How important is remote software to our industry? In my opinion it is absolutely necessary and should be a staple within any helpdesk environment. Remote support minimizes downtime and allows the service provider to instantly triage most issues without the constraints of time or travel. In the beginning it wasn’t always so easy to remote into a network and help with a simple print driver or network connectivity issue. You would typically find yourself waiting for a scheduled visit from a professional then find that the fix was an easy click of the mouse, strike on the keyboard, or unplugged network cable. 

Remote support software options have been around for many years but never have they been so robust. Initial options required local installations of the client and in some cases also employed unsecured technologies. Now, vendors such as LogMeIn provide remote support solutions that enable secured remote access at a moment’s notice without any preinstalled software in most cases.

While over 90% of all network related service calls are resolved remotely or over the phone, Advance uses this technology for much more. The Advance Document Management team uses it on a daily basis to deploy new software, provide database management, and other professional services. The Advance MPS (Managed Print Services) team relies heavily on the software for deployment of their remote meter collection program, DocuLife Line on both the client and server sides.

Just this past week an anonymous customer complemented Advance on our use of remote software. Their device was down and 30 users were unable to use its functions. Within two minutes a technician was remotely connected with their I.T. person and determined the issue to be within their print spooler. After some basic troubleshooting and restart of the spooler the clients device was fully functional. In this case the customer was only down for minutes rather than hours due to use of remote software.

With remote support in full swing you can expect almost instant problem diagnosis and most likely a resolution to the issue in a fraction of the time.