A company that has to vie for customers and employees cannot afford to let a
lack of technology slow it down. Representatives at Pro Staff, a contingency
staffing services company, agreed that to maintain a leadership position, the
company needed to quickly automate its manual staffing processes with a minimum
of capital outlay and a small support staff.
Pro Staff started as a small, regional operation in Minneapolis, Minnesota,
14 years ago and now has more than 100 offices in most major US markets. The
company employed more than 60,000 people last year. With a relatively small
administrative staff and only pockets of technology throughout the organization,
Pro Staff needed a technical solution to remain competitive and support its
growth.
Pro Staff implemented a Citrix WinFrame enterprise strategy using
Intelligent Console Architecture (ICA)-based distributed Windows computing with
centralized servers and Wyse remote terminals. ICA is a Citrix-developed
protocol that increases transmission speeds for remote-node software (for a
detailed review of ICA, see John Enck, "Think Thin and Win with Intelligent
Console Architecture," page 128). This approach lets an enterprise
centralize software administration, which helps reduce the introduction of
unauthorized software and viruses, pool limited Help Desk resources, and save
money by incorporating terminals instead of PCs.
SOLUTION SUMMARY
- Pro Staff's Intelligent Console Architecture (ICA)-based remote networking
solution helps prevent users from introducing unauthorized software and viruses,
pools limited Help Desk resources, and saves money by relying on terminals
instead of PCs. The company's Citrix WinFrame enterprise strategy takes
advantage of distributed Windows computing with centralized servers and Wyse
remote terminals. A Windows-based database application tracks job applicants,
their skills, work assignments, and clients.
- Each user has a Wyse Winterm terminal connected to a Digital Prioris server
running WinFrame ICA software through a carrier-managed frame relay WAN with
TCP/IP and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). The Winterms let Pro
Staff's Help Desk remotely configure and troubleshoot user systems.
- The WinFrame servers can be Backup Domain Controllers (BDCs) that receive
conditioned power from an Exide UPS. Applications and associated data reside on
two clustered NT servers connected to two external RAIDs housed in Digital
Equipment's Storageworks cabinets. Pro Staff will duplicate its network
configuration at another site to create redundancy in case of disaster.
A Look Back
More than two years ago, Pro Staff decided to invest
in a computerized system to help its staffing professionals manage a rapidly
growing base of applicants and employees. Pro Staff first experimented with the
limited installation of a DOS-based staffing application that relied on Citrix's
WinView to distribute the application across a WAN. Although the staffing
application proved difficult to use and inefficient across a WAN, Pro Staff was
intrigued by the Citrix concept and the early whispers of WinFrame, multi-user
server software based on Windows NT Server (for a review of WinFrame, Tim
Daniels, "Citrix WinFrame 1.6 Beta," May 1996).
Pro Staff continued searching for a staffing application and found a
Windows-based database application that tracks job applicants and their skills,
work assignments, and clients. This product was one of the first to use
WinFrame. With Citrix, this product became Pro Staff's solution. The Microsoft
Office suite was Pro Staff's standard, and the Windows-based staffing product
was waiting in the wings when the company began looking at an NT-based solution.
As a former Value Added Reseller (VAR) for Citrix, Kevin Smith, Pro Staff's
IS director, was familiar with WinView. He recognized that WinFrame improved on
WinView by offering multiprocessor support, load balancing, the 20% to 30%
faster ICA protocol, and seamless integration with most Microsoft products and
features--including NT's solid, secure platform. With assistance from a Citrix
software VAR, Pro Staff's network systems engineer/administrator, Kevin
Woodward, took the lead as the engineer on the project. More than five years of
Novell NetWare and Windows 3.x experience and a detailed knowledge of the
staffing industry made him uniquely qualified to manage the project.