How Remote Technical Support Is Changing IT (for the Better)

A rapidly growing trend in information technology has been the advancement of remote support. Whereas IT support used to mean a technician looking at a device in-person, now a technician can monitor and support multiple devices remotely from a single workstation.

In fact, a whole host of companies have cropped up promising to provide managed, remote IT for businesses small and large. The upshot is that companies can spend less on IT support while getting more comprehensive, often 24/7 coverage. While major companies and older organizations still have and need internal IT teams, increasingly we see smaller companies using managed IT solutions to keep their employees online.

This move toward remote support is changing the game for the IT industry. Whether you contract your IT support or manage your IT internally, we’ll look at how remote support is changing IT, and what it means for businesses.

Benefits of Remote Technical Support

Overall, moving IT support to virtual is so popular because it leads to higher security and increased availability of support, all at a lower cost. Each company has its own reasons for moving to virtual support. For your company, you’ll want to weigh a variety of benefits that come from remote IT.

1. Higher Availability

This is a major benefit of remote support - especially going with a contractor or managed solutions provider. When IT support is in-person, technicians have to be physically available to troubleshoot machines. However, the move to remote support means that technicians can troubleshoot problems from anywhere, anytime.

This means that IT departments or managed providers can have technicians available all day, sometimes even 24/7 to respond to issues. Also, with workers increasingly doing their jobs from home, remote support has the advantage of being available anywhere. With the right software installed, remote technicians can access and troubleshoot almost anything on a problem machine.

2. Open & Fast Communication

It used to be that if you had a problem with a device you had to call IT and wait for a technician to become available and arrive. In the downtime, that often means that you’re left with nothing to do, especially if it’s your primary work computer that’s having issues.

Using remote IT, you can chat with a technician easily, usually over email or your company’s internal communications tools. Getting quick answers to questions, no matter how small, means you can get on with your day more quickly. But it also means that the IT department can step in early and often to check on system status and make sure users don’t break anything or create vulnerabilities when they try to resolve issues on their own.

3. Cheaper

One major benefit and driver toward remote IT is that it’s cheaper. When technicians don’t have travel time between checking on devices, it means that you need less payroll budget for IT departments. In fact, remote monitoring and management solutions allow technicians to work on multiple machines at once. While waiting for software to install, machines to reboot, or anything else, the technician can check on other problems.

4. More Secure

When all devices in your network are connected to a remote support solution, it enables a wide range of monitoring and system wide policy initiatives that IT can roll out. These remote solutions allow IT to verify device configuration and access policies, even doing so automatically on a regular schedule. The end result is a much more secure network and peace of mind that users have the correct policies in place.

Furthermore, remote access and monitoring software can track network communications and connections, software downloads, and even conduct lockdowns of lost devices. As IT teams add more automation and tools, they can respond more quickly to security incidents.

Companies Are Making the Switch to Remote IT

Remote support is the future of IT. It’s changing the industry for the better, providing higher availability, greater confidence, and lower costs for companies that make the switch. It’s no wonder that internal teams and contracted solutions providers are turning to remote support (and remote monitoring and management software) to get more done faster for their users. As this trend grows, expect connected support to become an even more integral part of daily operations at companies big and small.

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