Armstrong Watson Case Study

UK financial services firm decreases on-site support visits by 80% using appliance-based remote desktop support solution

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The Challenge

Armstrong Watson's IT team, working from two locations in Carlisle, is responsible for providing software, application, and desktop support both to its employees and to the customers of a subsidiary computer company. With employees dispersed over 15 sites up to 200 miles from Carlisle and customers spread across the UK, frequent on-site support visits were too costly. To complicate matters further, some customers and employees are out of the country when support is needed, stretching Armstrong Watson's support responsibilities.

To enable its support team to reach its clients remotely, Armstrong Watson used Symantec's pcAnywhere™¹ for a period of time, but this solution proved to be difficult to implement and use. "With pcAnywhere™, we had to install the software on each machine," said Allan Jardine, Armstrong Watson Technical Manager. "It was a difficult product to deploy. It wouldn't work for our external customers because they would have to put a hole in the firewall, or they would be on a different modem. It was always a difficult situation." In addition, the per-client licensing model made it an inefficient use of funds for the company. "With over 300 users internally, we couldn't afford to have a license for every user if they were only going to use it every once in a while."

The Solution

In September of 2004, after searching the web, reading product reviews, and trialing a WAN-based remote control solution, Armstrong Watson purchased the Bomgar Box™ by Bomgar (formerly NetworkStreaming). Bomgar's licensing model enabled Armstrong Watson to provide remote support to all of their end-users without having to purchase licenses for each of them. No client pre-installation is necessary, making the connection process much simpler for Armstrong Watson's clients and employees. "We were looking for something so we could easily support all of these people," said Jardine. "Bomgar fitted the bill."

The Results

Now, with 16 support reps using Bomgar™ from both inside and outside the company network, Armstrong Watson can support all of its employees and customers remotely. "Bomgar™ allows us to support more users without an increase in support staff," said Jardine. "Our support staff are more productive and can take more calls." Performing over 500 remote support sessions per month, Armstrong Watson has decreased on-site visits by about 80%. Because Bomgar™ works over any internet connection, even customers and employees who are traveling in other countries can be supported.

Using Bomgar™, Armstrong Watson's support team has increased first-call support incident resolution from 30% to 60%. Average call times have decreased by 60%, enabling support reps to handle more calls and decreasing frustration for support rep and customer alike. "The main benefit is that we can respond quickly to customer problems," said Jardine. "It enables us to provide a much more joined-up service for our customers. It looks really professional and saves a lot of time on the road."

About Armstrong Watson

Armstrong Watson is an independent firm of accountants and strategic business and financial advisers. Headquartered in Carlisle and operating in the north of England and southern Scotland, Armstrong Watson employs over 380 team members and serves approximately 12,000 clients nationwide. Proud to offer its employees the chance to work with interesting clients in some of the most picturesque areas of the country, it has grown its team over the past ten years so that it is now one of the top 30 accountancy firms in the UK. Key services offered include audit, business support, corporate finance, corporate recovery and turnaround, financial planning, IT services, payroll, tax, and VAT.

About BOMGAR™

Bomgar Corporation, based in Ridgeland, Miss., specializes in appliance-based help desk software for remote desktop support and has secured more than 3,500 customers in all 50 states in the US and 48 countries, in addition to resellers in Canada, South Africa and the U.K. Bomgar™ allows companies to connect to remote clients and co-workers via the Internet anywhere in the world, in less than 10 seconds. The company is the only provider in the industry offering an appliance-based solution, providing companies with an unparalleled level of security and the ability to scale effi ciently.

1. pcAnywhere™ is a trademark of the Symantec Corporation

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