Software Helps Companies Virtualize IT Staff with remote technical support

The only provider of appliance-based remote technical support software, today announced the release of Bomgar 10.1. The newest version of this industry leading product includes features designed to help organizations easily virtualize the people involved in IT support, enabling them to be more efficient and effective. Help desk virtualization allows support staff to remotely control and troubleshoot end user devices quickly and accurately, anywhere in the world.

Advancements in mobile technology have made telecommuting a viable option for most enterprise employees elevating such workplace flexibility as a key to recruiting quality employees. Recent changes in the global economy including rising gas prices, and the mounting costs associated with travel, are further reinforcing the attractiveness of telecommuting. For IT managers this workplace trend requires a centralized support platform that allows staff to manage issues anywhere employees or offices reside. Additionally, IT managers want to extend this new flexibility not only to enterprise employees but also to the help desk staff.

“Enterprises are already deploying virtualization in their server environments to reduce costs. Since employing IT staff is often more expensive than buying servers, it only makes sense to invest in technologies that increase the effectiveness of these highly skilled employees,” said Joel Bomgar, CEO and founder, Bomgar Corporation. “With the release of 10.1, we are giving enterprises the tools they need to effectively virtualize IT staff. The result is higher productivity, lower costs to the customer, and happier employees.”

The new version of Bomgar’s remote technical support platform helps enterprises maintain a delicate balance of keeping both users and help desk staff productive and content. With Bomgar’s support platform, IT organizations no longer have to travel onsite for routine maintenance or computing issues. Bomgar 10.1 allows IT to “virtualize” staff resources so that a representative can instantly and remotely support resolve users’ technical issues regardless of operating system or geographic location. Additionally, it allows the help desk staff to “break the chains” that tie them to the office by enabling them to provide effective troubleshooting and routine maintenance from home or on the road.

Key features include:

• Software Development Kit (SDK) for Faster Deployment of Virtualized Support: With Bomgar 10.1, the company is introducing a SDK that enables easy integration of Bomgar’s remote technical support software with existing help desk solutions. It includes instructions, methods and pre-configured pieces of code for creating customizable applications that leverage Bomgar’s software for back end solutions, such as trouble ticket systems or knowledge base software. The SDK allows Bomgar’s customers to cut down time spent integrating Bomgar with other systems by nearly 75 percent, enabling them to be up and running with a complete support application in days versus weeks.
• Macintosh Client for Support Reps to Provide the Greater Flexibility: Bomgar 10.1 includes capabilities that allow support reps to provide assistance from a Macintosh platform. The addition of this feature expands Bomgar’s IT rep platform support to all major computing operating systems.
• Administrative Dashboard to Manage Resources and Speed Time to Resolution: Bomgar has added an administrative dashboard to its 10.1 product that provides IT directors with visibility into the entire support organization, regardless of where the IT support reps are logged in from. The dashboard gives IT managers a direct view into what each rep is working on as well as what his or her workload looks like. The manager can move sessions from one representative to another to evenly distribute the call load. This helps the reps provide faster, more customized support to each end user.

"IT organizations are in a difficult position. Calls for them to do 'more with less' have become louder as fears of an economic slowdown or a recession have grown louder,” said Matt Healey, research manager, software and hardware support services program, IDC. "In this environment, it is important for IT departments to invest in tools that can improve the productivity of the support staff. I believe that the new generation of 'clientless' remote technical support tools can provide the productivity improvements that IT departments are looking for by reducing on-site visits and reducing the time required to support end users."

Source: businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080624005323&newsLang=en