When a new chief information officer joined the university several years ago, he immediately recognized the need to provide broader support for the university community—and the student body in particular—in line with Boise State’s growing emphasis on the student experience. That led to a search for a remote support solution that could support users with Windows or Mac OS X operating systems and serve users outside the university network.
“Our new CIO drove the initiative to transform our IT support to a ‘students first’ approach,” said Peter Jurhs, desktop support manager for Boise State. “We opened walk-in support locations for students, but knew we also needed a robust remote support solution that could support Macs as well as PCs, because approximately 30-40 percent of our students use Macs and we were struggling to support Mac OS X clients at the time.”
Previously, the university’s IT department provided remote support for university-owned computers primarily used by Boise State’s faculty and staff. Additionally, the help desk provided limited support to students using computers with a Windows operating system. The remote support tool in use at the time was cumbersome for the support technicians to use and only allowed them to support devices on the university’s network. The IT support department could not fully assist faculty, staff and students working off campus.
While at a conference, Boise State’s Director of Customer Care for the IT department saw a demonstration of the Bomgar appliance. He knew it had the capabilities the IT team needed to carry out its new mission, as it
provided robust support for a wide range of operating systems and easy connectivity to devices on any network. The university immediately purchased a Bomgar B200 appliance.
