TAMPA, Fla.  –– ConnectWise, developer of the leading business management solution designed exclusively for IT service providers, VARs and MSPs, today unveiled ConnectWise Chat & Remote Control. ConnectWise Chat & Remote Control provides chat, clientless remote control capabilities and automatic ticket generation within ConnectWise PSA.

A joint development of ConnectWise and NTRglobal, a pioneer in cloud-based remote support and IT automation software, ConnectWise Chat & Remote Control enhances client experience, increases profitability, and improves help desk employee performance by enabling technicians to assist multiple clients simultaneously. Features include:

Check out these stats derived from a survey of NTRglobal enterprise customers...how do your metrics compare? Do you want to improve your operational efficiencies and reporting?

• 30% of a contact center’s cost defined by FCR
• 50% of customer dissatisfaction stems from being passed from agent to agent
• 85% increase in repurchase intention from customers who are dealt with quickly and effectively

Why is First Contact Resolution Important?

“FCR is a driver for excellence in any support organization and has a powerful, positive ripple effect and impact on all of the other performance and financial metrics,” said Pete McGarahan, consultant at McGarahan and Associates. “Service organizations can create loyal, profitable customer relationships by quickly turning a problem into a solution on the first contact. NTRsupport is the tool utility belt for today’s help desk who is working hard to deliver quality services to happy customers cost-effectively.”

Increase First Call Resolution and Enhance New Business

"NTRsupport has changed the way we do business at Northbrook Consulting Group,” said Donald L. Joseph, president of Northbrook Consulting Group. “We are able to be more responsive to customer needs; reduce on-site sales and support visits, increase first time call resolution, improve customer service, and achieve our goal of using NTRsupport to gain new customers."

Using NTRsupport, IT support and help desk professionals can connect with customers and employees in seconds to resolve -technical support issues without the need for pre-installed software. NTR Cloud offers fully loaded support tools with advanced diagnostics, collaboration and reporting tools to accelerate problem identification and resolution on PC’s Macs or smartphones on-demand. These tools also include:

• Quality and silent monitoring for all media to enable optimal training and service delivery.
• End-of-call customer polling through agent script for specific incident review.
• Automated survey and follow up after customer contact to ensure customer satisfaction.

NTRsupport helps technicians virtually resolve more issues remotely, thus reducing backlog, level 2 escalations or worse, costly equipment returns.

Find out more about how NTR Cloud can help you enhance enterprise help desk metrics...

And don't just take our word for it, compare it free with your current solution: www.ntrglobal.com.
Then tell usabout the ROI...

We want to have bragging rights that you are "boring" your CIO with ROI.
Let us help you enhance your help desk and service desk quality and efficiency while cutting costs in 2011!

NTRglobal Invites You to make 2011 a year of Help Desk change for the better

Many enterprise help desk organizations still struggle with their legacy remote control tools and "cobbled together" approaches to 24/7 global help desk support. But most of these tools are not designed to meet the needs of today's IT help desk or the mobile workers that need remote support on demand. These legacy tools may not integrate into other systems. Incident reporting may be inaccurate. Time spent on incidents may not be properly accounted for...and in times when every resource is already streteched to the max, further budgets cut due to a lack of accurate reporting is a very real threat.

Today, the help desk needs a better way to manage to the realities of today's enterprise dynamics:

• Mobile and remote workers using a multitude of computing devices and operating systems including smarthones
• Leaner budgets than ever for help desk operations, yet business demands for greater help desk productivity and service quality.
• Varying, yet ever stricter security and compliance mandates for data management by region, by country

Legacy tools are simply not effective solutions for resolving technical support problems for the worker on the go or the remote-office teams. What if you could try a risk-free way to make 2011 the year you make help desk change for the better? We'd like to invite you to testdrive NTRsupport Ultimate software-as-a-service Free Trial, http://www.ntrglobal.com/ntrsupport fully loaded with diagnostics, workflow support, management and reporting capabilities. No training required. No capital expenditure or new hardware required.

We'd like you to prove to yourself how NTRsupport can provide instant measurable return on deployment...

Goodbye Legacy Remote Control! Happy Change for the Better in 2011 from NTRglobal!

As we head into the holidays, we thought you'd like to hear what your peers have on their mind when it comes to gifts according to TechRepublic.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/geekend/?p=6201

According to recent Gartner statistics focused on traditional Service Desk metrics, the cost to Customer 1’s company for traditional phone support for an eight-minute call costs the company between $18 - $23, and increases 75% in total cost as it is escalated to different technical levels for resolution within the organization. This does not include:

• The cost of losing customers due to wait times, frustration with service availability, and lack of support options.
• The cost of buying new customers to replace lost ones, which may run up to five times as according to American Management Association figures.

The business impact of having a long queue, long wait times and long times to resolve are in decreased customer satisfaction, customer defection and a bad reputation for providing ongoing service and support to your customers. This will eventually hurt your business especially based on customer referrals and word of mouth. Businesses have to look at the cost in losing a customer as well as the cost to attract a customer and the cost to retain a customer

Even worse, in 73% of cases, Customer 1’s organization makes no attempt to persuade dissatisfied customers to stay, even though 35% said that a simple apology would have prevented them from moving to the competition. The company’s support center does not have the ability to provide self-support, submit a ticket, Chat, or request the support agent view or take over their machine. They not have the right tool set to meet the customer’s expectations for providing world class support. They do not have NTRsupport.

Customer 2 contacts his service provider, who is able to validate the customer with the integrated CRM interface and quickly assess the situation. The agent asks permission to run a diagnostic, can share the customer’s screen to visualize the situation, and take remote control of the machine to administer a solution. He determines the root cause, applies the fix with a file transfer, reboots the machine and tests the functionality while the customer is on the line. The problem has been resolved quickly, seamlessly, and satisfactorily.

Another benefit to the company is that the interaction is recorded and stored for auditing and training purposes.

The cost to Customer 2’s company is less than $12 (based upon the remote agent cost per hour of $21 plus some overhead for tools, bandwidth, etc). The overall first contact resolution could have been accomplished in 15-20 minutes.

The rapid, successful interaction reduces customer defections and can boost profits anywhere from 25-85% claims Bain & Co. consultant Frederick Reichheld and Earl Sasser, Jr. (Harvard business professor and author of “Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work”).

Questions? Comments? Talk to us on Twitter @NTRglobal or send me your thoughts directly at hwieland@ntrglobal.com

At Interop in New York City this week, we are pleased to premier NTR Cloud Service Desk, the first of a series of ITIL-based SaaS modules for IT automation, system management and remote support. Offering a new game plan for slashing maintenance costs by up to 70 percent while extending secure reach to manage assets on demand, NTR Service Desk delivers a "go as you grow" approach for companies to adopt and extend what they need for augmenting process into the Service Desk when they need it.

With open APIs and integration connectors to hundreds of existing enterprise systems for CRM, HR, Ticketing, ERP, Accounting systems and central reporting, NTR Service Desk helps IT rapidly scale, manage and configure 1000s of assets with on-demand multi-browser, multi-platform support inside or outside of the corporate network. Fast, flexible, proven SaaS from the leading IT Cloud Services provider, NTR Service Desk offers IT a new platform-as-a-service to rapidly deploy, integrate and manage enterprise assets today with automatic cloud readiness for updates on demand.

Celebrating 10 years of service excellence delivering SaaS for the service desk and help desks for 17,000 large enterprises around the world...

NTR Service Desk is the next evolution...more than SaaS...now you have a platform that flexibly integrates in days with any enterprise application or system (ERP, SAP, HR, CRM, etc.) to give you the complete picture of your enterprise assets...all from a central web console.

• Reduces ITSM costs by more than 70%
• Built on ITIL with flexible integration hooks (via Pervasive) and open API's
• Fast time to production and deployment...auto upgrades and updates
• 10 years of proven, consistent SaaS
• Modular Go as You Grow Approach to the ITIL Service Desk

Free Trial: http://www.ntrglobal.com/service-desk

“The resolution time for delivering on-demand remote support with NTRsupport to a mutual customer a continent away, inspired our channel partner to adopt NTRglobal.”

The heat is on for IT support to manage if not “put out the fires” of the often escalated “back to business and back to school” service requests. With the increased workload, these challenges are especially unwelcome in today’s economic climate, when IT support teams are somehow expected to deliver a more responsive service while under constant pressure to reduce costs. But enteprise IT is finding a better way with on-demand IT automation and remote support. NTRglobal customer, Ken Schmidt, technical support manager at ExpeData, a global enterprise digital writing software company stated that though support to customers and partners worldwide is a challenge, NTRglobal software-as-a-service (SaaS) allows him to “virtually just do IT support, anytime, anywhere.”

“Using a remote support solution has become less a “nice to have” and more a mandatory part of business,” said Schmidt. “Difficult to describe problems become impossible to address when language barriers meet technology issues. Additionally, with time zones creating smaller windows, and with the expense of international calling, iterative processes can take days rather than hours. Providing a decision tree can be tedious, confusing, and overly complex. Being able to virtually just do IT support with NTRglobal more than halves the time to deliver support and provides better customer service.”

“A specific example of this”, added Schmidt, “is supporting our channel partner’s customer in Europe. They were having an issue installing our client application. Without a common language, remoting in was the only viable option. I used NTRglobal to take control of the customer’s computer. I then shared my screen with our channel partner. We used the chat functionality to tell the customer what to do with hardware for testing. We found out that the customer had an older version of our client software, so I used the FTP functionality to provide the update. I installed our app, triggered a reboot, reconnected, and then chatted with them to try the operation again. We were successful and spent less than an hour resolving our mutual customer’s issue. Interactions such as this actually inspired our partner to also become an NTRglobal customer.”

Our customers tell us that one of the main motivators for change to NTRglobal is cost savings and cost containment, which underscores the interest in using SaaS for remote support and IT systems management where travel is virtually eliminated. The second reason is that cloud computing allows our customers to do things that they otherwise couldn't do. For example, IT managers and channel partners can collaborate, deliver customer training and participate in reviews using NTRglobal cloud-provided applications that would have been otherwise cost- or prohibitive.

Customers tell me that one of the first steps they want to take to show their CIOs meaningful ROI is to measure customer satisfaction in relation to staff efficiency ...and to find an effective way to enhance first contact resolution. First contact resolution is key because it impacts or eliminates backlog and internal or external customer satisfaction (c-sat) which in turn can impact customer loyalty and repeat business.

To enhance first contact resolution, we need to deliver support when and where people need it most.

Which means instantly. Today end users are working on site, or at remote offices in Web-connected and often collaborative environments on a variety of platforms and operating systems. They are working on applications on laptops, desktops, netbooks and smartphones that offer several ways for people to connect and interact on line via chat, Skype, etc. These online channels are often pervasive, immediately visible and instantly available with a click of the mouse.

But for IT and help desk service providers, a common reaction and "out of process" way ;for workers onsite to get support is a walk if not a run over to the help desk for "drive by troubleshooting" or if the IT Pro is at a nearbye station...the user may cry out "can you help me for a sec and I promise to put in a help ticket later?"

Mea culpa! We know this is inefficient as requests can´t be logged effectively much less resolved upon first contact. IT reporting time and accountability evaporates and resolving these kinds of requests becomes frustrating and seemingly complex for both the end user and IT.

For end users in remote locations, the requests may come to IT and help desk managers by email or chat, phone or any number of modes other than the process that IT needs and requires. First contact resolution is now down for the count while again frustration mounts for both IT and the end user.

But imagine if an end user in any Windows application such a CAD program or a spreadsheet or proprietary Windows programs for healthcare, insurance and other financial services, education, legal...could click on a small icon that gives instant access to the help desk and IT support team without leaving the app in question. Imagine the help desk getting the request from the appropriate channel process and knowing instantly which app needs to be addressed.

That is exactly what new NTRsupport Direct Support for Applications (DSA) can do. NTRsupport DSA offers access to the live help desk and IT pro with a click of the mouse. The enduser does not need to exit the application to hunt and search for the right way to contact support.This makes connecting to support an instant process. NTRsupport DSA helps IT to create a seamless, hassle-free way to deliver support in a contextual way and thus increase first contact resolution with the first connection.

With NTRsupport DSA:

• Customers can just simply click on a help icon in any Windows application (or desktop) on their computers
• You can identify your customers when they request help.
• Eliminate redundant time to evaluate who your customer is and qualify the customer´s request.
• Automatically retrieve useful information before responding to help requests directly from requests.
• Identify all your support requests by a code or name.

NTRsupport DSA is available today. Contact your NTRglobal account manager to learn more or visit the NTRglobal Website at http://www.ntrglobal.com.

Curtis Franklin, Jr., senior contributing editor to the InfoWorld Test Center, recently named new NTRconnect remote access as one of the ten great iPhone apps for business users. Dropbox, Evernote and Documents to Go are other "top-notch" apps he reviewed among many others.

He wrote, "As a member of the nomadic business class, I appreciate how Apple has managed to make a device as small as the iPhone a truly useful enterprise tool..."

Change is truly at hand...ok I couldn't resist. But seriously, the diversity of devices used by webworkers and the remote workforce is daunting and accelerating for IT managers. Business users want their favorite devices and apps running on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, smartphones, desktops, laptops, netbooks, iPads...But IT needs to keep these remote systems running and ensure critical security, compliance and the achievement of environmental goals. How to be flexible and secure?

With the advent of cross-platform, proactive management tools, on-demand automation and remote support delivered via SaaS, do you see 2010 as the year non-Windows platforms will make serious inroads in the enterprise?

Find out if your provider offers you a choice of SaaS solutions deployment solutions including the option to host the service behind your firewall. This allows you added control you may be looking for without any of the issues related to maintenance of the application. Really a best of both worlds approach for some companies and organizations.

Another option you may want to investigate is on your licensing needs. Are you buying too many or too few licenses? With concurrent licensing, customers know their investment is not going to waste and can quickly and cost effectively scale up or down as the need arises. Make sure your solution still allows you to track the individual activity of your support operators.

With the emergence of solutions that offer secure remote support, companies have a significantly better way to troubleshoot, fix, administer and maintain their IT systems and computers remotely to troubleshoot and repair, computers, laptops and even mobile devices such as smart phones or embedded devices such as blood analyzing machines.

Using a variety of Web-based tools, including chat, remote control, VOIP and video, these solutions enable IT managers to virtually "see, diagnose and reach into" and repair devices via the Internet. This capability helps eliminate costly visits to customer locations and long and sometimes difficult calls.

Instead the customer experiences a proactive fix or rapid resolution of an issue in play. This is a powerful capability for your IT team and offers a superior support experience for customers.

IT, MSPs and Device OEMs alike are grappling with the challenge of delivering effective IT services to their end-users, a majority of which are remote or mobile workers using a multitude of computing devices. End-users can be internal employees located all over the world, external clients and customers, business partners and contractors alike. But all of them are relying on IT for highly secure, always on, 24x7 services.

Add to this the mandates to "optimize productivity" with tighter budgets, reduced staff, and ever more stringent compliance issues. Any downtime in today's global economy is "mission critical" and the "break-fix" reactive mode may seem inevitable as the "only way."

Finally add the expectation from business managers to show the money. Where are the metrics to show how IT is contributing to profitability? The business case for automation is clear.

IT automation is a proven solution to help meet IT management challenges, markedly reducing operational costs and boosting productivity. Many tools exist. While these "point" tools may help with specifics, today IT needs a better approach with an integrated solution that can:

• Remotely monitor and manage their network and all devices using a single, easy to use dashboard
• Use remote control to securely connect to - and gain control over - any Windows or non-Windows device on the network in seconds for real-time issue resolution
• Deliver remote support to single or multiple PCs --allowing IT to control Internet connected PCs and deliver support via concurrent remote sessions.
• Navigate, discover and organize the complete network infrastructure in minutes with Advanced Search capabilities recognizing highly specific criteria for any devices located anywhere on network and beyond
• Use automatic deployment which enables IT to easily deploy to multiple machines automatically.
• Show reporting to justify the needs of the IT infrastructure

NTRadmin from NTRglobal meets these requirements. NTRadmin is SaaS for IT systems management with a completely integrated platform for on-demand automation and remote support SaaS. Moreover NTRadmin integrates seamlessly with other systems administration solutions, CRM, Help Desk, billing, alerts and backup. NTRadmin offer fully customizable procedures called NTRadmin Bots that enable IT to schedule jobs on Web-connected assets whether devices are online, offline, or only accessible after-hours. They can inventory assets, perform upgrades, defrag, deploy patches and file distributions without end-user coordination or disruption or it can offer the option to show a dialog box to a remote user, automatically launch a browser and more.

With NTRadmin IT can move from purely a reactive, break-fix mode of operation to become increasingly proactive and show the value of their IT infrastructure.

To learn more about NTRadmin from NTRglobal, watch this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QogzaanXqNY and to test a free version of the solution, please visit www.ntrglobal.com/ntradmin

Today, technology is pervasive in all aspects of most people's professional and personal lives. The dramatic increase in the adoption of devices, laptops and other computing devices has allowed increases in productivity and efficiency. However, these increases have not come without a cost. When a problem occurs, customers, employees or partners generally are not able to fix it themselves and must turn to professional support for help. And because of today's on-demand economy, technical issues are underscored with a sense of urgency to resolve the problem quickly or lose valuable business opportunity. The pressure is magnified by the increasing challenges that support staffs face coupled with the dramatic rise in the number of mobile workers over recent years.

The convergence of these forces increase the complexity and challenges IT faces. With ever tighter compliance and security mandates you are probably trying to prioritize better ways to "manage the seemingly unmanageable" diversity of network connected devices and applications.  And perhaps concerns about security, performance and the unknown-makes it seem too daunting to take on one more thing.

But SaaS for remote support and customer service offer benefits that have evolved beyond the initial target market of IT service and help desk support services to deliver profitable value added services.  According to IDC's research director, Matt Healy, the benefits of the solution come from being able to geographically decouple IT personnel from the task they need to complete. By doing this, organizations can effectively "virtualize" and "automate" repetitive tasks in their IT departments and see a wider range of benefits.

Best of breed support for customers and employees, including cost-cutting solutions such as remote support, enables small business to act on par with large enterprise on a global scale and perhaps differentiate based on service quality. Large organizations can benefit by automating repetitive lower level tasks to redeploy valuable engineering hours to focus on core competencies and issues that contribute to the bottom line.

Remote support via SaaS provides a free evaluation trial for you to actually utilize the service before you buy. Test for yourself how IT support and service capabilities can work for your organization, and perhaps discover innovative revenue-generating profitable services that transform into competitive advantage.