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Traditional Methods of Remote Support Are Failing

In an effort to reduce costs, increase efficiency and serve the growing pool of remote end-users, more and more companies are adding web-based and self-service technologies such as FAQs, knowledge bases and download centers to their remote support options. Over 65% also offer email auto- response/suggest, and nearly 59% offer knowledge bases.⁶

However, the implementation of these methods by management does not always correspond with their adoption by employees and remote workers. For example, according to a recent supportindustry.com survey, 96% of support executives responsible for external customer service and support and/or internal helpdesks still offer phone-only support.⁷ This is in spite of the fact that significantly fewer end-users make use of it.

A separate experiment toward cost reduction has been to outsource the typically internal function of support. Accordingly, 40% of the BPM Forum study participants are considering outsourcing support as a solution for remote workers.⁸ But the use of third-party support providers often increases the complexity of answering support requests. For example, it can be difficult for external support personnel to provide patches and fixes for proprietary software since these providers do not have access to underlying source code.

In addition, outsourcing remote support can weaken a company's security and leave it liable for compliance violations. Regulated companies are responsible to comply with regulations even in their use of third-party services. Because of this, companies must ensure not only that internal processes, data storage and procedures are compliant with federal regulations, but also that any engagement in which a third-party service provider handles one or more business functions complies as rigorously.

Service level agreements may lessen potential damages, but they can never lessen liability and may therefore be insufficient protection. SLAs should also be followed by regular audits of the primary third-party service by a third-party auditing organization. Thorough audits are preferable to cursory ones to demonstrate for liability purposes that you have undergone the process of due diligence in ensuring compliance. Ironically, the time and cost invested in such audits can undermine the motive for outsourcing support in the first place. Complex processes quickly become costly processes.

In summary, phone support has become less popular with end-users; outsourcing support has its own complexities, risks and costs; and while implementations of online self-help and email support have increased, self-help methods are not end-users' support options of choice. And although in-person support gives support professionals direct access to the problem and allows them to troubleshoot deeply without the convoluted process of deciphering an end-user's description of his issue, this support method is expensive, time consuming and impractical in this marketplace. These traditional models of remote support are losing ground.

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6. SupportIndustry.com, 2006, Service and Support Metrics Survey
7. Ibid.
8. BPI Forum, 2005, The Remote Revolution: Uptime Issues, Implications and Imperatives in the Mobile Workforce

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