Remote Support for the Systems Integrator

Joel Bomgar, Founder & CEO:
Also, because BCI was a pretty advanced systems engineering firm, they put a big emphasis on training certifications and ensuring that every engineer of their staff was absolutely at the top peak of their ability to perform for their customer. Well, all of that systems engineering expertise is essentially useless during all the windshield time. When you're stuck in a traffic jam or spending 2 ½ hours going through back roads, all of what you know about systems engineering is essentially useless. And, that obviously costs BCI a lot of money and the down-time, non-billable time alone, obviously was a big component of the pain that we were experiencing that led to the search for a solution.

We were obviously as all systems integrators do using various pieces of remote control technology when it would work or when we had a VPN or anything like that, but really, when the existing solutions on the market did not meet the specific needs we had - and we'll talk about that more - and the ones that did meet the needs of being able to connect to any computer, anywhere in the world were cost prohibitive from a total cost of ownership perspective. It essentially would have eroded all of the benefits of implementing the technology in the first place as well as they lacked key functionality that, as a systems integrator, we knew we had to have to get the job done.

So, that's the quick background. Two other things - I threw up there a quick - what the heat looks like in the summer in Mississippi. It is absolutely incredibly hot. And, I'm still driving the same '79 Buick LaSabre that I drove back then to and from service calls. So, not only from a personal perspective, I didn't want to be on the road just due to the discomfort, but also my car starts to cool down about the time I arrived at a customer site. And, it burns an incredible amount of gas. So, two issues to add to the other needs we had as a systems integrator.