The London School of Economics (LSE) has deployed LogMeIn Rescue software to help its IT department support more than 2,700 staff and student computers at multiple campus sites.

The software provides helpdesk staff with the ability to log support calls and take remote control of user desktops and notebook PCs, Apple Macs and smartphones to aid fault diagnosis and resolution.

Adam Gale, IT services senior support officer at the LSE, said the freeware system the school previously used for remote control would often freeze in the middle of a session. It was difficult to navigate and was based on legacy technology that was unable to deal with faster application processes.

“We only went live with LogMeIn Rescue last week and have rolled it out to the majority of departments so far,” he said.

“We mostly use it for remote control, but also use the file manager [file transfer feature] on occasions. We also intend to use XML push features to log and update support calls automatically at some point in the future”.

The LSE evaluated six remote control applications before selecting Rescue. Rival software packages, which the LSE did not want to name, were discounted because they were unable to work through remote router firewalls to support home users, or because they were not as easy to use.

LSE would not disclose how much it spent on software licences, but expects to yield a return on investment by improving the productivity of helpdesk staff who spend less time travelling to other locations for fault resolution.