That’s how industry veteran Jeff Kalberg of thin client integrator, Computer Products Corporation sees it. He has recommended IGEL thin client solutions for established and growing companies like United Rentals, the world’s largest equipment rental company; Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union (San Antonio, Texas); and North Carolina State Employees’ Credit Union, the nation’s fourth largest credit union.

As Kalberg puts it, “What distinguishes IGEL is a solutions approach to thin client. IGEL just does a better job of allowing end users to develop terminal devices to run like they want them to.” He also points out that IGEL is always “out in front” when it comes to the design and development of thin client solutions, as well as superior network management tools. Hinting at a parallel in the auto industry, he alludes to the idea of German engineering and how impressive it is to “look under the hood” of IGEL products.

United Rentals already understood the value of thin client access and the need to keep up with the changing demands of their end users, 700+ retail locations, 4,000+ devices and a growing Internet equipment leasing business. Operating in the midrange environment, United Rentals needed to accommodate more services, as the company moved from legacy green screen applications to increased capacity, support for the Java virtual machine, a fully featured browser and, eventually, Windows and/or Linux and desktop applications.

Kalberg recommended that United Rentals leverage its current IGEL investment and upgrade to the powerful and robust IGEL Premium product. When it came down to “the rubber meeting the road,” United Rentals was able to roll out 4,000 thin client devices to hundreds of retail locations in just three-and-a-half weeks – at the height of the equipment rental season – with a very small team.

Invariably, what makes IGEL thin client rollouts and conversions so easy is not only the team but also IGEL’s unique remote management tool. As Kalberg recalls, “The real power of the IGEL solution is the Remote Manager tool which allows us to roll out the product very fast, enabling enterprise-wide efficiency and productivity.” And a key part of this IGEL tool is the ability to create “profiles” across the enterprise. For United Rentals, it meant preconfiguring – or imaging devices – so each could literally come “off the boat and onto the network.”

Randolph-Brooks Credit Union faced its own challenge when it realized that IBM’s retreat from the thin client market meant some major IT decision making. A Citrix iForum conference was the catalyst for introducing Randolph-Brooks to IGEL and thin client integrator CPC. It proved to be the perfect match, as the IGEL product offered a painless, cost-efficient conversion from its IBM-supported midrange environment to an IGEL/Citrix thin client access environment. Again, the differentiator for Randolph-Brooks is described by Kalberg. “IGEL is different in their ability to configure devices and provide remote management of these devices quickly, easily… and better than anyone else.”

The North Carolina State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) – the country’s fourth largest credit union – was feeling the same need as it faced replacing 3,000+ older IBM 2800 thin clients. Their need to upgrade to support the ICA (Citrix) client meant a major conversion. IGEL helped Kalberg make it very easy to populate the IGEL desktop with Windows applications without a Web component on the back end.

When asked why IGEL was such a great fit for his customers and CPC, Kalberg wastes little time identifying several key attributes, including flexibility in incorporating customer and integrator requested features, a rock solid business sense, true understanding of the enterprise, and, of course, “their passion and commitment to my customers.”

From IGEL’s point of view, the key to success has come from re-examining the VAR sales model. For Matthew Haynes, IGEL’s VP of North American Sales, that means “putting the ‘value’ back in ‘Value Added Reseller.’” Recalling a throwback to hardware sales of the past, Haynes comments, “We are not only adding significant value through out customized solutions, but also enabling our partners to capture double-digit margins. Our partners get great development support, and pre-sale and post-sale tech support, as required. We can be as visible or transparent as our VARS want. That is value…and that is a great concept!”