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The rise of remote offices has generated a lot of work for IT. Setting up new devices, training, the cost of password resets, and troubleshooting from afar can be extremely difficult — particularly without visibility into the user experience.
And while conferencing software can help, it’s often just a stopgap. Many users find it tough to communicate what’s wrong or set up a new device without IT guiding them through the entire process step-by-step. That’s where remote assistance tools come in handy.
Remote assistance empowers IT admins and MSPs to connect to their end users’ devices anytime, anywhere, in real time. In this post, we’ll explain what remote assistance is, how it’s used, and the benefits you can expect from implementing it at remote-centric organizations.
What Is Remote Assistance?
Remote assistance is a connection between a user and technician that allows technicians and remote collaborators to view and operate the user’s device as if they were an admin. Remote assistance is particularly useful when remote employees have challenges with their devices or need to configure a brand-new one.
What Is Remote Assistance Used For?
Often, users struggle to articulate problems over chat or video calls — and sending snapshots and files may not help. But when IT and MSPs can open files, photos, and videos, run scans, check registries, and access settings, they can easily verify a problem and brainstorm a fix in a much shorter time frame.
Besides troubleshooting, remote assistance can also be used to onboard new remote employees. Instead of sending over how-to guides, or screen sharing on tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, IT admins can take command of the user’s mouse and complete their device configuration in minutes. Not only does this save the user time, but it also decreases the number of help work orders IT teams receive.
Other companies use remote assistance for training. Showing employees, vendors, or contractors how to do something is often more helpful than telling them how to do it.
What Are the Benefits of Remote Assistance?
One obvious benefit of remote assistance is that IT can better serve remote workers. They can easily diagnose what might be wrong with a device or guide someone through their computer setup without discussing it in person.
But there are other distinct benefits as well, including:
Availability
Remote assistance can be used at any time from any location. For global companies, this is key. Their IT teams need to be able to solve problems and onboard employees across the world — even on mobile devices. Combining a global IT team and remote assistance makes 24/7/365 support a reality.
Speed
Support and training can involve a lot of back and forth — especially when IT can’t fully see what’s happening behind the scenes. Sharing control lets IT see problems firsthand and streamlines communication, accelerating support and onboarding processes.
Reduced Costs
With remote assistance, your IT team could be remote, eliminating the cost of office space. It could also minimize field service work orders, reducing travel time and cost. And typically, remote assistance tools reduce the time IT spends diagnosing and fixing problems, giving them more time to work on other pressing tasks.
End-User Productivity
When onboarding is tailored to an individual’s device, and IT has a full line of sight into technology issues, employees can get up to speed and back to work faster.
Is Remote Assistance Secure?
Remote assistance is only as secure as the connection it has with the host computer — which can be compromised depending on where that person is working.
Many remote assist solutions rely heavily on proprietary technology like Microsoft’s RDP or VNC-based solutions. But often, these platforms require IT admins to relax firewall rules or complex VPN tunneling to prevent leaks or cyberattacks. And these add-ons hinder a technician’s mobility and flexibility to work from anywhere or at any time.
Modern solutions like JumpCloud Remote Assist have tightly integrated device management capabilities such as patch management, identity and access management, central logging, password management, and broad security insights across all digital assets. With these built-in features, IT can closely monitor remote assistance sessions to ensure that any suspicious activity is flagged and resolved immediately.
Remote Assist With JumpCloud
IT has a heavy burden. Supporting end-user technical issues, setting up new employees’ devices, and training employees on how to use company applications is a tall order. A remote assistance tool that works with any operating system, centralizes identity management, and reduces security risks can make their lives much easier.
JumpCloud Remote Assist can help. Remote assist enables IT teams to provide remote assistance to Windows, macOS, and Linux devices through their browser, at any time, on any device. On the back end, IT teams benefit from a clear audit log, clipboard synchronization, role-based access control, and secure peer-to-peer connections.
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for a trial of JumpCloud to start using JumpCloud Remote Assist today.
