October 17th - 19th, 1999
Hyatt Regency Baltimore, MD

Leveraging Thin Clients for the Web:
Paul Boulay, Program Director, Marketing Network Computer Division, IBM Corp.
Monday, October 18th, 11:00-11:50 a.m.

"Expert: Network Computing Will Surpass
Personal Computer"

The personal computer isn't dead by a long shot, but its role as the primary platform for application development will soon be surpassed by network computing or e-business, said Paul Boulay, program director of marketing in IBM's Network Computer Division, Somers, N.Y.

Boulay told A.M. Best Co.'s 12th annual Insurance Information and Technology Conference in Baltimore that the trend is toward "a whole new class of applications that has the ability to interact with millions of people around the world each day. This could involve the buying of books, insurance, any number of things."

Known as "thin clients," these are the types of devices that give access to more server-based applications. "And they are made available in the easy-to-manage desktop," he said. "This is client access to the entire system."

The idea is to get away from the high-maintenance deployment of software and Internet access on every employee's desk.

Industry consultants back up IBM's viewpoint, Boulay said. The Gartner Group, for example, estimates that by 2001, Microsoft Windows will no longer be the majority target for new application development. And they predict that in the same year, browsers will become the primary development platform. The Aberdeen Group thinks that by 2003, thin clients will have grown to nearly 30% of all desktop platforms.

The major advantage to employers in embracing thin clients is financial: these devices can save businesses 80% in support staff costs and have a 25% to 35% lower cost of ownership as compared with personal computers, the Gartner Group said. Other pluses are universal access to new and existing operations; accelerated deployment of applications; and seamless access to multiple servers, Boulay said.

He cited two insurance-company customers that have benefited from this new approach.

Guardian Life Insurance Co., New York, initiated the deployment of thin clients for its customer service and claims operations. "Now they are finding new and additional applications for this technology," he said.

CGU plc of the United Kingdom has installed more than 6,000 network stations, with more planned in the future, making this the largest thin-client deployment in Europe. As a result, CGU has seen "significant reduction in overall expenses," Boulay said. Other advantages include more efficient customer service plus a sharper competitive edge in the industry, he said.

Boulay said IBM has four models of thin clients: The Series 300, the Series 1000, and two new ones rolled out this year--the Series 2800 in May and the Series 2200 in September.

"We've been in the thin-client business for over three years," Boulay said. "We tried a lot of different things along the way--some have worked and some have not."