17 Mar, 2008, 0000 hrs IST, ANIRVAN GHOSH, TNN

A middle-aged woman in Canada is facing a problem installing new software on her PC. She calls up an iYogi technical expert, who remotely connects to her computer, seeks out and fixes the problem. And all this is done from Gurgaon.

Live computer support via remote access is like having a technical expert at your desk fixing the computer, except that he/she may actually be miles away. It is an innovative, cost effective, and flexible alternative available at the customer's home or office. And it's the fastest growing channel for technical support worldwide. "The industry is estimated to be at around $75 billion today, and growing," says Uday Challu, CEO of iYogi. The company's provides support to computers from any vendor/brand.

To begin, the customer needs to download the iMantra application developed by iYogi. Once a problem is identified, iYogi's technicians use the iMantra database and a personalization engine to provide customized service by remotely accessing the customer's computer.

The database grows with every interaction by capturing the customer's problem, the solution and the specifications of the computer hardware and software. The database also contains customer demographic information as well as call history so that the customer support technician can provide assistance that's specific to the caller's needs and equipment. "This knowledge of each customer's PC configuration and call problem history is the key to offering a personalized and proactive service," says Challu.

Many computer manufacturers have been scaling back the scope of their warranties, and this has led to the emergence of third-party

independent support providers. iYogi was launched in the UK in 2005 and a year later in the US and Canada. From 35 employees it has grown to 300 today. Revenues are at $15 million, and the company is looking at touching $100 million over the next two years, and $1 billion in the next five. It's also looking to expand to the rest of Europe and Asia. "There are around 500 million machines that are out of warranty and need such support. That is the market we seek to tap," explains Challu.

He also points out that iYogi's customer satisfaction rate of 93% and resolution rate of 87% are the benchmarks in the computer support industry. Challu believes that the increased varieties of application software and the inter-dependency of devices and multiple platforms have increased overall complexity, further upping the need for such services.

But what about privacy issues? If someone sitting in Gurgaon can access your computer’s data remotely, then chances are it could also be misused. "We have taken care of that,” says Challu. We expressly guarantee our customers that all data will be kept safe and confidential. Thus far, we have not encountered any complaint on that count."