Georgia College Adopts Remote Support System for Primary IT Support
- By Mike Hohenbrink
- 10/19/11
Georgia College has adopted software that will let IT staffers handle primary help desk support calls remotely. The college has selected LogMeIn to provide support to 2,000 faculty and staff at the school through the company's remote support service, LogMeIn Rescue.
LogMeIn Rescue is a remote technical support system comprising a technician's console and an applet that the end user accesses to communicate with the technician and hand over control of the his or her computer to the support staff. It also includes an administration center for handling permissions, creating groups, surveying end users, and review technician performance.
The move will provide support to both the east and west campuses at Georgia College, as well as to the school's Macon campus, home to the Center for Graduate and Professional Learning. Georgia College will maintain an IT help desk that will now be able to work remotely to address IT issues that would have otherwise required "up to 30 minutes" of time spent traveling to various locations on the campuses of Georgia College.
With LogMeIn Rescue, Georgia College IT help desk staff can:
- Diagnose faculty and staff IT issues from a distance;
- Access devices remotely through an online console without pre-installed software; and
- Configure and repair PCs, Macs, tablets, and smart phones through the Internet.
To comply with state and federal privacy requirements for student records and to protect the integrity of academic research, the service operates with safeguards to prevent unauthorized remote access. Each end-user must explicitly give consent before any remote session can take place.
"Like most higher education institutions, Georgia College was challenged to expand and expedite its IT support services to handle an increasing number of devices. And like most universities, our environment consists of an increasingly vast number device types, versions, and operating systems," said James Carlisle, director of technology support services and interim assistant CIO at Georgia College. Based in Milledgeville, the Georgia College is Georgia's designated public liberal arts university with enrollment of 7,000. "LogMeIn has become a critical tool and productivity enabler to our university community, in a way that fits within both our IT budget and support staff headcount."
More information is available at the LogMeIn Web site.