IT training has evolved beyond the lectures at lunch, allowing innovative technologies to aid in the learning of new skill sets. But even though training materials may be hands-on and/or web-based, if the training is not provided at the correct time, it may be rendered ineffective.

For training to be most effective, it must occur at the precise moment it is needed.

To make this happen, IT can follow these steps:

1. Gather training materials (such as a Powerpoint presentation or a manual)
2. Record a training meeting
3. Provide on-demand access to the training materials and the video
4. Use a remote support solution, such as ScreenConnect, to answer any questions if further help is needed

Using this approach, employees will be able to obtain the training information when they need it, reducing training costs and increasing the productivity of IT.

 

This summer, Inc. Magazine released an article summarizing the results of a study entitled, “Six Dimensions That Characterize Success-Oriented Small Business Owners,” published by the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute. These six traits that provide a “winning formula” are as follows:

• The ability to collaborate
• Being self fulfilled
• Staying future-focused
• Being curious
• Tech-savvy
• Being action-oriented

Part of remaining tech-savvy would be to stay on top of the latest computing trends. For a PC support technician, this could be taking a close look at remote support software. Not only would remote support software save you time and money, but you would also be providing great customer service.

Read the full article here!

One of the biggest questions we get from prospective customers: how many licenses do I need? With ScreenConnect we try to keep the answer as simple as possible, but it does raise some questions that we thought were worth addressing. Below are a few points to consider when you are choosing how many licenses to purchase of ScreenConnect or another tool.

1. Size of your support team – Although this seems pretty straightforward, it’s easy to overlook small nuances. For example, you may have ten support engineers, but how about product managers or other experts? They may occasionally jump in on a session to help out a customer or remote field employee. You should consider groups other than support, such as R&D, marketing, and IT, that could also benefit from a remote support solution.
2. How often will you use the tool? – Are most of your calls resolved via the phone or email? You may not need as many licenses as you think. A quick conversation with your support team can identify the possible usage levels.
3. Will every employee be using the software at the same time? – Typically, all of the members of your support team are not hosting remote support sessions at the same time. This means you may not need a license for every potential user. ScreenConnect works under a community license structure; if you have five licenses, you may run five sessions concurrently. Other tools are linked with a specific user or IP address. Those tools require you to purchase more licenses for your team, yielding a lower return on investment since you are not using the licenses all the time.

Generally we recommend that you purchase one license for every three users, depending on your usage model and budget. ScreenConnect can be purchased as individual licenses or as an unlimited license. But what if you want to purchase individual licenses now and an unlimited in the future? Never fear! No matter how many licenses you purchase today, we will credit your initial purchase(s) towards the unlimited license price.

Staying on top of our customers’ needs is priority number one for our team. By listening and responding to our customers’ comments and suggestions, we strive to make ScreenConnect a better remote support product. We have released nearly twenty feature enhancements, all directly related to customer feedback, in less than twelve months. In our latest build, ScreenConnect 1.6, we have improved the communication path between host and client by creating a more visually stimulating addition to the task bar; with this new feature, the host can easily determine if and when the client has joined the session. We have also improved our file transfer, chat, and IE compatibility in this latest release.

ScreenConnect is a self-hosted remote support product that provides the features of a monthly subscription service in an efficient, cost effective package. Learn more about ScreenConnect by visiting http://www.screenconnect.com.

Remote support software or remote desktop support software are applications that allow the remote access of another device, typically a computer, for the purpose of controlling the target device.  “Controlling the target device” can have several connotations; while most remote support applications do permit the control of the target computer, some only provide viewing capabilities. By using remote support software, a user can troubleshoot another user’s computer with efficiency and ease.

The method of installation can vary widely between one remote support application and another. Some remote support software applications require both the client and the host to install a small program on their machines. Other applications only require installation on the host’s machine, and the client connects to the remote support session via a web page portal. Finally, a remote support application can be entirely web-based, connecting two machines via a single web portal. 

Remote support software applications can offer a number of features to assist a client.

1. Video recording - enables a host to send a client a video file of all actions performed in the session.
2. Chat - Allows a host to easily communicate with a client while the remote connection is taking place.
3. File transfer - Permits the transfer of files easily between the host and client quickly. A typical use model would be the replacement of a corupt file or installing new software.
4. Reboot/Reconnect - When your dealing with software you will often be required to shut down the PC and log back in. This feature allows the two computers to reconnect after the reboot occurs.

Do you remember the shell game? The principal was quite simple; there is an object and three cups.  The owner of the game places the object under one of the three cups and then moves them around in what seems to be very unpredictable pattern.  The player has to watch the cup with the object and then find it when the owner stops moving them around.  Well these street games are not always fair, sometimes the owner cheats and removes the object or hides it through some sleight of hand.  But the principal of the game is about confusing the people watching, very similar to the way ciphers are used today to protect information. 

Claude Shannon in his paper Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems published in 1949 outlined the principals that still govern the general design of encryption systems today, confusion and diffusion.  In Shannon’s paper confusion is the process of making deciphering the ciphertext as difficult as possible unless you have the key.  The process involved replacing each character with a representing character or symbol from a lookup table.  Quite often the lookup tables would be quite elaborate not only taking into account the original character but also the neighboring characters and a host of other variables.  The diffusion would represent the next layer of protection, the redundancy of rearranging the characters and then running the ciphertext (the resulting text after the confusion layer) back through the lookup table a second or third time.  The result was a complex spider web of non-linear links and mathematical substitutions that is nearly impossible to backward engineer without the key. 

Mr. Shannon outlined the basic principals used by banks, government organizations, and little remote support tools like ScreenConnect to encrypt and protect information.  To learn more about Communication Theory of Secrecy Systems or Claude Shannon visit Wikipedia.org which provides a good overview of both and has links to other supporting sites.

One of the key strengths of IssueNet is the capability of multiple distinct and even custom issue types to exist in the same database.  Allowing that level of diversity requires several housekeeping functions to keep things organized and easy to find. 

A new feature introduced in IssueNet 5.1, "Sequence Number Inheritance", allows different issue types to pull their unique ID numbers from a common pool.  The default behavior prior to this addition was to assign the ID number based on the issue class, so you could have DEFECT 1, SUPPORT TICKET 1, and OPERATIONS ISSUE 1.  With the new setting these would not share an identical numeral.  For more on this feature and how to best apply it to an existing database, please see our Tech Tip on the subject. 

Sequence Number Inheritance Tech Tip

Elsinore made the decision to switch from Compiled HTML Help edited with RoboHelp to a wiki-based help system using Screwturn Wiki.  The following is a look into the decision making process that ultimately lead to replacing RoboHelp with a Wiki.

Issues with RoboHelp

In general, we were very frustrated with RoboHelp.  After using it for many years and through several versions of our product, we had assembled a critical mass of grievances.

• Lack of flexibility around updates which were not tied to releases
• Rigidness of source code control and upgrade pains
• Web Help required rebuild of the entire project to generate .htm files, which took 10-15 minutes and required additional files to be checked into source control and then picked up by the Product build system.  This often resulted in internal builds not having updated Help files installed. 
• Updates simply took too much time, effort, and planning.  When a new help resource is available, we want to make it available quickly and effortlessly. 

Advantages of Wiki for Product Help

• Updates made in real-time
• Ability to easily link to other sources of rich content (tech tips, how-to videos, blog entries, developer labs articles, etc.)
• No need for product to "phone home" for help updates
• Source code available so customers can deploy on own network
• Extremely easy for staff to update
• Freedom from RoboHelp compatibility issues
• Free to near-free

Disadvantages of Wiki for Product Help

• Difficult to compile for a printed manual
• Difficult to implement context-sensitive help
• Conversion of existing data from RoboHelp into new format takes time
• Traditional version control approaches must be rethought

The idea of converting a large existing documentation base from RoboHelp to wiki format can be daunting.  In the end we found that it would be easier to manually convert from RoboHelp to wiki than to convert from our older RoboHelp version to newer versions.  The manual conversion also dovetailed nicely with a comprehensive review and update of the documentation.  There are also some conversion tools out there such as the RoboHelp2Wiki tool, which may be useful in the right situations.

We went with Screwturn Wiki over the other available variants for the following reasons:

• ASP.NET
• File-based
• Easy Xcopy deployment, with no need to configure outside dependencies

Summary

In the end, the ease of use and extensive flexibility of the wiki format made this an easy decision.  Our priority was to update our help on a real-time basis with a minimum of frustration for our internal staff, and those goals were best achieved by converting our help from RoboHelp to a wiki.