With today’s technology enabling complete mobility with real-time, secure access to data and customer records, the nature of work is radically changing. “Work” is no longer the place you go – it’s what you do.

Technology has changed the way we work; and the way we work is constantly transforming technology. Today, we have the capability to work from the home office, the office in our home, on the road or off the beaten path - virtually anywhere.

No longer do you need to carry bulky file folders or multiple copies of data that require synchronization later with a “master” version. Today, Unified Communications means you and your employees can remotely access information quickly, securely and work in “real-time” anytime.

“All applications and users were created equal” with Citrix Presentation Server™ 4.5, where load balancing was performed solely on server load. Now with the introduction of Citrix XenApp™ 5 Platinum you will have the ability to prioritize critical users over others. Consider a doctor in a hospital running an important application over XenApp in the emergency room. The doctor is given preferential application access to his XenApp applications, which he requires to look-up information while performing time-sensitive procedures. The doctor cannot experience slowness, longer response times or a “jerky” user experience because of CPU spikes caused by normal or lower priority users, such as front desk staff using standard admin applications on the same server.

Preferential Load Balancing allows the administrator to assign importance levels to applications and users via XenApp policies. A user’s session gets an importance level that is a function of who they are and what application they are running.

What could an ACCESS STRATEGY mean to your business? Consider the following:

1. Work becomes something you do, not a place you go.
2. Lifecycles of workstations increase since computing power is centralized, reducing overall cost.
3. Employees can be more productive and develop their fullest potential –remote access means the ability to create, share and apply ideas from anywhere at anytime.
4. Network management becomes easier with computing power and rules in a central location.
5. Remote and home offices have instant access to the same information all the time.
6. Multiple data copies are no longer used by those working outside the office, thus reducing security risks and the potential for version mismatches.
7. Servers are not required at each office, reducing the total hardware investment.
8. Licensing of key applications is reduced. (For example, instead of a 100-user company purchasing 100 copies of Microsoft Office, with XenApp just 10 copies might be sufficient.)
9. Software upgrades are performed at a central location and are applied immediately to all users. IT no longer has to visit each station every time a new software product is released.
10. Disaster recovery planning is easier. If a branch office experiences a substantial problem, users can go home, logon to the network and continue working. Corporate office data can be made completely redundant and transparent to the end user.
11. The Universal Print Driver allows users to print anytime from anywhere to any network printer.
12. With data and applications centralized, regulatory compliance issues are easily addressed and corrected without a site-by-site audit and expensive analysis.

Access Strategy is a valuable business tool and quickly becoming as commonplace as the copier. This tool allows employees to work remotely and still be connected with full “office” capabilities. Access Strategy saves businesses time and money, encourages ideas and creativity, reduces duplication and increases security.

The professionals at PNC have the expertise to make this strategy work for you and your business. Contact PNC today to learn more.