It’s not everyday that a local solution provider actually has an outright replacement for a major software brand in the market place.
Genuit Inc. of Oakville, Ont., a sort of sub-company to Unis Lumin, a perennial Top 100 Solution Provider, with its ThinWorx product claims to be an alternative to Citrix at half the price. Genuit is owned by Unis Lumin. Together they are a hybrid vendor/solution provider to watch for this year.
ThinWorx was initially built for Unis Lumin to help the company optimize its inventory, but it also allowed the solution provider to put its entire business onto one system. In a way it was SAP lite, said Glenn Mowat, the former president of Genuit, in a previous interview. Mowat left the company in November of 2009 and has been replaced by Dale Bristow.
ThinWorx is a server-based cloud computing solution that allows for centralized management and virtual publishing of applications to any desktop. It significantly streamlines the support and maintenance for customers with multiple remote locations. ThinWorx enables organizations of any size access to applications and data from anywhere, at any time.
Mowat added that ThinWorx is Unis Lumin’s intellectual property. “It was built before I came to Unis Lumin. We now realize that it’s made for the VAR community,” he said. Genuit has made some inroads with customers. For example, PeopleCare, a Tavistock, Ont.-based long term care organization for senior citizens chose ThinWorx over Citrix.PeopleCare was about to grow its staff from 300 to 500. This led to payroll, time and attendance and accounting application issues. PeopleCare needed to work out how to provide the right users with access to these applications. The organization chose ThinWorx because it was more affordable than Citrix. Today, PeopleCare users can now use these applications remotely enabling users to work at home or on the road. It cut down the amount of IT administration required for the organization. ThinWorx can be managed centrally reducing maintenance costs, while ensuring security.
Genuit is looking for VARs to sell ThinWorx. It has inked alliance agreements with Microsoft, HP and Wyse.
The company also has Promis, a business continuity, ERP service management suite as part of its product portfolio.