NationsBank Rolls Out IBM’s Workspace On-Demand
Server-Managed Environment Reduces Bank’s Total Cost of Management
AUSTIN (May 04, 1998) – IBM* today announced that NationsBank is deploying WorkSpace On-Demand*, IBM’s server-managed client operating system, on 25,000 workstations across its 3,000 NationsBank banking centers. The migration to WorkSpace On-Demand will assist NationsBank in reducing the cost of managing its systems and prepare the bank in reaching Year 2000 readiness.
WorkSpace On-Demand will allow NationsBank to seamlessly move to a server-based, network computing environment, helping the bank realize millions of dollars in savings and greatly reduce the complexity of managing thousands of workstations in the NationsBank banking centers across the country. The roll-out began in February and is expected to be completed next year.
“Not only does WorkSpace On-Demand get us where we want to be — to a thin-client, server-managed environment — but we can get there without having to make radical changes to our current infrastructure,” said Jon Hamm, vice president, NationsBank. “It also gives us a migration path towards Java and, most importantly, it allows us to reach our goal of significantly reducing the costs of managing our systems.”
Using WorkSpace On-Demand, NationsBank is able to manage desktops and deliver applications and customer information to its banking centers and back office associates through a Netscape Navigator browser interface, which will be the common interface on all workstations.The implementation of WorkSpace On-Demand at NationsBank was accomplished by NationsBank’s own IS department, Atlanta-based IBM Business Partner Golden Code, which specializes in OS/2 and related technologies, and IBM’s Rapid Deployment Team (RDT).
Realizing Savings, Reaching Goals
One of the main ways WorkSpace On-Demand is helping NationsBank save money is through its ability to take advantage of the bank’s existing hardware and software. Workstation disk drive and memory upgrades were minimal, no new operating system has to be implemented, no new support structure must be built, and the bank can continue using the same applications. NationsBank also expects user training time and costs to be reduced due to the familiar browser-based interface they will use on the WorkSpace On-Demand clients.
WorkSpace On-Demand also will allow NationsBank to maintain a consistent look and feel on its retail banking center workstations across all 15 states with NationsBank branch locations, so that all users have the same applications and have access to the same information. This means that customers can go into any NationsBank location and do their banking as if they were in their home branch. This concept, which NationsBank calls “model banking,” has been a goal of the bank’s for four years.
The Benefits of a Server-based Model
By moving to a server-based computing model with WorkSpace On-Demand, as opposed to a traditional client/server style of computing, NationsBank is also now able to decrease time to market of its applications, a process the bank calls “change management.” Now, change management only has to be addressed on 3,000 servers, as opposed to 25,000 client workstations and 2,500 servers, translating into even more savings.
Prior to the bank’s roll-out of WorkSpace On-Demand, updating an application at the client workstation could take anywhere from under a minute to as long as 40 minutes, depending on the machine and the size of the application. Now that the change control is performed on the server the time it takes to update applications is more consistent, taking only seconds per update.
Source: IBM