President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in an effort to ensure governance continuity and provide a safe working environment for public servants during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, has introduced the government telecommuting platform, Smart Workplace for use by all public sector workers, Graphic Online has been told.
In his second address to the nation on measures being instituted to help curb the spread of the Coronavirus disease, the President directed the Ministry of Communications to implement a digital solution to ensure uninterrupted government business.
The National Information Technology Agency (NITA) has accordingly put together a comprehensive solution to enable all Public Sector workers (ministries, departments and agencies) to stay at home and work remotely, observing all the safety protocols of social distancing while working remotely from home, Graphic Online has gathered.
Graphic Online gathers that it will also ensure reliable and effective connectivity via sponsored data to the Smart WorkplaceM portal.
The Smart Workplace solution provides secured access to all applications required to work effectively.
This includes secure business-class e-mails services, access to Microsoft office applications, document management, Instant Messaging (IM), audio and video conferencing, calendar management and file storage amongst others.
Connectivity can be anywhere, anytime and on any device (PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone.
Public sector workers will therefore be encouraged to have meetings and collaborations through Audio and Video Conferencing. The fixed-to-mobile convergence will also allow Toll Free numbers to be re-routed/transferred to mobile phones outside the office (useful for Call Centers) operations) for smooth operation of government services.
The Ministry of Communications, as directed by the President, is ready to ensure government functions in all crisis situation such as the current pandemic.
People can work remotely to curb the spread of the virus and also ensure productivity even in self-quarantine mode if required. It is Digitime in GHANA indeed.