How Dataprise Cut Response Times 62% in Six Months with Thread

Founded in 1995, Dataprise empowers businesses with proactive managed IT and cybersecurity solutions delivered. around the clock by a team of certified specialists who ensure IT environments are stable, secure, and aligned with business goals. Dataprise delivers managed IT including infrastructure, cloud and mobility; managed cybersecurity; and offers advisory and professional services that help mitigate risk and optimize IT environments.

"We focused on building the best client experience that we can. Thread is a significant part of that."
— Jon Coughlon, Vice President, Global Service Desk | Dataprise

As Dataprise scaled through acquisition and grew into one of the larger MSPs in the United States, Jon Coughlon's team set out to modernize the end-user support experience. Tickets still came in primarily through email and phone, which forced technicians into back-and-forth message exchanges to collect context. The service desk wanted a real-time channel that met clients where they worked and freed technicians from repetitive triage work so they could focus on solving problems instead.

The Core Problem

Dataprise needed a native live chat channel and an automated intake layer that could categorize and prioritize tickets before a human touched them.

"Our associates spend more time addressing the issue quickly with all that information up front, as opposed to the phone tag back and forth with the user."
— Jon Coughlon

The specific operational friction the team set out to solve:

• No native, easy-to-deploy live chat option across their ConnectWise-based service desk
• Technicians manually prioritizing and categorizing inbound tickets
• Inconsistent intake context, which slowed first response on more complex issues
• A unified acquisition-driven service desk needed one consistent intake experience across all clients

To continue delivering the client experience they wanted at scale, Dataprise needed a smarter front door to the service desk.

Thread was deployed as Dataprise's AI service desk layer, connecting Microsoft Teams to ConnectWise Manage and automating ticket prioritization, categorization, and intake.

After a proof of concept that began in June 2025, Dataprise signed with Thread at the end of September 2025. The rollout focused on two capabilities running side by side. Thread Messenger became the live chat front door, deployed into Microsoft Teams and a web widget. Behind the scenes, Thread's assistive AI began auto-prioritizing and auto-categorizing tickets the moment they hit the queue.

Dataprise participates in Thread's beta program, which gives the team early access to new features and a direct line into product decisions.

"Thread really listens to what we think would be helpful. That partnership sets you apart from a lot of other partners out there that are focused on their own roadmap without that client buy-in.”
— Jon Coughlon

Today, Thread is the intake layer across Dataprise's service desk. When a user reaches out through Microsoft Teams, Thread Messenger opens a structured conversation, collects the key details, and creates a ticket in ConnectWise Manage with the context already populated. Thread's assistive AI reads the ticket and applies priority and category before a dispatcher or technician sees it, so the first person to see a request is someone who can actually resolve it.

Technician adoption has tracked steadily upward alongside the chat rollout. Dataprise's active Thread user count on the inbox grew from 111 in September 2025 to 199 in March 2026, one of the highest adoption rates across Thread's partner base.

"The UI and experience for the associates has been received really well. I've seen an improvement in not just their morale, but they feel more efficient in what they're doing."
— Jon Coughlon

Day in the Life

A Dataprise end user opens Microsoft Teams and messages the IT support bot about a laptop issue. Thread Messenger walks the user through a short conversational intake, captures the device details and the nature of the problem, and creates a ticket in ConnectWise Manage. Thread's assistive AI assigns priority and category automatically. The next available technician picks up the ticket, sees the full context, and either responds in the same Teams thread or escalates to phone if needed. The user stays inside Teams for the whole interaction.

Dataprise Cut Chat Response Times 62% Versus Email

Dataprise now resolves a growing share of service requests through a channel that is measurably faster and more satisfying for end users than their legacy email workflow.

In March 2026, the last full month before the interview, average first response time on chat tickets was 15.87 minutes. Email first response in the same month averaged 41.38 minutes. That is a 62 percent improvement on the channel Dataprise is actively growing.

Chat volume on the Dataprise service desk grew from 80 tickets in September 2025 to 803 in March 2026, a roughly 10x increase over six months, as Dataprise rolled chat out to more of their client base. Over the same period, the active Thread technician count on the inbox climbed from 111 to 199.

CSAT is also higher on chat. Across all Dataprise tickets since September 2025, chat channels average between 60 and 64 out of 100, while email and PSA-sourced tickets average around 57. That is an 8 to 13 percent lift on CSAT depending on which chat surface is measured.

"On live chats, our client  satisfaction is higher than other sources. That goes hand in hand with cutting back on the noise and giving users instant access to the support staff."
— Jon Coughlon

Did Thread reduce response times? Yes. Dataprise saw a 62 percent improvement on chat versus email first response, measured in March 2026.

Did Thread reduce manual triage for technicians? Yes. Thread's assistive AI now auto-prioritizes and categorizes tickets across the Dataprise service desk, removing manual triage steps that previously sat in front of the technician queue.

Did Thread improve CSAT? Yes. Chat channels run 8 to 13 percent higher CSAT than email and PSA-sourced tickets on the Dataprise service desk.

Dataprise set out to give their clients a faster, more natural way to reach IT and to give their technicians the context they need to solve problems instead of chase details. Six months after signing with Thread, chat is measurably outperforming email on response time and CSAT, chat volume has grown roughly tenfold, and nearly 200 technicians are working out of the Thread inbox every month. The 2025 Operational Excellence Award reflects what Jon's team has built: a service desk where the AI handles the repetitive work, the humans handle the hard problems, and the client experience is better on both sides of the conversation.

Takeaway: Dataprise shows that MSPs using ConnectWise Manage can cut response times, grow chat adoption, and raise CSAT by deploying Thread as their AI service desk layer, without replacing their existing tools or retraining their team.