LogMeIn Rescue is an on-demand remote support solution that unites ease of use and security with cost-effective service delivery. Its powerful web services platform is perfectly suited for technicians supporting the myriad devices connected to an academic network.
LogMeIn Rescue enables support technicians to take full control of virtually any problematic computer or smartphone from the convenience of their own desks. They can then diagnose and repair trouble in real time on any system running Microsoft(r) Windows(r) and Apple(r) Mac OS(r) X. They can perform maintenance; install, remove and re-install applications; and even reboot each system, just as if the actual device was sitting only inches away.
Providing even more flexibility and versatility, LogMeIn's mobile solution, Rescue+Mobile, extends this permission-based tech support access to smartphones and other devices that run on the Windows Mobile(r), Symbian(r), and BlackBerry(r) platforms.
The benefits are clear. With LogMeIn remote solutions, centralized support reaches the devices connected to every corner of an institution's decentralized network. Instead of providing over-the-phone support or traveling to the affected machines and devices, the helpdesk can now "take over" the systems themselves, avoiding potential miscommunications from nontechnical end users and resolving the vast majority of incidents during that first contact, without the need for costly follow-up.
Beyond incident resolution, technicians can also use LogMeIn to show device owners how to use their smartphone, computer or a particular application and how to avoid or resolve future issues.
Because the remote solution was designed as a web service hosted on LogMeIn's own secure servers, no software needs to be installed by the educational institution. That means the school can have LogMeIn up and running quickly.
Similarly, LogMeIn's "agentless" endpoint architecture means that no software is required on the computer or smartphone being serviced. This helps to keep users' systems secure: When a LogMeIn session starts, permission for the technician to gain access can be granted only by the device owner, who can terminate the session at any time. That's especially important for professors and researchers who are rightfully concerned about keeping their data private.
Support Times Slashed
The Law School Admission Council (LSAC) is one organization leveraging the immediacy of LogMeIn, using it to provide vastly improved support to the 140,000 prospective law students who take the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) every year, as well as to its 200 member law schools.
Long a believer in remote support, LSAC Senior Technical Analyst Robert Jung says the previous tool used by LSAC turned out to be convoluted, slow and expensive. With the cumbersome process of initiating a remote-control session itself becoming counterproductive, the platform was soon relegated to emergency-only use.
"Just by replacing our previous remote support solution with [LogMeIn] Rescue, we've saved money, not to mention having a product that we actually want to use," he says. Support sessions that averaged 40 minutes are now down to 10 minutes for student candidates. Even more impressive, according to Jung, software installations for member law schools are down from four hours to just 30 minutes.
At Fordham University, where 12 technicians support more than 4,000 faculty and staff computers across three campuses, a turnaround time of one to three days for service requests had long been considered normal.
In its analysis for streamlining the support experience, Fordham identified two key obstacles. Professors and researchers were concerned about who would access their machines -- and when -- due to the confidential nature of intellectual property on their PCs. They also noted that systems were not part of a domain, meaning that no active directory settings were in place, complicating support. Initially, IT had planned an agent-based remote access solution, but was rebuffed by users, who feared both the installation of software on their systems and the conduit it would provide for the unfettered access by IT.
LogMeIn Rescue overcame each obstacle by providing user-initiated, permission-based remote support that automatically terminates further remote access when the support session ends.
Turnaround time is now minutes instead of days and faculty members are satisfied that their privacy is never put at risk. The project has been so successful, Fordham is now contemplating rolling out LogMeIn Rescue to its 13,000 students.
As higher education institutions continue to extend their geographic reach, and as students and the connected devices they use become increasingly diverse, delivering remote tech support that is comprehensive, comprehensible and secure has become essential.
As a web service that eliminates the need to pre-install software on IT's servers or user endpoint devices, LogMeIn Rescue and LogMeIn Rescue+Mobile are powerful tools for providing controlled access to diagnose and resolve issues while ensuring users that their privacy is fully maintained.