Remote Support Improves Everything

For some small businesses around Upstate New York, administrative IT tasks and computer support are done the old fashioned way; either over the phone or on-premise. These traditional methods are a major waste of time and money, and can lead to plenty of unproductive behavior very quickly.  Today we're going to examine how remote technical support can benefit businesses.

Here's a scenario most everyone has dealt with at least once: You call into support with a typical desktop PC issue.  You work with the technician to troubleshoot the problem over the phone.  Sometimes just explaining the issue to the technician can be pretty difficult, and he/she will walk you through some potential solutions while you act as his/her eyes and hands.  This method always has variable results; sometimes the issue can be resolved quickly with little effort, or other times the tech will determine the best solution is to roll out a truck and have someone on-site to look at the issue. For businesses who have their own internal IT department, that might just mean the tech needs to stop what they are doing, get up and walk across the office, kick you off your computer and fix the issue.  Still, this is a pretty unproductive way to get things done and leaves you standing around while the issue gets resolved. For organizations that don't have internal tech support, that means a drive across town, which means even more time the tech isn't actually working on IT administrative tasks, fuel for the vehicle, and time on-site even if it is a quick 5-minute fix. Suddenly we're talking about a lot of wasted time and money.

Enter: Remote Support

Remote IT support isn't a new concept and in fact has been around for many years, even back when the only way to get online was through dial-up modems.  Over the years, with faster workstations and better internet connections, remote technology has gotten better to boot, with massive amounts of features to help technicians and admins get their jobs done faster.  There are many ways a technician can dial into your workstation depending on your relationship with them.

Beyond the Basics

Besides the basic ability to remote into a workstation, modern-day remote capabilities offer a lot of other features. At Directive, we provide RMM tools (Remote Monitoring and Management) that give us more than remote access when our clients need support.  We are able to get an overview of your entire IT infrastructure to detect any critical issues like server outages and outdated security updates.  This technology helps us keep our clients running and allow us to proactively manage and maintain your IT infrastructure. Today, tools exist to allow technical staff to access multiple platforms from Windows, Mac, Linux, and even the leading mobile phone operating systems.

Security

While not all Remote Support tools are built equally, security is extremely important to us at Directive.  A piece of software could have all the cool bells and whistles in the world, but if it isn't secure, we move on to the next offering.  By using only secure, trusted software and enforcing strong passwords on our end, we are extremely confident about our remote access capabilities.

Conclusion

Because it saves us plenty of time and money and allows our technicians to get more done during their day, we're able to extend that into our pricing.  It's incredible how efficient a tech can be when they don't need to spend a big chunk of their day on the road.  Have we completely eliminated on-site visits?  Of course not.  Hardware still breaks and needs to be replaced.  From time to time, we won't be able to access a device due to an outage.  Still, we're able to get more done, interrupt our clients less, keep our prices small-business-affordable, and keep your IT running smoothly. If you are looking for a new tech support solution to bring your organization's IT up to speed, give us a call at 607.433.2200.  We would be happy to take a look at your current network and suggest a road map for improving your IT. Have an interesting story about tech support, or how remote support has helped solve issues for you faster?  Leave a comment and let us know!  We would love to hear from you!