Enabling The Digital Community On Demand

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Redefining Access
Simdesk puts enterprise-class technology within everyone's reach.

Good things happen when technology reaches all members of a community. Children who use technology at an early age are more likely to graduate from high school. Studies show that students with access to technology achieve higher test scores, and they are also more likely to go to college and land rewarding careers.

Residents who gain access to meaningful technology develop capabilities that lead to better jobs and a better quality of life. Without access to technology, these residents are locked out of a growing number of opportunities.

Businesses that make extensive use of information technology become significantly more successful. This is particularly true for small and medium-size companies that generate much of a community's economic growth and vitality.

Although the benefits of publicly available technology are clear, public officials have struggled to launch large-scale community technology initiatives. The cost and complexity of traditional network computing often put these programs out of reach -- that is until now.

Simdesk Technologies has changed the way technology is delivered by changing the way software works across the Internet. The company rewrote the rules for IT and is delivering computing services on demand as a utility on a populationwide scale. Through its successful Community Computing initiatives, Simdesk provides entire cities or states with access to affordable technology that supports and sustains education, strengthens work forces and promotes economic development.

Going Beyond Internet Connectivity
For years, localities have worked hard to stock community centers, libraries, churches and other facilities with computers and hardware. Simdesk� takes that offering to a new level by delivering a package of solutions that makes a community's existing computer investments more valuable.

Simdesk combines a world-class set of file, messaging, print and groupware capabilities into one seamlessly integrated, low-cost service. The solution provides communitywide access to e-mail with spam and virus protection, messaging, online file storage and backup, collaboration tools, and remote printing, as well as a free set of productivity applications for those who don't or can't make an investment in additional software. Accessing end-user accounts is easy with any Internet-enabled device, including home or public PCs, laptops, PDAs -- even cell phones.

"These are the kinds of capabilities that companies spend thousands of dollars per person to provide to their employees," said Louis Waters, Simdesk's president and CEO. "We're providing tools to every single person in a community, so there are no economic barriers to technology access."

Simdesk's ability to deliver a total package of services to any Internet-enabled device makes it ideal for serving residents and businesses who lack the funds necessary to compete in today's digital economy. These capabilities turn every PC -- including public computers in libraries, churches, schools and community centers -- into a secure and personal access point where users can create, store, print and share documents and files.

"It doesn't matter if you're using your own PC or a public-access computer that's used by hundreds of people every week," Waters said. "You have your own private area, your own tools and your own services."

A New Approach
It may sound too good to be true, but Community Computing is a reality.

For instance, Simdesk on-demand computing services enable all Indiana residents to securely create, store, print and share electronic information from any Internet device whenever they want. The same is true for residents of Houston, Texas. Chicago deployed Simdesk in community technology centers across the city to level the playing field for low-income residents and is in the process of extending the solution citywide.