London Borough claims it will save £400k by moving to Google Chromebooks and Chromeboxes

Amid severe budget cuts, Barking and Dagenham council had to shift away from Windows XP before Microsoft support ended

The London Borough of Barking and Dagenham has claimed that it will save in the region of £400,000 by moving from Windows XP desktops to Google Chromebooks and Chromeboxes.

The council has estimated that it will save £200,000 compared with the cost of deploying new Windows desktops, and a further £200,000 saving on electricity costs with the ChromeOS devices.

As support from Microsoft for the Windows XP operating system was drawing to a close, the borough had to decide what it would do with its 3,500 desktop computers and 800 laptops. It could either upgrade these or find an alternative to give employees access to council systems. It also had to take into account huge budget cuts. Computing spoke to the borough's ICT and information governance officer, Rupert Ray-Campbell, last year. He explained that the council was looking to roll out Google Chromebooks to escape Microsoft's licensing costs.

Sheyne Lucock, general inspector of IT and group manager, of customer services, contracts and business improvement, gave an update to Computing on how the project went. He said that the Chromebook route was taken because the Chrome devices were very cheap to deploy and very easy to support, while also being portable.

"Most of our estate was Windows XP desktops with relatively few laptops, so by replacing those with a large number of Chromebooks, it meant that almost at a stroke we created a very mobile and flexible workforce," said Lucock, who added that the council also had to switch from having a desk for every employee to having 5.5 desks for every 10 employees.

But as part of the project, the council still ended up retaining more Windows 7 PCs than expected, for various reasons.

"Some applications couldn't be packaged in Citrix because the Chromboxes were used to access Windows 7 via Citrix, and if that wasn't possible then they needed Windows 7 instead. Other people required several monitors, and some needed special access requirements, meaning they also needed Windows desktops," Lucock explained.

He added that this wasn't a fault of Citrix, but rather because it was a time-consuming process that would have cost a lot for little return as some apps are not used by very many people.

Adverse to change

Lucock said that his team had significantly underestimated the degree to which the organisation was adverse to change.

"It wouldn't have mattered if they had all been given a Macbook Pro - any form of change, especially when it comes to ICT where people may feel like they are being de-skilled a little and are feeling a bit vulnerable, doesn't go down very well," he said.

He said that his team felt it would be a straightforward journey, as users could use the same keyboard and mouse that they had become accustomed to, and log in to Windows 7 through their Chromebook.

"It wasn't like we were forcing people to use the browser, they only used the browser on the Chromebook to fire up Citrix, and then they got their desktop and Windows apps exactly the same way as it was before, only that it was in Windows 7 rather than Windows XP, but it was enough of a change to unsettle the workforce," he said.

Lucock suggested that there was a lot of resistance during the rollout, with people not wanting to give up their Windows XP PCs, but this would slowly change.

"People started to realise that with the Chromebook they could work anywhere, and that was useful, and the people who fought tooth and nail to keep their desktop PCs realised that they were trapped with it, and since the project has closed those people are now asking for a Chromebook as well," he said.

"But we can't afford more than one device per user and that's why we will see a bigger proportion of people with Chromebooks against Windows PCs as we go forward," he added.

With the help of Ancoris and Elevate East London, the council has rolled out 2,000 Chromebooks for employees and 500 Chromeboxes for reception desks and shared work areas. This means that the council has 1,000 fewer devices to manage, as most employees will only have a Chromebook instead of having both a desktop and laptop.

Added benefits

Aside from the added mobility of the device, Lucock said that he was impressed with how easy they were to manage or even replace.

"They are incredibly easy to manage and if a Chromebook breaks - which doesn't happen often, then you just hand it in and take another one because they are fully encrypted. Everytime you log off [whatever is on the device] is obliterated, so there are no security considerations whereas with Windows laptops that hasn't been the case," he said.

He added that the devices were light and could easily fit into bags and briefcases - while also having a very long battery life.

The key benefit to the council, however, was cost, although Lucock admitted that the £200,000 predicted in savings was hard to substantiate.

"I cannot say categorically that savings have been recognised because of the way energy has been paid and procured for," he said.