Netier Clinches Premier Car Rental's Switch from PCs to Thin-Client Computers
22 December 1998
Netier Clinches Premier Car Rental's Switch from PCs to Thin-Client Computers; Decision Improves Printing Speed, Maintenance at Offices Nationwide
DALLAS--Dec. 21, 1998--Netier Technologies, a developer of end-to-end server-centric computing solutions, has been chosen by Premier Car Rental, one of the nation's leading auto rental companies for the insurance industry, to deliver the advantages of thin-client/server computing to Premier's day-to-day operations.
Netier is shipping 300 of its NetXpress(TM) SL1000 computers to 150 Premier offices nationwide in a deal to help Premier enhance the speed and efficiency of processing rental transactions. Another 300 computers will ship in a second phase so that all 215 Premier offices are equipped with Netier's thin-client computers.
Premier wanted to centralize its computerized transactions, so the company broke with convention and chose to replace its decentralized PC enterprise with a thin-client/server network. The car rental company, based in Indianapolis, Ind., previously depended upon desktop PCs in a wide area network configuration which offered limited on-line centralized management of information. The company's new server-based, thin-client network will manage processing power from a robust server so that desktop computers have greater data security and require easier and less expensive maintenance. Desktop thin-client computers are also smaller in size -- important when considering countertop space -- and offer the standard applications and Windows(R) environment familiar to Premier's employees.
"We spent a lot of time and energy researching this. By far, the most versatile and most intuitive and innovative product is the Netier thin-client box," said Charles Redding, Premier's vice president of information systems. "We wanted an intuitive system without the limitations of a mainframe approach and we got it."
Netier ousted a competitor's computer -- already in place at some offices -- to land Premier's business. Premier preferred Netier's thin-client devices because NetXpress performed noticeably faster during the printing phase. Premier prints its rental contracts by matching templates downloaded from the host server -- sometimes located hundreds of miles away -- with customer data entered at the branch office. Premier also liked the extensive management that NetXpress allows, especially since nationwide installation can occur remotely and with a high degree of efficiency.
"Configuring 600 branch computers remotely was challenging enough, but then we also had to make sure the important task of printing could be accomplished rapidly. Quality remote installation and printing connectivity convinced us to go with Netier," Redding said.
"Premier wanted a true thin-client solution to include time-saving operations as well as administrative ease and cost-savings," said Jim Crocco, Netier's president and COO. "Netier's high-performance access devices proved to be the scalable, customizable alternative that worked well in the car rental business."
With a fleet of 13,000 cars, Premier specializes in working with insurance companies to supply rental cars to motorists while their personal vehicles are being repaired. The company is owned by the Budget Group, best known for its Budget-Rent-A-Car division. Premier's annual revenues total $100 million.
About Netier
Based in Carrollton, Texas, Netier Technologies Inc. is a privately held developer of hardware and software that focuses on the growth of Internet/Intranet access and server-centric computing. Netier adapts, integrates and markets departmental servers, disk array subsystems, and low-cost, high-quality thin-client network access devices. Netier's high-performance products incorporate a new level of expandability and integration capabilities to protect a company's network investment from obsolescence. Netier's address on the World Wide Web is http://www.netier.com.