By Michael Cohn

NetworkStreaming said Monday it has changed its name to Bomgar, after its founder and CEO Joel Bomgaars shortened his name to Bomgar too, and the company has scored an extra $5 million in a second round of funding.

The Ridgeland, Mississippi-based company said the latest round brings its total funding amount to $12 million. Investors included Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance and GulfSouth Capital, which also invested in the previous round. John Palmer, the Skytel founder who runs GulfSouth, is a member of the Bomgar board.

In addition, the company said Monday that it has developed a hardware appliance called the Bomgar Box that will make it easier for companies to provide remote tech support to workers. The box plugs into a server and allows tech support personnel to effectively take over the computers of employees while providing support or upgrades.

Mr. Bomgar founded the company with Nathan McNeill, a friend from BellhavenCollege, in 2003 (see Making Remote Support Virtual and Q&A: CEO Joel Bomgaars).

Mr. McNeill is now vice president of product management at the company, which has expanded to include a clientele base of 2,500 companies in 33 countries. Customers include Humana, Kodak Dental Systems, OhioStateUniversity, Armstrong Watson, and AFG.

Google Involvement

One of the main drivers of growth has been the company’s canny use of Google AdWords. “It has been an unbelievable selling model,” said Mr. Bomgar.

Google has even filmed a case study on how his company has been using the AdWords technology and invited the company, along with five others, to its Mountain View, California, headquarters to discuss how they leverage Google’s AdWords and AdSense programs.

Another benefit of that close involvement is early previews of the latest software from the search king. “Google gives us all their stuff in beta,” said Mr. Bomgar.

His company will use the extra funding to boost its sales and marketing efforts, as well as continue development of its products, including the latest appliance, known as the Bomgar Box 100. Prices start at $2,000 per device, which can remotely control any number of computers.

The company has roughly doubled its sales force in the past year and had a “blow-out Q4,” according to Mr. Bomgar.

Still, the extra funding will help the upstart compete against larger companies like Citrix Systems with its Go2Assist remote support product, and WebEx with its SupportCenter software. But there’s plenty of business to go around.

Closing Deals

According to Mr. McNeill, the company has closed seven out of 10 of the deals on accounts it had targeted last year, and it’s working on closing the others.

“In general I like the way the company is heading,” said Matthew Healey, senior research analyst for IDC’s software and hardware support services program. “I think this whole market for client remote support, which NetworkStreaming and now Bomgar provide, is quite bright, especially in terms of growth rates.”

He also thinks the company is in a good position from a competitive standpoint.

“There are several features of their solution that are differentiated from their competitors,” said Mr. Healey. “I do not believe they will win every customer because Citrix and WebEx will appeal to a certain segment that wants a hosted solution, but most companies in this space will be able to grow well over the next three to five years. All of the vendors have slightly different offerings, each of which will appeal to slightly different customer segments.”

Mr. McNeill expects to see even more business as companies and individual users try to upgrade to the latest versions of Microsoft’s operating system, Windows Vista. But with remote control technology and an experienced tech support person, the process can be greatly simplified. “Vista is good for business,” said Mr. McNeill.