Executive Summary
Network Administration and the Corporate Help Desk
Remote Customer Support and Training
The Mobile Professional
Telecommuting
Emerging Technologies on the Internet
Summary
INSYNC Family of Remote Communications Products
In today's world, more and more people are regularly working on PCs. Often, many individuals find themselves needing to work on different PCs in different locations. There's the office PC, the home PC, the laptop....
As the ability to use different computers in different locations increases, so does the flexibility, the convenience and the productivity of everyday work life. Access to information and communication between the PCs in different locations becomes critical.
However, as the flexibility and convenience increase for these users, the training and support needs are also augmented. For these users, CoSession Remote remote control software is invaluable it can provide both the instant access to information and the tools to ease the burden of support for users across the country or across the building, and even between different operating environments.
CoSession Remote provides a wide array of remote communication solutions for the changing needs of today's computing environment: end-user support, mobile computing, network administration/help desk and Internet applications. This whitepaper will discuss how CoSession Remote can be used in each of these environments.
Managing remote offices and users is not an enviable position for most network managers these days. Aside from keeping the LAN at the central office up and running, today's network administrator is charged with providing full-time support for remote offices. And the support of these remote sites is costing companies hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.
CoSession Remote has long been an essential tool for network administrators. CoSession Remote supports remote control connections to PCs over modems or across Novell, NetBIOS, NetBEUI and TCP/IP networks, enabling network administrators to support both remote offices and internal users on the LAN. From a single desktop computer, a network administrator can reconfigure a user's system or perform software updates to the entire network. In addition, CoSession Remote provides cross-platform access to PC applications that require full control for management and configuration.
The same capabilities that simplify network administration also make CoSession Remote an ideal companion for any help desk professional. A help desk professional can use CoSession Remote to analyze and repair problems that an end user experiences. It allows them to quickly set up, troubleshoot and train users all from the comfort of their own desk.
For example, Merck & Company, Inc., a leading pharmaceutical company, installed CoSession Remote on several thousand IBM ThinkPads¨ that they purchased for their salesforce. Merck's 12-person system support department talks to salespeople every day to provide PC training and problem resolution. In many cases, the salespeople cannot adequately describe the problem over the telephone. “After all,” says Ray Chiang, associate director of system support, “our salespeople are not computer technicians. They are field reps who talk to physicians all day.”
Merck's Chiang says that his help desk staff uses CoSession Remote regularly because it allows rapid identification and resolution of a host of PC problems.
Consider this scenario: You just purchased a new computer. You brought it home and you couldn't wait to get it set up and working. So you turned on the computer and guess what? You couldn't get Windows to load.
Making the parts of PCs and the multitude of software programs installed work together becomes a huge challenge for hardware and software manufacturers. Consumers who are not familiar with the complexities of configuration and system files are flooding vendors with calls for help. Manufacturers and support providers are searching for innovative ways to provide quicker, more efficient support to these users. With CoSession Remote's remote control technology, customer support and training methods are changing drastically. With CoSession Remote, a support technician can “peek” into a computer using CoSession Remote and a modem to quickly diagnose and fix end-user problems by remotely controlling their computer.
At IBM Corporation, a leading computer manufacturer, “a computer memory problem that typically took 45 minutes on the phone to resolve now can be fixed in an average of seven minutes with dial-up repair,” says Dick Patterson, manager of IBM's PC Help Center.
CoSession Remote can be used to remotely control an end-user system to provide remote diagnostics, to reconfigure files that caused incorrect operation of PCs, even to download software upgrades, such as updated printer or video drivers. Technicians can even train users on how to perform specific tasks on their computers.
CoSession Remote's support capabilities provide many benefits, such as minimized support labor and system downtime. Other benefits include:
As a remote support tool, CoSession Remote offers an extremely effective way to reduce the complexity and downtime of systems support.
Individuals in the field have always had problems keeping in touch with the main office whether it be to update the head office databases with their activities involving sales orders, check inventories, or to update customer information. Time consuming phone calls to the office to get data and to place orders, different time zones all of these factors made traveling difficult for mobile professionals. And returning to the office meant coming back to a heap of “catch-up” work.
With the growing trend for mobility, people find themselves on the road more and more often than before. Constantly changing information and the need to access the updated information makes CoSession Remote a perfect tool for people in the field.
CoSession Remote empowers the mobile workforce to keep current with the office when they're out of town. CoSession Remote allows users to dial into the network and check e-mail, access the company database, even get updated sales figures from the road.
The biggest proponents of remote access at RJR Nabisco, a well-known consumer products company, are the company's 12 executives and six senior executives, who use CoSession Remote to participate in weekly meetings. When traveling, they obtain financial information from the company's token-ring network using a custom-built Windows application. The executives carry ThinkPads and dial into the network using CoSession Remote.
“It's been a lifesaver,” says John Wilbur, applications development manager for Nabisco. “The general attitude at RJR Nabisco is that we're all available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” And with CoSession Remote, RJR Nabisco executives remain 100% productive and up-to-date with the latest information, even when they are out of the office.
You get home, and suddenly remember things you forgot. You're stuck with either letting things slide or having to drive back to the office to get a file or a memo, and then drive back home again.
Frequently the team at Arbor Associates, a 10 person benefits consulting firm, must work past the regular work day. Instead of working late at the office, CoSession Remote makes it easy for the employees to go home, eat dinner, and continue to work later on from the comforts of home. Arbor Associates' employees dial into the company's network to access data, run applications and finish projects from home. Founder Jeff Rosenblum says, “CoSession Remote worked on its own. I didn't have to have much knowledge about it. The file transfer was the easiest to use. Plus, I can control Windows on the Host PC easily and have access to anything on the system. It moves very quickly.”
In addition to the easy-to-use interface and fast performance, CoSession Remote has built-in features specifically designed for telecommuters. For example, people that use more than one computer often find it difficult to keep files up-to-date on both. The enhanced file transfer capabilities in CoSession Remote provide faster and easier ways to keep the information between computers current. With CoSession Remote's “Intelligent Transfer” feature, only the changed portions of a file are transferred instead of the entire file, so that file updates can be done in a matter of seconds. In addition, with the file synchronization feature, users can automatically update files and directories between PCs no longer needing to worry about having obsolete data.
Powerful and reliable, remote access provides employees the opportunity to be as productive at home as they are in the office. For many organizations, these enhanced capabilities have yielded a marked increase in the number of users that are telecommuting.
The Internet is a widespread means of communication between businesses, government, education and end users. A rapidly increasing number of PCs are gaining access to the Internet to obtain information and services. And with services ranging from take-out to technical support, the Internet is quickly becoming the standard for conducting business.
New features available in CoSession Remote expand the ways in which the Internet can be used to conduct business, particularly as a means to exchange information and to provide end-user support.
By implementing CoSession Remote, manufacturers and service providers can enhance their current support offerings. Now, with support for TCP/IP connections, CoSession Remote can be used to control a distant PC over the Internet to provide remote diagnostics and repair end-user systems. This method enables the support provider to reduce the costs associated with providing support.
Manufacturers and service providers can also extend the range of services they offer adding new services, such as end-user training on software applications or fee-based access to premium services, such as an information database. Providing these services via the Internet increases the accessibility and potential use of the service for the end user.
In addition, corporations can use CoSession Remote to allow employees in different locations to jointly collaborate on a project. Both users have full access to the controlled PC and all of its resources. Edits can be made and even discussed online via CoSession Remote's keyboard chat feature, reducing the amount of time required for completion of a project. And for companies that have mixed computing environments, CoSession Remote allows access to distant PCs operating on a variety of platforms Windows, Windows 95, OS/2, DOS and UNIX.
CoSession Remote furthers the Internet's emerging use as a tool for selling products and services. The remote control capabilities enable software vendors to setup Internet host sites, where potential customers can use CoSession Remote to run product demonstrations from a remote location. The user can “test drive” a software application without having to install, configure or optimize the program for their needs.
The potential for using CoSession Remote on the Internet is enormous, revolutionizing the ways in which companies carry on business.
CoSession Remote products offer powerful tools for automating communications and support. Providing network administration, help desk and end-user support remotely saves time and money by reducing support costs and end-user downtime. In addition, CoSession Remote's advanced remote control and file transfer capabilities make it an extremely powerful tool for individuals that need to access and exchange information from any location for mobile computing and telecommuting. With over 4.5 million users, CoSession Remote is setting the standard for remote support and communications.
These are just a few of the examples for which CoSession Remote products can be used. Because different users have different remote computing requirements, Artisoft offers a range of CoSession Remote products, which can work together. The INSYNC family of CoSession Remote products is listed below.