Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council

Case Study Access Solutions 05/12/2007

Meeting the Outsourcing Challenge

Background

The towns of Nuneaton and Bedworth are thriving communities in the heart of the Midlands industrial area, in the centre of England. Since 1974, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council (NBBC) has been responsible for local government management of both towns, covering over 118,000 people.

Requirement

The Challenge for NBBC was to deploying an efficient, cost-effective IT System and they chose ISC Networks to assist them reaching their IT goals.

NBBC's IT system is vital to the efficient delivery of many essential Council services from administering local Council tax payments to monitoring environmental health hazards. In the early 1990s, NBBC sourced its line-of-business applications from external suppliers and accessed them on UNIX terminals. However, when the suppliers of these applications began switching to Windows versions, the Council had to find a cost-effective solution to replace the existing 200+ UNIX terminals as well as to widen employee access to email, automate office applications and the provide Internet access. Working together with ISC Networks, it was determined that if the Council wanted to achieve these aims, it would have meant doubling the existing Windows PC desktop population to 400.

Solution

The Council decided to implement an application server computing solution. NBBC worked with ISC Networks, a Gold Partner of the Citrix Solutions Network�, to implement Citrix MetaFrame� with Microsoft� Windows NT� Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition software. As MetaFrame provides access to any application on any device, the Council's 500 users are able to reliably access mission-critical applications, such as First Housing and Flare Environmental Health, from central MetaFrame servers using NCD thin clients and a variety of PCs.

Applications Deployed

Agresso Financials, general ledger and purchase ordering
Ash Debtor, debt recovery
ISC Comino
First Housing
Flare Environmental Health
Ocella planning and building control
Microsoft Office 97, Outlook 98 and Internet Explorer 4
Networking Environment
Seven MetaFrame servers: Five Compaq Proliant ML35 dual P-III 866 MHz processors and two Compaq Proliant 3000 dual P-III 550 MHz processors, each with 1GB RAM
Citrix Load Balancing Services
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition software
TCP/IP, ISDN, Ethernet LAN, WAN
Oracle back-end databases
Esker Tun Plus for V100/200 terminal emulation
Client devices include: NCD Thinstar 300s, Compaq DeskPro 2000s and other PCs, and Apple Macintoshes, UNIX terminals

Benefits

NBBC are pleased to promote its manageable, cost effective IT solution that now delivers all NBBC�s applications via Citrix MetaFrame. "We have lowered our total cost of system ownership by 40 percent, based on our prediction for IT support costs," said Paul Ford, Information Systems Manager, Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council. "IT support costs have not been increased because the whole system can be managed centrally. It is also essential that we have a good IS/IT infrastructure to deliver the community services that the people need," added Ford. �Our employees can securely and reliably access line-of business applications via MetaFrame, so that they can efficiently respond and take the necessary action."

NBBC is also using MetaFrame to enhance front-line technical support, freeing up systems experts to focus on future developments. Support staff save a great deal of time by using MetaFrame's advanced session shadowing capabilities, which allow staff to remotely "capture" a user's screen to diagnose and correct a problem. As a result, support staff no longer need to travel to remote sites.

Future Plans

NBBC plans to facilitate local democratic processes by enabling the Council's 45 elected members to access the system from their homes. Thanks to MetaFrame, these volunteers will be able to have efficient and secure access to applications and government information outside working hours, leaving them better placed to make the decisions that affect the community.

Key Benefits

40% lower total cost of ownership
Streamlined IT administration
Enabled more efficient service to the community
Ability to deploy inexpensive thin client devices