Thin-client technology saves budget at Christchurch Borough Council

'I estimate the ‘real' revenue saving for the Council - by not replacing our PC's each year - at £71,000 over the next 6 years, with a continued £21,000k annually thereafter', said Andy Wigman, IT Manager, Christchurch Borough Council.

Christchurch Borough Council employs some 180 people work in the main civic offices. Most of these employees use a personal computer as a part of their day-to-day job. Historically, each of these PCs would be capitalised and last for six years.

When approximately half of these computers were due for renewal, the Council looked at the cost and thought there must be a better way of maximising the capital outlay. They, therefore, investigated the possibility of a thin client solution to their IT upgrade.

After a highly competitive tender, the council chose Insite as its preferred supplier. As IT Manager, Andy Wigman, commented: 'Insite was offering a terminal service solution only for the Council - rather than Citrix. This was appealing to the Council because of the cost savings. The benefits were very clear from the start, not only because of these savings but also the increased efficiency Insite's approach brought the Council and the fact that, for the first time, every department and every site was on a level playing field, in terms of their IT capabilities.'

The Council has sites throughout its Borough that include locations such as the Town's CCTV Control Room; located within the Police Station, the tourist information centre and Highcliffe Castle. All these locations, plus another six or so, total approximately 200 users - all of whom now have the same access to the latest software and IT support from the Council's IT department.

'Insite's thin client solution has been a huge advantage to the IT team here in the civic offices', commented Andy Wigman. 'As a small IT department of just four, we were constantly over-stretched and not always able to give the level of service and support we wanted. Thin client has allowed us to carry out IT upgrades quickly and efficiently and gives Council members and employees a higher level of response and even the ability to remotely control and shadow individual's computers if they have a problem.'

The Insite approach to thin client is one that sees the company fully integrate itself with its customer's employees, to fully understand the needs and requirements of each user. In the case of Christchurch, Insite firstly brought in its own server for the pilot phase and loaded all of the Council's many varied applications and systems onto the server.

'Insite was very good at demonstrating the new solution, passing on their knowledge and transferring their skills. This has meant we are now fully up to speed and self sufficient,' Andy Wigman added.

The Council also had plans to enable local Councillors and Departmental Heads to access their desktops remotely and it was therefore decided to implement a system, which would be capable of supporting a growing number of remote users.

Insite recommended the introduction of Windows Terminal Services 2003 as a feature rich, cost effective solution for remote access. The project was completed over an elapsed period of two months by a joint team of between two and three Insite and Christchurch Borough Council technical IT staff. Four HP Proliant DL380 servers were installed to create a highly resilient terminal server farm.

Related links to this article:
Christchurch Borough Council
Insite

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