With the COVID-19 global pandemic an ever-present topic in today’s news, Oklahoma municipalities may be wondering a bit more about “Work From Home” setups and how some employers are taking advantage of these scenarios. Here at OMAG, we’ve been hard at work over the past 5 years moving our technology to the cloud and providing solutions that allow staff to work from home. In fact, for several years, we’ve had a number of staff working from home on a permanent basis, with flexibility for other staff to use these technologies when the need for flexibility hits. This preparation has been key, but a lot of cities and towns may already have some technology in place.
Phones:
A lot of modern phone systems include forwarding, voicemail to email, and even mobile apps that allow your users to answer calls via an iPhone or Android app. In any of these cases, this kind of flexibility. When using this technology, make sure that good usernames and passwords prevent anyone from logging in and that the technology is reliable. Sometimes, answering a call on a cell means trusting the user to manage their cell phone well.
Email:
Logging in to email from home or via a smartphone is pretty common these days, often by using a web interface or using the built-in Mail app on a smartphone. Most cities and towns have this available if they have modern email systems.
Meetings, Video Conferencing, and Collaboration:
OMAG utilizes Skype for Business/Microsoft Teams for our video and web conferencing, though we have also invested heavily in good audio and video solutions for our Board Room and Training Room. These are hardly the only options, however. There are a number of providers for these options, and rising to the top, 3 providers are offering their enhanced, or paid for versions for free due to the COVID-19 emergency. This includes GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams (part of Office 365), and Google Hangouts Meet (part of Google G-Suite). Of these, OMAG is already a heavy user of Microsoft’s solution as OMAG has been a long-time adopter of Office 365.
LogMeIn’s GoToMeeting service is offering free “Emergency Remote Work Kits” for municipalities, health care providers, and other non-profit organizations. Information on requesting a free Emergency Remote Work Kit from GoToMeeting is available here.
Microsoft’s solution, called Microsoft Teams, which is part of Office 365, has removed restrictions on the free version for individuals and organizations through January 2021, with support for 250 participants with 10,000 viewers, recording, and screen sharing. They have also added a free 6-month trial of Office 365 E1 which includes this option. Information on Microsoft’s free offerings for the emergency are available here.
Google’s Hangouts Meet tool is also offering free access to the tool, with 250 participants and live streaming to 100,000 viewers, recording, and screen sharing. More information on Google’s offerings during the emergency are available here.
Virtual Private Network:
An excellent tool for securing access to city computer resources to staff connecting remotely is something called Virtual Private Network, or VPN for short. VPN is usually a piece of software on a user’s laptop that allows that user to type in their username and password, and creates a secure, encrypted temporary “tunnel” between that PC and the city’s network. We would strongly recommend that a city only promote work from home using VPN solutions, as this prevents hackers from “listening in” on sensitive data being transmitted across the Internet. Access to VPN may require some setup, although the solutions are pretty ubiqutious in today’s firewalls, network hardware, servers, and more. OMAG members are welcome to ask for help in determining what solutions they can get and finding local help in setting it up. Just contact us at itsupport@omag.org
Policies and procedures
Of course, none of this makes any sense without good policies and procedures. If you haven’t updated your Telecommuting policy, bring your own device, and acceptable use policy, now is the time to visit OMAG’s Technology page and check out our sample policies. Make sure to modify them to your own city’s needs.
Let us know how we can help, and stay safe!
