January 2003

Downtime is a very costly factor that is often overlooked by businesses. Even if downtime is considered, sometimes the optimal solution to minimize downtime is not deployed. For organizations that depend on technology for their business, employee downtime and customer downtime mean lost productivity and revenue. Call centers and help desks in particular need to streamline their support processes, reduce their cost-per-call and resolve technical problems quickly and efficiently.

One of the most optimal solutions in minimizing downtime is through the use of collaborative software that allows a technician to remotely control a user's desktop screen to pinpoint and troubleshoot problems. Netopia's eCare is one such solution. It is completely browser-based and facilitates real-time interaction between a company's help desk and its customers. It features not only desktop remote control, but also file-sharing, live view co-browsing, dynamic chat and URL push. eCare is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh operating systems, and is offered by Netopia as having the thinnest remote-control client available at 400K. Also, Netopia's eCare is available both as a hosted product through a monthly subscription fee or as a site-server deployment. Netopia also offers customization and integration packages. For our tests, we used the hosted model via one of Netopia's test sites.

Operational Testing
Security. All data passed between the remote desktop and the support agent can be encrypted for secure data transfer using SSL, ensuring the secure transmission of passwords. Also, all eCare communication happens over HTTP (port 80) and HTTPS (port 443), so there is no need for customers to reconfigure their firewalls in order to use the eCare system.

In addition, first-priority control over the mouse and keyboard is given to customers, enabling them to override mouse or keyboard actions taken by agents, with the ability to shut down the remote control session if needed. Another nice security feature of the eCare solution is that it doesn't leave any 'back doors' on the client PCs for hackers to break into. Also, with their forthcoming Java client (release date is March 2003), there will be no permanent footprint on the hard drive whatsoever to truly alleviate the concerns of security-conscious companies. The new Java clients will also add Linux and Solaris to the list of clients supported.

When we first accessed the Web support page from a Windows XP PC, we were asked to accept an ActiveX control. (For Macs, a native client is available.) Also, a stand alone eCare installer is also available for enterprise environment blocking Java or ActiveX downloads. After downloading and installing the ActiveX control, we proceeded with our first support trouble ticket.

Our first test. We tested the software by logging on as an agent from a Web browser and then from another computer acting as the customer. We then submitted a trouble ticket via the Web browser. Support agents can then simply view a Web page with a listing of all pending requests in the support request queue. Support agents can review the queue for issues in their area of expertise and then initiate a support session by clicking on the appropriate Web link. Unresolved issues can be returned to the support request queue, where they can be highlighted and escalated for expert assistance. Netopia also provides customization to seamlessly integrate the queue with existing CRM solutions.

Then from the agent PC, we refreshed the Web page and then clicked on the new trouble ticket. Once connected, we had the ability to chat, send a file, observe each other's desktops and push Web pages, as seen in Figure 1. While chatting, eCare features 'canned responses' for common queries; these auto-replies can be customized as needed. In addition to chatting, we were able to send files from the support agent's desktop to the remote desktop very quickly.

Figure 1. A support session with chat, Web push and file transfer activity.

A new feature is the 'Asset Profiler,' which polls the remote desktop PC to pull information such as memory, running tasks, software installed and other assets of the PC. We should point out that this new Asset Profiler supports both PCs and Macs. Another improvement in the eCare product is the use of a newer SSL technology (used for encryption) that has been improved to make it faster.

Customizing available features. What's nice about eCare is that you can customize the various features that are available. For example, you can turn off chat for customers that already have a chat program deployed, especially those who already have chat logging and historical archiving capabilities. Or, if a customer does not want its agents to be able to share their screens to the remote customers, this can be turned off within the administrator Web interface. Another nice capability of the eCare solution is that it offers e-mail integration.

Screen sharing. Screen sharing is the heart and soul of the product. Using screen sharing, the support agent can resolve technology issues faster. One added benefit of screen sharing is that a support agent can help configure a password-protected piece of hardware or software at the customer's site and have the user enter the password. This way, the user does not need to remember to change the password once the screen-sharing session is completed. In addition, in March 2003, eCare will have the capability of recording and archiving the screen-sharing session. Once a session is completed, the agent has the option of e-mailing the session to the customer to allow a replay of the session if he or she forgets how to do something.

Reporting. One final important feature that ties everything together is Netopia's logging and reporting capabilities. They include features usage tracking, activity reports by agent, call statistics and other useful components. A sample report is shown in Figure 2. Overall, we were impressed with the reporting capabilities.

Figure 2. Sample eCare report.

Room For Improvement
Currently, eCare assumes a user will manually make a land-line phone call if voice interaction with the support agent is required. We have two suggestions to help improve this. First, we'd like to see the ability for the customer to enter a phone number into the trouble ticket, which is then integrated at the support agent's desktop to the phone system for automatically connecting a voice call to that phone number. TAPI, TSAPI or other telephony standards to integrate with the PBX/ACD might solve this issue. Second, we would like to see an integrated VoIP client that would allow a customer to submit a support ticket, wait for an agent to take the ticket, and then be able to not only text-chat and share desktop screens, but also talk across the Internet. The quality of VoIP now makes this a viable solution, especially across broadband, but even across a dial-up connection. In fact, TMC Labs has tested several VoIP clients across dial-up with acceptable quality.

The eCare solution features up to six different compression options that go all the way from 24-bit color (not compressed), down to 2-bit grayscale. The 2-bit low-bandwidth option is great for narrowband connections. Unfortunately, the compression algorithm is a static global setting. We think eCare should let users choose the compression algorithm before connecting the session. One way of doing this is asking the customer to enter his or her connection speed (or preferred compression algorithm) when submitting the trouble ticket and then use the appropriate algorithm accordingly. 

Conclusion
The product works as advertised and works quite well. We were quite impressed with the refresh and screen redraws. TMC Labs liked how eCare integrated trouble tickets, chat, file transfer, screen sharing (and recording by March 2003), reporting and Web push all into a single software package. TMC Labs would highly recommend eCare to any support center looking to streamline their support operations and reduce the cost-per-call.