Supporting the Widespread Campus:

Remote Support at the Ohio State University

Nathan McNeill - VP of Product Management, Bomgar™:
So, the user always has to grant explicit control to the rep. It's never that the rep is taking control of the user's PC. The user's always granting it. This has multiple security benefits, so from a security standpoint it means that the user is always in control. They also have overriding mouse control. They can always choose to end the session at any time, and then once the session is over, the client uninstalls and the user's PC is exactly the same as it was before.

It also has benefits for the rep and for the support organization in that you do not have to maintain a client-based remote control software infrastructure across your systems. You don't have to do a deployment, and you don't have to maintain it.

So, the rep gains remote control of the PC. This, again, is - the analogy is, you know, it's a lot easier to drive than to tell someone how to drive. Same way with PC support. The rep gets in the cockpit, is able to pilot things through and then insure at the end of the session that things actually were resolved. The issue actually was fixed, and he's not relying on what the user tells him about what the PC looks like.

And then once the session is over, the user would either click the Uninstall or the Stop Session button, or the rep can end the session. And then the user is automatically directed to a feedback form. This is customizable so the administrator can configure whether or not they want the feedback form to show up. They can also customize what the feedback form includes, so you can have up to ten questions and then decide what type of questions you'd like, whether you want radio buttons or check boxes or comment fields.

Some of the benefits that Bomgar™ offers, you can connect easily to your customer. Again, it's usually about a ten second process from the point where they have no software they load on their PC, you've never seen the PC before to the point where you're remote controlling that customer's computer.

This increases the support rep's productivity and consequently, usually their satisfaction with their work as well. It's a little less frustrating if they can do the work themselves versus walk the PC user through it.