Knowledge 2019 – What we heard from Help Desk Professionals

We spoke with several help desk & service desk professionals who use ServiceNow’s Incident Management tool at Knowledge 2019. Here are a few of the trends we heard.

Splashtop recently sponsored and exhibited at Knowledge 2019, ServiceNow’s annual conference and expo. More than 20,000 attendees (mostly ServiceNow users) from small to large sized businesses gathered for the week-long event to learn more about the ServiceNow platform and the integration partners that add value to it.

At Splashtop, we recently released a free plugin in the ServiceNow Store that lets you remotely access your clients’ computers to provide support from within a ServiceNow incident using the Splashtop SOS service. After the support session is ended, session information is automatically logged into the incident for future reference. Users do not need to have any software pre-installed to connect, you just need to send them the deployment link and once they open it you’ll be connected to their computer.

(Learn more about the Splashtop SOS integration with ServiceNow)

We spoke with several help desk / service desk professionals about our integration with ServiceNow. The attendees told us about their pain points with the ServiceNow platform and other remote support tools, and they were very interested to hear about how Splashtop can help solve those problems.

With that said, here are three things we heard from help desks pros at Knowledge 19:

Having a remote access tool to use within ServiceNow incidents is vital

Most help desk professionals we spoke with are already using a remote access tool in additional to using the ServiceNow Incident Management platform. While ServiceNow works great as a ticketing solution, users still need a remote access tool to provide support to their clients.

The advantages to having an on-demand remote support solution include quicker resolution times and reduced costs. Technicians can instantly access the computer from the incident to troubleshoot and fix the issue with remote access. This is much faster than having to travel to the user’s computer or trying to talk them through troubleshooting over the phone. This also reduces costs as technicians aren’t spending as much time to address incidents.

Since ServiceNow does not have a built-in remote access solution, help desk pros need to find another software solution to use with ServiceNow to provide remote support. As we mentioned, many of them already have. However, many of these help desk and service desk professionals aren’t happy because:

Help desks / Service desks are spending too much money on their remote support software

Purchasing remote support software with a ServiceNow integration has been an expensive burden for help desks in the past. We say “in the past” because with the new Splashtop SOS integration with ServiceNow, customers can save hundreds or thousands of dollars a year on their subscription cost.

Splashtop SOS starts at $199/year per concurrent technician. With a SOS license, you can support an unlimited number of computers and devices. For comparison, TeamViewer’s commercial plan starts at $588/year per user, GoToAssist starts at $900/year per user, LogMeIn Rescue starts at $1,299/year per user, and BeyondTrust (formerly Bomgar) can start at $1,775 or $1,995/year.

Plus, with Splashtop SOS you can also support iOS and Android devices. With many of the other products listed above, you have to pay extra for that.

There’s no reason help desks should be spending so much for their remote support tool. Splashtop SOS costs less, runs faster, and comes equipped with the top tools and features (including file transfer, session recording, multi-monitor support, and more).

Many end users don’t use the ServiceNow portal, and the SOS integration offers a great solution for that

With the ServiceNow Incident Management portal, end users can log in and submit their support requests to their help desk team. However, we heard from many visitors at Knowledge 2019 that their clients don’t use the portal. This becomes problematic for technicians when trying to remote access the client’s computer.

However, with the Splashtop SOS integration, you don’t need your end user to be logged into the ServiceNow portal to be able to remote access their computer! Here’s how it works:

Once you’re set up with Splashtop SOS and get the free plugin from the ServiceNow store, you’ll be able initiate a remote access session from within the incident in ServiceNow by clicking the “Create an SOS Download Link” button. From there you are able to send the deployment link to the end user in the best way that works for you. You can click “Share link” to generate a pre-configured email with the link, or click “Copy Link” to copy the deployment link to your clipboard and send it however you want.

Either way you do it, all the end user has to do is click the link to download the SOS agent which is automatically tied to your account. Once downloaded, you’ll be able to remote access their computer by clicking the “Connect” button. When the session is closed, the agent will be gone from the end user’s computer as if it was never there.

This simplified process makes it as easy as possible for you to provide remote support. It only takes a few clicks!

Summary

It was great meeting with service desk, help desk, and IT support professionals at Knowledge 2019. We learned a lot about their needs and we believe that Splashtop SOS offers the best remote support solution to use within ServiceNow.

Give it a try by starting a free trial below! And then make sure you download the free Splashtop SOS Integration plugin from the ServiceNow Store.