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ACME Truck Line's seven-man tech support team is responsible for 500 employees located throughout the country. Approximately 80 percent of these employees are located within the company LAN or are connected to it via VPN, but the remaining 20 percent are outside of the company network – a significant segment of the organization. And because VPN client software issues make up a majority of the issues needing attention, finding an effective remote support solution was critical for the team.
While Symantec's pcAnywhere™ 1 could be used to support employees inside of the company firewall, employees outside of the company network had to be supported by phone, requiring ACME support reps to relay sometimes complex instructions to end-users. Because of the support team's size and the scope of its responsibilities, the on-site visits that were often necessary to troubleshoot complex problems put a strain on its already limited manpower.
In October of 2006, Network Technician Shane Fontenot integrated the Bomgar Box™ into ACME Truck Line's support processes after researching remote software on Google. Bomgar's architecture enables ACME to support all of its employees, whether they are located inside or outside of the company network. Because they could support end-users outside of the company firewall with only a few mouse clicks using Bomgar™, tech support could finally give phone-only support a proper burial. "The main thing was getting access to the PCs that we don't have on our network," said Fontenot. "That was the main selling point. We could do remote installations of PCs that we couldn't get to before with pcAnywhere™."
Without the need to pre-install software on the remote systems, ACME began using Bomgar's Push to Start feature to gain anytime access to systems on the company LAN, replacing the adequate but much slower pcAnywhere™ for support of internal systems. Setting Bomgar™ apart from all of its competition was the security of the appliance-based delivery model – all sensitive processes could be kept in-house. Other crucial features for ACME include session recording, reverse screen sharing, and dual monitor support, which was released with Bomgar™ 9.3: "Most of our computers have dual monitors, and it was great to be able to switch back and forth."
Headquartered in Harvey, LA, located on New Orleans' west bank, ACME Truck Line installed a Bomgar Box™ at two separate locations to insure swift recovery from a disaster such as Hurricane Katrina. "We have two Bomgar™ appliances, the primary one in New Orleans at our corporate office and the other in Austin," said Fontenot. "In the event of a disaster we simply point our host name to look for the IP address that is set up at the Austin site. We would then restore a backup from our list of backup files to get the current configuration in sync with our corporate location." By locating the redundant appliance a sizable distance away from their main headquarters, ACME can ensure that its disaster recovery site is out of harm's way in the event of a disaster.
With four members of the support team running a total of approximately 350 remote sessions per month, ACME tech support has reduced on-site support visits by 90 percent and hold times by 50 percent, resulting in a 20 percent decrease in total call time. This has saved ACME a significant amount of money. "We shipped in a lot of PCs before for things like spyware," said Fontenot. "We reduced shipping costs because we can get into PCs that we couldn't access before and clean up the PC a lot more quickly. It prevents them from having to send it in." Fontenot estimates that ACME saved approximately $1,800 on shipping over a six month period because of Bomgar™.
Being able to see end-users' screens has enabled the team to resolve 90 percent more issues on the first call, and escalation to second tier support has been lowered by 15 percent. This increase in productivity has resulted in an 80 percent increase in the team's ability to handle incidents. The benefits of this are carried directly to supported employees. Fontenot and his team use Bomgar's customizable customer exit survey to monitor employees' satisfaction with their tech support experience: "We get a lot of good feedback saying that the solution is a lot faster and easier to work with than what we used previously."
Since 1960 ACME Truck Line has been a leader in the transportation of equipment, materials, and supplies throughout the United States. ACME has a fleet of over 1,900 trucks, and operates more than thirty service markets in seven states, 24 hours per day - 365 days each year.
Bomgar™ is the only provider of appliance-based remote desktop support solutions, offering greater security and lower total cost of ownership. With the Bomgar Box™, Bomgar's clients can eliminate monthly fees and enhance the security of their helpdesks.
- pcAnywhere™ is a trademark of Symantec Corporation
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