Thank you for so many suggestions, as to answer a few questions that have been raised.
Our current IT staff consists of
*1 Database Administrator (specialises in Oracle)
*3 Information Technology Support Officers (1 specialises in Citrix)
*1 Network Administrator (Linux Expert)
*1 Team Leader/systems & help desk administrator
The laptops would be using a Citrix client to access a virtual desktop & hosted applications if they need to do work on the internal network, other then this there machine is completely separate from the rest of the network. the only things that are allowed through our firewall is Internet and Citrix so as for installing 3rd party software we are not worried, all network usage is monitored and programs can be monitored using Citrix.
If you have any more queries please let me know, and I will try to answer them the best I can.