How do you prevent the spread of flu, create happier, more productive employees and "inoculate" your organization against disruption? It starts with making technology simple and adding the right organizational support. Let me explain.

The other day my eight-year-old boy, Alex, woke up complaining vaguely that he was not feeling well. He didn't have a fever, and he really didn't have other specific symptoms. At that point, I had a choice. I could send him to school and see if it went away, or I could keep him home.

Since my husband and I both work, the temptation could be to send the kids to school unless they're clearly ill. Only I didn't. At this point it's finally gotten so easy for me to seamlessly work from home at a moment's notice, there's no need to take the risk of exposing our germs to anyone else.

After getting my son to work on his homework, I logged into GoToMyPC which lets me securely view and control my office computer and work on my documents and programs as if I were sitting there in the office. I reviewed my meetings for the day, and informed the organizers I would join remotely via GoToMeeting.

Over the years, I have seen firsthand how these remote work tools have empowered myself and my husband - as well as co-workers, friends and customers who have shared their stories - to keep up with demanding jobs while balancing the rest of their lives. I helped launch GoToMyPC in 2001 then used it to work from home with a new baby. My husband could take the kids to soccer practice in the afternoon, and finish work from home at night. We're not tempted to bring our cold germs to work, and we always know we can get things done even if we're not in the office. It's no wonder work flexibility tops the list of most desired employee benefits.

Not everyone must get a vaccine for the general population to be protected so I imagine the same is true of remote work. Not everyone needs to be able to do it, but those of us "inoculated" with the ability to do so easily, at a moments notice, protect a much larger group. In so doing, we help prevent flu contagion, get work done when traffic or other disruptions threaten business, take better care of our families, and generally increase our well-being and productivity.

For organizations wanting to see these benefits, there are two potential pitfalls:

1. The key to adoption is making technology simple. For instance, I rely on GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting because they are easy-to-use and dependable. The more I use them, the more I benefit my employer with increased productivity - even when I might otherwise be unavailable. Some organizations think putting the tools in place is enough. However, they must also be easy and convenient before they will be widely adopted.

2. Work flexibility is a privilege. Organizations must provide remote work tools and encourage employees to make use of them in a responsible way. This requires a results-oriented culture of accountability. Measure task completion, not hours logged at a particular place. Plan for a future of increased work mobility and family-friendly policies. You may not want sick employees in the office, traveling employees to be out of touch, or new parents to quit, but if you don't publicly and frequently encourage remote work as a solution, that's what you may get.

My son, incidentally, was fine and back to school the next day. Perhaps I was overly cautious, but I'm sure glad it's easy for me to make that choice...

See Workshifting for more on working from anywhere.

What is the number one way of aquiring customers for most businesses – whether you're a cafe, a dentist or a software company?

The big driver is word of mouth. It can make or break the success of many different kinds of organizations. Recently I heard a story that illustrates one way you can tell if you're on the right track.

A co-worker of mine, Kelley Smith, was competing in the Santa Barbara Triathlon last weekend. She was doing the challenging and highly competitive long course last Saturday (1m swim, 34m bike, 10m run) wearing her Citrix Online cycling jersey. She was almost 1/2 way through the bike portion heading up a steep canyon road when a fellow racer caught up to her and said, "Hey, you work for Citrix Online? I LOVE your products!" He then slowed down to keep pace with her so he could tell her a story about a recent situation where he was not going to be able to make a meeting on time and decided to use GoToMeeting instead. He went on to say he was going to start using GoToMeeting more since it was so convenient. Then presumably he sped back up and continued the race.

This is a great product/customer experience test which I'll call the Tri Test: Would someone slow down mid-race to tell you about their experience with your business?

In this case, the two main drivers for his enthusiasm were the following:

1. The product was convenient and easy to use – it worked as it was supposed to.
2. The product was a "life-saver" – it solved a real problem for him.

Having analyzed a lot of customer data, I can tell you that these are consistent drivers of word of mouth across different products and industries. This is why these kind of anecdotes are so revealing. When I bring up Citrix in conversations, I listen carefully to the reactions. If they have heard of one of our products and use words like "easy" and tell "life-saver" stories, I know we're on the right track. Conversely, if they haven't heard anything or mention some other solution, that is equally revealing.

A formal way of measuring this phenomenon is NPS or net promoter score. This is a survey where you ask your customers how likely they are to recommend your products and you subtract the detractors (very low scores) from the promotors (high scores) to measure how you are doing. Research shows that companies with higher scores tend to do better.

The nice thing about the "Tri Test" is that you could use it hypothetically to think about a potential market. For instance, if you're thinking about a new product, can you imagine someone slowing down to rave about their experience with it? If not everyone, is there a particular market segment or target that would be more likely to find it "convenient" and "life-saving" enough they would stop mid-race to tell you about it?

Kelley pointed out that triathaletes themselves represent a valuable market. Statisticly there are a high percentage of business professionals that participate in the sport with a mean income of $126,000/year. Many of these athletes train hours upon hours each week and travel long distances for races, thus flexibility within their work environment and the need for tools to support this lifestyle is huge.

Hence, a web conferencing tool like GoToMeeting is particularly good for the Tri Test. If your product was targeted to a different type of person, you could replace the Tri with another sport or activity that person would be passionate about. The goal is the same: to really think about who would be a passionate advocate for your product. Finding those people and making it easy for them to use and really benefit from your service is the key to growth.

Photo by jimmyharris

So what do you do if you are called to fix someone's computer and you just KNOW that this person is going to need your help later?

GoToAssist Express just added the capability to easily set up unattended support while at a customer's computer.
 
For instance, say you make a site visit to a customer to help install a program, and you don't quite finish. You'd love to be able to log in and finish up remotely later. Now you can. Just add their computer to your account and you can finish at your leisure at a time convenient for you and your customer. This has been the #1 request from GoToAssist Express customers, so I guess it's a common scenario!
 
By way of background, GoToAssist Express includes unlimited live remote support (tell your customer to enter a remote support ID and then take over the computer on the spot) as well as the ability to add and connect to an unlimited number of "unattended" computers, that is, computers you add to your account so you can log in and work on them when your customers are not using them.
 
This July 09 release has a number of other cool and useful enhancements such being able to reboot and reconnect to a Windows computer from a Mac. Also, if you're on a Mac, you can request diagnostic information from a Mac or Windows computer.
 
For all the details, check out the release notes on the GoToAssist blog.
 
photo by marstheinfomage.

We recently challenged people to create the next GoToMeeting commercial. We received a total of 44 entries for the contest and narrowed them down to the five best.  The winner will receive $30,000.

A Citrix Online group had a great time picking the top 5 entries from the many clever funny submissions received, and are now opening it up to you. Check out www.gotomeetingtv.com to view the 5 top entries and vote for your favorite. (You have to register to vote.)

Cast a 5-star vote for your favorite of the five semifinalists. The video that receives the most votes will be the winner. The last day to vote is July 31, 2009 - so get your vote in today!

Do you ever work from home, the road, an alternate office location, a train, a hotel business center, a coffee shop, the beach - in short somewhere, anywhere other than physically sitting in your official place of work? 

If so, snap a picture and upload it with the tag "workshifting" on Flikr. Then, check out www.workshifting.com to see the photo feed and read what others have to say about the world of remote work. 

Work is going mobile, remote and online. Companies that support flexible working arrangements and provide employees with the tools they need to get work done anywhere and collaborate with others via the web attract and retain talent and achieve higher degrees of productivity and satisfaction.  In short, we get more done and have more fun.

There are many security issues with remote workers. One in ten laptops is stolen. USB flash drives or memory sticks can hold large amounts of sensitive data and are easily lost, misplaced or stolen. One estimate was that 1,985 USB drives are stolen from the average major corporation every year. Home computers are unsecured and out of your control. Public wi-fi can be hacked. People can email themselves documents that can be misdirected.

 However, the reality is remote work is only going to continue to grow. From a security perspective, perhaps it would be easier if you could keep everyone behind locked and secured doors working offline, but the world of work is going mobile whether we like it or not. People travel. They use iphones and blackberries. They work on their home computers. They use public wi-fi networks. They carry laptops and flash drives. Technology and the internet is enabling increased work mobility. People want that work flexibility. And business benefits incredibly from the increased productivity, not to mention employee retention and the other benefits of enabling remote work.

How do you reconcile the two?

You can look at the security issues above and decide not to allow people to work remotely at all. The problem is it's like trying to reverse the tide. People will do it anyway. Consider the case of the government worker who copied the entire veteran's database on their laptop, which was then stolen.

Or, you could look at the security issues and determine the most prudent course is to provide every tool you can to enable remote workers to do it safely. GoToMyPC is one such tool. GoToMyPC performance and reliability is such that it's easy for people to work on documents and programs directly on their office computer – from home or while traveling. Traveling users know that they can get to a file back on their computer if they need it, so are far less likely to carry everything with them. That means workers more often leave data on a secured office computer and view it remotely and only when needed. This greatly reduces the risk that employees will carry that data out of the office where it could be lost or stolen.

GoToMyPC doesn't make the home computer or laptop part of the Corporate network. You are just using any Internet connection as a portal back to view the secured and protected office PC. That means you don't need to worry about the home computer and home security just to enable occasional after-hours remote work from home.

Because all connections are encrypted end-to-end, you can safely use public wi-fi networks, and GoToMyPC will encrypt everything you do. It's more secure to use GoToMyPC to work remotely on an office PC from a relatively blank laptop at an airport, than to be working directly from that laptop using local documents and public wi-fi.

If you think about it, GoToMyPC is no riskier than giving workers a key to the office. They can't do anything with GoToMyPC they can't do by walking into the office every day and turning on their computer. In fact, in some ways it is a lesser exposure since their access is restricted to their computer only. (You can't steal office supplies if you're working remotely.)

GoToMyPC has many built-in security features that greatly reduce the risk of connecting to a computer remotely.  As with most things, the biggest risk is password exposure. Unlike some other products, GoToMyPC requires two passwords with strong requirements, an account password and a computer access code that resides on the computer and is never transmitted or stored on GoToMyPC servers. These can be used in conjunction with a separate windows password so there are many levels of safeguards. Limited log-in attempts also offer protection, and it's easy to change passwords at any time. You can also choose (or require) people to use a new password for every log in with the one-time password feature. The Corporate version can also integrate with RSA SecurID. 

Other security features include automatic disconnection after inactivity, screen blanking and keyboard and mouse lockout protection, HIPAA and GLBA compliance, VeriSign, SSL, 128-bit AES encryption, etc.

GoToMyPC Pro and GoToMyPC Corporate let you administer access for your entire company. You can add, remove and manage users, even report on exactly when they were working. Best of all, it's incredibly simple to roll out and administer so it won't tap your IT resources – and you can save money by not supplying and maintaining as many laptops to remote workers.

The next time an employee asks if they can use GoToMyPC, consider – do you want a more productive employee safely connecting to their office computer from home or while traveling? Or do you want them copying your customer database or product roadmap to a flash drive and carrying it around in their pocket?

The idea of allowing people to connect in to your office from anywhere may seem risky, but not allowing it may actually prove riskier.

For additional IT questions about GoToMyPC, call 888-646-0016.

GoToMyPC Product Comparison 

GoToMyPC Security FAQs 

GoToMyPC Corporate Security Whitepapers and Documentation

A customer calls describing a baffling problem on their computer. You try to explain what they should do to diagnose and fix the problem, but it's excruciating.  If you could just SEE their computer, you know you could fix it in a minute.

The great thing is taking over a computer remotely is now fast and easy. Provided there is internet access on both sides, there's no reason to make on-site visits or labor over the phone.

You can use a number of the Citrix products for remote support and trouble-shooting, but how do they differ and which one is best for you?  It depends on who you are and your needs:

The Heavy Lifter: You run a support organization. Your department provides software support for a large number of customers (maybe even internationally). You want to get into remote support session via the phone, but also let people ask questions on your web site and easily go from chat to full screen-sharing and remote control. You want to record the sessions for quality assurance, monitor and transfer sessions, survey customers, run reports and even integrate into your business systems. You should use GoToAssist Corporate, the best-in-breed solution for remote support.

The One-Man (or Woman) Shop: You are an IT or computer consultant or you work on an internal help desk. What you really need is just a super-easy way to quickly take over someone's computer and fix it. Basic diagnostics, file transfer and chat would be nice, but key is it's easy for you and the people you are supporting. You may even have multiple sessions going at one time, and want to switch between them, or access a customer's computer later when they aren't using it. You should use try GoToAssist Express. Cost after trial is $69/month or less for an annual plan.

The One-Timer: You just want to take over someone's computer right now. Today. For as little money as possible. You don't need a long-term solution. You should use GoToAssist Express. If you've already done a free trial, buy a day pass for $9.95.

The Trusted Advisor: You are in a position to recommend technology to your customers, many of whom are small businesses who care about their own productivity and need to be able to work remotely. Encourage them to sign up for GoToMyPC so they can work on their office computers from home or while traveling. They increase their work flexibility for only $19.95/month. Anyone who has GoToMyPC can right-click the icon in their system tray and select "Invite Guest to PC". Have them invite you whenever they need help - no cost to you.

The Family Fix-it: Your mom or dad is hopeless on the computer and you're sick of traveling to their house for every little computer issue they have. The next time you visit, install GoToMyPC on their computer for regular help.  If it's infrequent or an immediate one-time need, consider that GoToAssist Express day pass.

The Social Butterfly: You provide support and training to groups of people. You would get value from a web conferencing solution to reduce travel and increase your productivity. Sometimes you need to take over someone's computer remotely and fix it, but it's not your primary need. You should try GoToMeeting, which lets you share your screen with up to 15 attendees and comes with integrated phone or VOIP audio conferencing. Cost after trial is $49/month or less for an annual plan. You can use it for support by starting a meeting, then making your customer the presenter to view their screen.  

In a previous post I mentioned a free podcast of a GoToWebinar we did with Seth Godin. Among Seth's accomplishments is a top-rated blog as ranked by ad age.  Another blogger on this list, Chris Brogan, happened to be visiting our Citrix Online offices in Santa Barbara last week to train a group of us on the topic of "social media". Dreading the hard chairs and long monologue, I prepped myself for a long training session with a large cup of coffee laced with espresso.

Little did I know that Chris had once offered to shave his head if he ever hit #1 on the ad age list. As it turns out, that day he popped to the top spot just above Seth Godin, and as a result, we enjoyed a highly interactive and rewarding lesson in social media. More on that in a minute.

At first I was skeptical of Chris's claims about the profound implications of social media (My rule of thumb, if anyone says something is going to be "as big as email," be skeptical.) However, after a hands-on lesson, I think there are some profound and positive implications.

1. Social media is highly relevant to your career. The larger and more engaged your online networking, the better able you are to get help from others, find a job, etc. The secret is to help others first. Take Chris Brogan as an example. His blog is influential because he creates content useful to other people. He has over a hundred LinkedIn recommendations, but he's also recommended more people than that. People help him because he has helped them. Social networking has always been the best way to find a job -- or create a movement. Chris' big, fat online network means he's better off than most of us in that area (not without cost as he doesn't sleep). His world of social media is just the old-world social contract writ large.

2. Social media could bring an unprecedented level of transparency to the world of business and perhaps even humanize the corporation. For companies accustomed to controlling the message, this could be scary. With Twitter, an Amazon glitch can spread like wildfire through social networks. When everyone can review your products, you have to be more open about the good and bad. What's more, when you respond to customers in a format like twitter, or speak in a blog like this, it is from a person, not a corporate entity. I am writing this post, not all of us at Citrix. And when you put your name on something, you take more personal responsibility for it. It becomes more real. More human, and more powerful.

3. Great content will get people's attention. In a more fragmented world, we may not be able to interrupt people with mass advertising as easily, but if we engage each other with useful information, the traffic will come. When you look at the top-ranked posts on Digg or Stumbleupon or Delicious, lots of them are helpful, well-ordered information, such as "40 Awesome iPhone Application Websites." (Anything with iPhone in it seems instantly popular.) Once you provide useful and educational content, perhaps people will be more interested in what you have to sell.

4. Emotion is powerful. Some of the most viral content on the web connects on an emotional level. In reflecting on the Susan Doyle phenomenon or a popular viral video like, Where is Matt, I'm struck by how they both involve an ordinary person inspiring strangers - through music or a silly dance - in a way that's surprising and delightful. Both have moral resonance. Don't pre-judge. We are all connected. I love that the social web rewards this.

5. Charity begins online. We convinced Chris to go ahead and shave his head right then and there during our training class last week - with a live online video stream and twitter updates, documented via iPhone and Flip. Plus, Chris put out the call for donations, and then it was truly a commitment. Charity is another viral lightening rod. From this impromptu event, Chris has raised $4355 (last I checked) from lots of individual donors, not including Corporate donators including Citrix. The dollars went up, the hair came off, his network buzzed. It was incredible to watch because this shows the true power of social media and the impact it can have for the greater good.

Where all this leaves me is feeling generally optimistic. There are negatives and drawbacks to unfiltered mob-created information (and misinformation), but if social media also rewards generosity, transparency, humanity and charity, all I can say is, count me in.

Our GoToWebinar team puts on web events with leading industry experts and invites target audiences to attend. What you might not know is that they also record these webinars and now post them to iTunes where they are available as free podcasts that anyone can listen to at any time. Some of the speakers and topics include:

• Seth Godin and the Future of marketing on the 14 trends that are changing the way we do business.
• Selling in Tough Times, an interview with Jim Dickie of CSO Insights
• The ROI of Moving Training Online
• Communicating Effectively with your Employees
• Make Training Online as Effective as in Person with Roger Courville, founder of the 1080 Group
• Presentations That Make the Sale
• Managing a Mobile and Remote Workforce
• Using Webinars to Engage Prospects with webinar expert Ken Molay
• Increase Reach with Webinars, an interview with Webinar guru David Cleary
  

Note that to listen to the podcasts, you have to have iTunes.  While you're in iTunes, a couple of other business podcasts that I enjoy and recommend:

• Harvard Ideacast: Generally short, interesting interviews with business authors and academics.
• TEDTalks: The conferences are hard to get into and sell out way in advance, but you can watch the very diverse and often compelling presentations on innovation and ideas as podcasts for free.

Inside tip from Citrix Online: Check out www.goview.com. This is an easy way to record, edit and share content, available as a free limited beta. (If you register and it's full, just wait until they allow more people in.) We're finding tons of ways to use it. 

First, How It Works:

1. Click "record" and it starts recording audio and everything on your screen.
2. Click "stop" and it provides a URL you can use to share your recording.
3. If desired, you can edit your recording, add title slides, or export it.

10 Cool Ways to Use it: 

1. Training: Create short training videos. It's so simple, anyone can create a fast recorded training explaining how to do something on your computer and send it out to customers, co-workers or customize for an individual customer. 
2. Marketing Demos: This is an easy way to create demos highlighting product functionality for use on web sites or wherever. 
3. Sales: Answer prospect questions. If you have frequent questions that require detailed explanation - show, don't just tell. Record the answer on your screen and send the link to your prospect.  
4. Customer Service: Answer questions faster. Record snippets answering frequent questions and send those out to people. If you can't reach someone, send them a video answer.  
5. QA, Catch Bugs: Use it to record funky or malfunctioning behavior and report it. 
6. Collaboration: An employee recently sent me a screen recording of proposed survey functionality so I could approve it. This is great. You can show how something might work on your computer and send out a link to get other people's feedback. 
7. Record a presentation: Record and talk through your presentation then share it. 
8. Side-by-Side Comparisons: I recently recorded a comparison of myself using GoToMyPC to work remotely vs. a competitor and shared it in an internal meeting. It helped drive home my point which was how fast and easy GoToMyPC is for after-hours remote work. 
9. IT, Help Desk and Support: Tired of answering the same questions? Record the on-screen steps to take and refer people to those. 
10. Usability: You could record someone interacting with your web site or product and then share that with others.  
What have I missed?  I'd love to hear how other people are using GoView.