More often these days you will find that RVers are tech savvy travelers. They hit the road with their PCs and laptops, many running small businesses from their mobile units. I consider myself one of these tech savvy RVers, as my husband and I publish a magazine out of our RV.

But what happens if my computer is experiencing problems, who do I turn to for help? Well, I don’t have to look far. I've recently become aware of a great company that offers remote tech support services for the RV and Marine Industry.

I had the opportunity to catch up with Daniel Barnes, COO of Minuteman Support Services, to find out a little more about how they specialize in assisting RVers in need.


Please describe what you do at Minuteman Support Services.

I am the co-founder and COO of Minuteman Support Services. MSS is a nationwide computer support company. However, we are revolutionizing residential and small business computer support as we know it today. We leverage Remote Computer Support technology to resolve most of our customer’s computer problems right over the Internet.

Remote Computer Support means that our skilled technicians can, with your permission, take control of your mouse and keyboard, see your computer just as you see it and resolve your computer problems remotely without ever having to impede upon the privacy of the RV Park or your camper as long as you have a working Internet connection.

If we can’t, for some reason, work on a computer remotely we will dispatch a technician to visit the customer onsite virtually anywhere in the US.

You've been in the help desk business for over 20 years. What made you decide to choose the RV and Marine Industry as your focus?

It seems that people can access the Internet from just about anywhere these days. Remote computer support affords a technician an unlimited range of support. We can literally work on any Windows-based computer in the world as long as there is a working Internet connection. When conceptualizing Minuteman Support Services I had to think “what markets are most likely to be underserved by computer support professionals when Wifi really takes off?”

It was clear to me that the RV and boating industries were a perfect fit for my service. When someone is a few hundred or even thousands of miles away from home, they are left to look for an unfamiliar computer technician to work on their computer or they just have to wait until they get home. Now, an individual can utilize the same computer support company no matter where they travel to in the world. It really is amazing.

Are most of your clients small businesses or individuals?

We have a good mix of residential and small business customers. We do tend to get more residential customers just by nature of the service we provide. When the employees of a small business see how easy it is for us to work on their computer remotely, they naturally ask if we do this for home computers too. It isn’t long before those employees are requesting computer support via our website and telling their friends and family about us.

The service makes so much sense that it is a natural progression that our service makes its way from the business to the home. Our true target market is any business or individual who does not benefit from a private, corporate computer support infrastructure. We have priced our service to fit the budget of any home or small business.

What are most of your support requests regarding?

Spyware, spyware …spyware. Spyware is at an epidemic level. It is estimated that 90% of all residential and small business computers are already infected with spyware. Spyware, means “spying software”. We are all being profiled as Internet users and Internet shoppers. The problem is that the small applications that get illegally installed on our computers to steal information about us, literally, takes over your computer. It sometimes gets so bad that the computer cannot function at all.

If your computer just doesn’t run as well as it did when you bought it or you keep seeing “pop-up” windows on your computer screen, you are probably infected with spyware, viruses, adware and/or trojans.

Do not throw your computer away …we can fix it.

Do you see a rising trend in the amounts of small businesses being run out of boats or RVs?

Absolutely, our society is becoming more and more mobile because of all of the wireless networks being installed across the country. The trends we see today all started over ten years ago. Employees starting “telecommuting”, then companies found the value in a “mobile workforce”. Out of the “mobile workforce” came the “home office” and now we are seeing the “mobile office” where people can work out of Starbucks if they wanted to.

Who wants to work at home anymore when they can work just as efficiently out of their RV or boat? Business leaders are able to stay informed up to the minute via the Internet, email, mobile phones and PDAs.

Your clients have to grant you access to gain access to their computer. Is there anything they should be concerned about regarding security?

Thank you for asking this important question. The short answer is “no”. In fact, Remote Computer Support is even more secure than having a technician on site. Our technicians are encouraged to stay on the phone with you, if you so choose, so you can interact with the technician and take advantage of the technical resource on the other end of the phone so you can pick their brains. But most importantly, it gives the user the advantage of watching every step the technician takes to resolve the problem.

There is nothing we can do without you actually seeing it happen. This service is 100% customer permission based. There is a common false perception that remote technicians can arbitrarily connect to any computer they want.

Please describe a unique situation where you were able to help out a customer that would have been difficult had they not been able to use your support services.

I have a friend who lives on a boat in the Greek Islands. She was having email trouble. She was able to get on the Internet using satellite Internet. I was able to connect to her computer and fix her problem while she was floating in the Aegean Ocean and I was sitting in my office here in the US. That was an exciting event for me and a defining moment in our effort to revolutionize the computer support industry.

Do you have any big plans for the immediate future we can look forward to?

Right now is an extremely exciting time for Minuteman Support Services in terms of growth. We are experiencing steady nationwide growth. We remain focused on providing a complete support service for our customers that our competitors have trouble competing with.

Is there is anything else potential clients should know?

Requesting computer support has never been so easy. You can request computer support via our toll-free number or via our interactive website. Once you create your free user account, you immediately have access to your own personal computer support helpdesk 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The biggest thing to remember is that we work around your schedule; we don’t make you work around ours. If anyone is skeptical of the quality of our service, please request a demo …seeing is believing.

For more information about Minuteman Support Services, please visit their website.