Supporting Telecommuting Workforces Remote And In Person

27 June 2017
 Categories: Technology, Blog


If your business relies a significant number of workers abroad, or is full of work from home professionals who rarely--if ever--show up at a headquarters, how do you ensure computer performance? Do you overpay for a new contractor to fix the problem every time, or do you leave the responsibility with employees and contractors who may not be able to make the right technical choice in a critical moment. For a more easily-managed technical support plan, consider a few ways that a business IT (Information Technology) consulting firm can deliver the services you need.

Remote Support For An Abroad Workforce

Can the computers connect to the internet? Do your workers simply need new software installations, removals, a quick cleanup, or a virus removal? As long as the computer can connect to the internet, a technician can help.

Remote support is a subcategory of technical support that involves connecting to a computer across a network--the internet, in most consumer cases--to control the system. An interactive movie of sorts is sent from the worker's computer to the technician, allowing the technician to use their mouse and keyboard (or other input devices) on the affected system. 

This means that a technician sitting in Phoenix, AZ can click around on their computer to control your employee's computer in Kyoto, Japan. Legitimate remote support comes with software or a confirmed website that is discussed before you sign an agreement with an IT support firm, and the session can be terminated at any time.

To keep things safe for you and your employees while giving remote technicians an efficient, "are you really a technician or a super secret spy"-free experience, it's best to be introduced to the support team.

When you prepare a support agreement, you should also ask for a training brief from the support company. This should include the major leaders of the support company, instructions for connecting, and ways to confirm the identities of technicians.

Confirming Technicians And Requesting Onsite Help

How do you know that a remote support technician is legitimate? Entering an agreement support will give you the resources of an entire IT department, and that may be too many people for your abroad team to meet at once.

It's an unfortunate truth that hackers are good at monitoring for weakness. Someone--maybe a person close to your employees, or someone out in public who saw one of your employees getting remote help--might try to pretend to be a remote technician. It could even be a completely random scammer who manages to fool one of your team members.

To avoid this form of social engineering, the support company should have a profile of the technician with a name and picture. In addition to the profile, you should be able to call back to headquarters to confirm that the person you're talking to is actually an employees.

Some tasks require in-person repairs, which is an even more pressing concern when it comes to proving identity. When field technicians need to physically change hardware, a picture should be compared with the onsite technician's face, or preferably a photo ID. Just in case there's a hacker who looks really close to an onsite technician.

Contact a business IT consulting firm to discuss other ways to keep your workforce efficient and secure with remote and field support.


Share