IGEL thin clients will be used to help the homeless across London this Christmas

Reading, UK, December 7th, 2011: IGEL is donating 232 thin clients for use in the Crisis at Christmas initiative to help London’s homeless over the festive period. The IGEL thin clients will be used as information stations and internet telephones at 10 Christmas Centres across the capital from December 23rd-30th, enabling 8,000 CRISIS charity volunteers to make the greatest possible difference for more than 3,000 homeless guests in the 40th anniversary year of the event.

The thin clients are part of a total IT solution being provided to Crisis at Christmas by the Aimar Foundation, a charity founded to provide IT support to other charities. For the fourth year running, the Aimar Foundation is funding and setting up the information systems network, with help from global IT companies, London-based cloud specialist Intercept IT and the support of volunteers, principally from Morgan Stanley.

IGEL thin clients and Intercept IT’s cloud platform “OnlineDesktop” will provide access to email, word processing and collaboration tools to enable CRISIS charity volunteers to communicate and identify shelter for homeless people over the Christmas period, as well as allow homeless visitors to get in touch with friends and family or use the technology to help improve their situation.

“We are providing IT expertise, through our volunteers and equipment to enable CRISIS to home, feed, clothe and advise those who, often through no fault of their own, have lost everything,” explained Simon Clark, CEO of the Aimar Foundation. “It is essential that the CRISIS staff can communicate effectively to provide this lifeline at this very important time of the year, when so many have nowhere else to go. Those in need can also use the IT network for additional advice and support. We are very happy to help CRISIS and indeed any other small charity that needs our practical and expert support, at any time of the year.”

Simon Richards, IGEL’s UK Managing Director, added: “IGEL has a successful track record of providing thin clients to the charitable sector and we are delighted to be supporting the Aimar Foundation for the second year running along with our reseller partner Intercept IT and volunteers from Morgan Stanley. The IGEL thin clients are ideal for Crisis at Christmas because they are simple and fast to set-up using our centralised management software, secure because all data is held on central servers and reliable because they have no fan or moving parts.”

For further information about Crisis at Christmas visit: http://www.crisis.org.uk/christmasvolunteering

For further information about the Aimar Foundation visit: www.theaimarfoundation.org