How NetManage Reduces Support Costs for Chameleon^™ Connectivity Software

In terms of software applications, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is the actual cost associated with the selection, purchase, installation, maintenance, deployment and support, and hidden costs of software applications. The initial purchase price of a software package is actually only a small percentage of the total cost to the company that deploys the application.

Organizations (large and small) are concerned about the total cost-of-ownership of software because it directly impacts the bottom line of the company, both directly through budgeted costs and hidden costs. In either case, reduction of TCO is key to the long-term success of software deployment, both in terms of cost savings and increased productivity. In today’s competitive marketplace every advantage a company can get over the competition is important, and reduced TCO is a definite advantage.

Outside of the acquisition costs, there are three major areas that impact the cost of ownership: support, administration and installation. In a typical software deployment situation, these three areas make up 75% of the total-cost-of-ownership. According to the Gartner Group, the cost of support alone, for a PC-to-Host connectivity solution, can be as much as 45% of the overall cost associated with the deployment of the solution. Support, while including help desk or support contract costs, also includes such factors as training and downtime costs associated with product problems, user errors, misconfiguration, etc. It is important that companies take the cost of software support into consideration when evaluating software solutions, in particular when it accounts for so much of the overall cost of deployment. As support is the largest single component in the total-cost-of-ownership, Chameleon^™ users will appreciate that NetManage has invested in improving product supportability.

Unlike our competitors, NetManage recognizes the impact support has on IS budgets and is ready to help. The company has invested in a worldwide support organization staffed by a professional technical team. Our flagship products, Chameleon UNIX^® Link and Chameleon HostLink^™ are unique in that they offer built in support tools. This includes NetManage’s Support Wizard a built-in support tool, which automatically gathers application-related files and system configuration data, log files and screen shots of problem procedures, and sends this information with a support request to NetManage’s Support Center.

Now NetManage has taken support one step further. Chameleon UNIX^® Link and Chameleon HostLink include the powerful new SupportNow^™ feature. SupportNow lets you get real-time hands-on help over the Internet from NetManage’s experienced team of support professionals. It is a real-time software support tool designed to provide quicker, more effective interactive technical support over the Internet, Intranet or Extranet. You no longer need to spend valuable time describing what your screen looks like, because the NetManage Support Representative literally sees your application window.

SupportNow makes software support easy and fast while guaranteeing your privacy. It lowers software ownership costs and improves your connectivity experience by reducing the duration and number of support calls. Using NetManage’s SupportNow and Support Wizard tools drastically reduces your software problem resolution times.

Instead of trying to explain problems and follow instructions over the telephone, you can directly share application screens, files, and application specific data—the vital information that software support professionals require for precise, efficient diagnosis and response.

SupportNow is intended to enhance support once a telephone support call is established with your local NetManage’s Support Center. The SupportNow Wizard collects files and additional information that a NetManage Support Representative needs to analyze the problem. When the NetManage Support Representative determines that an interactive support session is needed, you will be asked to choose the SupportNow command from the Help menu. SupportNow establishes a Support-Channel between your computer and NetManage Support, and the Support Representative can immediately see your application’s window—the adage, "A picture is worth a thousand words" becomes true for the Support Representative. Diagnosis is much faster this way. You can continue to talk to NetManage’s Support Representative over the telephone during the session; you also have the option of communicating in an onscreen text-only Chat window.

Once you share your application with the Support Representative, they are not only allowed to see your problem they can often fix it by remotely interacting with it. If the Support Representative needs to see the entire desktop you can simply give them full desktop access with one click. Because you can view the corrective action taken by the Support Representative as it happens you are educated in the process. SupportNow will enable you to get better and quicker support by reducing the call length time and reducing repeat calls.

SupportNow has the added benefit of reducing your system administrator’s involvement in support calls. Typically, you are asked to send certain files to the support center before the Support Representative can solve the problem. Often, this means requesting help from your system administrator to figure out where to find the correct files. The built-in support tools not only collect all the necessary files and system data from your system without any extra effort on your part, but, if necessary, they allow the Support Representative to interact with your system to find and gather any necessary files or information in real time.

In addition, as you watch the Support Representative work with your application, you can take the opportunity to learn more about the application’s features.

If the NetManage Support Representative feels another expert is needed to help solve your problem, it’s easy to transfer a SupportNow call to another engineer, or even ask the engineer to join the existing session. In other words, two or more Support Representatives can view your application in real time to bring about a quick resolution.

The SupportNow model leaves you in total control of access. If the default SupportNow access setting for your application is Read Only, the NetManage Support Representative must ask you to grant access to your application—or even access to the your Windows 95 or NT desktop. In either case, it’s simply one mouse click to do so. You can change the access rights back to Read Only at any time during the session.

SupportNow also solves firewall access problems by allowing you to connect to NetManage’s Support Center using only an outgoing connection. Your organization does not need to open any incoming ports to take advantage of SupportNow, thus protecting the integrity of the organization’s network.

Disconnecting a session is as simple as the click of a button. You can close the SupportNow connection at any time, providing you with complete control over the privacy of your session.

SupportNow is completely language-independent. Just contact the nearest local NetManage Support Center by phone—whether in France, the U.K, Germany, the U.S., or any other NetManage location—and you will be able to quickly establish a SupportNow session, almost effortlessly.

To illustrate the possible savings, say NetManage can save your administrator at least 4 trips to a PC desktop per year using Support Wizard and SupportNow tools. If the average cost per visit to a desktop is $50. $50 x 4 = $200 per year per desktop. If your company has 1,000 desktops you save $200,000.

SupportNow is integrated into the Help systems of both Chameleon UNIX^® Link and Chameleon HostLink to give you real-time software support capability with NetManage Support Representatives.

For more information on pricing and delivery contact contact Bomara Associates or call 1-800-5BOMARA or (978)-252-2299.

SupportNow can also be customized to send support calls to an organizations internal help-desk using the SupportNow Server package (available separately). For more information on this product, contact Bomara Associates or call 1-800-5BOMARA or (978)-252-2299.