Sto-Rox School District Eases End-of-Summer Blues with Wyse Winterm Thin Clients and Rapport Management Software

Pennsylvania School District Combines Technology and Education by Using Thin-Client Computing to Minimize IT Support Costs and Meet Security and Reliability Requirements

San Jose, CA – 2002/10/24 - - Wyse® Technology, the worldwide leader in secure, managed thin clients, today announced that Sto-Rox School District in McKees Rocks, PA has deployed Wyse Winterm 3360SE thin clients and Rapport Management Software in the district's middle school and high school classrooms, libraries and business centers in an effort to increase the use of technology in the educational learning process. With locked down thin clients in place instead of desktop personal computers, Sto-Rox administrators and IT staff no longer have to worry about mischievous students doing harm to valuable technology tools, and teachers no longer have to double as information technology experts to benefit from computers in the classroom.

Before deploying Wyse thin clients, Sto-Rox School District was having trouble with the security of personal computers. Students were able to change settings and wallpaper, delete important icons off the screen and install games and music on the personal computers, often rendering computers broken or unusable for significant lengths of time. Broken PCs meant teachers could not use the devices as effectively as they wanted, and the PCs became a costly IT nightmare. Since desktop controls and settings are locked down with thin clients, only Sto-Rox IT staff and authorized users can change settings. This eliminated dozens of hours of computer downtime, and allowed students more time to use computers in the classroom and ensured that the curriculum that teachers build around the use of computers could be used effectively.

"We recognize the benefits of technology and education, but before thin clients, we had too many barriers. We were spending costly amounts of time and money on computer systems, and they became more of a hindrance to education than an enhancement," said Cathy Doyle, network administrator for Sto-Rox School District. "We are now able to shift the focus of IT staff from routine maintenance to the more important aspect of training and teaching students and staff how to use applications in their day-to-day curriculum, saving time and money, but more importantly, contributing to the educational experience of our students."

Another significant benefit to Sto-Rox is the ability to maximize their sparse personnel resources. Sto-Rox has only a small IT staff that is responsible for fixing computer problems, providing general maintenance and installing new software and upgrades to computers district-wide. If the district invested in a new software application, this small team could spend months installing the application on all of the personal computers, visiting each device to load the software and making sure it was running correctly. With Wyse thin clients, an IT professional installs the new software one time on a central server and all thin clients can immediately access the new application within minutes, saving valuable time and money.

"Wyse has a solid track record of helping educational institutions do more with less when it comes to computers in the classroom," said David Rand, director of corporate marketing at Wyse. "There is no better computing solution for the education environment than Wyse thin clients. The thin clients rarely break or are tampered with. They cost less than personal computers and they provide teachers and administrators with the IT control and management that they need."

Wyse Rapport management software enables Sto-Rox School District to conduct four critical desktop management functions from a single, central location: software distribution, device diagnostics, device configuration and asset management. Currently Sto-Rox is using Rapport to configure new thin-client devices when they are attached to the network. In the near future, the school district plans to use Rapport for software distribution, device diagnostics and asset management in an effort to fully implement the Wyse thin-client solution.

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