5 August 2008: Walsall NHS Informatics IT Services has chosen RealVNC’s Virtual Network Computing solution to provide remote IT maintenance and support. Using RealVNC’s latest enterprise software, the Informatics IT department can remotely troubleshoot and fix PC desktops and back-end servers across its four core Trust sites, more than 70 surgeries and Walsall’s Manor Hospital site.

VNC is designed to make it easy for one computer to take full remote control of another, regardless of platform, operating system or location. So whether it is installing new software, fixing a bug or doing a system check and audit, support engineers can act immediately without the need for a call out visit.   

“With pressure on resources and a drive to provide more remote support, RealVNC saves us time and money and means that we can keep critical IT systems up and running with minimum delays,” says Andy Griggs, IT Operations Manager at Walsall Informatics IT Services. “VNC also provides excellent reporting functions and with security being paramount, VNC gives us best practice authentication and encryption along with a detailed audit trail.” 

VNC has been deployed remotely to some 5000 machines and has a very small ‘footprint’ taking up just a few MBs of disk and memory. A built-in Java viewer also allows access through a browser and VNC supports more operating environments than any other remote access system, including Windows 98, 2K, ME, NT4, XP, Vista, Mac OSX, Linux, Solaris, HPUX, AIX, Java and WinCE.

“VNC is used by millions of users worldwide and is already a highly popular tool for desktop support and helpdesks,” says Dr Andy Harter, CEO at RealVNC.  “For the health service, VNC provides a robust, secure, scaleable and cost-effective solution for very distributed IT environments and supports a wide range of different users, many with limited IT skills.” 

In addition to Walsall, VNC is also used by many other PCTs including Blackpool Fylde and Wyre NHS Foundation Trust. In addition to providing remote helpdesk and support, Walsall is also looking at using VNC for remote training applications.