The Illinois Trade Association (ITA) was founded in 1983 and is now the largest independent retail barter company in the United States. The company represents about 6,000 professional clients who are projected to trade more than $50 million in 2006, as well as 1,000 corporate clients such as resorts and media outlets. ITA provides a clearinghouse through which clients select products and services from other clients. ITA usually works on a full-trade basis: payment is made in trade credits that can be used to purchase a wide selection of services and merchandise. The company employs 50 people; its IT staff comprises two programmers.

The Challenge: Improve Remote Access to Boost Sales and Allow Out-of-State Hires

With a large client base covering the U.S. and Mexico, and a small sales force of about 15, ITA faced a roadblock to future growth in the form of unreliable remote access to business-critical applications. Its salespeople in the field and other remote workers struggled to access client/server applications over dial-up connections. This situation also prevented ITA from hiring from out of the area to provide coverage for new geographies.

Jack Schacht, ITA’s co-founder and president, said, “Our remote users were losing valuable time every day. We would have sessions that appeared to be connected but weren’t, or performance would be poor. And when we wanted to hire out-of-state people we knew were the best, there was the big question -– how to provide them with access to our applications and data? We had real business pains.”

Another concern with its existing system was the lack of an effective, central repository for data, documents and backups. Frustrated by the difficulty in accessing applications, field salespeople were saving documents locally on their laptops, which put ITA at risk of data loss if the employee left the company. This haphazard method also prevented other employees from readily accessing the information.

To increase the productivity of its salespeople and other remote workers, reduce the risk of losing locally stored data, and achieve its employee recruitment and growth goals, ITA needed a better way to provide remote application access.

Implementing Citrix Access Essentials

ITA partnered with Performance Network Solutions, a Silver Citrix® Solution Advisor, to implement Citrix Access Essentials™ software on top of the Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 platform. Today, about 15 employees, including the company accountant, connect to applications using Access Essentials; ITA is also experimenting with extending the solution to ITA’s brokers.

Eric Perkins, president of Performance Network Solutions, said, “Access Essentials gives customers like ITA, which have a small outside sales force and some other remote users, major security and access benefits at a cost-effective price point.”

With Citrix Access Essentials, ITA salespeople working from home, a hotel or a customer site can use their own computers or company laptops to securely access about 20 business applications that are maintained centrally. Key applications include Microsoft® FoxPro database software, Visual Account Maintenance accounting software, the Microsoft® Office Suite and ACT!, a contact and customer management solution from Sage Software.

Raising Productivity and Improving Responsiveness to Customers

With fast, reliable access to applications and data provided by the Citrix solution, ITA’s salespeople are more productive. “Previously, these employees were losing half an hour a day or more due to slow connections -– which added up to nearly four thousand dollars a year per person in lost productivity,” said Schacht. “Now our sales staff can connect quickly, and they can get to applications from anywhere. They don’t have to make a special trip to the office to pick something up from the main server. This saves them time that could be spent selling.”

Further, on-demand access to ITA’s business applications and data means salespeople can give customers accurate information on the spot. Schacht explained, “If a customer has a question, the salesperson can find the answer right in our system, then and there. Fast, reliable access to our business applications and data from anywhere makes us look more professional in the eyes of customers.”

Hiring the Right People to Drive Business Growth

Like many smaller firms, ITA has a very lean staff, which makes it critical to recruit the best people. Further, with its broad geographic reach, the company sought to hire salespeople living in other parts of the country so they could open up new territories with a local presence. By enabling simple, fast remote access to company resources, Citrix Access Essentials has given ITA much greater flexibility in hiring.  

Schacht pointed out, “Citrix allowed me to hire my favorite former employees in Colorado and a sales manager who lives in Atlanta. It has opened up a whole new world of recruiting possibilities.” Remote access also gives ITA a new incentive to use in retaining employees who want to work from home.

Rapid Payoff

For ITA, one of the top selling points for Citrix Access Essentials was financial: the solution was not only cost-effective to implement, but also delivers fast return on investment. According to Schacht, “The price was right, and with the additional productivity we gained, we are able to recoup the cost of each salesperson’s software license in just one month.”

Although not quantifiable in dollars, the improvement in user satisfaction is equally gratifying to Schacht. “We’re hearing that people like the convenience and reliability of remote access with Citrix Access Essentials. They know they can connect and work quickly. It’s an amazing thing.”

Future Plans

Performance Network Solutions will help ITA implement some thin-client devices for the telemarketing department, which will expand the use of Citrix Access Essentials to internal users. Access Essentials supports application access on thin-client terminals as well as full-function PCs.

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