|
...Press release... European Electronique’s Green One Stop Shop Technology is the Icing on Banbury’s Cake Oxfordshire VAR European Electronique has teamed up with Cherwell District Council to help improve customer and staff access to the council’s services at Bodicote House in Banbury. The new One Stop Shop council embraces an environmentally efficient, greener ICT solution. It will also comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, bringing services together on the ground floor of the building allowing customers to access all departments and facilities from a single location. Cllr Nicholas Turner, Portfolio Holder for Customer Service and ICT, said: "Cherwell District Council's One Stop Shop approach is being hailed as a model of good practice. It has been built in partnership with public and private sector organisations and it is just the first stage in our journey towards excellence. European Electronique have worked closely with ICT staff at the Council to ensure that their technology fully meets the needs of our staff and customers while delivering an efficient, value-for-money service. Together, we will be monitoring the One Stop Shop closely in its early days, building on successes in preparation for the next stage in our customer service revolution.” The pilot scheme is based on Sun Microsystems thin client technology delivering environmentally friendly centralised computing using Microsoft Windows Terminal Services. Running on virtualised platforms (VMWare ESX 3) ensures that the system is energy efficient and cost effective. Each thin client unit uses only 4 watts of power and increases the client (PC) refresh cycle from 3 years to between 10 and 20 years. “We are very pleased to have Cherwell District Council join the growing number of European Electronique customers using Sun's Sun Ray thin client technology. We are confident that they will gain huge benefits from this investment, as our customers in schools, higher education, local government, healthcare and the wider public sector are experiencing.” Simon Schouten, UK Desktop Sales Manager at Sun Microsystems. European Electronique has presented a solution with the future in mind, building in the potential for the provision of thin client laptops and touch screens. Combined with Sun Secure Global Desktop, this would allow home workers secure remote access to council systems. The One Stop Shop system utilises smart card technology giving staff secure access to the systems from any terminal on the One Stop Shop Network and also gives the public controlled Internet access. Giles Hamson, European Electronique’s Technical Architect, commented: “Both European Electronique’s and Sun’s technical teams have worked closely with Gareth Jones and Simon Park at Cherwell District Council, from decision making and test phases through to successful implementation. We are very excited about this pilot project and looking forward to assisting with future projects.” The pilot scheme was launched at two events on April 2nd. The first of these was a lunch with a guided tour designed to introduce members of the public and various voluntary organisations and charities to the idea. In the evening a similar event including the grand unveiling was aimed at developers and representatives from other local authorities. The council plans to roll out further One Stop Shops across the district. European Electronique Ltd will be exhibiting on stand A31 at Healthcare Computing 2008, Harrogate 21–23 April 2008. For more information about this topic please contact: polly.inness@euroele.com |
