As part of its mission to become a world class low cost organisation, Illovo Sugar has signed a large thin client deal with Usko. With a potential of 1 000 thin client terminals to be installed, the latest installation includes 700 Network Computing Devices (NCD) thin client terminals and 200 PCs.
As Africa`s leading sugar supplier, Illovo Sugar`s management acknowledges the role of IT as having strategic importance to gain competitive advantage. According to USKO`s John Taylor, General Manager Business Development, Illovo`s initial problem was a lack of standardisation which made it difficult to manage and control a number of dissimilar systems.
In its bid to find a desktop solution that would reduce total cost of ownership, streamline management and be an effective Y2K solution, USKO recognised the business benefits of thin clients and decided on the NCD ThinSTAR 200 as the alternative network desktop device to PCs.
Having tested a variety of thin clients, the NCD thin client was the unit that ultimately met USKO`s performance and price requirements. Critical in this decision was the fact that Thin Client technology, being robust and easier to maintain making it ideally suited to the type of environment that exists at most Sugar mills and in particular the estates in Africa.
According to X-Solutions business development manager John Cato, this is one of the largest thin client sites on the African continent to date. "Judging from the increasing demand for the ThinSTAR 200 and related thin client products, it is evident that the PC dominated industry appears to be accepting the shift back to centralised computing more readily than many predicted. The driving force behind the evolution of thin clients is the realisation that the cost of sustaining PCs is no longer tolerable."
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