Comfy clothes. No traffic jams. Fewer interruptions. Flexible schedule. Stocked refrigerator. These are some of the reasons why most people say they’ve enjoyed the remote-work experience, have remained productive and would like to continue working from home, at least on a part-time basis.
For many, however, there’s one really frustrating aspect of the arrangement: No in-person IT support.
Although remote support is often quite effective in resolving many hardware, software and connectivity issues, there are unavoidable limitations. Because they no longer work with office technology maintained by the IT team, remote workers often must try to troubleshoot and resolve issues on their own. Naturally, they frequently encounter problems they can’t resolve themselves.
The Waiting Game
Recent studies from Gartner and Velocity Smart Technology illustrate some of the challenges. The average remote worker experienced 230 technology problems last year, according to Gartner. Both studies found that nearly half of remote workers had to wait three hours or more to get a technology issue resolved.
According to the Velocity study, 57 percent of remote workers had technology problems that required hardware replacements, and 22 percent said poorly performing or broken IT equipment reduced their productivity. The study concluded that employees lose an average of 30 minutes of productivity every week while attempting to fix PC problems.
Even when IT staff are quick to respond, there are some problems that simply can’t be corrected without hands-on involvement. You obviously can’t replace failed hardware remotely, but it can take days to get replacement parts, schedule the service and restore functionality.
IT Teams Under Pressure
Remote support challenges are equally frustrating for resource-strapped IT staffers. They’re spending more time supporting remote workers — often with little to no advance knowledge of the technology at-home workers are using. In addition to relying heavily on their personal phones, computers, printers and routers, remote employees often use applications and web services that they obtained without input from the IT team.
According to the Gartner study, more than 60 percent of IT professionals say remote support requirements have increased their workloads by a third or more. Roughly the same number say the extra work is increasing their stress and making them consider a career change.
Verteks understands the challenges remote support presents for both users and IT staff. In fact, we’ve tailored our managed services offering to ensure we can respond rapidly to any problems facing our customers’ remote employees.
With downtime costs now averaging more than $5,000 a minute, we know time is of the essence. When you call our service desk, you’ll get a live answer in about 20 seconds — and the first person you speak with is an IT specialist, not a receptionist.
Focus on Prevention
Whether you need us to be your full-service support provider or an adjunct to your existing IT staff, our team can help ensure timely problem resolution and the reliable delivery of IT services across your distributed environment.
While basic functions such as maintenance, updates and security patching are certainly important elements of our service, our focus is not simply on fixing problems but on helping you avoid them in the first place. With around-the-clock monitoring and management of your essential systems, we strive to troubleshoot and resolve IT issues before they have an impact on the user experience.
Remote and hybrid work models are here to stay, and that requires organizations to extend their support capabilities beyond the office walls. Our services are designed to help your remote workforce remain efficient and productive while also reducing your IT team’s support burden. Call us at 1-877-837-8357 for more information on our remote managed services.
