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University chooses Bomgar solution [Mississippi Business Journal, The (MS)](Mississippi Business Journal, The (MS) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) JACKSON - La Salle University centralized its IT help desk efforts and processes with Bomgar's secure remote support solution. La Salle offers more than 40 undergraduate majors, 15 minors, 15 graduate programs, and serves a total University student body of more than 7,300 students. The University consists of the main campus in Philadelphia, two satellite campuses in Bucks County and Montgomery County (both in Pennsylvania), as well as online courses and international programs in Greece, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Prior to implementing Bomgar, La Salle support technicians were receiving more than 1,000 calls per month. With a staff of seven support technicians, and a growing number of faculty and students to support, the university needed a way to affordably expand its IT support capabilities. "Our main campus is quite spread out, and we just acquired a hospital and some additional real estate at the far end of campus," said Ed Nickerson, chief information officer for La Salle. "Having a technician based on one side of campus trying to service classrooms that may be a 15 minute walk away can be problematic, particularly early in the morning or in the evening when we only have one person fielding calls." Nickerson added that the growing online and international programs presented another challenge - there was a need to support those remote users as well. "A phone call away isn't always possible in incidents such as these. Having the ability to log on to their system remotely can help to more quickly solve their issue," he explained. La Salle needed a remote support solution that would work with a wide variety of multiple platforms and devices. According to Nickerson, around 50 percent of this year's freshman students brought Mac computers to school. As a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment, the university does not standardize on any single technology for anyone on campus, whether faculty members or students. Bomgar turned out to be the solution that best fit La Salle's remote support needs. With the Bomgar solution, La Salle's support technicians can now securely support Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems as well as Blackberry, Android smartphones and tablets, iPhones and iPads, and Windows Mobile devices, no matter where they are in the world. (c) 2012 Mississippi Business Journal |