In real life emergency situations, the MobiControl Helpdesk subsystem can be used to provide mission critical support services and maximize "up time" and productivity. Workers who may otherwise have several hours of down time while waiting for a replacement device to arrive, or a technician from head office to be dispatched, can now typically be put back to work within a few minutes.

MobiControl includes an extensive set of tools to allow administrators and support staff to monitor remote mobile devices as well as to provide real-time helpdesk, support and diagnostic services to their mobile field force. When needed, support staff can open a remote control session to a mobile device and can then view the screen of the device as well as control it using their desktop computers keyboard and mouse. By viewing the screen of the remote mobile device, support staff can monitor how the device is being used and can identify problems related to usage, as well as other types of problems. Problems detected can be immediately corrected using the extensive set of support tools provided (i.e. Remote File Explore tool, Remote Registry Editor tool, Remote Task Manager tool, Remote System Information tool, Remote scripting, Remote DOS Box etc.). Problems can even be visually documented using the included video capture, and screen capture tools.

MobiControl Remote Control Session

Example -Problem with application software
A typical example of the use of the MobiControl Remote Control/Helpdesk tools would be when a user calls in for support because they cannot get the device application software to do what it is supposed to. The support person answering the phone call would then typically ask the user for information to identify the mobile device they are using (e.g. Device Name). Once the mobile device has been identified, the support person can simply right click on the icon for the device in the MobiControl Manager Device Tree and select 'Remote Control' from the popup menu. MobiControl will then establish a remote control session with the device and allow the support person to see the screen of the remote mobile device and what the user is doing. In many cases being able to visually see what the user is doing will allow the support person to immediately identify the problem and tell the user how to correct the problem (e.g. User is not using the correct menu selection to perform the task.). In other situations the support person may recognise the problem and take corrective action using the MobiControl Remote tools (e.g. The program running on the device is hung, the support person can use the MobiControl Remote Task Manager tool to kill the process in this case, and/or use the MobiControl Remote Registry Editor to change a registry setting). In cases where the problem cannot be corrected (e.g. Bug in application software) the problem can be documented using the MobiControl Remote Screen Capture and Video Capture tools and reported to the appropriate people.

The above picture shows a MobiControl Remote Control session, the screen of the remote mobile device is shown in the center, with some of the available support tools shown on the right and left side of the window.