The Forward Thinking Estate Agent ‘taster' series:
As part of the build-up to the Forward Thinking Roadshow in Bristol we have put together a series of 5 articles by the experts who will be attending the show. These are designed to give you a taste of what the show will involve and also give your business a head start! These will be simultaneously posted to the Linkedin discussion group and also a Facebook Page so please feel free to comment and add your thoughts.
We also look forward to discussing it in person on the 24th of February at the Aztec West Hotel, Bristol.
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In the modern business there is a growing reliance on computers, servers, smart-phones and reliable internet connections; and all of this has to be delivered on an ever tighter budget. Luckily there are several modern technologies that can provide an enterprise level feature set for the
forward thinking estate agent, at a price tag that is less than the “traditional” options, and more easy to budget and control.
With a
Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, or VDI for short, your staff login at work and use a traditional Microsoft Windows 7 desktop, with MS Office 2010 and all the other usual suspects. The key difference being that the desktop is hosted, managed and served from the central servers. This provides a raft of benefits in comparison to traditional networks, with the key ones being as follows:
1. Total cost of ownership is lower
- The client computers are cheaper and more reliable than traditional desktops
- Lifetime of traditional desktops can be extended as load is pushed to the server
- Support and maintenance of the users and servers are all centralised
2. Greater accessibility and flexibility, with improved security
- Your desktop can be delivered to any computer, allowing resilience
- Applications can be installed once and published to all staff in one go
- Enterprise level security features allow greater peace of mind
3. Increased resilience and built in disaster recovery
- Your desktops and servers can all be easily backed up in one place
- If your local computer or network goes down you simply find another computerIf your office burns down, your desktop and data are all safe and secure
Consider a multi-branch estate agent, the traditional installation would have a server in each office, and all the hardware and support costs to go with it. Every user could have a different model of computer, making support cumbersome, and replacements costly. A secure “windows domain” network could be setup, but this would be awkward to maintain.
With a VDI setup, all the staff would use a standard thin client computer to access a shared server providing their standardised desktop. Cost savings are made on the capital expenditure relating to purchase of servers and computers, as well as on reduced support and replacement costs. The “windows domain” network is simple to setup and maintain, and all of the additional benefits can be made use of.
When VDI is coupled with hosted Voice Over IP telephony, central print pooling, hardware virtualisation, the savings and benefits can both be increased even further.
This article was written by Chris Haines, MD of Evolvin Ltd. To Speak to Chris about VDI and VOIP for your estate agency come and meet him in person at one of the free Forward Thinking Estate Agents Roadshows in 2011. For more information please visit
Evolvin's Facebook page.