Datacom goes thin

IT service provider Datacom has implemented a selection of thin clients by Wyse Technology, into its call centre business unit.

Australian-based IT service provider Datacom has around 2000 staff in three countries, delivering to services to customers including Microsoft, IBM, Hewlett Packard, General Electric, Manpower, Medibank Private and Norfolk Group Trust.

Tim Leehy, systems manager at Datacom Connect said the company chose Wyse because of its long history of support for thin client computing.

“We needed a solution that solved a very important business need for us; when we had urgent headcount upswings caused by new call centre business coming on board. Wyse thin client really delivered.”

Datacom incorporates an Aspect telephony system using agents running on PCs preconfigured for each client running with Microsoft Terminal Server. The programs are run on Dell 1850 servers driving the PCs as clients in a kiosk style situation for the operators, said Leehy.

“At times, real agility was needed in ramping up campaigns of 100 seats or more with a moments notice.”

Datacom selected the Wyse S30 due to its support for the Aspect dialler via RDP 5.5. These stateless, very small units are perfect for the desktop or mounted to the back of the monitor. The Wyse S30 runs Microsoft Windows CE operating system with traditional Windows GUI, and supports selective serial devices. It also features an embedded web browser in which the Aspect application is run. The Aspect application also runs via terminal services sessions.

“The trial showed us that thin clients were ideal instead of PCs,” said Leehy. “We were able to set up a new account for 100 seats. With PCs, no two units are the same for very long, and security is an issue. Additionally thin clients boast a far lower operating cost as they have no moving parts.”

Datacom now has an emergency set of 25 S30s at any one time in storage ready to go online when a new client pops up. The company is also looking closely at replacing existing PCs used for existing clients as a future initiative.