Two Heavyweights See Viability in Remote Accessing


Preaching collaboration from afar, remote access specialist Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Expertcity Inc. Tuesday picked up two major clients to use its DesktopStreaming application.


Broadband communications outfit Cox Communications and media giant Bertelsmann Services Inc. have licensed Expertcity’s tool to provide remote assistance to their customers. Financial terms were not disclosed.


The premise of the application is such that if a customer needs an issue resolved, a customer service representative trained in DesktopStreaming can hop on a PC from his or her office and access the customer’s PC from anywhere. From there, the rep may chat in real-time with customers in need, send customers Web pages, draw or type on customers’ screen, or even transfer files.


Simply, the tool can cut down the time to solve a problem by a third for its 6.2 million customers, according to Cox Communications. Cox plans to expand the implementation of DesktopStreaming to additional key Cox@Home Markets during 2001.


With respect to the degree that call representatives have experienced less traffic from frustrated customers, Bertelsmann agrees.


“For technical support it saves us time and money, as it is easier for our agents to better collaborate with customers now that they can work together on one screen using DesktopStreaming, so call times are shorter and the calls themselves are more productive,” said Markus Ramirez, Bertelsmann Services Inc. vice president of customer relationship management.


In related news Tuesday, Expertcity also added a two-way, screen-sharing feature to DesktopStreaming. With this new detail, customer service employees and customers may work on the PC problem together; they each share mouse and keyboard control.


In addition to DesktopStreaming, Expertcity.com also provides technical support to consumers via a real-time marketplace and GoToMyPC.com, a Web site that enables consumers and enterprises to remotely access and work on their PCs from any Internet location.


Founded in 1999, other Expertcity clients include Sun Microsystems Inc., Colgate-Palmolive and CompUSA.

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