LogMeIn, Inc. has expanded its Emergency Remote Work Kit offerings to include GoToConnect, the company’s cloud phone and Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) platform, to help K-12 schools make the shift to remote learning. Aimed at both customers and critical service providers like schools, hospitals and health care companies, municipalities and non-profit organizations, LogMeIn launched the complimentary Emergency Remote Work Kit program earlier in March, including software for video conferencing, running virtual events, remote access to PCs and servers, as well as remote IT support.
Under the expanded offering, K-12 schools will be eligible for free cloud phone and UCC services through the end of the school year via LogMeIn’s GoToConnect platform. The new offering is designed for schools to keep students, teachers, parents, administrators and staff connected with free soft phones, voice and video calling, and messaging that can be used on PCs, Macs, Chromebooks and mobile phones (iOS and Android). And unlike traditional phone systems, no hardware, networking or number porting is required.
“These last few weeks have meant a monumental change for everyone, and while some organizations had experience empowering a remote workforce, others like schools, health care providers and local municipalities are dealing with a remote work reality that they never planned for and were ill equipped to enable,” said Bill Wagner, CEO of LogMeIn. “For some organizations, it’s about access to audio and video conferencing and virtual events to stay connected. While for others, it’s as basic as giving people remote access that allows them to connect to their work computers or giving the tools to IT teams to support their people during this rapid shift towards remote working. We’re seeing these needs play out across the organizations we rely on in our communities, and it’s something we believe our people and our technology are uniquely positioned to help with during this uncertain time.”
LogMeIn announced the Emergency Remote Work Kit initiative in early March as part of the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the goal of helping customers and critical service providers accelerate efforts to keep their employees, students and citizens safe by shifting to remote work. These free Emergency Remote Work Kits include solutions for meetings and video conferencing, webinars and virtual events, IT support and management of remote employee devices and apps, remote access to devices in multiple locations, and with the addition of GoToConnect, a full UCC platform for K-12 schools. These kits will be available at no cost for three months. Since announcing their availability, LogMeIn has given away millions of dollars’ worth of software as part of this initiative, totaling thousands of kits and serving more than 800,000 individual users around the Globe.
Remote working causing a surge in remote productivity and IT tool usage
In the past few weeks, organizations around the world — from private sector companies to schools to local municipalities to non-profits — have gone from remote working preparedness to action. While LogMeIn has seen an increase in adoption of remote working in recent years, the trend has been greatly accelerated as COVID-19 disruptions spread across the globe, especially in the hardest hit areas. In a normal month LogMeIn serves tens of millions of users, with tens of millions of meetings, billions of audio minutes and even more digital interactions, but the company has seen unprecedented spikes in usage in the month of March including:
Video conferencing and meetings usage has spiked as much as 10x over 2020 norms, starting in Asia and Italy, and now trending across North America and Europe – Over the last month, LogMeIn has seen usage of its GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar product lines grow as entire populations shift to remote work and the number of users is increasing daily.
Despite the shift to the cloud, for many, remote access remains a lifeline and is making it possible for non-remote-friendly work to continue – Usage of remote access products like LogMeIn Pro and GoToMyPC jumped as much as 300 percent in the past week alone.
Remote support usage surges as the IT helpdesk goes virtual – LogMeIn’s remote support offerings RescueAssist (formerly known as GoToAssist) and LogMeIn Rescue are seeing 50 percent week-to-week increases in usage as IT teams across the world set the stage for their newly remote employees.
Cloud telephony and UCC also on the rise – The shift to the cloud is also happening with telephony and unified communications, as businesses stand up soft phones and unified communications for remote teams. LogMeIn’s UCC service, GoToConnect, is seeing a 93 percent increase in voice calls and is up almost 20 percent day-over-day.
More information about LogMeIn’s Emergency Remote Work Kits
If you work for a health care provider, educational institution, municipality, a non-profit organization, or are a customer in need of help please visit: www.gotomeeting.com/work-remote
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