Major solution providers have emerged, segments of the industry have consolidated and innovative players have appeared. New technology is enabling the expansion of service desk capabilities, encouraging new support service proficiencies for both internal corporate requirements and for MSPs that offer services to their customers.
This market evolution is also seeing the emergence of greater automation with intelligent service bots, Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). All of this technology is designed to automate common support scenarios, reducing the burden on service agents and allowing them to focus on more complex support tickets.
Interestingly enough, this innovation is focusing a spotlight on the remote access strategy employed by the service desk.
As service agents offload routine support tickets to automation, they’re left with the most challenging issues to resolve. Without the right strategy, these problems will increase open ticket duration times, reduce first call resolution stats and drive demand for onsite service calls.
For all these reasons, developing a flexible and responsive remote access strategy that complements your service desk environment is mission critical.
Remote access is an ideal solution to address these complex support issues and dramatically reduce the associated costs and risks. It allows your support agent to see exactly what is happening on the remote system and take control of the environment to quickly resolve complex issues, first time.
Here, you will find our four top tips on selecting a remote access software solution for your service desk needs.
1. Ease of use
Some service desk vendors have proprietary remote access capabilities already integrated into their solutions, but most do not. Instead, they certify a range of 3rd party vendors that have met their contractual and technical requirements.
When evaluating remote vendors, it’s best to trial the products and have a clear view of their subscription models, since the capabilities and licensing costs can vary substantially.
It’s particularly important that remote access tools be simple for your support agents to use and deploy. The functionality should complement your service desk. You don’t want to pay for service desk functionality within your remote access software that isn’t required, or conflicts with your chosen service desk solution.
2. Consider security practices
Security should be one of the top considerations when selecting any software, but especially when it comes to remote access. Used or configured improperly, remote access can be a considerable security risk – not just to your organization, but to your clients too. Ensuring your vendor is reputable, has transparent security practices, and offers end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and audit logging capabilities is essential.
You can read more about staying secure with remote access in this blog, or download our free remote access security checklist.
3. Enable multiple use cases
Your service agents need the flexibility to support a range of situations. Remote access software can assist by enabling both unattended and attended use cases.
The unattended example is when a service agent, with the correct permission, assesses, controls, fixes and maintains devices without a remote user being present. In theory, any device type can be accessed at any time around the world including corporate servers, employee workstations, IoT hardware and specialized equipment.
Attended access, commonly used for support cases, is when a remote user is present and grants permission for access to the support agent, usually by downloading and running a disposable app and entering a unique session code.
When looking at remote access software options, it’s best if you can find a single product that supports both unattended and attended use cases. One subscription will save you money, time and simplify your workflow.
4. Support your strategic ecosystem
Your responsibilities may well be focused on your service desk, but you shouldn’t neglect the growing remote access requirements of your organization.
With changing business ecosystems, it’s vital to enable broader resource sharing between internal departments and external suppliers, partners, and even customers. A close working relationship between these stakeholders can dramatically improve process efficiency and create a genuine competitive advantage through innovating products and services.
Remote access can contribute to your corporate vision of an integrated business ecosystem by allowing internal teams, external partners and customers to access important business resources.
With all this at stake, it only makes sense to factor in the wider needs of your organization before choosing a remote access solution. Finding a vendor that can satisfy your service desk and corporate requirements is a great win-win opportunity.
While remote access software isn’t new, it is playing an, and increasingly important, role in the evolution of service desk technology. In the past, it was often viewed as a tactical tool and companies accumulated a range of remote access products for different purposes and departments. This approach simply isn’t sustainable, affordable, efficient or secure.
It is important to dedicate time to review your service desk remote access requirements, and those of your wider organization, to develop a broader remote access strategy. This considered approach will pay dividends in cost savings, efficiency improvements and reduced security risks.
Remote control for service desk: free trial
Are you looking for a secure, fast remote access solution to support your service desk needs? You can try VNC Connect for free for 14-days.
