Buying Guide: Remote Technical Support

 

Your printer isn't working. Again. But it's just you. Nobody else is having a problem. You've done everything that you know to do, but all that did was make the printer angry and spit out pages full of little squares and symbols. You just want your 11-year old nephew to take control of your computer and do that thing he did last time you had this problem.

While your nephew might be cheaper, it's not too hard to find a company that can provide remote technical assistance. Remote technical support is a process of solving software related problems through remote computer connections. Special software will enable your service provider to access your problem computer over the Internet. 

This usually means a technician will take control of your computer as though they are you, or a system administrator on your network, and run scans of files, folders, and programs, install antivirus and anti-malware programs, repair or reinstall corrupted programs and applications on your computer

Ordinarily, your provider will handle the removal of computer viruses and spyware, updates to the operating system like Windows security updates, computer optimization, solving device driver issues, repair of computer registry, and sorting out web-related issues. 

The common denominator in these issues is that they are all operating system and software problems. Any breakdown of hardware like hard disk or motherboard could be diagnosed in certain cases but the actual repair would need to be carried out in person. 

There may also be limitations imposed by the service contract with your software providers. For example, if you use Quickbooks for your bookkeeping software, and it develops a problem, your general remote support will not be able to help you with that, you'd need to talk to Quicken directly. However, the problem may only be uncovered when you talk to your general remote support. If they need to direct you to the vendor of your software, it's because the vendor of your software is the best place to get that software fixed. Just as you wouldn't want your primary care physician performing heart surgery, even though they might be capable of doing so, it's probably best left to an expert in that field.

 

Where to get your support. 

 

For remote tech support, look to the company you bought your equipment from. Most companies have some kind of remote support system available to customers. That might be an online chat, a telephone call where they walk you through the trouble-shooting steps or a drop-off location for you to return your expensive paperweight to. 

Remote support is almost always a tiered system. Which is to say that you get a little help for free, which is fine if you're a network engineer, but let's assume that you're not a computer genius. The next layer of support will be, most likely, on a premium phone number. You'll probably get your computer back in action, but it will take your time on the phone, and the call will be expensive.

And as you increase the skill and availability of your technical support, so the cost rises. The most costly technical support you can buy is a full-time IT staff which you have on-site all the time. And while it might cost more money, for some companies, it's also the most cost-effective way of doing things. Let's assume that your company is not one of those companies.

If you want to shop around for a technical support, third-party providers like Omni Tech Support, support.com and Virtual Geek Work can all help you to get your technology up and running again.

 

Keys to a good relationship with your vendor. 

 

Computers are wonderful. No, seriously. There's no other tool you can buy that allows you to do so many things. You can write documents, do your taxes, edit movies, send a message half-way across the world in moments, make travel arrangements, research ... just about anything. Until they get a virus. Or pop up the blue-screen-of-death for no reason. Or don't work just how you think they should. 

When these things happen, and they will happen, you need a friend you can turn to. Someone who knows a little about your comfort level with IT jargon, and how much you're able to do to for yourself. 

You may need your support technician to access your computer or network. In certain cases this will require that they access software that was installed on your computer or network when you first hired them as a provider. This means that you need to begin your relationship with your provider before something breaks. If you wait until after you're having problems, there may be no way to have things fixed from a remote location, and you will have to either take your computer to a repair facility, or pay for a technician to come to your place of business and make the necessary repairs. Which is very embarrassing if the problem is that something has "magically" unplugged itself.

The key things to remember about your relationship with your IT remote helpdesk provider are that a) they didn't break whatever it is that's broken, and they're actually trying to help you; b) they can only work with what they can see and what you tell them; c) there are limits governing how much help they can provide, and they were put in place by you. That's right -- you chose the service level you were willing to pay your support provider for, and you chose to exclude some things, like that software you have that's already covered under another support contract.

The pace of change in the information technology arena means that even if you're able to handle most computer and network issues yourself, if you are also managing other functions, your knowledge will quickly become obsolete. 

 

Reasons to outsource. 

 

If your company only has a few computers and a simple network, you can probably use the person in your neighborhood who'll do it for a few beers or a gift card to Olive Garden. The company that sold you the computers probably even has some kind of support service, which you probably bought when you bought the equipment. But if your company has a website, if you have more advanced security concerns, or if your network is spread over multiple sites, then you should be looking for a vendor who has experience working with these types of systems. 

When it comes to finding a support vendor there are some things you need to be aware of. The first, and most important, thing is that many IT professionals lost the ability to speak without using industry jargon and three letter acronyms a long time ago. Some of them cannot put technology in simple terms. This means that you have two options: you can trust whatever any technologist tells you, or you can find someone who can speak your language. This is where a second problem surfaces. Techies love toys, and not everything your tech support wants you to buy is going to be business critical, or even the right financial choice for your business. 

During the space race there was a joke that went: NASA bureaucrats have spent several billion dollars developing a pen that works at any angle, and works in zero gravity so astronauts can write things in space. The Russians are using pencils.

Here's an example of two systems for a 20-employee company which uses an accounting database to process invoices.  

Option 1:  Dell PowerEdge T110, tower form-factor, xeon3439 2.4GHz, 8M cache, 4GB memory, 2x1TB HDD, single network adapter. 3 years next-day on-site service contract. 

Cost estimate: $2,125.

Option 2:  Dell PowerEdge R410, rack-mounted form-factor, 2 xeon X5560 2.8GHz, 8M cache, 8GB memory, 4x750GB hotpluggable SAS HDDs, redundant power supply and remote management hardware. 3 year 4-hour response service contract. 

Cost Estimate: $8,049

Now, there's a good chance that a lot of that stuff in the system information is meaningless to you, and that's what makes it so easy for business owners to buy more machine than they need. But what you do understand is the bottom line, and that Option 1 is a fraction of the cost of Option 2. Both are fine for the job that needs to be done, but Option 2 would be like buying a 15 passenger van to take your three kids to soccer practice. 

And honestly, with the right knowledge you could fix up a desktop workstation to do the job for a few hundred dollars.

The point is that you need to ask three questions: 

1. What technology does my company need? 

2. Is this recommendation more than my company needs to meet its current requirements and/or growth goals? 

3. Is there a simpler or cheaper solution that achieves the same end?

Whether to manage your support needs internally or by outsourcing is a question with two parts -- does my company have employees or systems that need 24/7 support? And does my company's need for 24/7 support justify the cost of having a dedicated IT resource on payroll? If the answer to either part is "no", you will probably find that outsourcing your technical support function is more cost effective for your business.

 

What is remote technical support worth to you? 

 

No matter what kind of business you manage, there's a good chance that you use a computer for something, whether that's communicating with your customers and clients, having a simple web presence, designing your product, or maybe even an online store front, you need to know that your store is going to be open for business, even when you're on vacation*. 

Weigh the cost of lost production or revenue against the cost of the support contract to keep things running. Consider it insurance, it will feel like a waste of money until something catastrophic happens. And when that happens, your support contract will feel like the best investment you ever made. 

You should look out for a provider that speaks your language, and has experience of supporting your kind of business. 

Technology changes. It's changed since you started reading this article. Your technical support provider should change, too. You'll need flexibility to modify your support contract as your business develops and grows. What if you need someone to come to your place of business to fix a hardware problem, does your company's remote support provider have relationships with local vendors?

How is the cost broken down? Do you have a large monthly fee with small charges per call, or is there a limit to how many hours your company will be supported each month? Can your provider support proprietary applications developed for you by other companies? How does your provider track problems and do they recommend appropriate changes based on analysis of the kinds of problems you commonly experience? Do they guarantee system "uptime"?

Probably most critically, if your company experiences a security breach, excessive or unexpected system downtime, what processes does your provider have in place to investigate that and report back to you, and what compensation is guaranteed under your agreement? Is there a disaster recovery plan for lost data?

Ultimately, it comes down to understanding your own needs, and being able to express them to a vendor who understands them, or finding a vendor who can help you to figure out what you need.

 

* Vacation (noun): when you go somewhere sunny or snowy and worry about your business instead of going to your office or workshop and worrying about your business.