Mississippi Department of Human Services Improves Information Access and Disaster Recovery Efforts with Wyse and Citrix Desktop Virtualization Solutions

Massive Project to Migrate from Paper and PC Record-Keeping to Desktop Virtualization and Data Centralization Infrastructure Designed to Better Serve Citizens and Cope with Hurricane Season

SAN JOSE, Calif. – 05/11/2010 - Wyse Technology, the global leader in thin computing and desktop virtualization, today announced another successful client implementation, this time with the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS).  The agency, which provides services for an estimated one in five Mississippians, is improving electronic records capabilities through the transition from PC and paper-based systems to a new infrastructure that provides social workers and other critical staff with reliable, secure access to digitized records via Wyse thin clients.  MDHS has found the system to be more affordable, more flexible, and capable of ensuring information services are available during hurricane season and other natural disasters.

MDHS is one of the largest agencies in the Mississippi State Government system with over 3,200 employees statewide encompassing 12 divisions.  With over 150 offices statewide, a tremendous responsibility rests on the shoulders of 12 network staff members who support the technological needs of the entire agency. 

MDHS has long recognized that the primary methods of record keeping and storage – PCs and paper files - were not appropriate solutions for long-term, secure storage of vast amounts of information.  This led the agency to digitize its record keeping starting with Mississippi's Automated Child Welfare Information System (MACWIS). 

Following extensive research, MDHS decided to digitize its record-keeping process through the introduction of Wyse thin clients and Citrix servers.  The goal was to bring modern technology to caseworkers, supervisors and administrators tasked with handling the state's response to child abuse and neglect.   

Desktop Virtualization and Disaster Recovery
Another factor in the selection was that the Wyse-Citrix solution could give the agency the immeasurable benefit of centralized storage with the reduced risk of data loss in the event of a catastrophe.  Unlike the PCs that they replaced, thin clients have no local storage devices.  With nothing stored on the desktop and all data always safe on the Citrix servers, no sensitive or confidential information is ever at risk of being stolen or lost in the office or in the field.  In fact, because the digitization project was so well advanced by August 2005, this proved to be essential when the state was hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Overnight, Mississippi's coastal counties were decimated.  In all, six county offices were down and services were simply unavailable.  Much of what was stored on PCs or in filing cabinets in the lower six counties was destroyed due to the massive storm surge.  The only information that remained accessible from those offices was data that had been previously digitized and moved to a central server and accessed through Wyse thin clients.  With MDHS social workers having to take on additional clients because of Katrina, the ability of the system to set up full secure access easily and quickly proved vital.

As Tim Ragland, CIO at MDHS explains, "The beauty of the system is realized when an IT tech can take a new thin client to a desktop, point it to an existing image of the device on a Citrix server and have the employee up and running in a matter of minutes –  accessing information stored at a secure site.  This meant we could get case workers back online rapidly and able to help their clients."

Hurricane Katrina demonstrated how important centralized servers with digitalized data can be to an organization.  MDHS proceeded to integrate Wyse thin clients into the Divisions of Economic Assistance, the largest division in the agency and Child Support Enforcement, to further move other legacy systems, such as Jobs Automated Work System (JAWS), Mississippi Enforcement and Tracking of Support System (METSS) and Mississippi Applications Verification Eligibility Reporting Information (MAVERICS), used to determine eligibility, child support payments and manage benefits for its clients.

"Sadly, Katrina won't be the last hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast, but from having gone through the process of building an IT infrastructure that can handle the worst that nature has to hand out, we've learned some valuable lessons that can be duplicated and we are better prepared to help other organizations anticipate and respond to future disasters," adds Ragland.

Currently, Wyse thin clients and Citrix servers are fully operational in three of the four largest MDHS divisions representing 80% of the agencies' workforce with plans to transition to Wyse thin clients in the remaining divisions by the end of 2010.  The new system has proven to be easier to manage and more cost effective to maintain with less pressure on support staff because the thin clients are inherently more reliable and capable of being maintained and updated centrally.  The success at MDHS is expected to lead to further implementations in other Mississippi state agencies.

Reflecting on how the records digitization project has progressed and is approaching its final stages, Ragland stated: "The scale at which we are trying to transform our IT systems is significant.  It reminds me of a home remodel.  It's as if once we tear down the walls we find that we have termites.  The one thing we can count on is that the Wyse devices will get the proper information in the hands of our people.  They are the windows into our entire computing infrastructure.  Regardless of what application is being loaded or what device is accessing data, our Wyse thin clients deliver functionality and reliability."

"Public administration IT projects like this are rarely bigger or more critical than the solution at MDHS," according to Maryam Alexandrian, Senior Vice President Worldwide Sales and Channels at Wyse.  "Fully tested at the mid-way stage by Katrina we're very pleased with how our systems and people made a positive contribution to the state's disaster recovery efforts. Today, our combined solution provides a technology infrastructure that delivers the flexibility, reliability and security of data storage and access on which MDHS and its clients can rely on everyday and in a major emergency."

About Wyse Technology

Wyse Technology is the global leader in cloud client computing, leveraging its industry-leading thin and zero client computing-based desktop virtualization software, hardware and services. Cloud Client Computing is the ultimate client computing solution for our time. It replaces the outdated computing model of the unsecure, unreliable, un-green and expensive PC. It delivers the most optimized security, reliability, total cost of ownership, and user experience with the lowest energy usage. It simply connects all the dots: Thin and zero client computing, unified communications, desktop virtualization and the web for users to reach the clouds – in a private, public, government or hybrid cloud. It is software. It is hardware. It is services. It is in business. It is at home. It is on the go. It is freedom – so users can focus on what is important. Wyse partners with industry-leading IT vendors, including, Cisco®, CSC®, Citrix®, IBM®, Microsoft®, and VMware®. Wyse also partners with globally-recognized distribution and service partners along with its award-winning partner programs to service any customer, anywhere and anytime, in the world. Wyse is headquartered in San Jose, California, U.S.A., with offices worldwide.

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