Thin-Client Solutions

appiChar have been installing and managing thin-client solutions for not-for-profit organisations for many years. Especially for those organisations that work across multiple sites or that have a number of older PCs that might need replacing, thin-client computing can offer massive benefits to the organisation financially and efficiency-wise.

So what is a ‘thin-client’?

In simple terms thin-clients are computers that just display the applications and information on screen and deal with your mouse and keyboard input. All of the data storage and processing is done elsewhere on central servers so the computers on your desktop are no longer very important - if they blow up no data is lost, just plug in another one and carry on exactly where you were when the machine stopped. For organisations with remote offices it also offers the benefit of allowing data to be centralised so security issues are lowered considerably.

What about my current systems?

For a typical organisation using standard systems such as Microsoft Office, email, CRM, HR or accounting databases, a thin-client system should generally sit happily on top of this allowing you access to your systems as normal, just in a more efficient way. Each organisation is different which is why it’s important to make sure you get someone with the right experience designing your systems.

Slash those support costs!

Thin-client networks offer the possibility of support costs that can be reduced by 30 or 40% over traditional PC arrangements depending on the types of applications in use. As all of the complication is centralised to one or more servers, the major effort can be concentrated on them to make sure they are secure and reliable. If a client PC has a problem it's unlikely to be anything too tricky as it isn't doing much. PCs can even be replaced by dedicated thin-client machines that don’t even have moving parts to go wrong!

Summary of the benefits

A well-designed thin-client environment could offer your organisation: 

• Greatly reduced support overhead

• No need to purchase PCs every 3 or 4 years

• Much faster application deployment

• Remote access to the whole network

• Highly secure environment, no remote data

• More responsive systems for end-users

• New branch openings for a 3rd of the IT

We now manage similar environments for many not-for-profit organisations across the UK and Australia.

If you want to know more about any of our services feel free to give us a call on 0845 456 3970 or send us your details via our contact us page.