More importantly, however, Lamont Constructions employees are starting to use the portability of the thin-client environment to enable a much higher degree of remote working than in the past. Staff in the Cairns and Ayr offices, as well as a number of offsite contractors and a sales representative in Brisbane have been able to use the Sun Rays to get the same access to Databuild information as their peers in Townsville.

"Everyone needs to hook into that one main system, which we encourage so that all other departments are seeing the information firsthand in the jobs," Lamont says. "Before, it was all a bit separate."

All staff involved in a project can access the system at different times, from wherever they happen to be - allowing the company to continue extending its geographic reach as opportunities arise. New employees can be added as necessary, with a known, fixed expense all that's required to bring them into the system.

"We forecast how many contracts we have signed up each month, and that gives us an indicator of how much work will be generated and punched through in each department," Lamont says. "If we need another person punching invoices into the system, it's quick and easy to whack in another terminal."

The only consideration so far: bandwidth. Performance can be "a bit slow" for employees accessing the system from remote offices, but Lamont attributes this to slow WAN performance that will be addressed in a coming broadband upgrade.