With the recent merging of Stellenbosch Farmers Winery (SFW) and Distillers, Enterprise Connection Cape (ECC) were contracted to assist with an IT solution that would integrate two different IT environments in a cost-effective and efficient way.
There were basically two choices to accommodate the new SAP graphical user interface, either to upgrade most existing PC`s, or invest in a thin client solution. The new company, whose annual turnover is set to exceed four billion rand per annum, chose the latter and invested in a Microsoft based "Thin Client" solution, Compaq servers and WYSE Windows Terminals. This solution saved them over a million rand and put them at the forefront of technology.
"Distillers realised the business benefits of using `Thin Client` technology from an early stage," says Johan de Villiers, GM for Enterprise Connection. "The reduction in administrative overheads, the redundancy of desktop lifecycles and the added ease of software upgrade deployment through the utilisation of their existing WAN were especially appealing to them. Windows 2000 Terminal Services, together with the RDP-5 compliant WYSE terminals was the logical choice for this rollout. This, coupled with the reliability of the ML-370 Compaq rackmounted servers, means that a robust, resilient infrastructure has been put in place, with the added benefit of scalability when required."
Geoff ten Oever, Partner Manager for Microsoft South Africa, adds, "Windows 2000 Terminal Services is a technology that lets you remotely execute applications on a Windows 2000-based server from a wide range of devices. Windows 2000 Terminal Services ensures that Distillers` users data is continuously backed up in a central location. In addition, administrators do not have to install Windows-based applications on each desktop computer. Instead, the application is installed once on the server, and the clients automatically have access to the new or upgraded software package. By reducing the costs of support personnel, Distillers should be able to reduce total cost of ownership".
The rollout, completed in mid-December, is one of the largest terminal user sites in Africa. Valued at around R3 million, it involved the installation of 27 servers to 20 different sites around South Africa. It was completed within a four-week time frame.
The logging-in of users to a central server, and the move from desktop PC`s to a Thin Client solution, is a growing market trend and has many advantages. It provides a better central management point for end-user support, as problems are fixed in the computer room and not at the individual workstation. Help Desk staff also have better management tools for remote support users on a countrywide basis. This means that assistance is not labour intensive and therefore more cost-effective and efficient. Another major advantage is that as a PC needs replacing, it will be replaced with a Windows Terminal at half the cost of a new PC. Software distribution to users is vastly simplified with all applications being loaded centrally on the Terminal Server.
Willem Sadie, Network manager for Distillers says, " The idea of maintaining servers, instead of desktops, with a single point of UPS power, cooling and access control is one of the more indirect advantages. To supply and maintain UPS power to PC`s on the factory floor is a costly affair. In the same category (indirect advantages), is the fact that a user can replace a faulty unit. On the downside, one must ensure that a software product is Windows 2000 Terminal Services -ready. The users must also be educated towards accepting the idea, since they feel less empowered without a PC, although the functionality is the same."
ECC have also installed an interface between Microsoft and Novell`s two different e-mail systems. The next phase of the project will be to integrate them completely and move the existing Novell GroupWise users over to Microsoft Exchange.
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