The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration is extending the lifetime of its computers and reducing the need for expensive hardware purchases with the aid of the Multiframe thin client solution. This also simplifies operations, improves security and results in fewer problems. Thin clients are playing a very important role in the establishment of Norway largest IT network.

The National Insurance Administration was merged with Aetat (the Norwegian Public Employment Service) on 1 July 2006 to form one of the country's largest public agencies. The establishment of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) represents the largest administrative reform in Norwegian history. It performs 16,000 man-years of work, administers NOK 240,000 million of the national budget and has half of the population as users. Both agencies previously chose to centralise operations with the aid of Citrix in order, among other things, to enable the use of thin clients on the hardware side. Before the merger the National Insurance Administration had 8,000 employees in 530 offices.

"We carried out a pilot project in order to establish a strategy for developing the IT infrastructure. The goal was to get more out of each Norwegian krone (1 Euro ≈ 8.7 NOK) invested in IT. We therefore announced a general agreement in 2004 in connection with the transition to centralised, server-based data processing," says Project Manager Mohammed Ashraf.

Millions saved every year
One important decision taken during the process was it would be far too expensive to upgrade all the PCs. Siemens Business Services, which finally won the general contract, chose to include Multiframe in its bid in order to address this. The software was used to convert 90% of all of the agency's PCs into thin clients. All of the new PCs purchased are thin terminals. NAV has saved taxpayers a huge amount of money every year with these simple measures.

"We have analyses that tell us that PCs live for 3-5 years. The lifetime of thin clients is double as long. By reconfiguring our old PCs into thin clients with the aid of Multiframe, we are extending the lifetime of the existing investments on the hardware side by two to three years. We had around 10,500 PCs in the agency. Therefore, replacing these was never a real option. Rather we wanted to get even more out of the investments we have already made on the hardware side of things. Therefore, thin clients became the easy answer to our challenges," says Ashraf.
The savings for NAV probably amount to several tens of millions of krone every year as a direct consequence of the focus on thin clients alone. The centralisation enables a halving of the total IT costs at a general level. The savings are most noticeable at an operational/administrative level. Analyses from, for example the Gartner Group, supports this with their estimate that around 80% of IT budgets are generally spent on administration and operations. Therefore, were one to specifically calculate NAV's total savings, this figure would probably far exceed the aforementioned hardware savings.

Norwegian developed tool
Multiframe is a Norwegian developed tool for slimming down old PCs and administering thin client solutions. The tool helps to reduce costs, extend the lifetime of old PCs and create a more comprehensible, homogenous operating environment. The hardware requirements are moved from the user equipment and into the computer room. All operations take place centrally by locating all of the applications on the server. This means that the IT department uses the same administration tool for managing, operating and supporting the entire network, and does not do this locally on each PC.
"Reconfiguring a PC into a thin client is a simple process. For example, we use some PCs in the various networks that act as local servers which the other PCs can obtain their reconfigurations from. Therefore not everything needs to be sent over the same line. We have had very good experiences with this," continues Ashraf.

Improved service for the users
The Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration's users have already noticed the benefits. Reducing users' options is usually regarded as a negative, but it has had the opposite effect in NAV.
"Most of the users report that things are working faster, logging on, not least, takes much less time than before. The centralisation means that we do not have to have local resources in each office. Applications, patches or upgrades can be rolled out to all users at the same time and faster than before with just a couple of keystrokes. Linpro and Siemens Business Services have been good partners throughout the entire process. They are effective and innovative, while at the same time Multiframe is a very good tool," he says.

Reduced virus risk
Thin clients without software installed considerably reduce the risks from viruses and minimise the danger of them spreading. The accessibility and uptime also increases because the users cannot themselves make changes on the PCs and all the important applications are stored centrally. If a user unit breaks down, one can simply plug in a new terminal and be operational again in just a few minutes.
"Were one to replace a broken PC with a new PC it would take far more time, especially with respect to configuration and individual modifications. With our new uniform environment we have an IT infrastructure that is regarded as a clear improvement for all involved, from those who pay the bills, to those who operate it and, not least, the users. We are very satisfied with the results of this project," concludes Ashraf.