Centrepoint, a charity that helps homeless people, is
running a pilot of providing software via thin clients to residents
of its homes for young adults.
Centrepoint is a charity
for young people that are homeless or at risk of being
homeless.
"We wanted to be able to provide young people in our services
with access to services through technology that they did not have,"
said Stuart Rogers, director of business improvement at
Centrepoint.
To this end it has installed 50 Sun Ray thin clients from Sun
Microsystems, running the
Star Office Java desktop, in its service near Barbican in
London. These provide 24 hour access from individual rooms as well
as community areas with a broadband internet connection.
The project will be rolled out across the charity's 21 services
if successful.
He said the charity provides a package for young people, such as
access to education and the job market, not just housing.
Rogers said he initially approached Sun to talk about software
but quickly realized the hardware had to be right first.
For its part Sun agreed to match whatever investment Centrepoint
made.
"Sun has supported us strategically to get it up and running and
provided a funding grant that matched our spend," said Rogers.