by Clint Adams, Fiberlink

As you know from reading this blog, I work for Fiberlink, a company that operates a “Mobility-as-a-Service” platform called MaaS360. The marketing tag line for this platform is “See. Know. Go.”

Now I am no marketing whiz, but I think that is a fantastic tag line and describes what the platform does to a tee. “See”—the discovery of endpoints and the collection of all the pertinent hardware, software and compliance data. “Know”—the Business intelligence reporting capabilities to inform and support decisions.

Then you get to the “Go” part. I got to thinking. “Go” is all about action, not data and analytics. “Go” is likely push a patch, distribute software or mitigate a security or configuration issue. These are typically automated actions related to some change required at the endpoint. “Go” is also the part of the process that may actually have some benefit for or impact on the end user of the target machine. Considering the impact on the user is an area where many workflows and solutions lack thought, and end user needs can get lost in the rush to use automated methods to manage endpoints. It is important to not lose sight of what the goals of Endpoint Management are in the first place, which are to provide a secure, efficient work environment that will allow employees to be productive, to be cost efficient and to add to the bottom line.

The “Go” part of the equation has to consider the impact on the end user, and there should also be contingencies in place for situations where the user is impacted negatively. Remote Takeover is a tool in the Endpoint Management bag of tricks that can make the “Go” part much more personal and provide the ability to remedy a situation where an automated function has not met its goals.

In this world of mobile and remote working, it is not easy for an end user to ask a coworker for help, or walk down the hall or ping the IT guy. This is where Remote Control can be very valuable and provide that personal touch to reach out and help an end user with an issue or to follow up after a change to their system. Remote Takeover allows an Endpoint Management administrator access to an endpoint’s screen, keyboard and mouse, and facilitates a range of actions that can go from coaching the user on various activities to repairing configuration issues that were not resolved using other “Go” tools. 

Maybe you view Remote Takeover as a last resort. You might want to think about Remote Takeover as an opportunity to interact with end users in a personal way in an ever increasingly detached world.