ARD for me is based on a LAN, but can be used over WAN via VPN, but the latency makes ARD a less ideal tool. There are other cross platform tools that can do what ARD does which to me add value when managing a mixed environment
We were previously using another remote support solution, but when their pricing increased significantly, we began looking for alternatives. That’s when we discovered Zoho Assist. It offers the same level of functionality and reliability as our previous provider—at a much more reasonable cost. I have already recommended Zoho Assist to multiple other IT professionals.
One user's computer screen is black, no task bar and start button, after system crush, Unattended Access help me remote control it and use tools under quick Launch to change system settings and created new account for the user, so she can work few hours later.
One user computer need help vpn setup but it is not on Unattended Access list, so I create a temporarily Remote Support session, send the link to him by WhatsApp, after he download and install agent, I can connect and remote control it.
Sometimes user computer has randomly happening issue, I will connect it by Zoho Assist, record the remote screen, then will catch the issue and know it's triggered
sometimes I use video chat as a meeting tool with users
The file transfer by web client is useful for me, most of time is to upload files into user computer when it is not able to access our network drive
Improve connection times, especially when I'm on the move and the areas that I go to have low bandwidth, which affect the performance of Zoho Assist in my device.
Allow Zoho Assist to be integrated to other applications
It is a fairly unique tool in the level of integration it has with Apple Desktop products. It definitely needs some engineering attention, and it should be expanded to the iOS arena. It is not perfect, but it is very useful and fills an otherwise fairly empty niche in the support toolkit realm. The built-in screen sharing app in macOS handles the direct screen control or viewing function fairly well, but it does not have all of the other mass control features that Apple Remote Desktop supplies.
Once it is set up, it is quite straightforward to use. However, currently, it requires both a script to run to set up permissions and controls, AND a command from the MDM to authorize it to be active. The MDM management command is manual. This is not conducive to an automated workflow, and sometimes gets forgotten. Then, the endpoint is not contactable until someone realizes that the MDM command was not sent or was not successful.
The system works. It is well designed and implemented. If the product didn't work, I wouldn't waste my time or my resources on it, but it does. When I connect to a system, it is as if I am at my clients location, sitting at their keyboard. It just works.
Support is terrible. Quick to initially respond with the boilerplate "The information provided by you should be sufficient for my development team to analyse this further. I shall also write back to you as soon as I get an update from them on this regard." And then you will hear nothing more from them. Chase further and you'll get stock responses such as "Our development team are still looking into this," etc.
I would feel much more comfortable having one of these alternative solutions as our Remote Desktop management tools. Each has their drawbacks and expenses associated with them, but we simply have too large of a deployment to not be considering alternatives. If it is the only solution you can afford, it is OK to start here. I could see where this would have a return on investment, but it is really only suitable for a very small and localized scale. If employees are at all mobile, the duct taping of products necessary (VPN, distribution points, script repositories) would be very cumbersome.
We also evaluated Intune remote support offering and TeamViewer. Those two performed worse than Zoho Assist, despite being more expensive, and their multi-platform support didn't match Zoho Assist either. So choosing the latter was a no-brainer for us.
Apple Remote Desktop has a positive return on investment because for the expense to the school, the value it brings to teachers is important. The return on improved student performance is very difficult to measure financially, but there is a definite return.
The overall objective of education is to increase student learning, ARD does that phenomenally. Parents see the tool used and are impressed at what the capabilities of the tool can do and how it impacts how active their students are as well as how well they can learn.
One negative impact is that teachers rely too much on this tool rather than on actually teaching sometimes.
Using Zoho Assist has saved us hundreds of dollars in remote support fees.
The ability to give remote support has not only saved our IT department time and money, but has impacted every department in our organization.
Remote support has allowed us to keep our IT staffing costs low. Instead of hiring more people to move around and manage the flow across the organization, less people can manage more and "be in more than one place at a time".
