Remote desktop Client versus Web based access to reports and limited data entry

We have a requirement from management to give limited access of our Application to Distributors \ Dealers to look at their account statements in our books of account and enter their purchase requirements (sales order for us).

We have given a few of them RDC which connects to our terminal server and access the reports. This involves licensing of TS Client per each distributor. Is it better, secure and less costly if a web based application is made to only enter the orders and retrieve reports like pending orders, ledgers, receivables etc. Also which is more secure as far as database access is concerned...browser based access or RDC access.

Solution 1:

Giving access via RDC is not safe in my opinion . The users might look at other private data you might have also. Also it is pretty slow and the Remoting takes a lot of bandwidth and users might see a lot of lags in their end.

A web application gives you a lot of control , you could set user levels and provide individual logins to each user at no additional cost. It's a one time investment + ongoing maintenance cost though.