Thurrock Local Enterprise Agency Limited - An installation by Corrilan IT Consultancy Ltd
 | Since 1985 Thurrock Local Enterprise Agency Limited has been offering free support for those thinking of setting up a business and those already in business. The advice, training and support they provide helps people to make a decision about starting their own business and gives them the foundation for success. |
| They receive funding from Business Link for Essex, local council and other socially-conscious businesses and organisations in Thurrock. Thanks to those organisations, the advice that the Thurrock Local Enterprise Agency provide is totally free of charge. |  |
Due to the way the Thurrock Local Enterprise Agency is funded, they were keen to invest in an opensource based system, thus lowering the inital setup costs as well as reducing ongoing maintainance charges.
The table below outlines the value of services and materials required to provide the training room computer system installed by Corrilan ad well as the estimated cost of a proprietary system based on Microsoft Windows:
| Microsoft Windows system | Corrilan opensource system | |
| Workstations | £2021 | £300 |
| Server | N/A | £250 |
| Office Suite | £1191 | £40 |
| Operating System | N/A | £20 |
| 3 year subscription to antivirus | £230 | N/A |
| Webcache and filtering software | N/A | £200 |
| 1 year subscription to filtering update service | N/A | £180 |
| Installation | £150 | £150 |
| TOTAL | £3593 | £1140 |
The cost of the workstations in the Corrilan system is low compared to those in the Microsoft Windows system as they are reconditioned, low powered computers, the processing power for the applications that are run on them is provided by the higher powered server. Additional workstations required in the future will also start from £100 each, alternatively existing old computers that are due to be disposed of may be given a new lease of life by plugging them into the system.
The main use of this installation is to provide a means of accessing the Internet for research and typing business plans. The Mozilla web browser is provided for Internet research, sites are filtered so the risk of unsavory sites and popups being displayed is reduced. The OpenOffice office suite is provided to enable users to create letters, spreadsheets and presentations. These are compatible with Microsoft Office formats.
Antivirus software is already incorporated into the Corrilan system so no extra fee is charged for this, the GNU/Linux operating system itself is also considered more robust and secure from virus attacks than Microsoft Windows systems, so there is less need to worry about the virus scares we hear about in the news
Even the cost of running a thin client system is less than that of a proprietary system. The thin clients consume at least 25% less power than a standard computer.
Click the screenshots below to open larger images:
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