Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS), the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, today announced that the Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office (FLGAL) used Citrix Access Gateway™ and Citrix Presentation Server™ to build and deploy its statewide child and case tracking system, providing the agency’s approximately 800 full-time staff with on-demand access to more than 25,000 case files across 50 remote offices in 20 judicial circuits. Citrix also provides employees with access to all other FLGAL data and applications, including Microsoft Office and the FLGAL timesheet and employee tracking databases.
FLGAL, a state agency established in January 2004, provides legal advocacy services to otherwise unrepresented children who are drawn into court for non-criminal cases involving abuse, neglect, and abandonment; foster care; and adoption. The agency provides effective legal representation, and it keeps tabs on the children to ensure their well-being.
Prior to 2004, FLGAL operated as a loose association of 21 affiliates across the state, organized within the state’s 20 judicial circuits. Shortly after the agency went live, it became apparent that a common Information Technology (IT) backbone was needed to ensure the accurate tracking of every case and child in the system.
- After considering other, more costly and time-consuming alternatives to provide advocates across the state with fast and secure access to IT services, FLGAL chose Citrix application delivery infrastructure, implemented by Bayshore Technologies, Inc., Florida’s only Platinum-level Citrix® Solution Advisor. Citrix provides the agency with a single, integrated application delivery infrastructure that:
- Gives advocates instant access to case management applications and information from any place, at any time, and using any device, over any connection
- Enables IT staffs to manage applications centrally, simplifying deployment, management and monitoring
- Ensures that only the right people have access to the statewide system, protecting the security of government information assets
“The deployment of the Citrix application delivery infrastructure across the state will ensure the continued success and effectiveness of FLGAL,” said Bert Wakeley, director, State and Local Government for Citrix. “It will improve information sharing, case management, and child tracking across jurisdictions and offices. Ultimately, it will ensure that data about these children remains secure and private, allowing FLGAL to meet the privacy requirements mandated by the government.”
Faster Implementation at Less Cost
FLGAL officials examined several options for creating the statewide IT infrastructure, and quickly decided that the traditional design – with 20 to 30 distributed servers in the network – would be too costly, resource-intensive, and time-consuming. Configuring more than 800 client devices would have required technicians to actually touch every machine, demanding hundreds of man-hours. Adding new users would have required on-site visits by a technician to physically set up their PCs. These actions might consume four to five hours per client device, not including travel between the 50 offices scattered throughout the state.
In contrast, setting up new users via the Citrix application delivery infrastructure took only 30 minutes, a time- and cost-savings of 90 percent. And with centralized administration of applications via Citrix Presentation Server, the three-person IT staff of FLGAL can roll out new applications to all users simultaneously. Under a traditional design, about 25 IT staff would be needed to manage the network.
“Just in network connectivity costs alone, we are saving over $405,000,” said Johnny C. White, chief information officer, Florida Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office.
Improved Security and Privacy
Through Citrix, 800 authorized FLGAL staff can access key applications from any office or remote location throughout the state via Citrix Access Gateway and Presentation Server. In addition, FLGAL, which is developing a new case management application with its own independent logon, has taken a strategic approach to access by planning to use Citrix Password Manager™, for enhanced security and efficient single sign-on access to the new case management application, as well as all other applications. Password Manager will eliminate the need to memorize multiple passwords and greatly simplify IT administration.
Use of the Citrix application delivery infrastructure also improves the security and privacy of the case management system. With Presentation Server, patch management is handled centrally, ensuring that individual computers are quickly protected from new vulnerabilities. Additionally, privacy of the sensitive information contained in case files is maintained because all the applications reside on consolidated servers and are only accessible to authorized users.
“The Citrix application delivery infrastructure gave FLGAL the means to connect 800 people using a wide variety of computers, operating systems and Internet connections – without worry that the data or applications could be accessed by unauthorized persons at any point in the communications process,” said Peter Anderson, president of Bayshore Technologies. “Any other approach had the potential to cost millions in time and effort.”
Improved Mission Performance and Child Advocacy
Improved connectivity and on-demand access to critical information have dramatically improved the delivery of service to children in need. Now, staff can easily transfer a case from one jurisdiction to another instantly, sometimes saving weeks of work, and ensuring that the newly assigned case worker always has all of the information needed to represent the child. In addition, with the Citrix application delivery infrastructure, about 300 people are inputting data into the system at any point. This centralized data collection allows FLGAL to maintain control over cases and visibility into the assigned caseload, ensuring greater accountability for a child’s whereabouts.
“If every state agency worked this way, they would have more resources to serve constituents,” White said. “Using a Citrix solution to deliver secure, on-demand access to information from anywhere saves an incredible amount of time and money, and allows our volunteers, case coordinators, and attorneys to better focus on providing the highest-quality advocacy for children.”
About Bayshore Technologies
Bayshore Technologies, Inc., is a privately held computer network services company based in Tampa, Fla. It is Citrix’s only Platinum-level Citrix® Solution Advisor in the state of Florida. Bayshore provides technical services to more than 400 customers throughout the United States. For more information, visit http://www.btfl.com.
About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader and the most trusted name in application delivery infrastructure. More than 180,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to deliver any application to users anywhere with the best performance, highest security and lowest cost. Citrix customers include 100% of the Fortune 100 companies and 98% of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers. Citrix has approximately 6,200 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2006 was $1.1 billion.
For Citrix Investors
This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.
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