Help Lightning Pitches Remote Expertise Solution During COVID-19 Pandemic

tablet's camera for remote troubleshooting. The solution uses merged reality, where objects from virtual and real worlds are merged and interact. Giffin focused an iPad camera on the rear panel of a router to simulate a connection to a technician located far away. The Help Lightning option “allows you to be virtually with them,” Giffin told us. Unlike remote support programs that take over a customer’s screen, Remote Expertise guides customers on their screen to physical actions such as turning a dial or unplugging a wire and plugging it in elsewhere, he said. The tech and the customer can circle problem spots to better identify issues, he said. Sessions are recorded so customers can go back to them later. They can also take snapshots that are stored on the local device and in the cloud. Integrators buy one license for each tech on staff at $360 per year; dealers can pass on the costs or not to their customers, Giffin said. The solution is available at a time when integrators have been looking for ways to minimize expensive truck rolls and improve productivity of technicians, whose average productivity rate is just under 60% due to travel time: “For every 10 hours they work, they’re working six that they can bill,” Giffin said. In the coronavirus period, it's especially important to have a virtual tech house call as customers don’t want to open their homes to outsiders, he said.