Remote Support Tool Buyer’s Guide

How to choose a remote support solution

Today, providing IT support is complex. The demand for remote IT support has jumped since the pre-pandemic days, as have the number of technicians working remotely, putting pressure on organizations to provide consistent, secure, and reliable support regardless of location. Standardizing on a single remote support solution for customers and internal employees can reduce complexity and increase satisfaction. 
This buyer’s guide can help you select the remote support tool that will work best for your organization. With nearly 20 years of experience, LogMeIn Rescue delivers the key features and functionalities that make us the market leader in the remote support space. Based on experience working with tens of thousands of support professionals in organizations of all sizes worldwide, we have identified the five most important factors to consider when evaluating remote support solutions. We have designed the following guide to help you through the selection process.

1. Core Functionality

Most remote support solutions provide remote control, remote screen sharing and file transfer, allowing technicians to perform routine tasks. But you should look for a solution that goes further and enables technicians to perform more advanced tasks via more sophisticated capabilities.

Quick diagnostics & behind-the-scenes functionality

Getting harried users to accurately describe what’s happening on their computers, tablets or smartphones is a time-consuming and error-prone process. With quick diagnostic capabilities, technicians can check essential technical data automatically, which speeds up troubleshooting and reduces frustration. In addition, scripting and pre-defined one-click fixes speeds up resolutions.

Multiple session handling

The days of providing support to only one user at a time are long gone. A modern remote support solution requires an interface that enables technicians to interact with end users online via chat while having multiple sessions running simultaneously. Thus, techs can work more effectively and solve problems quickly, which lowers support costs.

Mobility

Your organization must support a growing array of devices, not just Windows, Mac, or Linux devices, but also mobile devices and servers. The ability to support these devices can be a benefit for your users, and the ability to support from these devices can be a business benefit for you. Look for a remote support solution that will meet your mobility needs, both to and from mobile devices. 

Integration with other systems 

Most organizations use a multitude of tools to gather information and solve problems. The ability to integrate these tools will make it less time consuming and frustrating for technicians and users, and easier for auditing and compliance reporting. Your remote support tool should integrate with your ticketing and customer relationship management tool, identity management solution, and other complementary systems.

Collaboration

If technicians are working remotely, they are unable to pop by a colleague’s desk to ask for advice or collaborate on a fix. Ensure your solution supports technician collaboration, wherever they are. Consulting another tech, escalating an issue to an expert and observing specialists as they resolve issues for real-time training opportunities should be effortlessly enabled.

Administration 

Managers need certain admin capabilities to run their departments efficiently. Your remote support solution should allow them to assign issues based on expertise, create escalation levels, monitor techs and conduct customer satisfaction surveys.

2. Usability

Customers demand easy, efficient support and have no shortage of options when it comes to finding a new company to do business with if you don’t meet their expectations. Here are the features you need to exceed them.

Less effort

Users who aren’t tech-savvy often find it difficult to follow requests from technicians over the phone. Your remote support tool should allow support sessions to start with minimal steps for the user and enable techs to conduct triage steps without additional user involvement. The solution should operate even when a device is unattended – after the appropriate authorization is given – so users can get on with other tasks. 

Fast connection

Faster connections reduce incident handling time and user frustration. While no hard-and-fast rules apply, establishing a connection should be quick and efficient to increase your customer satisfaction on every call.

Communication channels 

Today’s users expect to communicate with organizations the way they choose. Your remote support solution should allow them to request support through multiple channels, whether it be a website, a desktop icon, a mobile app or a supported device that does not require previously installed software.

Camera sharing

Ensure your support can extend past online devices to hardware or even devices that can’t be connected, with camera sharing. By seeing your end-user’s equipment or space through a live video feed, you can guide them to a fast resolution on the first call without the need to have a device returned or send a technician onsite.

3. Security

With cyberthreats on the rise, security is a vital concern. Because remote support tools enable access to networked devices that often hold proprietary applications and confidential data, strong security features are critical.

Communications and data transfer

Your remote support tool should use a TLS 1.2 transport security and AES- 256-bit encryption, as well as two-step verification logins to ensure that messages are exchanged confidentially, that transferred files cannot be hacked and that data at rest is protected.

Technician access controls/roles and permissions

Your administrators should be able to manage technician access by defining the roles and permissions that techs will need to do their jobs. The solution should include capabilities that allow administrators to define permissions for different tech groups (without limits on how many groups you can create) and get real-time usage reports to properly audit events and track accountability.

Additional enterprise security layers

Look for a solution that goes beyond core security measures to lock out scammers who are constantly looking for ways to gain access to end user devices. You should be able to choose to host your own PIN webpage, block unwanted traffic, restrict access to only users in your company, and control how PIN codes are generated and accepted – all as you see fit.

Unattended access safeguards

Live support sessions with an end user present aren’t the only type of remote support activity you need to keep secure. Be sure your solution secures unattended access with secure authentication controls and processes, like requiring admin credentials before an unattended session can begin.

4. Dependability

When end users rely on you, you need to be able to rely on your technology. Ensure your tools can be trusted and that they can scale to handle more technicians and users without eroding reliability, availability, or performance.

Reliable session loads

Support loads can vary widely based on many factors. A remote support solution must be able to handle a maximum load while maintaining high performance and response times and offer high availability and minimal downtime, even when you can’t anticipate the load.

Reliable uptime

Your customers and end users rely on your support tools being available. Take a close look at uptime when considering a solution. Anything less than 99.9 percent availability is unacceptable.

Flexible licensing

Be ready to scale, grow, and flex with the changing demands of the support landscape. You should be able to continually optimize your remote support solution to meet evolving needs and use cases for the long term.

5. Deployment model

Make sure your solution provider is offering real cloud-based technology or ease of deployment and use. Some on-premise providers may attempt to host their solutions and sell them as cloud-based offerings in an effort to maintain market share. If it’s not a truly cloud-based offering, your end users are sure to deal with slow software, additional hardware maintenance and many other headaches.

Your remote support solution checklist

Whether you are investigating remote support solutions for the first time or you’re unhappy with your current remote support tool, this checklist will help you compare various solutions so you can more effectively weigh your options and choose the tool that best meets the unique requirements of your organization.

• Is this tool easy enough for not-so-tech-savvy end users?
 
• Can we rely on this tool to be available when we need it?
  
• Does it take 20 seconds or less to initiate a support session?
  
• Can our support team optimize their time while seamlessly managing multiple remote support sessions at once?
  
• Can we access information about a user’s system without remote control to help resolve issues faster?
  
• Does the tool generate reports based on technician statistics and activity, as well as user satisfaction levels?
  
• Does the tool meet the rapidly expanding security standards of our organization, and those of our end users?
  
• Does the tool improve first-call resolution via technician collaboration, sharing of sessions or escalation when it’s needed?
  
• Can we get users into sessions through multiple entry points, including email, direct links and browsers?
  
• Can we customize the support tool to show off our brand?
  
• Can we extend support beyond computers and mobile devices without being on-site?
  
• Does the support tool easily integrate with our existing business systems?
 

CONCLUSION

Additional demands will inevitably be placed on support teams to solve more complex problems with fewer resources.  If your remote support solution is lacking in functionality, or if your tool isn’t providing the best user experience, it’s time to look for more.