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NAIT Institutes solution for IT Support and Training

Customer: The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
Solution: Vector IT Service Management

Overview

Robert Halonen, network analyst for Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), was faced with the formidable task of handling information system (IS) support for 2,000 employees.  To make the situation even more challenging, staff were dispersed throughout six separate campuses within Edmonton.

The Situation

Robert and his staff needed to work fast and work smart in order to keep the desktops running smoothly and efficiently. Robert’s small staff had become tired of running to get from location-to-location in order to effectively support desktop users.  Responding in a timely manner to the consistent calls for help to answer routine questions, managing desktop trouble tickets, performing software installations and upgrades, and keeping a current asset management database, were critical to the Organization’s efficiency.  However, these goals were not being met.  With numerous PCs dispersed in remote locations, it was taking days for an IS specialist to reach the problem PC and rectify a situation - no matter how simple or complex.  Users were frustrated, efficiency was bottoming out, and the IS team was overwhelmed.

The Solution

Mr. Halonen found a solution to his dilemma with Vector PC-Duo Remote Control. Empowered with Vector PC-Duo’s full featured remote capabilities, the IS team could provide hands-on remote access to the PCs used by NAIT’s administrative staff with ease -- all from their own desktops.

The Benefits

Vector PC-Duo Remote Control, along with other robust functionality from the Vector IT Service Management Solution, allowed Robert and his staff the ability to access detailed inventory of any user’s hardware configuration. They could now review virtually anything, from CPU type, speed, memory, and operating system to service pack information, printers, screen type and display driver, drive size and free space, network domain, network card, and more. 

Empowered with this information, the IS team could be remotely contacted by users in need via Vector HelpDesk and immediately respond to the call. The IS staff could control, share, show, evaluate and troubleshoot the problem PC all on the network from their own desktop. The response time went from days to minutes. "It’s the convenience of connecting to a remote machine, regardless of its location, when we have to do work," said Halonen.

"If we have to do a five-minute update on something, it saves us traveling to our remote campuses. It saves two, three, even four hours of traveling there, doing some work and coming back."  Vector PC-Duo Remote Control has become an integral training aid for the staff as well. It allows training managers to demonstrate their actions to their students with a useful ‘Show’ feature. The ‘Exhibit’ feature enables the trainer to present a student’s PC screen to any or all students using the ‘Scan’ facility, which automatically cycles through the student PC screens in turn.

Clearly, using PC-Duo has reduced NAIT’s total cost of ownership and increases their return on investment by allowing the technicians to service more desktops in less time. "It has given users a sense of security by knowing they can have somebody look at problems right away," concluded Halonen.