FedEx Kinko’s favors rich over thin when it comes to client access to a new app.
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Thin clients like browser and Citrix-like terminal services, are not the only way to provide remote access to applications, especially in the emerging world of Web services. Distributed 32-bit rich clients sometimes make more sense than either of those options.
Such is the case at FedEx Kinko’s, which delivers a robust .Net-based Web services application to remote users via a “rich” or “smart” client. Taking a customer-centric approach on development led the company to that choice, says Anthony Norris, director of commercial and e-commerce technology at FedEx Kinko’s in Dallas.
FedEx Kinko’s developed a new application, called File, Print FedEx Kinko’s, that lets users with an Internet connection print to any FedEx Kinko’s location directly from their own Windows-based PCs. The application, based on Microsoft’s .Net platform, functions as a printer driver for Windows. It lets customers generate a print-ready file that eliminates many of the quality issues – such as font conflicts – that can crop up when a document is created on one computer and printed on another.
Even though the application is intended to provide the general public with access to its print shops, FedEx Kinko’s didn’t go the browser route. “With Web-based applications, a lot of times you can’t quite get the usability that gives that great customer experience that you need,” Norris says. “With the rich client, we were able to take advantage of all of our usability research to direct and dictate the design of the application and deliver it directly to the user. I don’t think the browser could provide that level of functionality.”
However, the client requirements for the application are substantial. Users need Pentium III-compatible Windows XP or 2000 computers with a 500-MHz processor and 30M bytes of free disk space, plus they must be running the .Net Framework client software. These stiff requirements have not stopped users, Norris says. “People use it and they like it. I don’t think we’re ahead of the curve in terms of the hardware required here,” he says.
Because the application uses a rich client, it works online and offline – something that server-reliant technologies such as Citrix or a browser cannot handle.
“That’s a huge advantage,” Norris says. “So in the case of File, Print FedEx Kinko’s, you don’t actually have to be connected to the Internet to use the software. You can start your print order, specify how you want it printed and then queue it up for submission later when you’re connected to the Internet. Business users traveling on an airplane won’t have any trouble using our software, whereas with Citrix or a Web application, they can’t do that. That’s tremendously powerful – a huge value.”
