Phoenix Technologies FirstWare Recover™ Goes to School
Background
NCS Technologies, headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, is a mid-tier manufacturer of PCs and a systems integrator focused on education, government, and military sectors. For the past three years, NCS has been supplying PCs to Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, the second largest charter school in Pennsylvania with over 3,200 students. Students "attend" classes from home via their PC.
Business Challenges
While the PCs are very reliable, problems can arise, requiring students to call the schools help desk. "Sixty percent or more of the support calls we receive are due to students installing or downloading things they shouldn't," says Brian Laquinta, help desk manager at the school.
Spyware, viruses, and other downloaded data can bring a PC to its knees. By the spring of 2004, the problem had become a serious concern. Attempts by the help desk to "clean up" infected hard drives over the phone might last up to two hours. Often this failed, and the technician had no alternative but to instruct the student to pack the PC in its original box and ship it back to the school where technicians could restore the image to factory condition. Students didn't always save the original packing and turned to any packaging available, which frequently led to damage in shipping. Damaged computers had to be repaired, which added cost and time. Without a PC, the student could not attend classes, and would be marked absent until the PC was returned.
As the tier-two, back-up support provider to the schools help desk, NCS was also impacted by these problems. Whenever the help desk was unable to resolve a problem, they turned to NCS's help desk. NCS was also responsible for hardware problems and repairs. "We began looking for a solution that would eliminate the need for students to ship their PCs back to the school when the problem was software related," says Mark Pancerella, sales manager with NCS.
| Benefits: |
 |
Fewer support calls and less time spent on cases |
|
|
Eliminated shipping PCs back to school for re-imaging |
|
|
Eliminated potential damage caused by shipping |
|
|
Eliminated shipping costs |
|
|
Students are back in class more quickly |
|
|
| |
Evaluation
NCS considered a number of alternatives including PC Angel, Symantec's Norton GoBack, and a hardware-based product. Then the solution presented itself to NCS when Tran Vi, contracts manager at NCS, mentioned to Pancerella a presentation he had seen at a System Builders conference for Phoenix Technologies' FirstWare Recover. NCS contacted Phoenix Technologies and received a sample copy. "It looked like a product that would meet our needs and the needs of the school, and the price was reasonable, which was important to the school," says Pancerella. "They tried it and decided to order FirstWare Recover for their new PCs shipped during the summer of 2004."
The Phoenix Solution
Phoenix Technologies' FirstWare Recover allows the Cyber School's help desk to quickly and easily restore the original factory image, including the OS and factory-installed applications, without the PC leaving the student's home. "We tell them to back up their schoolwork onto a floppy or CD and call us back," says Laquinta. "When they call back, we simply tell them to restart their computer and tap the F4 key. Once it starts to restore, we can hang up. We tell them once it comes back up, reinstall their school files, get their Internet connection back up, and they are ready to go. Phoenix Technologies' FirstWare Recover is fantastic. We couldn't be happier with it. It's easy to use and very user friendly."
The Cyber School, its students, and NCS Technologies are all benefiting from FirstWare Recover. Because PCs are restored in the students' homes, shipping is eliminated, which means no risk of damage during shipping and no shipping costs. "It's saving us all kinds of money just in shipping costs alone," says Laquinta. Software-related calls to the help desk are considerably shorter, dropping from what were often two-hour calls to as little as five minutes now. And some software problems are not being reported to the help desk at all. "I suspect some of the students that we have done this recovery procedure with once or twice are using it on their own without telling us."
Students are perhaps the biggest beneficiaries of Phoenix Technologies' FirstWare Recover. Gone are the tedious, frustrating calls to the help desk to attempt to remove or repair corrupted data--only to be told that the student must pack up the PC and send it back to the school for re-imaging. Gone is the wait for their PC to be repaired or a replacement sent, resulting in missed classes and marked absences.
NCS has also benefited. "Before FirstWare Recover, as the second-tier support we would often get involved in re-imaging issues," says Pancerrella. "Phoenix FirstWare Recover has eliminated a lot of calls to our help desk. We never get a call anymore about re-imaging."
Future Outlook
In addition to Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, NCS has equipped new PCs with Phoenix Technologies' FirstWare Recover at two additional cyber schools. "We recommended Recover to these schools based on our experience working with Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School for three years," says Pancerella. "We knew that their help desks would be quite limited and a lot of the initial support would fall on our shoulders."
Phoenix Technologies' FirstWare Recover is a valuable tool for cyber schools, as well as traditional schools, that must support hundreds of PCs remotely or on site. NCS Technologies will continue to recommend this time and cost saving solution to their education customers. |
|
"Phoenix Technologies FirstWare Recover is fantastic. We couldn't be happier with it. Its easy to use and very user friendly. Its saving us all kinds of money just in shipping costs alone."...more
Brian Laquinta,
Help Desk Manager,
Pennsylvania Cyber
Charter School
| FirstWare Recover Pro |
|
Related Products:
Related links:
| | |
