Designing Success: How PB2 Enhanced Remote Access and Endpoint Management with Splashtop

PB2, an architectural and engineering firm based in Arkansas, successfully streamlined its IT support and remote access operations with Splashtop Enterprise. The solution provided secure, cost-effective remote access for 160 employees to work remotely, and remote support and endpoint management for their hybrid workforce, enhancing the efficiency of their three-person IT team. Splashtop’s ease of use, robust features, and affordability earned high praise from both end-users and IT staff, making it an indispensable part of PB2’s technology ecosystem.

PB2 offers a full spectrum of property development and BIM (Building Information Modeling) services and relies heavily on in-house computing power for its projects. With 160 end-users supported by a small IT team of just three technicians, they needed a reliable solution to facilitate remote access and endpoint management. Before adopting Splashtop, PB2 used VPN and TeamViewer for remote access, and Microsoft Group Policies for endpoint management. However, these solutions proved costly and lacked the user-friendliness and features required to support their growing hybrid workforce. PB2 sought a cost-effective, comprehensive solution that could address all their needs.

Splashtop Enterprise transformed how PB2’s employees and IT team operated:

• End-Users: Employees, whether hybrid, remote or on a scope trip, easily connect from personal devices or company laptops to powerful office workstations. This is essential for running resource-intensive applications like Autodesk Revit, ensuring high performance and productivity for architects and designers. The positive feedback highlighted the solution’s simplicity and excellent performance.

• IT Team: Splashtop’s remote support and endpoint management capabilities addressed PB2’s critical needs.

  • Remote support: PB2 was able to use Splashtop’s unattended access to remote into any company managed device for troubleshooting whenever an issue came up, and they were able to utilize Splashtop SOS to connect to personal and mobile devices that required troubleshooting with the end-user present. With Splashtop Streamer, company computers had full remote access enabled, as well as our endpoint management features to assist with troubleshooting and maintenance.

  • Background Actions: Background Actions enabled the IT team to troubleshoot a user’s device without interrupting their session, enabling the IT team to monitor the computer’s devices, running tasks, the registry, as well as the ability to send remote commands using command line and PowerShell.

  • Configured Alerts and Actions: The IT team set up alerts to notify them of key events, such as software installations/uninstallations and low system resources. These alerts allow them to act proactively, reducing downtime and improving user experience.

  • Software Patching: With the risks of unpatched software in mind, they handled patch management for applications like Chrome and other business-critical software including the Splashtop app, scheduling updates outside work hours to avoid disruptions.

  • Inventory Management: The IT team utilize Splashtop’s inventory reporting features to maintain an accurate record of all hardware and software assets, ensuring compliance and optimizing resource allocation.

  • Logs and Auditing: Regularly reviewing logs and online computer pages allow the team to maintain compliance and identify any anomalies. These logs are also used for auditing purposes, ensuring that all activities are well-documented.

  • Policy Framework: PB2 leveraged Splashtop’s policy framework to standardize settings for fully managed devices, enhancing consistency and security across their network.

  • Granular Control: Due to past concerns with data exfiltration, the IT team restricted file transfers while enabling necessary functions like remote printing and copy-paste. This granular control minimized risks while maintaining user productivity.

  • Single Sign-On (SSO): Implementing SSO streamlined user authentication and improved security, making it easier for employees to securely access their resources.

• Complement to Intune for endpoint management: PB2’s reliance on Intune for some endpoint management functionalities was supplemented by Splashtop, which filled critical gaps, including better visibility into and more control over software updates, and better documentation.

• Unbeatable value: Splashtop’s competitive pricing and comprehensive feature set offered unmatched value compared to alternatives. Over time, PB2 transitioned from using Splashtop only for remote access to adding on remote support and finally to Splashtop Enterprise, benefiting from additional capabilities to meet their evolving needs.

PB2 discovered Splashtop while searching for a cost-effective alternative to VPN and TeamViewer. They were impressed by Splashtop’s ability to support all their remote access and endpoint management requirements in a single platform. During testing, the IT team found the solution easy to implement and highly reliable. Splashtop’s flexibility allowed them to address the specific challenges of their hybrid workforce, such as providing secure, high-performance connections to office workstations and managing endpoints effectively.

The IT team’s daily workflow now includes logging into Splashtop’s web console to monitor alerts, audit logs for compliance, and manage policies for fully managed devices. Jonah Fullmer, PB2’s IT Admin, sums up their experience with Splashtop in three words: “Easy to use.” He adds, “It works great,” reflecting the solution’s seamless integration into their operations and its significant impact on their productivity and security