base

More importantly, they can offer integration as a service - built into contracts, pre-positioned in tenders, or offered as a differentiator in complex co-managed deals.

Final thought

If your MSP is spending $30–40k building integrations that only cover part of the problem, it might be time to reconsider.

Because the real question isn’t can you build it.
It’s should you?

When integration is repeatable, configurable, and billable - it becomes a growth lever, not a cost centre.

Support Fusion helps MSPs do just that.