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Kaiser Permanente Enhances IT Support Capabilities with BomgarFeb 05, 2013 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Bomgar, a provider of secure remote support solutions, announced that Kaiser Permanente is using the Bomgar remote support solution to provide technology support to employees across the country. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente is a not-for-profit health plans, serving more than 9 million members. In addition to its health plan, the organization operates 37 hospitals, more than 600 medical offices and other outpatient facilities as well as conducts clinical research ad health education programs. According to a release, Kaiser Permanente's division of research has more than 600 employees with approximately 60 principal investigators responsible for hundreds of research projects on a variety of subjects, including clinical trials and program evaluations covering numerous diseases and health issues. Headquartered in Oakland, California, the department's research teams work in a variety of locations across the country, collaborating with researchers in other parts of Kaiser Permanente's organization and with numerous academic institutions. Prior to Bomgar, the IT support staff for the Division of Research had to travel to a desktop user's location or ask laptop users to bring in their computer to fix support issues. Users not located near headquarters were burdened with having to mail a broken or malfunctioning device to the support staff if they needed assistance. "Our division has a very large remote workforce because so many of our investigators are out in the field meeting with patients and working with others on clinical research projects," said Richard Navarro, director of IT operations for the Division of Research. Both former methods of tech support were time-consuming and costly, and IT staff did not have an adequate way to collaborate with peers in other parts of the organization to resolve problems. After coming on board with Kaiser, Navarro quickly realized that a remote support solution was what the support team needed. Navarro and his team of 28 IT service staff evaluated a number of remote support solutions, including Bomgar. "The team attempted to use remote support tools before I joined the organization, but found them to be very unreliable when it came to establishing a connection. Certainly, then, one of our main requirements was reliability. An equally important requirement was that the solution needed to be secure, because Kaiser takes security very seriously. And lastly, we wanted an easy-to-use interface for our end-users." Of the remote support solutions evaluated, only Bomgar met all of the IT department's requirements. Bomgar's user interface and ability to enable collaboration set the solution apart. "We really like that all users have to do is visit a website or receive an email and click on a link to begin a support session," Navarro said. "Some of the other solutions required users to follow a set of instructions to change administrative privileges or download software." Bomgar has improved the IT department's ability to serve its user base. "One of the biggest benefits is that we no longer have to ask people to drive to our facility in Oakland or ship their computer to us when they need support. We can just connect to their machine remotely and help them," Navarro said. "The ability to collaborate with remote peers is now also possible thanks to Bomgar. There are times when our team needs to access the expertise of our national service desk or an engineer in another part of our organization. In the past, we used WebEx or found some other way to get them involved in real time. Now, we can quickly invite any expert or outside vendor to join a session." Bomgar provides remote support solutions for securely supporting computing systems and mobile devices. More information: bomgar.com ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected])) |