Leveraging Remote Access Support Solutions to Cut Costs and Improve Productivity: TRANSCRIPT

Rob Enderle: Good to be here.

Karen Guglielmo: Great! So, let's get started. For companies looking for ways to cut costs and increase productivity at the helpdesk level, Remote Access Support seems like a great option. What do you see in regards to adoption in this area?

Rob Enderle: It's been mixed. A lot of folks don't trust the tools that are out there, a lot of the tools that are out there can't handle the problems that people are having. For instance, if the machine doesn't actually boot up or if it is crashing before they can get into a -- into the operating system, a lot of the tools can't do much without them. So, it's a combination, the tools not being adequate and then concerns about what the tools can or can't do with regard to security.

Karen Guglielmo: OK, so from talking to customers, what type of organizations are really benefitting most when using Remote Access Solution.

Rob Enderle: For the organizations that are largely decentralized, I mean, if everybody is in the same place, and you've got your IT folks right there, then, yeah, you can send people out to help folks, but if you got folks that are located in satellite offices, they areworking from home, those kinds of people, I mean, you can't put somebody on a plane to send them out and of course if they've got to ship their equipment back to the helpdesk that means they are not productive for the time they don't have their equipment. So, the people that are really getting the best use out of this are people that have a lot of folks out on the field or really have a lot of satellite offices that are very dispersed.

Karen Guglielmo: OK, are you hearing that companies are indeed cutting costs by using Remote Access Support, and what are the real potentials for cost savings?

Rob Enderle: Well, the cost cutting can be massive if it's implemented properly. I mean, you can take your helpdesk and you can put it wherever the lowest cost labor is. It doesn't have to be near the employees at all. If you've got remote folks and they can't control and manage these systems, these peoples don't have to send stuff back, they are not taken out of production, when they've got a problem things can be fixed remotely, effectively, and very quickly.

Karen Guglielmo: OK. So, for the companies that are telling you that they are not investing in Remote Access Support, are security and privacy their biggest concerns?

Rob Enderle: Yeah, probably the number one concern, well, part of it is they may not understand or know the tools, but I think the biggest concerns are in fact security and privacy because they are concerned that if they can get access to all these machines, well, what if somebody hacks into the system and you've got a hostile entity that actually is able to get control of these machines and do ugly things to them, everything, from capturing passwords to putting malware on these boxes. So, there is a lot of concern about the security for these platforms.

Karen Guglielmo: OK, so what are you seeing in the vendor space in regards to addressing some of the security and privacy issues around Remote Access Support?

Rob Enderle: You've got the folks that kind of approach this from a software perspective. Some of these tools go back to the old Unix days where they were designed to manage servers and workstations and the software layer that exists on top of the operating system. In fact, that's probably the most common and then of course, you've got hardware centric vendors that will go down and be able to manage the platforms before they boot, actually be able to go in and monitor the boot process and address the equipment much like you were actually there. We've certainly seen some of those tools applied to some of the retailers like Best Buy.

Karen Guglielmo: OK, so from what you know about it, how does Intel's vPro Technology with AMT offering work to enable Remote Access Support for companies?

Rob Enderle: Well, Intel Solution is one of the best. It's one of the few solutions that can go in and allow a remote technician to access the system from the moment it posts all the way through the boot process and then once the operating system is up. So, they can actually go in much as if they were actually there, watch what's breaking, go back in and correct the underlying problem, and so that the user really doesn't even have to be at their workstation. You know, often with a lot of these tools, you get somebody on the phone, you got the person on the computer and for lot of the process, the person on the phone can't see what the person on the computer is saying. That's when -- then everything is like, you know, well, you can put the disk in the machine and the person is looking at it like it's a cup holder and you don't quite grasp that there's a communications problem. Well, with Intel Solution, it is very much like he is right there at the desk and the user can stay away from machine, doesn't have to be a technician, and the remote professional can go in and fix the problem all the way from boot up through application problems and other issues like that much as if they were already there.

Karen Guglielmo: OK, that about wraps up this segment on 'Leveraging Remote Access Support Solutions to Cut Costs and Improve Productivity'. I'd like to again thank Rob Enderle for joining me today, and for more information on Intel's offering in this space, visit www.intel.com. Thank you again for joining us, and have a great day.