Can you run a government with six-year-old software?

All eyes are on Obama. They say the first few months on the job are pivotal and we’re all eagerly awaiting our daily updates on his progress. But anyone waiting for those updates to be communicated electronically, other than through news sources, probably didn’t get what they expected.

Why? On top of the usual first-day-on-the-job orientation and paper work, Obama’s tech-savvy staff found themselves trying to function in a technologically-deprived environment – the White House. Having to make calls on their personal cell phones (one person’s transition cell phone was disconnected and he had to get callers to call his wife’s cell phone instead), getting permission to set up outside email accounts so they could communicate, figuring out how to put captions on videos while coping with six-year-old software, and so on.

Apparently the White House is in better shape now than in 2001 when keyboards had missing letters. And let’s hope it’s better than when Bush’s Internet director arrived in 2005 and had to wait a week for a computer and a blackberry.

We’ve all been in similar situations, and I’m sure it will all get resolved with lightning speed, but it’s a little scary when you’re talking about the headquarters of the leader of the free world.

Nevertheless, it’s hard not to laugh at this Washington Post account: Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages. I’m sure many of the White House staff were also rolling in the aisles with laughter as the day went on, too. What else can you do? Thank God techies have a sense of humor.

If your customers have to make a second call, the likelihood they’ll go to a competitor jumps 31 percent. It’s time to focus on first call resolution.

New studies on the impact of first call resolution indicate that not addressing this problem could be eating up your profits and driving customers away en masse.

Here’s a brief summary.

 First call resolution is, by far, the major element of customer satisfaction.
 30 – 35% of calls are unnecessary repeat calls.
 Not resolving an issue on the first call accounts for 66% of call center costs.
 Customer satisfaction drops by 35 – 45% if they have to make a second call on the same issue.
 Every percentage point improvement in first call resolution is matched in customer satisfaction.
 3% of customers whose issues were resolved in the first call are likely to go to a competitor. That number jumps to 34% if they have to call you back.

One of the major difficulties when improving first call resolution is, according to First Call Resolution Revisited, measuring it correctly. If there is no standard measurement that correctly reflects the scene, you can’t tell whether you’re improving or not. Read First Call Resolution Revisited for suggestions. Once that’s done, check out the improvements our remote desktop control customers have realized. We may even be able to help you figure out the metrics.

The success of Obama’s health care plan will depend in part on accessibility of medical data. If computers or software fail, it could spell disaster.

One of the major components of Obama’s health care plan involves standardizing medical records and making them electronic. The move is designed to simplify the health care process and make it more cost effective – which would help Obama fulfill his campaign promise of making affordable, high quality health care available to every American.

Anyone who’s ever been given the wrong medication because a doctor’s handwriting was illegible, given drugs that are dangerous when combined with other drugs they were taking, become ill while traveling and having to see an ER doctor who doesn’t have access to their medical history – or any number of other errors made due to illegible, inaccessible or incomplete medical records – will appreciate these changes.

However, privacy advocates are up in arms. Chief concerns include the increased potential for cybercrime and the possibility of system failure. Even one hacker, one computer going down, or a brief time when data is inaccessible could wreak havoc – which is why several major players in the health care industry have turned to Bomgar’s remote support software.

How Obama’s health care plan will play out in light of privacy concerns remains to be seen. If we’re going to have affordable health care, we may also have to make some compromises.

Remote support of a new e-government infrastructure could help coordinate the left hand and the right to create a government that’s efficient and really on top of things.

Some years ago, a friend of mine created a course to teach SQL to the managers of an insurance company. The course enabled them, for the first time, to access data quickly enough to make timely business decisions. The company had held the number three position nationally until they fell behind the competition in their use of computer technology. By the time they finally did something about it, they’d slipped to number fifteen.

The task facing Obama’s CTO – we’re still anxiously waiting to find out who will get the job – might be similar although, obviously, on a much larger scale. Even countries like Estonia have far exceeded the U.S. in their use of computer technology. Voters in Estonia aren’t getting their ballots rained on, lost or miscounted: they vote online. The CTO has a big job ahead of him. Check out An Agenda for Obama’s CTO for more.

Security will be of primary concern. If you watched the season premier of 24 you got a good idea of the consequences of hacking a centralized e-government infrastructure :).

Bomgar’s appliance-based remote support software will be there to help. No data will be routed through a 3rd party, management of permissions and access will be tight and anyone, anywhere, on any system, whether using a desktop, laptop, handheld or mobile device will be able to give and receive the information they need to help our government run smoothly. Exciting times ahead.

Bomgar’s remote desktop control enables support from and to Linux.

Some experts are predicting big moves for Linux in 2009. Will GNOME rise above KDE? Will pre-installed Linux get a boost if HP comes through with its promises? Will the release of the Brtfs file system catapult Linux into the enterprise space? Will OpenGL be made available to Linux users? Will Linux turn cloud computing into the predicted storm? Will the Ubuntu server get a solid grip on desktops?

If you’re one of the many enterprises considering adopting Linux, we’re ready for you. With Bomgar’s remote desktop control software, you can service and support Ubuntu, Fedora, SUSE and RedHat from the Windows, Mac or SUSE OS.