Office Task-Based User

Imagine that you re the head of IS at a large insurance company. You need to provide the claims department access to customized forms and tables, and you need to allow the company access to a centralized database that contains current data. Although the claims workers and other company personnel might need to use e-mail or scheduling software, they would be unnecessarily distracted by any other software. These users don t need to spend any time with the intricacies of an operating system. In settings such as this, employees could be using a Windows-based terminal, NetPC, or network computer with the applications completely developed, deployed, and maintained by an internal IS department. Your company could even use Citrix ICA thin-client/server software with some older PCs and effectively turn them into Windows terminals with just a network card and a VGA video card and monitor. The insurance industry is certainly not the only type of industry that can greatly benefit from using thin-client/server based applications. IS professionals who plan, deploy, and support systems for all types of customer service professionals can increase their productivity and streamline their computing infrastructure with this new technology. Whether providing information, taking orders, troubleshooting, tracking customer information, or using group scheduling and communications, customer service professionals are a segment of task-based workers whose computing needs can be most efficiently met with thin-client/server technology.

Use dedicated thin-client devices for task-based users.