Lots of new consumer tech support announcements

We just issued a press release on Tuesday with updated revenue estimates for consumer-oriented technical support services. By some coincidence, this week and last were full of announcements and news regarding new entrants into this space:

• On July 13, Flextronics announced that is was resurrecting Firedog as a consumer and business-oriented technical support service.
• On Wednesday, Tech Support for Dummies, a new remote service with both one-time and subscription offerings, was announced.
• In Thursday's Wall Street Journal, there is a review of four remote tech support services - AskDrTech.com, AskPCExperts.com, BoxAid.com, and ComputerGeeksOnline.net.

Revenues for Professional Tech Support to exceed $2 Billion by 2013

Parks Associates finds consumer use of tech support tripled since 2006, creating opportunities for service providers, retailers, and third-party providers --

The number of U.S. broadband households seeking professional services for computer and networking problems has tripled since 2006, as more users lack the time and expertise to deal with the complications of today’s technology, according to Customer Support in the Digital Home.

This 2009 consumer survey from international research firm Parks Associates reports more than 30% of consumers have used in-store or in-home technical support to solve a computer problem, up from 10% in 2006. Fifteen percent of consumers have used professional tech support for home networking problems, up from 6% in 2006. Parks Associates forecasts U.S. revenues for PC and home networking troubleshooting services will exceed $2 billion due in large part to growing consumer demand and increased prevalence of connected devices.

Customer Support in the Digital Home reports that service providers can enhance their service portfolios through such offerings as managed security, enhanced technical support, and online backup. Value retailers can enhance their standing by creating service programs that go beyond extended warranties to include ongoing support for purchased and installed products.

Customer Support in the Digital Home is a 2009 survey of over 2,000 U.S. broadband households. It covers the following topics:

• Analysis of tech support experiences and services from service providers• Tech support features at the time of a consumer electronics purchase
• Consumer experience and interest in tech support services that include enhanced Internet security, online backup, home computer, and home networking
• Consumer interest in new, emerging home networking features

The CONNECTIONS™ conference, June 2-4, features a Support and Management track, including the panel Remote Technical Support.

For registration, or to request a press pass, visit http://www.connectionsconference.com/.

Bomgar's remote support solutions

It had been awhile since I talked to the folks at Bomgar, a company that specializes in "appliance-based software for virtual support." However, I got caught up with them on Monday and got an interesting update.

When you look at enterprise or consumer-based PC and other technology support services, companies such as iYogi and PlumChoice (I'm mentioning them because they use Bomgar's solution to establish remote desktop control of PCs), there are a number of options they have in initiating remote connections. They can develop the solution in-house or they can work with companies such as CA (SupportBridge), GoToAssist (Citrix), GoToMyPC, Kaseya, LogMeIn Rescue, SingleClick Systems (I had mentioned them in an earlier blog referencing the Dell Remote Access solution, TeamViewer, and WebEx Support Center (which is owned by Cisco).

It'll be interesting to evaluate these different solutions. In some early conversations, some remote support vendors have told us that their early evaluations of remote solutions providers focused on "attended" versus "unattended" support solutions. Attended solutions required an end-user to be present to download a remote connection client and be present during a remote support service. For providers of subscription-based PC tune-up services that use agents at scheduled times (sometimes in the middle of the night), an attended wasn't feasible, except for break/fix type of incidents.

Today, the key differentiators appear to be multi-OS support. Bomgar's remote solution can support Windows, Apple, Linux, and Windows Mobile. I think that mobile phone/smartphone support is going to be more interesting, too. The LogMeIn Remote service, for example, supports both Windows Mobile and Symbian.