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PlumChoice picks a much-needed help niche
with online PC support |
| 10/25/2004 07:40 AM |
| By Christina
Torode |
PlumChoice Computer Help is taking
over. … literally.
The company has developed technology that
virtually takes over home users’ or small business owners’ laptops
and desktop PCs to resolve technical problems.
Using secure
encrypted technology based on Citrix’s GoToAssist remote support
solution, PlumChoice’s certified on-line technicians take over a
customer’s mouse and either resolve a problem or guide the user
through the resolution process.
Most users opt to talk to the
technician while a problem is being resolved, although a chat
session is also available.
“If we can’t solve the problem we
have a national partner, GeeksOnTime, go on location, but we are
able to resolve problems 85 percent of the time,” said Ted Werth,
founder and president of PlumChoice.
About 30 percent of
PlumChoice’s business is generated from discovering and eradicating
viruses.
The service has obviously hit home with home and
small-business users, whose other options are paying hefty on-site
technician fees, relying on a friend or colleague to fix a problem
or hanging on the support line of one of the large
vendors.
As of October, PlumChoice had several thousand
customers and received seed funding this past summer. The company is
currently pursuing additional funding and for competitive reasons
would not disclose its actual customer count.
“We are first
out of the gate with this type of solution and approach and are now
starting to see other startups pop up,” said Susan Cooney, vice
president of marketing for PlumChoice. “We really only have two
other competitors at the moment. YourTechOnline and Tech24 that
mostly provides on-line resolution via chat sessions, versus having
a live person on the phone.”
In addition to thousands of
customers, PlumChoice has signed partnerships with several
organizations that want to sell the service to their own
customers.
One such partner is MasterCard International out
of Purchase, N.Y. Under its MasterCard Working for Small Business
program, credit card holders get an exclusive offer of 50 percent
off the first 30 minutes of the PlumChoice support
service.
“We had travel and retail offerings for our small
business customers, but nothing like this,” said Lorraine
Moneypenny, manager of global marketing programs for MasterCard
International. “We knew it would appeal to our small business
customers, who most likely don’t have anyone on staff to fix their
PCs, or an affordable support program.”
PlumChoice is priced
for the small- to medium-size business and home user market with
several packages, ranging from $24.95 per month to $199.95
monthly.
“We bill out for 15-minute intervals because in many
cases we can resolve many problems in that time frame, like their
when e-mail no longer works or the printer won’t print,” Werth said.
“And we’ve tried to make the service as flexible as possible where
they can buy blocks of time or a plan.”
Users also have the
option to take back control from PlumChoice by clicking on an exit
button if they want the session to end. The connection is
immediately terminated, but Werth assures that the live connection
is secure at all times.
The desktop streaming component of
the service is encrypted and uses an SSL server access point, using
128-bit encryption. Every customer connection is uniquely keyed for
that session via the end-to-end Advanced Encryption Standard.
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