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To support approximately 50,000 customers in 43 countries, Novell, Inc. has over 300 remote support representatives worldwide providing around-the-clock technical support for their entire operating system and software product line. In the latter half of 2007, Novell began preparing for its Volume License Agreement (VLA) maintenance program – to be launched in May 2008 – which would give customers unlimited access to technical assistance and product support. To cope with the significant increase in call volume Novell expected this program to generate, the support team created Novell Technical Services Online, an Internet-based support system. With this system, customers register themselves and their products and can later log in to the Novell Customer Center eService Portal to receive on-the-spot assistance when they need it.
In addition to the improved customer support management provided by this new system, Novell needed a more advanced solution for incident resolution. "In order to provide instantaneous support to all customers around the globe, we needed a help desk support solution that could support a wide variety of operating platforms (including SUSE Linux Enterprise), Internet connections and machines," said Scott Ivie, Business Systems Strategist for Novell. Novell had been using a combination of WebEx and various remote access and systems management technologies for remote support, but found them to be insufficient for the increased traffic their help desk expected. "The challenge with these tools was that they were not well-designed to remotely troubleshoot end users on Linux distributions," said Ivie.
In October of 2007, after doing an extensive evaluation of its security and usability, Novell standardized its incident resolution processes on the Bomgar Box. "We needed a solution that was built specifically for the help desk," said Ivie. "We were looking for a way to integrate our existing chat functionality with diagnostic support, specifically something that supported Linux. It was the combination of these two factors that led us to select Bomgar over other options." With Bomgar, a Novell support rep is able to get a first-hand view of a customer's problem and fix it remotely, without having to talk the customer through complicated troubleshooting procedures.
Implementing the Bomgar solution has increased Novell's productivity significantly by streamlining the support process and giving support reps more visibility into customer problems. "Eliminating time spent routing customers to the correct service representative and speeding up call resolution with faster diagnosis means that we can work with more customers in less time," said Ivie. "With Bomgar, we can virtualize the help desk support staff into product or specialty areas, called queues. When registered customers use the online eService Portal to manage their service request using the chat option, they are instantly connected to the correct queue for their product. By routing inquiries to the correct support team from the onset, we eliminate hours of time switching the customer back and forth between service representatives."
The productivity gains and incident management improvements made possible by Bomgar have increased customer satisfaction with Novell's quality of support. "Overall, our customers are very happy with the implementation," said Ivie. "We recently had one of them comment in the post-support survey that they were pleased with the speed at which we were able fix their problem. Further, they were even happier that they no longer had to wait on hold or wait for a call back from Novell to speak with a representative."
Through their infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. The three Novell leadership dimensions, working as one, deliver this promise of value: Actionable Strategy, Workable Vision, and Extraordinary Talent.
Based in Ridgeland, Miss., Bomgar Corporation specializes in appliance-based solutions for remote support. 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 remote desktop support solution, providing companies with an unparalleled level of security and the ability to scale efficiently. Backed by venture capital, Bomgar has grown steadily since its inception in 2003, securing more than 5,000 customers in all 50 states in the US and over 50 countries, in addition to resellers in Canada, South Africa and the U.K.
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"We needed a solution that was built specifically for the help desk. We were looking for a way to integrate our existing chat functionality with diagnostic support, specifically something that supported Linux. It was the combination of these two factors that led us to select Bomgar over other options."
Scott Ivie | Business Systems Strategist, Novell
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