Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina. The Department of Justice houses five lower courts (Criminal, Civil, Business, Labor Disputes Administration, and Electoral), which oversee all judicial activity in the area.

With huge buildings, six thousand (6,000) employees and more than five thousand (5,000) daily visitors, the Córdoba Justice Department needed to quickly upgrade personnel who had either no equipment or obsolete equipment. The traditional process for equipping personnel required significant investment and a large implementation window.

After considering various options, they selected the NComputing X350 based on price and positive pilot feedback. “This selection is based on our need to implement more workstations without changing structural wiring, which we couldn’t achieve with other alternatives,” says Mercedes Cafferata Nores, head of Logistics and Computer Security for the Córdoba Justice Department.

Each X350 adds three users per computer, while the X550 can add five users. The flexibility of the X350 devices make them easy to install. Applications and software run simultaneously and independently on each virtual desktop. Input devices are small, quiet and easy to mount on the back of the monitor. They give each user a rich experience in Windows or Linux, and offer multimedia with complete sound and video.

The X350 model delivers an excellent computer experience to the target user profile (browser for legal management applications, text editor, and applications). Its lower cost for initial investment and ongoing maintenance when compared to the use of PC’s allows more users to access the legal management systems without increasing the budget. This enabled implementations at 24 additional Justice Department seats in other cities in the region, all managed in one single framework.

“Employee satisfaction is up, thanks to the increase in workstations, which means better service delivery overall for the Justice Department,” states Cafferata Nores, adding that “satisfaction among visitors and lawyers is also up due to the availability of workstations, as they help improve the level of service to the public (lawyers, citizens, etc.), as well as case resolution.”

Implementation began in 2010 with a demo presented by the regional distributor, and is focused on the front office, where the judge, assistants, and secretaries work, as well as the bar — the public service area where the lawyers are able to access digital information. Each front office has approximately four officials, each served by a X350 device or its host PC. The small footprint of the device allows the additional workstations to fit within existing desk space for a total of 4,000 workstations utilized by 80% of the organization.

The success of the X350 in terms of ease of installation, maintenance, and low energy consumption (only 1 watt per user) has resulted in the extension of this computing model throughout the region. This has made the Justice Department the most advanced government entity in the country in terms of information automation. “The Justice Department is in 24 cities across the province of Córdoba, including the capital. The WAN should cover approximately 60 buildings and will grow by at least 10 this year,” states Diego LaSerna, TIC Director for the Department of Justice.