This is a 3 part series. Part 1 will explain Unattended Support, Part 2 will take you through the steps of setting up Unattended Support on a client computer, and Part 3 will discuss the security issues and best practices to follow when using Unattended Support.

I regularly read feedback from our beta testers and have heard many great things about our Unattended Support feature. But I also know from doing webinars using GoToWebinar that some folks don’t know about this feature — they learn about it in the webinar and then get really excited. I thought I’d take a minute to share some insight about Unattended Support in GoToAssist Express.

First of all, the phrase “unattended support” can sound a little odd at first - atleast it did to me with my marketing background. What exactly does it mean? Well, we debated this internally quite a bit and came to the conclusion that it is the opposite of “attended” support or “live” support.  When you are in a live support session with your external or internal customers, you are in an attended session. You and your client are sitting at the computer on each end, looking at the screen and interacting on the phone or in a chat.

When you are in an “unattended session”, your client will not be present and you can work on their computer while they are away. For those of you who used GoToMyPC, this is very similar to how you would remotely access your PC only in this case, you are remotely access your client’s PC (unattended is not available for the Mac currently.)

Unattended Support is completely permission-based, your clients must approve the unattended deployment to their local machine and grant you access. You would then create a special access code for that machine. Your client will always know when you are in and unattended session with their computer — they remain in control and can block you, disconnect you, or uninstall it altogether.

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to your account on the beta Web site and click the link for the forum to log in to the Beta Forum.

We recently conducted a survey with a pool of beta participants, all survey respondents were entered into a drawing for a Flip Mino Camcorder. And the winner is…

Odell Anderson from Columbus, Ohio.

Odell works at Expesite as a Client Support Analyst. He has been a beta tester since January 2008. He used GoToAssist Express to trouble shoot software issues with clients and also for training purposes. When asked what his favorite feature is, Odell says “The computer diagnostics portion. That is pretty much awesome!”

Congrats Odell, and thanks for all your help on the beta!

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to your account on the beta Web site and click the link for the forum to log in to the Beta Forum.

GoToAssist Express was just updated to a new version, build 128! New features that were just added to the product are:

Bug Fixes - As always, we fixed a lot of bugs. As beta testers, your feedback on these has been extremely valuable!

For a complete list of what was released, please visit our release notes at: http://blog.gotoassist.com/release-notes

More features are coming soon and will posted on the blog, so keep checking back!

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to the Beta Forum at forums.gotoassist.com.

There are a couple of ways to set up you preferences so you can either leave no footprint on your client computers or leave one and gain lighting fast entry into your next session with your client. Here is how it works:

Leave no footprint

GoToAssist Express allows you to remove any sort of leave behind on your customers’ / employees’ desktops – you can follow these instructions if you want to leave no footprints.

1 - Right-click the GoToAssist Express icon in your system tray.
2 - Select Preferences.
3 - Check the box in the “Uninstall” section.

Leave a footprint and get into sessions faster

As a default, GoToAssist Express will remain on your clients’ computers and there will be an icon left on the desktop for fast entry into session. Next time you want to connect to that client, just tell them to double-click the GoToAssist Express icon and enter the 9 digit support key – this very convenient for folks you help all the time.

GoToAssist Express Desktop Icon and window.

This is the default so you don’t have to do anything. Simply make sure this box is checked in your Preferences menu and the desktop icon will appear. Of course the customer can delete it at any time if they want. If you want to ensure you have the Desktop Icon activated, follow these steps: 

1 - Right-click the GoToAssist Express icon in your system tray.
2 - Select Preferences.
3 - Uncheck the box in the “Uninstall” section.

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to your account on the beta Web site and click the link for the forum to log in to the Beta Forum.

A few of you have posted feedback or talked in the forums asking what the system requirements are for GoToAssist Express. Our Beta User Guide always has the most up-to-date information on system requirements and the product in general.

It can be found here: http://blog.gotoassist.com/beta-user-guide

Thanks everyone, and keep the feedback coming!

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to the Beta Forum at forums.gotoassist.com.

GoToAssist Express was just updated to a new version, build 122! New features that were just added to the product are:

Copy & Paste - You can now copy and paste text between your computer and your customer’s computer.

Multi-Monitor Support - A number of improvements were made to enhance multi-monitor support experience.

Performance Improvements - We added a lot of performance improvements which should be noticeable right away.

Bug Fixes - As always, we fixed a lot of bugs. As beta testers, your feedback on these has been extremely valuable!

For a complete list of what was released, please visit our release notes at: http://blog.gotoassist.com/release-notes

More features are coming soon and will posted on the blog, so keep checking back!

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to the Beta Forum at forums.gotoassist.com.

We are exhibiting at the following conferences. If you are attending, please stop by and say hello!

HDI Service Management 2008 Conference & Expo
October 15-17, Miami, Florida

SSPA Services Leadership Conference
“Winning Service Strategies in a Shifting Global Economy”
October 20-22, Las Vegas, Nevada

Sage Summit
November 17-20, Denver, Colorado

And I’ll be attending the MSPA Summit in Chicago, if you are in Chicago, let me know and we can meet up.

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to your account on the beta website and click the link for the forum to login to the Beta Forum.

Acquiring new clients is only half the battle for businesses – holding on to them and growing them counts, too. Check out this partial list of 10 tips for improving your client relationship from the TechRepublic blog.

·      Have a clear contract with your client. The better the client understands your role, the better they’ll feel about the relationship.

·      Be willing to say no. In many cases, clients ask you to do things beyond your capabilities or interests. When these new requests are outside the contract agreement, don’t be afraid to say, “I’m just not qualified to perform this service.”

·      Be willing to say yes. After weighing the opportunity the client offers you, say yes to the jobs that are within your capability but will require you to work a little harder than usual. The more work you do on the client’s behalf, the more valuable you become.

·      Be a problem solver. Sometimes your activities allow you to see things that can be helpful to the client. Weigh these opportunities, and when appropriate, help (or offer to help) the client solve the problem – even if they didn’t know the problem existed.

·      Stay focused. When you deliver what you promised, on time, you build your credibility and enhance your relationships.

Yep, that’s just 5 out of 10. Check out the complete list at Tech Republic.

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to the Beta Forum at forums.gotoassist.com.

I’ve seen lots of feedback from beta testers about the mouse trailing (it was bugging me too). So I’ve done my research and it is a setting in your preferences that you can change to turn off the mouse trailing.

Here are the steps for turning off (or on) the mouse trailing.
1) Go to the system tray in the bottom right hand corner of your monitor.

2) Right-Click on the GoToAssist Express icon, select preferences

3) From the menu on the left, select “Screen Sharing”

4) Uncheck the “Show remote cursor” box. This will disable the Mouse Trailing function.

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to your account on the beta website and click the link for the forum to login to the Beta Forum.

I have heard from many of you in the forums asking about our next update to GoToAssist Express. While it has been a while since our last update, have no fear! We have another update coming just around the corner with lots of new feature enhancements and stability improvements.

So stay tuned! More to come real soon!

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to your account on the beta website and click the link for the forum to login to the Beta Forum.