Bomgar Thinks Outside the Box for Remote Service

With increasing demands from customers for better service, security is one of the last things a support organization -- especially one that connects remotely to its consumers -- wants to worry about. However, it is a large concern.

Citing the 2008 Data Breach Investigations Report from the Verizon Business Team that found 40 percent of breaches involved a third-party solution provider, Ridgeland, Miss.-based appliance-based support software company Bomgar Corp. unveils its latest release aimed at providing a one-stop shop -- in house -- for remote support.

Add an increasingly mobile workforce into the fray, and the concern intensifies. "Enterprise providers have a range of different needs, but security is huge," explains Nathan McNeill, co-founder and vice president of product strategy at Bomgar Corp. "For many hackers, remote access is the lowest hanging fruit."

Bearing this in mind, Bomgar 10.2 includes features including user authentication, session logging, and reporting, all in the pursuit of supporting an organization's overall security and compliance policies. Matt Healey, research manager for Framingham, Mass.-based analyst firm IDC, says that this is palatable to many companies who incorporate remote support into their customer service repertoire. "On-premises [solutions] can be better from a security perspective since data never goes through a hosted providers' data center," he says. "As a result, you don't have to worry about a third-party [company] being hacked [into] ... this is attractive for organizations."

In addition to security, McNeill explains that his company can now support BlackBerry 4.2.2 along with Windows, Mac, Linux, and other smartphones. The addition of BlackBerry is due to demand from Bomgar Corp's client base. As more business users continue to adopt the iPhone as their business mobile device du-jour, the company will consider adding support for that device as well, according to Joel Bomgar, co-founder and CEO of the company.

For Healey, the fact that Bomgar continues to add on more devices that it can support is a huge plus. "The proliferation of device types it can support is significant," he says. "It continues to open up new markets because the more devices a specific application can support, the fewer tools [an organization] needs. If one can replace several, that one will be in a better position."

Additional functionality in Bomgar 10.2 includes out-of-the-box integration with HP Service Manager or BMC Remedy, two commonly used service desk applications. McNeill says that the unified platform can now track and record all support session activity.  "The fact that you can track your multiple applications now with one help ticket makes it a much simpler process," he stresses.

Healey says that Bomgar Corp.'s focus on enterprise help desks is well-positioned in today's economic recession. "A lot of enterprises are looking to optimize the number of help-desk personnel they have, and are looking at deploying technology to support a distributed environment with far fewer people who can be [dispersed geographically]."

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