Remote access tools enable your business to grow quickly, beyond the limits of your office walls. With so many choices on the market from a variety of providers, how can you choose the best tool for your business? Here are the questions you should ask before implementing Remote Access.
What You Need to Know Before Implementing Remote Access Software
Read on this article to get the questions you should ask about a new tool before implementing it within your enterprise.
Table of contents
How can you choose the best remote access tool for your business?
How will this tool fit into my enterprise infrastructure?
How do my employees work?
Is my enterprise data secure?
How does this help me deliver better customer service?
Is this the best long-term solution?
Conclusion
How can you choose the best remote access tool for your business?
Finding the right tools to meet your enterprise needs is harder than ever. It’s a big challenge to figure out how to support both your employees’ and your customers’ unique needs. Systems and processes quickly become outdated as technology and your business continue to evolve. Your company must overcome a variety of challenges, and you need the right tools to help your business succeed.
Remote access tools enable your business to grow quickly, beyond the limits of your office walls. With so many choices on the market from a variety of providers, how can you choose the best remote access and support tool for your business? We’ve collected the questions you should ask about a new software tool before implementing it within your enterprise.
Only 4 percent of companies measured and managed their businesses processes.
How will this tool fit into my enterprise infrastructure?
The first step in adopting any new tool is to assess your existing business processes. Knowing your infrastructure is key in determining where remote access fits in, and how it can help improve the way you do business. If you’re struggling with inefficiency or low productivity, it could be in large part due to lack of process documentation and monitoring. A recent survey found that only 4% of companies measured and managed their business processes.1 However, 51.6% of businesses with high process maturity have experienced an overall decline in IT incidents, and are less likely to stop projects due to unclear processes.
Your enterprise environment is likely complex, with a collection of devices and operating systems that need to access important data, especially as bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies become more common. Supporting a variety of operating systems is critical, so look beyond iOS and Android and determine if your tool supports operating systems like Windows, macOS, BlackBerry, and Linux.
When shopping for remote access tools, ask yourself:
- Does the tool have the necessary APIs to integrate with current and future systems, such as CRM systems, help desks, or cloud-based storage providers?
- Is the software compatible with all the operating systems and devices that my customers and employees use?
How do my employees work?
In order to keep your business running smoothly, you need to provide technology that enables your staff to complete tasks efficiently, whether they’re at their desk, with a client, or working remotely. By understanding how your employees currently work, you can determine the improvements that need to be made, the features you require from a tool, and potential obstacles to adoption.
Research shows that 44% of professionals want a manager who empowers them to be independent. Offering robust remote access software does just that. Whether they’re in the office, visiting a client, or working from home, employees will have easy access to all the files and devices they need to do their jobs effectively.
When preparing to adopt a new software tool, it’s key to engage your team from the beginning. Ask your employees directly what they expect out of a software solution and encourage them to test the software and identify questions they might have. Here are a few questions to better understand your employee needs:
- Will you have employees in the field on potentially slow data networks or unsecured Wi-Fi connections?
- Do your employees need access to sensitive data and files while they’re on the go?
- Is there a risk that sensitive information can be exploited if devices are lost?
- Are any of your employees using shadow-IT or workarounds to access applications?
Is my enterprise data secure?
Security is absolutely essential to keep your enterprise running smoothly. When assessing remote access tools, it’s critical for enterprises to prioritize security across devices, applications, and users. It’s estimated 60% of all attacks on businesses were carried out by insiders, and of these one-quarter involved inadvertent actors, so it’s vital that your remote access solution doesn’t solely rely on user vigilance for security. Consider a remote access solution that enables you to centrally manage your devices and user policies remotely, so you can easily disable, wipe, or restore devices in the event of loss or damage, as well as terminate a user access for employee turnover.
An enterprise-grade remote access solution should offer multi-layered security that protects every area of your company — down to granular control to govern user roles and access level permissions for everyone involved. Look for a solution that includes these security features:
- End-to-end 256-bit AES Encryption
- SOC2 Certified and Compliant
- ISO/IEC 27001 Data Center Certification
- Multi-factor authentication
- Public/private key exchange
- Single Sign-On integration
- HIPAA Compliant
- Brute Force Protection
- Enforced Password Reset for unusual activity
- https/SSL Protocol
- Code signing
- Trusted device authentication; whitelisting, blacklisting
Key questions to ask your vendor:
- Can you define and enforce permission-based access rules for user roles, groups, and devices?
- Can you configure settings and add/remove access remotely?
- Does it have enterprise reporting and full auditing to log all user activities?
How does this help me deliver better customer service?
In order to offer the best possible service to your customers, it’s absolutely essential to answer their questions quickly and easily. Remote access and support software are excellent tools to use when you need to quickly access a customer’s device and offer a solution.
When you implement remote access and remote support software, your organization can see concrete improvements to key service metrics, resulting in increases in customer satisfaction. It’s possible to see up to a 23% increase in first call resolution (FCR) within one month of implementing a remote access solution. There’s a direct relationship between improving FCR and customer satisfaction: in fact, just a 1% increase in FCR permits a 1% increase in customer satisfaction.
A best-in-class solution will help you to streamline and prioritize tickets for customers who need the most help quickly. Consider these questions about your customers’ needs when preparing to implement remote access software:
- Are there any port configurations, VPNs, software installations, or other complex steps required on the customers’ device in order to gain access?
- Does the proposed solution support multiple operating systems, including mobile devices, enabling you to easily assist customers in multiple environments?
Is this the best long-term solution?
All too often, companies get caught in an endless cycle of band-aid fixes and workaround solutions that work well in the short term, but ultimately leave business processes completely unrecognizable – and your team feeling unproductive and frustrated. These inefficient solutions cost much more than just employee sanity: employee disengagement leads to lost productivity costing companies around the world $7 trillion in lost productivity.
To get the most out of a remote access tool, clearly scope the needs and use cases for your enterprise. The best remote access tool for your company will be flexible to your needs, as well as your capacity requirements. Identifying the right tool isn’t just about what you need today, it’s about intelligently implementing a tool that will grow with your business and give you a competitive edge in your market.
Make sure you get a tool that answers all of your questions:
- Can the software easily scale with company growth?
- Is there the ability to adapt and improve as business needs and goals evolve?
- Are there options for upgraded licenses and features that you may not need today, but want in the future?
Conclusion
When used effectively, remote access software will pay for itself and then some. When shopping for software to meet your enterprise needs, you should look for something that allows you to connect easily with customers, collaborate with your team, and improve the way you do business. Once you’ve chosen a solution, monitor performance and customer satisfaction data to get the complete picture on how your investment is helping improve your business practices and return greater profits.
TeamViewer offers remote access and support solutions for enterprises of all sizes across all industries. Connect with us to learn how remote access is the first step in building revenue-driven business processes.
Source: TeamViewer
