SecurityCoverage President and COO Jon Bartleson (l) and Marketing Director Dan Timmer display the eight internet-enabled devices for which the company is training its staff to provide technical support. PHOTO/DAVE DEWITTE
By Dave DeWitte
dave@corridorbusiness.com
SecurityCoverage has seen many IT security threats in more than a decade of providing support for internet users, but over the last two years its tech support lines have been lighting up with problems that are more annoying than malicious.
Perhaps the biggest issue is unwanted software that bogs down computer performance.
“The kind of calls we get used to be the standard ‘my computer’s acting weird and I think it has a virus,’” said Jon Bartleson, president and chief operating officer of the growing Cedar Rapids company. “Now, it’s ‘my computer’s acting slow and taking forever.’”
The problem is bloatware, unneeded software that computer manufacturers load onto the machines they sell as a source of additional revenue.
A recent article in Computerworld estimated that computer manufacturers derive about $20 in revenue for each computer they load with bloatware, with products ranging from 60-day introductory offers for security companies to e-book readers.
All of those additional programs take up memory, slow operating speeds and even reduce battery life on laptops.
“We’re probably spending more time removing bloatware in order to speed them up than removing viruses,” Mr. Bartleson said.
SecurityCoverage’s mainstay product, Tech Home, has three primary components: an antivirus utility, a password management tool and a cloud-based file backup solution. It’s also being expanded with features that will allow customers to self-remove bloatware, giving them the flexibility and freedom to decide on what to keep or delete, said Marketing Director Dan Timmer.
Another big driver of customer service demand is Wi-Fi connectivity. Consumers are controlling everything from alarm systems to thermostats through the internet with the help of Wi-Fi. It has brought plenty of benefits to consumers, but SecurityCoverage also witnesses the flip side, when those new smart devices refuse to communicate or stay connected.
“The number of Wi-Fi support requests has grown exponentially, whether it is getting new devices connected to Wi-Fi, interconnecting devices or getting the computer to work with a wireless printer,” Mr. Timmer said.
With that trend also comes opportunity for SecurityCoverage, as techs are now able to remotely resolve connectivity issues any time of day, Mr. Timmer said. The company is training staff to resolve issues with smart devices like door locks, light bulbs and thermostats.
“Our business partners want to offer home automation solutions, and we want to help them with the support of those devices,” Mr. Bartleson said.
As for traditional security threats such as computer viruses, Mr. Bartleson cautioned that they’re not going away. SecurityCoverage helped educate consumers about threats during October, which was National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and is considered a ‘Champion’ by the National Cyber Security Alliance for its dedication to a safer and more trusted internet.
The next phase for the company will involve expanding outside the home computer security market. After more than six years of double-digit revenue growth, Mr. Bartleson said SecurityCoverage’s growth rate has slowed into single digits over the last several years. It is now looking at rolling out a variety of new services, with the biggest change being a focus on security and support for the business computing market.
“Our current suite works well for smaller companies with up to 10 employees,” Mr. Bartleson said. “The next level of business is looking less for support and software on every individual employee machine, and more towards a console-driven or managed end-point solution.”
Mr. Bartleson said SecurityCoverage is still in the product development stage, and will work with its distribution partners to roll out its new business-focused products in phases throughout 2017.
SecurityCoverage is one of a family of companies backed by Gray Venture Partners. It counts ImOn Communications, the Cedar Rapids-based cable TV and Internet provider, as one of its many customers.
Mr. Bartleson said SecurityCoverage and its 121 local employees moved in mid-September from the Armstrong Centre in downtown Cedar Rapids to its current home at 6060 Huntington Court NE, near the busy Blairs Ferry Road corridor.
About two-thirds of the Cedar Rapids employees work in the company’s call center supporting customers, and about one-third of those call center employees are part-time. One nuance of the company’s wholesale partner-driven business model is that most of its partners’ customers never know the company by name.
“One of the selling points to our support partners is our ‘branded-answering’ capabilities – we basically become them,” Mr. Bartleson said.
