Today, we are excited to share news that VMware Workspace ONE Assist now provides remote support for iOS and Android devices that are not enrolled in MDM. Support sessions can be started on any device via Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub. This opens up new and important use cases for BYO and contractor-owned devices, which are often not managed with MDM.
Why Intelligent Hub is great for today’s hybrid work environment
With the shift to anywhere work, organizations have struggled with adequately supporting their workforce across their devices and work locations. Workspace ONE provides flexibility to organizations to enable employees with remote support, self-service, single sign-on access to apps, enterprise news and communications, and more in a single digital workspace experience with VMware Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub.
Workspace ONE Assist
I remember reading a blog at the end of 2019 announcing the new name of our product, Workspace ONE Assist. The author (who is a friend of mine) eloquently laid out the value proposition for service desk and remote workers. Typically, I wouldn’t promote a blog that is more than two years old, but this one nails the message on the feature, function, and benefits. You can read that blog here. The short version is that Workspace ONE Assist is a comprehensive, integrated remote support solution that empowers IT service desks to remotely view or control mobile devices and laptops directly from the Workspace ONE console.
Fast forward a couple of years and it is amazing to see how on point that blog was and how relevant it still is today. Since then, remote support has become more important than ever because of the shift to hybrid and remote work. That is why we have expanded our Workspace ONE Assist capabilities to cover many more use cases. We have all been through an arduous pandemic, and some are now returning to the office, some are full-time but many are the new species of remote workers. We have heard from customers how much Assist helped them through the pandemic, and how it is a vital component of their DEX solution, delivering simplified remediation capabilities, decreasing downtime, and improving productivity.
Here are a few key features of Workspace ONE Assist that transform the digital employee experience (DEX), increase help desk efficiency, and reduce support costs:
- Launch remote support sessions for devices with Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub installed in seconds, directly from the Workspace ONE console
- View or control devices in real-time to decrease downtime and quickly assist employees with device tasks or troubleshoot and fix device, network, or app issues with file and task management tools, both on and off your network
- Highlight items and guide employees through various tasks with Screen Draw
- Notify employees when their screen is visible and enable them to pause a remote session for enhanced privacy
- Securely access and service unattended corporate-owned devices between shifts or overnight
- Easily record or capture images from remote sessions for training purposes
Assist on unmanaged devices
This brings us to the benefits of today’s news.
A unified view for service desk and IT admins is now available whether the device is a fully managed laptop or smartphone or an unmanaged iPhone, iPad, Android, or Windows device, simplifying remediation of issues with integrated remote support. This opens a myriad of Workspace ONE Assist use cases intended for personal devices, contractors, onboarding new devices, and frontline workers – a game-changer!
And again, you can leverage all the goodness of Intelligent Hub and Hub services with features like our unified application catalog, corporate directory integration, notifications and corporate communications, custom branding, employee self-service and support tab, and the custom home tab that many of our customers leverage for Intranet access. Workspace ONE enables these skillful use cases for personal devices and protects user privacy.
Many of our longtime admins know that we refer to unmanaged devices with Intelligent Hub installed as Hub Registered Mode, but if you’re not familiar with all of our different management modes, you can check out our new PDF guide.
Another great part is that while we have several options for customers to consume Intelligent Hub, our recently launched Employee Essentials SKU is perfect for enabling these contractor and BYO use cases. Read more details in the announcement from last year: Introducing VMware Workspace ONE Employee Essentials.
Workspace ONE Assist is available to all customers, whether SaaS or on-prem, including customers managing BYO devices
For more information, visit our VMware webpage for Workspace ONE Assist and check out the data sheet.
