As industries and corporations realize that going green can save them green, they're focusing more attention on innovative, environmentally friendly solutions. Rapidly improving technologies and the growing availability, accessibility and affordability of the latest generation of green solutions can increase efficiencies, reduce or eliminate redundancies, improve communications and streamline functionality.

One clear example that already is paying dividends is "thin client," a network computer without a hard disk drive that operates on yesterday's mainframe model. Instead of loading applications onto individual desktops, the system allows the processing of all business applications on a central server or servers. The advent of reliable high-speed networking makes thin client solutions not only possible, but also desirable, as the benefits and conveniences of a centralized network far outweigh the relatively minor time and capital investment needed to switch to such a system.

To the agency employee, switching to a thin client system is relatively painless. From a functionality standpoint, the user experience is identical to traditional computing. Employees sign on to an application instead of an individual computer, enabling greater flexibility and convenience. Instead of being "chained" to one machine with customized settings, employees can use a secure login to access applications and data from anywhere inside or outside the company.