How to Start a Vista Remote Assistance Session

Remote assistance is a Windows feature originally released as part of

Windows XP. The function allows an outside party to

directly access a computer remotely, provided electronic permission is

given by the owner of the computer being remotely accessed. This allows

technical support personnel to give help directly, instead of instructing the user in the steps necessary for computer repair. It also circumvents

the need for support professionals to travel to the computer's location when highly intricate system commands are necessary for repairs. Windows

Vista introduced a new system that makes remote assistance even easier.

Instructions

Open the "Start" menu; navigate to "All Programs," then "Maintenance" and click on

Remote Assistance. This will open the "Remote Assistance" window.

Select "Invite someone you trust to help you." This will bring you to the
next step.

Enter the necessary information in the slots provided.

Create a password for the session. Inform your counterpart of the password,

and ask them to begin the remote assistance session.


Wait for a pop-up box to appear; it will ask you for permission for the remote

assistance session to begin. Select the option that allows the session to begin.
This will start the remote assistance session.


Read more: http://goo.gl/ybmHG

Read More

Computer Support Services at a Glance

If you are also a tech or computer enthusiast, you must have experienced technical problems at one point or other. And, it could be no surprise if you have spent hours or money over the phone with your friends to search for a way to resolve all those pesky problems. But have you ever thought of opting the most effective and affordable method for yourself. We are talking about online computer support services that are widely available on the Internet.

The article sheds light on kind of services available with computer support resources:

Fixing PC Errors: With online computer repair companies, you can now troubleshoot your PC errors without taking your system anywhere. The method is called remote desktop repair. Using a remote connection, computer service technicians access your computer with your permission. Using step by step approach, they diagnose your PC for errors and fix them thereby providing it with the necessary treatment.

Also known as onsite assistance, remote desktop repair allows you to have qualified technicians fix your computer from a remote location just as if they were actually in your home or office.

PC Optimization: Whether you want to tune up your PC for smart performance or want to control frequent attacks of irksome adware pop-ups, PC optimization services can certainly help.

Data Back Up Services: This I another service which is gaining in popularity with computer users especially small businesses and people who require dealing with a lot of data. Online computer support workers hold proficiency to recover data for all types of data storage device/media. They use the latest technology and resources to store your data and retrieve it for you when you need it.

Virus Removal: Virus can be the most horror able for computer users. The moment virus, spyware or any other computer malware attacks your precious system; it brings you nothing else but headaches. During such crisis, you can only trust expert's help. Online computer support companies offer PC security services for an effective virus and other malware removal.


Read more http://goo.gl/EFxdS

Read More

How Remote Tech Support Helps in Computer Repair

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms in the country. Small firms also account for forty-three percent of the technical workforce, and employ engineers, computer programmers, and scientists. About fifty-two percent of the small businesses are home-based. As per the US Census Bureau data for 2009, more than 119 million households in the US have computers, and 68.7 percent of them use the Internet. For most of the small business owners, use of computers and the Internet is essential to increase their productivity. From flower shops to bowling alleys, all small establishments have increasingly adopted information technology to smoothen their operations, save money, and increase their profitability. Firms use computers to manage their business through effective communication and efficient data management. However, many of those firms suffer regular losses in productivity due to various software and hardware related problems that hamper their daily activities.

The computer related issues that small businesses face are similar to what the big corporations have to also deal with. According to a Forrester Research projection, growth in IT spending is expected to increase to 8.4% in 2010. For 2010, about forty percent of businesses reported an increased spending of five percent or more on IT security. But only a small percentage of the small businesses in the US employ in-house technical professionals for computer repair for resolving hardware and software issues. There has been an increase outsourcing technical support requirements to companies such as iYogi, which provide remote support for computer repair. For a small annual fee, iYogi offers unlimited remote technical support and computer repair services to their subscribers. iYogi technicians can be contacted at any hour of the day or night. By opting for remote tech support, small firms can save a lot of money. The cost advantage is indeed one of the major reasons why small firms in the US subscribe to remote technical support services.

A subscriber of iYogi, when faced with any software or hardware problem, can call them on their toll free number. To carry out computer repair, iYogi technicians request for remote access of the problematic machine. Once the permission is granted and depending on the gravity of the problem, technicians can repair the computer within a few minutes. Small firms can also get other peripheral devices like printer, mobile, and digital camera issues resolved with the help of remote technical support. The future prospects of remote tech support service firms look bright as more and more small business owners feel the need to secure their IT interests in a cost-effective manner.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5522228

Read More

Know About Online Pc Support

Online pc support technicians are experts in their profession field and do more than just fixing the problem. Online pc support technicians prepare a great report helping them to relate and fix the problem according to the User's Emergency. And additionally they provide more information about the technology, i.e., updates and tips for the user to avoid similar problems in future, apart from just fixing the actual problem.

Online PC support ensures comfort to the users with doorstep support, whose key reason is the advancing technology.

Three different types of Online PC support are:

Telephonic support: Telephoning the PC support technician for help.

Chat Support: Chatting with the Online PC support technician for help.

Email support: Emailing the Online PC support technician for help.

Before purchase of a new hardware it is advisable to take suggestions from the online pc support technicians. Online support technicians effectively provide any information with reference to hardware sales and new technology.

Computers are penetrating deep in the life of common man and are used roughly and extensively everywhere. And tend to face technical problems at one point or the other. These problems are much time taking, if we spend hours over the phone to deal with the same with the help of friends. So search and get immediate underway named online PC support to find a way that might resolve the annoying problems.

Online PC support allows online technicians to access your computer with the help of remote connection after acquiring proper permissions and spots errors in your PC and fixes them in the usual way by giving the needed treatment.

PC Support technicians offer a wide range of solutions starting from PC optimizing to anti virus support and also rectifies multiple software issues.

Online chat software being a part of online support ensures live chat providing complete help desk solution to interact with our customers or visitor’s in real time. Online chat provides real time live communication between online customers and company representatives to fix the problems in minutes.

Ultimately over all system support and other related services are of high importance today, as a result, online pc support is gaining its share of importance from the popularity by providing secure online remote tech support for our customers, so just sit back and relax as our technicians will solve just about any type of computer problem you may have.

Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/Know-About-Online-PC-Support/1851471

Read More

What’s the problem with Remote Technical Support from India?

What’s the problem with Remote Technical Support from India?

After close to 8 years in the ITES/BPO industry in india, a small initiative called TechNation (India) was formed, to provide remote technical support, remote online training, online PC repair, web content and article writing and a host of other services.

This article is all about what prompted an employee to break off and start something like this? This is an academic discussion.

In their efforts to survive, the MNCs (Multi-National Companies) started looking for ways and means to survive and cut costs and off-shoring was the answer to many of them. Most of these companies have huge, plush offices in India, which is good but what they do inside these offices is not. They do not realize that what they do not only affects the careers of those who work for them, it also affects the quality of service that is provided to their customers, who pay for these services with their hard-earned money.

This is what they do:
Hire untrained, incompetent staff and put them on the job to “just answer the calls & transfer them to on-site support”.
Do not provide adequate training to their staff because they “do not have sufficient bandwidth” to provide training. The result: pathetic customer service or tech support.
Do not hire sufficient numbers of staff as promised to their customers, just to cut costs. (Of course their clients are shown big numbers – from other teams, who go about their jobs as soon as the client visit is over!) The result – you have an under-sized team answering back to back calls with no time to even get a 10 minute break, during a 9 hour shift! When someone works in such conditions, they get frustrated and angry and this is shown to the customers.
Offer jobs with great designations and high salaries. But the actual job is a far cry away from the designations. For example, a guy providing front-line desktop tech support goes by the designation of “system adminstrator” or “senior system administrator”!
While on one hand there are those who work with no time even for a small break, there are others who go to work and spend the day waching movies and playing indoor games – because there’s no work to do. But of course, they got their salaries on time!This was even at a time when people in other parts of the world were losing their jobs and were struggling to to make ends meet.

Having said that, I must add, there are still some companies who give great importance to delivering quality services. But sadly, such companies are too few. There are a number of well trained, highly skilled and highly educated people in India, but if they land up in a company that does not have the right approach, they end up messing up their careers. I can only hope that more and more of these companies start giving important to quality and right practices and start providing high-quality services to their customers. After all, it is only the customer who keeps the company alive! Just because you are a “big” company does not mean you can provide bad service or treat your customers like dirt.

TechNation (India) is an initiative to prove that you do not need to be a “big” company to leverage knowledge, adopt best practices & of course, provide good services.

Source:- onlinetechnicalsupport.biz

Read More

Remote Tech Support: The Power Behind the Scenes

If you’re a small business looking for computer technical support, your first thought is probably to find a company that offers on-site service. Think twice, though. If a technician has to come out, it means you’ll wait. And you’ll also pay for travel time. Remote support from a service provider – a good one – may be a better bet. Faster service, better technicians, lower fees. And most IT problems don’t require an on-site visit.

When vetting remote service providers, ask what kind of tools they use to manage their agents and the interaction between you and the agent. If the company uses market-leading GoToAssist from Citrix Corp ., a hosted service that lets agents log on to your system remotely to trouble shoot, you’re probably on to a good thing. And if you’re a slightly bigger small business setting up its own internal remote help desk, GoToAssist should definitely be on your list of tools to consider using.

The fact that PlumChoice Online PC Services has used GoToAssist since launching five years ago is a good indicator of the product’s strength. PlumChoice is one of the premiere providers of remote technical support to consumers, home office users and small businesses. “The Citrix tool has been a cornerstone of our business,” said Ted Werth, the company's founder and CEO.

Silent Collaboration
The latest version of GoToAssist, 8.0, which PlumChoice began using in January as a beta tester (it was launched in April), adds crucial new functionality, including a silent collaboration feature. It allows an agent to call a more knowledgeable technician into a support session to help solve a problem. The two agents converse using instant messaging-style chat. The customer is unaware of this side conversation.

PlumChoice, a leading provider of remote technical support, relies on GoToAssist 8.0 to get the job done.

It reduces the need to escalate calls, which is time consuming and irritates customers, and increases the first-time fix rate – the percentage of first calls to a contact center that result in complete resolution of a customer’s problem. This is a key metric for technical support services and help desks because solving problems on the first call drives up customer satisfaction and reduces costly call-backs. The new GoToAssist contributed to PlumChoice increasing its first-time fix rate to 94 percent this year, up from 80 percent last year.

There is no question about PlumChoice’s success and its stature in the industry. It has 100,000 customers, served by a staff of 200 agents. Some of those customers come to PlumChoice on their own. The company’s Web site offers “retail” remote support products, such as monthly PC support, PC Tuneup, PC Optimization and Spyware and Virus Removal, as well as help setting up consumer technology products such as MP3 players and digital cameras.

Many of PlumChoice’s customers are customers of big software, Internet service and retail partners that co-market its services. Partners include CA(Computer Associates), a major software and IT services company, retailer Circuit City and ISPs Earthlink and Comcast.

SMB Support Services
PlumChoice also offers small business technical support – subscription remote support services, a security package, online backup – as well as remote training, including instruction on using new features and functions in Windows Vista and Microsoft Office. “The use of Citrix has been critical for us in building solutions for small businesses,” Werth says. Having an agent/trainer logged in to the customer’s system makes training, in particular, much more effective, said Rich Surace, PlumChoice vice president of operations.

GoToAssist, a software as a service (SaaS) offering, provides all the back-end functionality for managing technicians online, including adding new agents when call traffic dictates, monitoring activity levels, listening to agents’ sessions, capturing performance metrics and even correlating customer satisfaction survey results to individual agents and types of calls. GoToAssist initiates random customer survey sessions immediately after calls, with Citrix collating and reporting the results.

The product functions in many ways like a call center automatic call distributor (ACD), but offers some sophisticated routing and work scheduling options that no ACD can provide. Small business customers especially frequently ask PlumChoice to respond to a number of issues or to perform a number of services on one call. GoToAssist allows the company to split the work among multiple agents. The first agent might respond to a technical problem, while PlumChoice re-routes another task – running a virus scan on the customer’s system, for example – to a different agent to be worked on concurrently.

The customer isn’t aware of this task sharing. It just means the work gets done faster. The second (or third) task could even be routed to an agent outside the country. While some PlumChoice employees work in a central facility, many are virtual agents, working from home. GoToAssist makes it easy to manage this kind of work flow, Surace said.

Another key differentiator is that the Citrix product records every customer support session, both the audio portion and the “video” – the screens the agent and customer went through together. “That’s crucial,” said Surace. “We need to be able to go back and see what was done on each session.”

Remote but Secure
The product also lets agents log on to a customer’s computer remotely over the Internet to trouble shot and make changes. Remote connectivity is available with other products and services, including Windows operating systems, but GoToAssist makes it seamless and transparent – and more palatable – to customers, Werth said. For one thing, they don’t have to download and install software on their system as some other remote connectivity products require.

“One of the main concerns customers have before they let somebody log on to their system is obviously security,” Werth said. “The strong encryption that GoToAssist uses gives our customers peace of mind that nobody [on the Internet] can [intercept and] eavesdrop on their session. The customer also has the ability to boot our agent off the system at any time. That gives them additional peace of mind because they know they’re in control.”

The new silent collaboration feature in GoToAssist 8.0 is a huge benefit to a tech support operation as customer satisfaction-centered as his, Werth said. PlumChoice agents can call for assistance if they run into problems they can’t solve – if they encounter an unfamiliar virus or trojan on a customer’s system while helping them with a simple task such as setting up a new MP3 player, for example. But the company also uses the feature proactively. If a session goes beyond a certain time threshold, a possible indication the agent is having problems, a supervisor will come on the call – unknown to the customer – and provide mentoring.

“GoToAssist has really helped us both grow our business and manage the quality of the service we provide,” Werth said.

Best in Class
When PlumChoice went looking for a tool to build its business around five years ago, there weren’t many options available. There were products such as pcAnywhere, still available from Symantec , that allow a technician to log on to a customer’s system remotely, but they were all single-point-to-single-point solutions and provided only the remote connectivity. GoToAssist manages many simultaneous remote sessions for subscribers like PlumChoice and does it seamlessly, Surace said. Plus it provides all the back-end contact center management functions.

The fact that GoToAssist is a hosted service, that PlumChoice doesn’t have to manage software or install servers was another major plus. The company first implemented the solution when it was owned and marketed by Expertcity Inc., which Citrix acquired in 2003. Since then, PlumChoice and the Citrix product have evolved together. “They have always taken our feedback and often acted on it,” Surace said. “Version 8.0 is pretty much a [collaborative] effort [between PlumChoice and Citrix].”

The icing on the cake? The GoToAssist service is ultra-reliable – rock solid, in fact, Surace said. “I think it’s been down once in the four or five years we’ve been using it. And that was for ten minutes. When you can rely on a product 24 by seven, that’s huge.”

Source :-smallbusinesscomputing.com

Read More

Remote Tech Support - Long Distance Healing

What do you when your PC is out of its warranty period? Where do you resort when you have no technicians around to help you fix your computer?

There are a lot of solutions to that but the most popular is the Remote Tech Support Services. These are people who fix your computer problems off-site. It means that instead of them repairing your computer, it is actually you. All you need to do is call their technical support contact number and relay all the issues concerning your computer to them. Some remote tech support services are through email and chat as well.

Some people would ask if this kind of procedure is useful and not serve as a hassle to the computer user. In my opinion it is not. I myself have worked in the past as a technical support representative and later on promoted as a helpdesk support. There are times that people would call at midnight or the wee hours in the morning where one could not avail the services of a technician personally. You might be in the middle of something important when your internet connection got cut. It is not enough to use the Windows Help to assist you in troubleshooting your computer on your own.

On the technical support's side, they have tools such as a simulator to be able to see exactly what is happening when you do the instructions given to you. They also have softwares that can access your computer remotely and be able to see what you are doing on your own screens. This is very useful since as you are doing your own troubleshooting with the guide of the technician, you will be as well learning how to repair your PC on your own in case the same problem happens again.

On the other hand, in case the problem is out of the technical support's scope of work, you will still be opted to consult the manufacturer side to be able to know and dig deeper into the PC's problem. This is normal for internet connectivity issues. At first, you call your internet service provider and later on, you will find out that the root of the problem is with the PC itself. Some people find this frustrating since it is very difficult to reach a support representative right away. But it is not the case at all times, there are tech support companies who provide high touch customer experience where you can speak to a live person in less than 60 seconds every time you call them.

In any case, whenever you feel like you are in need of a remote support to help you, keep in mind that it is very important that you take notes of every little step that you do. Again, this will help in providing you with a crash course in fixing your computer. As the saying goes, two birds in one shot. You get to fix your computer and you acquire self-education.

Source: http://goo.gl/j9RfA

Read More