Every employee has already experienced it: a desktop or laptop goes on strike – now what? There is remote maintenance for such cases. A colleague from the IT department or an external IT service provider connects to the device and often solves the problem as quickly as possible.
What do you do if a computer goes on strike?
Everyone knows it, everyone hates it: from one moment to the next the computer stops doing what it’s supposed to do, and in the middle of the most beautiful workflow it suddenly runs out. And unfortunately, computer problems are not uncommon. Studies show that every office worker encounters about two IT problems a week, losing about 50 hours of work time a year as a result .
But this is probably just the tip of the iceberg, because it is still assumed that at most half of IT problems are reported at all, which increases the loss of time to more than 100 hours per year .
Why is this the case? It’s simple: many employees try to solve computer problems themselves before bothering the IT department. IT can usually solve such problems quickly, often even with remote maintenance . Companies are more dependent on technology than ever before, and the ability to remotely service has proven to be essential, especially during a lockdown.
What is remote maintenance?
With remote maintenance, an IT employee or contracted external IT service provider uses remote maintenance software to switch to his own computer on a third-party PC and can then manage it as if it were their own. It takes control of the target device through remote access and thus can identify IT problems that have arisen and, in many cases, fix them directly.
But all of this happens only with your explicit consent as the owner or user of the target device. During remote maintenance, he can accurately monitor on his screen the actions of the IT technician in identifying and solving the computer problem, to ensure that remote access is not abused.
TeamViewer is probably the best known remote maintenance software. The software is free for private users, but companies must license it for a fee. One of the advantages of Teamviewer is that no software needs to be installed on the target computer for remote access. The user can simply launch the tool through the Teamviewer website and give their special access code to the IT professionals. After that, a Teamviewer session can be easily started.
AnyDesk remote desktop software is also free for private users and must be paid for by companies. Companies benefit from the high flexibility of the software and the ability to adapt it to company security requirements. Remote diagnostics and quick remote assistance can also be very well done with AnyDesk. In addition, AnyDesk is compatible with various operating systems (just like TeamViewer).
Windows 10 comes with a free remote assistance tool. Remote support can be offered or requested. However, the feature set is quite limited compared to other remote maintenance software. With Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), Microsoft also offers a solution for remote server maintenance. The downside: logically, these features are only available on devices running Windows 10 or Windows Server .
Of course, there are many other remote maintenance tools. The best way to find out which remote maintenance software is best for your company is to do more research or consult with a professional IT service provider.
Remote access – included in many IT services
Companies that don’t have their own IT department can also take advantage of remote support from an outside IT service provider. In many IT services this is even included in the offer, namely in the so-called managed services. Thus, IT system companies offer permanent administration of individual IT components or entire networks. And this administration also includes remote support for IT problems and failures.
However, managed services typically focus on preventing IT problems and disruptions in the first place. When managing a desktop, the technicians at the responsible IT service provider have monitoring software .You can closely monitor that the desktops and laptops used in the company are running smoothly, and if a problem becomes apparent, you react immediately and take proactive countermeasures. In such cases, remote maintenance is often used.