One of the biggest challenges facing SMBs is the lack of reliable, affordable IT tech support — especially for companies on the smaller side of the SMB continuum — from sole proprietors up to 10 employees. Typically, this underserved population sits on hold waiting for telephone tech support, relies on its one tech-savvy employee, pays for on-site visits from a local PC shop or disconnects their equipment and takes it in for repair.
PlumChoice, a Bedford, Massachusetts-based company, aims to give small business owners a better option. The company uses desktop-sharing technology to repair your computer or resolve your software problems over the Internet. Once you establish an Internet connection with a PlumChoice technician, you literally sit back in your chair and watch the technician repair your PC.
According to Ted Werth, the company's president, there's a real need for this type of service. "The small mom-and-pop companies are a fragmented market, and until now there hasn't been anyone filling that service need, he said. "Big companies like Dell, Microsoft and Symantec only support their own products, and small businesses often get caught in the middle."
Fix It Now
The majority of PlumChoice's 8,000 customers (in all 50 states) receive their support online, although the company also provides both on-site and drop-off service through their partner network. Werth said that spyware accounts for 45 percent of the technical problems their customers encounter while viruses cause 15 percent of the problems.
Here's how it works. You call PlumChoice to make an appointment, or you can go to the Website and schedule a time online. Werth said the typical waiting time for an appointment is one hour. A technician will call you at the appointed time and initiate the online connection.
Before the final connection, an on-screen message pops up advising you to close any open windows or applications containing data that you don't what the technician to see. While the technician can see anything you can see on your desktop, he can't go digging into your hard drive and look at — or mess with — your data.
You also retain control over your mouse and keyboard. Other security measures include 128-bit SSL encryption. The technician can't reconnect with your PC once you terminate your connection. You would have to initiate a new connect sequence.
PlumChoice provides the following technical services whether you're at the office, on the road or working from home:
- Fix e-mail and software problems
- Stop pop-ups and remove adware/spyware
- Install home and small business networks
- Locate and remove viruses and install anti-virus software
- Locate missing files
- Fix printer, scanner, digital camera and other peripheral problems
- Speed up your computer and increase performance
- Perform standard maintenance, Windows updates/patches
- Install new software and hardware
- Assist in data back-up processes
- Set-up secure wireless networks
- Provide training or take you shopping online
- Fix error messages or frozen screens
In the event that you can't access the Internet — whether due to networking problems or a computer crash — PlumChoice will spend up to 15 minutes on the phone with you (for free) to try and diagnose the issue and get you back online. If that's not possible, they'll suggest a technician visit you on site.
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Online Support — PlumChoice technicians can repair computer, software, hardware and networking problems over the Internet — while you sit back and watch.
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Werth noted that what differentiates PlumChoice from typical tech support is that their technicians do the work for you. "But we go beyond just doing the work," he said. "We provide a high level of customer service. We talk with you on the phone, we explain what happened and everything we're doing to fix the problem, and we also tell you how to protect your PC to keep it from happening again."
Real-World Testing
We set up an appointment with PlumChoice find out why one of our PCs was using over 90 percent of its CPU capability — even when it wasn't running any applications. It shouldn't have been using any more than five percent.
As advertised, the technician — John — called at the scheduled time, and he initiated our session. Once we were connected, John advised us to just sit back and watch. The first thing John did was to check the system registry to make sure it wasn't overloaded with spyware or adware that can sometimes bring a computer's performance to its knees. The registry was fine.
Next, he did a search for temporary files, cookies and history files —also known to slow down a PC. He found 208 MB of files that he cleaned out using a utility called CCleaner — and he advised that we run the utility once a week to avoid that kind of unnecessary build-up.
According to Ted Werth, PlumChoice is careful not to spend more time than necessary working on your PC — in order to keep the cost to the customer down. It turns out that's not just lip service. As John prepared to run the CCLeaner utility, he said the program would take about 15 minutes to work, and that he would hang up and call back after the program had finished — and he did.
Even after cleaning out the old files, the PC was still using 90 percent of the CPU's capabilities. John then checked the processor speed and found the culprit — the five-year-old PC's 600MHz, Pentium III processor just squeaked under Microsoft's minimum requirement for running Windows XP; time to buy a new PC.
| Plan |
Terms |
Hourly Rate |
Hours in Plan |
| Basic |
$23 per 15 min., pay-as-you-go
|
$80.00
|
Flexible
|
| Individual
|
$24.95 per month
|
$49.90
|
6 per year
|
| Savings
|
Pre-purchase (3 hours for $225)
Pre-purchase (5 hours for $365)
|
$75.00
$73.00
|
3
5
|
| Premium
|
$99.95 per month
|
$66.63
|
18 per year
|
How Much Does it Cost?
The company offers a range of pricing plans, but the basic rate for an individual with a single computer is $23 for 15 minutes or a discounted $80 for one hour. Don't worry if you don't use all of your time at once, the company lets the time you buy accrue so you can use it at a later date.
Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com
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