ABT Electronics Improves Customer Service and Reduces Costs with Wyse Winterm Thin Clients and Rapport Management Software

Leading Electronics Retailer Minimizes IT Support Costs and Meets the Security and Reliability Requirements of a Busy Sales Force With Thin-Client Computing

San Jose, CA – 2002/09/09 - - Wyse® Technology, the worldwide leader in secure, managed thin clients, today announced that Abt Electronics, a leading appliance and electronics retailer since 1936 deployed Winterm™ thin clients and Rapport management software throughout its new 350,000 square foot sales center in Glenview, IL. With the help of Vector ESP, a Wyse reseller, Abt opened its doors with Wyse Winterm 8360SE thin clients both on the sales floor and in the customer service center. Abt evaluated several desktop solutions, including a type of mini personal computer, but found the security, manageability, affordability and reliability of Wyse thin clients to be the best solution for its needs.

"Abt Electronics can see up to 10,000 customers on a typical weekend. With that kind of traffic on the sales floor, we needed a desktop that could alleviate security and reliability issues for our busy sales force," said Bill Wolfe, CIO of Abt Electronics. "Wyse Winterm thin clients also provide a welcome break for our IT department, which no longer receives the amount of help desk calls that it did before the thin clients were deployed."

With no moving parts, and no demands on users to update or administer software, Wyse thin clients provide the reliability that Abt needs in the more than 100 POS and cashier's stations in the new store. Abt salespeople have access to any terminal in the store, no matter their location, and have noticed significant improvements in speed and reliability with the new system -- improving overall customer service. PC crashes, operator errors, devices failing during peak retail hours and high service and support costs are a thing of the past. With Wyse thin clients, Abt is assured that its financial materials, internal staff information and customer billing records are secure and managed from a centralized location that only authorized staff has access to. In fact, with all vital information saved to a centralized server, Abt has eliminated corporate concerns over unsecured personal computers. Even if a thin-client were to be stolen, all of Abt's information would still be secure.

"Retail stores, such as Abt Electronics, have discovered that thin-client technology is not only a cost-effective alternative to personal computers, but a technology that allows sales forces to work more quickly, efficiently and effectively," said Brad Rowland, director of product management at Wyse. "Abt was able to get the IT system in the new store up and running in a matter of hours, rather than days. By deploying Wyse's Rapport management software, the store is able to manage all of the Winterm thin clients from a central location without ever having to touch the devices, significantly cutting IT administration costs."

Wyse Rapport management software enables Abt Electronics to conduct four critical desktop management functions from a single, central location: software distribution, device diagnostics, device configuration and asset management. Rapport enables Abt administrators to replace all of the software that resides on a Wyse thin client, or update specific applications on a device. With this powerful management tool, Abt is able to track the service history of each device, enabling administrators to remotely diagnose problems that a user might be experiencing. Rapport also delivers hands-free device configuration, enabling Abt to adjust settings for a device. Finally, Rapport enables Abt to track asset information on their network, which includes not only the number, types and location of devices, but specific information about each device. When Abt's IT staff rolls out software updates to the sales floor, changes are made in a matter of minutes, updating all thin-client stations instantly.

The Winterm 8360SE is based on the Microsoft Windows NT Embedded operating system, and includes an optimized Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or 5.5 browser. With support for Microsoft RDP, Citrix ICA and 15 additional terminal emulations, the Winterm 8360SE is an ideal fit for the retail market as it can drop into virtually any environment and begin paying immediate dividends in both simplicity of management and reliability of performance. It supports local browsing, local application execution, and multimedia and delivers the flexibility of a personal computer with the reliability and simplicity of a thin client.

关于Wyse Technology

WYSE创建于美国硅谷，是全球最知名的智能网络计算解决方案供应商之一。连续8年蝉联全球智能网络应用终端市场占有率第一，占全球市场份额的38％。WYSE提供的硬件、软件和服务为用户提供了可中央控制的系统来协调运算资源、应用软件资源、储存资源以提高性能，在确保系统安全、可靠、灵活的同时，降低了总体拥有成本，并且将IT部门从不必要的支持和维护工作中解放出来，大大提高了生产力。多年来，WYSE深受全球众多知名商业及公共机构的信赖，主要应用智能网络应用终端的产业包括金融、电信、广播传媒、零售、运输、政府、医疗、国防、旅游、能源、教育等行业，WYSE的客户主要是行业领先的全球化公司，财富全球排名前100名中有超过四成已经成为WYSE的客户。

从2005年初起，WYSE开始大规模发展针对新一代网络计算终端的软件和系统开发。并在中国和印度大力投资技术研究与开发中心，加速新产品开发和推出结合本地客户要求的客户化解决方案。

WYSE的全球总部位于美国硅谷，分支机构遍布世界各地。亚太区总部设在中国北京海淀区融科资讯中心大厦，下辖六个分公司，分别位于中国台湾、日本东京、韩国首尔、印度班加罗尔、澳大利亚悉尼和新加坡。