Bomgar 10.4, which is coming out in November 2009, will certify our remote support software on multiple Linux distributions. Support technicians will be able to run Bomgar on Ubuntu, RedHat and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. This marks a significant expansion of Linux support on the technician side of the remote support session. We’re also expanding compatibility on the customer end, too.

Read more about our expanding remote desktop support for Linux.

Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit Support

Ubuntu Running the Bomgar Representative Console

RedHat 5 64-bit Support

RedHat Running the Bomgar Representative Console

“Support departments are entering a new phase marked by the introduction of Windows 7,” said Nathan McNeill, Bomgar’s vice president of product strategy.  “And with PC demand expected to reset in 2010, IT organizations are challenged to handle this inevitable hardware refresh as recent cutbacks have strained staff resources.  Bomgar provides an optimal solution for IT support to work virtually and overcome the obstacles of geography, diverse technology systems and access barriers.”

In addition to supporting Windows 7, Bomgar 10.4 helps IT manage the anticipated onslaught of tech support requests resulting from the technology and end user change associated with a large-scale IT infrastructure overhaul. The following features are a few core capabilities added to the platform based on customer feedback:

• Expanded OS Support: IT organizations need secure remote control technology that can reach across multiple operating systems (e.g., Windows, Mac, Linux, Windows Mobile and Blackberry).  Bomgar 10.4 features full support for Windows 7 systems, expands Linux support for reps to include Ubuntu and Red Hat, deepens Mac support to bring capability into parity with a Windows system running Bomgar.
• Equilibrium and Rep Invite: Bomgar 10.4 provides tools to improve the overall agility of IT support teams. Equilibrium enables support organizations to automatically adjust to spikes in demand, filtering requests across the team based on availability.  Reps can also seamlessly add external technicians into a remote session for advanced troubleshooting.
• Shell Jump and Jump Zone Proxy: Eliminating access barriers and the need to have a direct Internet connection, Bomgar 10.4 features new secure remote access tools to reach systems.  Shell Jump provides direct, command line access to a variety of network devices, including servers and routers without initiating screen sharing, and Jump Zone Proxy allows IT to access systems with no direct Internet connection (i.e. kiosks).

Bomgar delivers cross-platform, appliance-based remote support software that allows IT to centralize help desk assets and securely remote control attended and unattended desktops to resolve computer issues via the Internet. It includes out-of-the-box integration with BMC and HP service desk products and reporting features that help businesses comply with regulations such as PCI, SOX, HIPAA and FDCC.  Centralized in a secure software appliance, Bomgar’s remote support technology provides organizations of all sizes with the resources required to identify and resolve costly technology and business issues that cycle through the help desk.

Specifications and Availability

Bomgar 10.4 is software designed to run on the Bomgar Box and will be available on November 16, 2009. Technical specifications can be found on the website at www.bomgar.com/10.

About Bomgar

Bomgar Corporation specializes in appliance-based remote support software. Bomgar allows companies to connect to remote clients and co-workers via the Internet anywhere in the world in seconds. The product allows organizations to optimize support by virtually accessing end-user systems for real-time incident resolution, eliminating the frustration of phone-only tech support. Bomgar provides enterprises with an unparalleled level of security and scalability, while enhancing IT resource management with the benefits of a virtualized help desk. Backed by venture capital, Bomgar has grown steadily since its inception in 2003 and has thousands of customers and strategic partners worldwide. Based in Ridgeland, Miss., the company is also one of the fastest-growing software companies in America ranked by the 2009 Inc. 500.

Contacts:

Nathan McNeill, Vice President of Product Strategy

Bomgar Corporation

nmcneill@bomgar.com

601-607-8273

Lauren Whittenberg

Lois Paul & Partners

lauren_whittenberg@lpp.com

512-638-5322

Technology Services World

Bomgar will be at Technology Services World in Las Vegas at booth #29.
Technology Services World
Las Vegas, October 19-21, 2009
Driving Customer Adoption: The Next Generation of Services

Event Summary
Is it possible to do more with the resources you have?
In the real world, how can you make 750 support reps look & work like 3,000?

As employees become more distributed & mobile, the need for support increases. But the reality is that budget & headcount for support doesn’t increase with demand.

Join us for this webcast as IDC & Plumchoice (trusted remote technical services provider by more Fortune 500 companies than any other provider) discuss the challenges facing both internal & external IT help desks. Learn how a new breed of tools addresses these issues while:

• Decreasing costs
• Reducing security threats
• Offering greater flexibility
• Improving retention – of employees & clients.

Presented by:
Rich Surace, Plumchoice
Nathan McNeill, Bomgar
Matt Healey, IDC

Recorded on April 23, 2009

Click here to view the embedded video.

Help Desk Institute: Morgan Jones from Interior Health in Canada explains how Bomgar lets his helpdesk support remote computers and devices outside the network.

Interior Health at Help Desk Institute

Join Bomgar for this timely and informativ case study from Mitch Bryant, an HDI Member and Support Manager of Norton Healthcare Service Center. Mitch will discuss what he is doing to continue his support services while reducing costs. His presentation will cover how he is maintaining high-quality customer experiences by utilizing remote support technologies and processes.

In today’s difficult economic environment you can’t cut support. You must adapt and provide service by utilizing all the tools available to your organization. Join this SPIN and learn from fellow HDI members methods to:

• Reduce support costs
• Enhance service quality
• Provide excellent customer service

Hosted By:
Rich Hand, Executive Director of Membership, HDI

Presented on March 24, 2009, By:
Mitch Bryant is the Support Manager, Norton Healthcare Service Center

Providing Excellent Support in Difficult Economic Times

So, how does a support provider manage a shrinking budget without sacrificing quality?

The University of Missouri has taken a green approach to supporting its customers, one that lowers the cost of overall support through reducing call escalation and improving first call resolution. Learn how Missou utilizes Bomgar and RightAnswers to:

• Reduce the number of first calls and call escalations
• Reuse data for training and knowledge base
• Recycle support session data

Support Desk Economics 101: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Presented on February 19, 2009, By
John Ragsdale, VP of Services Technology Research, SSPA & AFSMI
Nathan Eatherton, IT Service Desk Manager, University of Missouri
Brad Prizer, EVP of Marketing, Bomgar
Simon Yelsky, VP of Product Management & Client Success, RightAnswers

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bomgar Customers in the Video

Memorial Hermann Healthcare Systems²

Norton Healthcare³

Watson Pharmaceuticals⁴

Interior Health⁵

1. This customer case study and conference video montage was created by Bomgar’s internal creative team.
2. David Youngflesh from Memorial Hermann Healthcare Systems
3. Mitch Bryant from Norton Healthcare
4. Dennis Smith from Watson Pharmaceuticals
5. Morgan Jones from Interior Health

According to a recent survey conducted by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance, 74 percent of organizations intend to keep their Macs and buy additional devices in the future. It is unclear how IT help desks will handle the increased number of Mac support issues with traditional remote control desktop tools as the majority are applicable only for PCs.  To ensure consistent, and quality, end-user tech support across all computing devices, organizations need a universal remote support platform that can scale to address a variety of issues.

“We have a large group of students, faculty and staff at MIT, approximately 23,000, that use a diverse range of computer systems,” said Chuck King, Desktop Deployment and Maintenance Team Lead within the central Information Services & Technology (IS&T) department at MIT. “With the growing number of overall Mac users on campus, we were delighted that Bomgar had multiple operating system support, as well as an easy-to-use interface for both the end users and consultants who provide the assistance.  Also, Bomgar’s appliance-based solution and fast ROI was essential in justifying the cost of enhancing our IT support operations.”

Delivered in a secure appliance, the Bomgar Box™ allows IT reps to securely access attended and unattended computing devices, regardless of firewalls, for efficient troubleshooting.  It is the industry’s only enterprise remote support platform that can address IT issues on a Windows, Vista, WindowsMobile, Mac, Linux or Blackberry operating system. Audited by Symantec, Bomgar also includes critical features, such as user authentication and session logging/ reporting, that support an organization’s overall security and compliance policies.

“Gartner has seen the appliance model gain traction, especially among large organizations and clients in regulated industries,” said Terrence Cosgrove, a Gartner senior analyst. “More than 70 percent of large enterprises will use Internet-enabled remote-control tools by 2012 and we anticipate the overall market to experience a 20 to 25 percent year-on-year growth.”

Bomgar helps enterprises of all sizes better manage and resolve costly technology issues that cycle through the help desk.  With the new features of Bomgar 10.3, the company continues to lead innovation in the enterprise remote support market. The following features are a few core capabilities added to the platform based on customer feedback:

• Mac System Information: Bomgar 10.3 includes new front-end Mac systems information that allows support reps to quickly scan the dashboard to dig deep into hardware or network configuration details. With one click, support reps engaged in a Mac support session can easily access the granular systems information to solve common technical issues on a Mac that would otherwise take a significant amount of time to troubleshoot with traditional PC-based tools.
• Click-to-Chat: The new click-to-chat feature enables an end-user to initiate a conversation with a support rep instantly from the Web, without any download. The flash-based customer chat client runs in a browser, enabling the rep to give the user directions or transfer the user to the appropriate queue before any software is installed.
• Canned Scripts: Canned scripts help demanding IT call centers better respond to common support issues. Bomgar reps can upload scripts for use within a remote support session. The rep simply selects the appropriate script from a list and runs it through Bomgar’s command line interface. Scripts can save the support center thousands of hours that would have been spent doing manual diagnosis and repair.

Specifications and Availability

Bomgar 10.3 is software designed to run on the Bomgar Box and is currently available today.  Technical specifications can be found on the website at www.bomgar.com/10.

About Bomgar Corporation

Bomgar Corporation specializes in appliance-based software for enterprise remote support. Bomgar allows companies to connect to remote clients and co-workers via the Internet anywhere in the world in seconds. The product allows organizations to optimize support by virtually accessing end-user systems for real-time incident resolution, eliminating the frustration of phone-only tech support. Bomgar provides enterprises with an unparalleled level of security and scalability, while enhancing IT resource management with the benefits of a virtualized help desk. Backed by venture capital, Bomgar has grown steadily since its inception in 2003 and has over 4,500 customers worldwide. Based in Ridgeland, Miss., the company is also one of the 10 fastest-growing software companies in America ranked by the 2008 Inc. 500.

BOMGAR Contacts:

Melissa Dent
Vice President of Marketing, Bomgar Corporation
mdent@bomgar.com
601.519.0139

Lauren Whittenberg
Lois Paul & Partners
lauren_whittenberg@lpp.com
512.638.5322

HDI Vegas 2009

HDI 2009 offers those who deliver both internal and external support a wealth of opportunities to jump start their journey to service excellence. HDI events always offer an exceptional selection of exciting and thought-provoking keynotes, and this year is no exception. Choose from over 100 educational sessions led by top industry professionals. Over 2500 customers and IT support professionals are expected to attend HDI 2009.

Come by our booth to learn about enterprise remote support and for lots of chances to win! Bomgar will also be doing a special promotion with our technology partner, BMC Software.

PracticeWorks is a timely customer to have presenting. They’re a dental practice software provider headquartered in Atlanta with over 700 employees. They make practice management, digital imaging, and radiology software for dentists, orthodontists, oral surgeons, and the staff who support them in over 37,000 practices nationwide.

I say they’re a timely presenter because PracticeWorks cut over $5,000 per day in support costs by implementing Bomgar’s remote support software. With the 2009 economy looking like it does, savings like that could help a lot! Take the time to watch this webinar before planning your support operations for 2009. An hour with Krista could save your support organization a bit of nail-biting next year.

The webinar is free! View it here. Here’s the abstract:

Top 3 Strategies for Successful Support Operations in 2009

Tuesday, November 18th
(1:00pm Eastern/12:00pm Central/11:00am Mountain/10:00am Pacific)

Facilitated by: Rich Hand, HDI Executive Director of Membership
Presenter: Officer Krista Ciccozzi, Director of Technical Support for Practice Works Inc.

Webinar Topic Description:
With uncertain economic times looming in 2009, have you been asked to reassess your help desk support operations and budget? Are you once again being asked to do more with less? Are you even able to do so? Determining your strategy starts with evaluating your budget and costs. Do you know your cost per incident? Can you become more efficient through improved process or better use of your human and technical resources?

Join HDI on November 18th for an informative webinar from an industry practitioner and HDI Local Chapter Officer, Krista Ciccozzi, Director of Technical Support for PracticeWorks Inc. Krista will share her thoughts and experience on remote support and other help desk-related subjects to help you be better prepared for a dynamic 2009!

• Know your Budget
• Understand your Costs
• Focus on Efficiencies

Upcoming Live Webcast: Champagne Support in a Bear Economy: Why the Economy Can’t Afford Premium Service (and Why You Can’t Either)

Webcast Time: Thursday, November 13th at 11am PST / 2pm EST

REGISTER HERE: Sign up for “Champagne Support” – One Step Registration

Service providers are typically safe from Wall Street woes. But, as the markets continue to tumble, IT budgets are shrinking while the customer’s demands for high-quality support remains the same.

So, how does a service provider offer champagne support in a bear economy?

Instead of wrestling with a bear market, PlumChoice (the online support provider for Circuit City) has taken a new approach to servicing its customers, which has enabled them to offer premium support to their clients without the premium price tag.

Learn how Plumchoice avoided the pitfalls of a bear market: Join John Ragsdale from SSPA | AFMSI | TPSA, Bomgar’s Nathan McNeill and Rich Surace with PlumChoice as they discuss:

• The economy’s impact on the service industry
• Why 50% of service & support dollars are wasted
• What’s really important to the customer (hint: it doesn’t cost that much)

Presenters:
John Ragsdale, SSPA | AFSMI | TPSA
Rich Surace, Plumchoice
Nathan McNeill, Bomgar

Date/Time:
Thursday November 13th at 11am PST / 2pm EST

Reserve your seat!

If you’d like to keep in touch or continue the discussion, a great place to do it is on our LinkedIn Group. You can request to join here.

I’d love to blog about how great the sessions were. Unfortunately, I was in the booth :-(. If you’d like to read some highlights from the sessions, I suggest you head over to John Ragsdale’s “Eye On Service” blog. He’s put up a number of posts and photos from the conference.

Also, we hope that you found the information we provided to be useful and that you were able to get a brief demonstration of our product. If you’d like a closer look, you’re welcome to sign up for a free trial of our remote support software.

Bomgar will be attending this year’s HDI (Help Desk Institute) Service Management Conference in Miami, FL. More than 500 attendees are expected at the conference, which takes place October 15-16, 2008. This is HDI’s newest event which focuses on key topics in service management. To learn more about this event, click on the link http://www.thinkhdi.com/sm2008/. Check back soon for updates from HDI SM 2008!

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time: 11 am PDT; 2 pm EDT; 6 pm GST
Duration: 1 Hour

Security frameworks such as COBIT, COSO, ISO and NERC are becoming increasingly common – yet, according to Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), none of these is adopted by more than 30% of enterprises worldwide.

So what have enterprises adopted? EMA found that of 19 frameworks, standards or best practices for risk and compliance management including those already mentioned, only ITIL was adopted by a majority of enterprises (55%).

ITIL? Isn’t ITIL designed for productivity and process efficiency? Or could it be that security and productivity are friends?

Come join Scott Crawford with EMA, BMC’s Doug Bagley and Nathan McNeill with Bomgar Corporation to learn:

• Why a concern for the bottom line improves security
• Why the highest performers in IT risk management follow ITIL principles
• Why 59% of organizations who experiencing a data security breach (according to a recent Verizon Business study ) had a security policy, but never put it into practice.
• How increasing support efficiency with virtual support can create an audit trail as a byproduct
• How key enablers of IT security and risk management fall directly within ITIL

EMA research director Scott Crawford, Bomgar co-founder and vice presidentof product strategy Nathan McNeill, and BMC solutions architect Doug Bagley will explain how to apply ITIL to security and risk management initiatives.They will cover the gaps in IT management disciplines that plague security,what ITIL is and why so many are adopting it and how ITIL best practices improve security.

Join Our Webinar: Applying ITIL to Security and Risk Management

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time: 11 am PDT; 2 pm EDT; 6 pm GST
Duration: 1 Hour

The webcasts that have occurred after April 17th have, for the most part, been presented in conjuction with a 3rd party research organization such as EMA, SSPA, or HDI. These are hosted by the research organization for a short time after the online event.

However, as soon as possible, we will also be uploading those files to our site and making them available to everyone without the registration requirements.

If you’re interested you can view our webcasts here: http://www.bomgar.com/webcasts.htm.

Also, to help you consider the impact of remote support on your organization as you budget for 2009, we’re also making the latest webcast, Top 3 Strategies for Successful Support Operations in 2009, available for download from this post.

In his post, Is your remote control security bullet-proof?, Ragsdale summarizes a recent webcast minicast covering the topic. The format is an “open discussion on security and compliance with Phil Smiley, Director of IT Security for SSPA member BMC Software, Phil Demuth, VP of Internal Systems for ITI Fiserv,” and our own Nathan McNeill, VP of Product Strategy.

Here’s Ragsdale’s 30,000 foot summary:

• Use a ‘best of breed’ remote control product with strong security features.
• Leverage the product’s audit trail to capture every action of the agent.
• Enable tracking of uploads/downloads to/from customer systems.
• Prompt customers to approve uploads/downloads during the session.

The webcast is available free here:
Risky Business – Is Your Support Center Introducing New Risks into Your Business?

Pomeroy’s presentation: Screenshot from the webinar
Reducing Customer Support Costs and Improving Service Quality with Remote Support

Summary of Remote Support Webcast

IT service and support leaders are under more pressure than ever before to tighten expenses, budgets and people. At the same time, service quality commitments are becoming the norm. A secret weapon that many organizations have today, but are not using to its fullest potential, is remote support. With the right remote support solution in place, you should reduce support costs by:

1. Improving the efficiency of your support team by eliminating costly on-site dispatches and reducing Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
2. Gain respect for the IT support team by delivering on committed service level agreements (SLAs)
3. Consolidating the myriad of tools within your enterprise to one solution that can reach any both attended and unattended systems

Hear how remote support has a direct impact on support cost structure and perceptions around IT service quality in the enterprise. This presentation will focus on results achieved by customers in their environments and illustrate the relationship between service quality, cost control, and the customer experience.

• Lisa Erickson-Harris, EMA analyst
• Clay Guinn, GSD Operations Manager, Pomeroy IT Solutions
• Chris Watson, VP Strategic Alliances, Bomgar

This presentation began on April 03, 2008 at 01:00 PM Central Daylight Time.

You may join the live event or watch it on-demand later.

Joel Bomgar, CEO and founder of Bomgar Corp., will present “Incident Resolution: On-site vs. Remote” at the Help Desk Institute (HDI) annual conference and expo next week.

As IT services are vital in business interactions, it’s more important than ever that organizations be able to deploy best practice technologies to help support its user base quickly, effectively and securely. Appliance-based remote control software enables organizations to meet these demands by creating synergies across the service desk and support systems to streamline the incident resolution process. In using remote support technology to virtualize the help desk, organizations can better utilize resources to enhance the productivity and efficiency of IT personnel.

Bomgar Corp. is the leading provider of appliance-based help desk enterprise software designed to help companies virtualize IT support staff. Bomgar’s unified platform integrates with service desk systems to flag, track and log the tech support activity that takes place during the trouble ticket resolution lifecycle. By using Bomgar, today’s IT staff can be mobilized to work on any computer desktop, anywhere to resolve technical issues.

The annual Help Desk Institute Conference is designed to educate customer support organizations and IT service professionals on the latest trends and technologies for providing customer support. For more information, please visit http://www.thinkhdi.com/hdi2008/default.aspx

A while back, Chuck Deaton, IT Security Manager at Humana, joined us for an SSPA webcast entitled “Remote Support: How Secure Are You?”

Among the nuggets of wisdom in that hour was this one from Chuck Deaton: “Complexity is inversely proportional to security.” Deaton goes on to explain that for Humana, often the security question is not about how to keep hackers out, but how to give authorized users the ability to perform authorized tasks.

Humana’s answer to the problem, at least in part, has been to simplify access and control as much as they can. Deaton says,

“. . . you can have the most hardened system in the world, but if it has too many moving parts and pieces, it won’t take very long for it to become unsecure or unreliable. And so therefore, we try to keep things – and remote control’s one of those – we try to keep those solution sets as simple as possible in terms of the moving pieces and parts, also in terms of the number of people and companies that are involved, so that we can maximize our security potential, not only initially, but also throughout – ongoing throughout the use of the technology by various user communities. So the – this whole idea of the ratio of complexity and security is really how we size up our ability to secure information assets or systems in general.”

Chuck Deaton, IT Security Manager at Humana

Here’s an example: You can set user permissions in one place, LDAP for instance, and have those permissions apply for various applications. Doing that will better enable you to maintain security over time. If user permissions are localized, rather than centralized, you’re likely to run into a security issue when one user’s overarching permissions fail to apply to a specific application.

Simple is better. One place to set user access and control permissions.

Deaton has, of course, taken a TON of other measures to ensure security. I just wanted to point out the simple-is-better approach as a stroke of genius.