Sun helps NSC find ‘pot of gold’

Under a new agreement NSC will add Sun’s range of thin clients to its converged communications solution portfolio, said Craig Neil, managing director, NSC Group.

Neil told CRN the SunRay solution allows data to be saved directly to the server and not on individual PC’s thereby reducing the risk of data leakage and complexity.

The new deal with Sun is also a step away from NSC’s traditional voice and data integration services, said Neil. ‘For the past five-six years we have been getting the voice convergence down pat. We are also following Microsoft’s UC angle and integrating more voice applications with data,” he said.

“NSC will offer customers the SunRay solution as part of either a managed or non-managed service. The product hits a lot of the pain point our CIO customers have been complaining about lately,” said Neil.

In the past six months NSC has been sitting down with CIOs and talking to them about their friction points and the message they were sending out was that they were no longer happy with PCs and that thin client solution like SunRay addressed their main concern – security, claimed Neil.

“With a thin client solution you can’t store a file on the terminal and all files are saved directly to the data centre. Users can’t drop files onto a USB. The terminals also require a security card to permit users access to files,” he said.

According to Neil, CIOs in a call centre environment were also concerned with the quick burn out of PCs. “PCs in call centres get replaced every 18 months, because the terminals are on 24/7 and tend to burn out very quickly. Sun’s thin client terminals cost around $500 each and will last up to ten years,” he said.

Neil believes thin clients are making a big come-back, despite its proprietary set-up user’s can now access all their PC applications on thin client terminals. “We stumbled upon a pot of gold because there is a big come back for thin clients,” he said.

“In the past thins clients requires proprietary software and email applications, which meant users couldn’t access Microsoft Office –which turned a lot of people off. Now users can access ERP, CRM software, Lotus Notes and Microsoft office application and that is driving the turn around on thin clients,” said Neil.