COLLABORATION
WORKSTREAM LEAD: Asif Valley
The Critical Role of Collaboration
- Collaboration between Government 2 Government and Collaboration between Government and Citizens is key to managing a crisis.
- Collaboration during any crisis is central to coordinating and maximising the limited resources available to address important tasks and communication.
- It’s also key to providing continuity for governmental and citizen functions which are being affected by the crisis.
- We can anticipate a greater need for rapid and real time intergovernmental collaboration and as well as with citizens, Industry and other external players as the COVID-19 crisis evolves.
- We address these in the following 2 areas:
- Dedicated communication platform for Government
- Collaboration with Citizens
Recommendations to enable remote collaboration:
| Recommendation | Solution Area |
|---|---|
| Dedicated Communication Platform for Government | Collaboration Platform for Government which will enable Government to communicate securely across Government to improve productivity and foster collaboration in this critical time. Microsoft offers its TEAMS E1 offer free for 6 Months (up to 2500 users per department) as part of its support during COVID 19 . This will enable critical government users to work from home and still be able to collaborate across critical matters with each other. (Free offer excl DoD and Edu) |
| Enabling office-based users to work remotely through setup of Virtual Desktop Solutions to ensure critical Government workers can continue work on critical business areas such as but not limited to Finance, HR. Payroll, Procurement, International Liason, Security. We see this as an essential capability to enable workers to work remotely and need to understand the capability of Government to deliver this service and explore how the ICT industry can assist. | |
| A secure Instant Messaging mobile communication platform for Government employees to communicate with each other. Government to confirm the need. Thereafter all available solutions will be explored, and feedback will be provided to Government on the options available with recommendations. | |
| Government Staff Communication App to be used by Government Departments to coordinate their own information sharing and team collaboration in response to evolving conditions in times of crisis. Government Employees can get access to latest department news, policies, emergency contact info & other important links in a single App and request help. Government Employees can report their work status (e.g., working from home) and make requests. Comms teams can use the app to push news, updates, and content specific to their department, and can provide emergency contacts specific to different locations. A BI Dashboard can be used by crisis management teams to track worker status. This is an Open Source Application. | |
| Collaboration with Citizens | One Government Portal / Bulletins / Notices - Strengthening of current critical informational web sites to make them “enterprise grade” ready so that they are able to scale with increased demand by moving these websites to the cloud to enable scalability if required. Fake News, Health Info and other such related information is important, and citizens will require these to validate information and thereby avoid mass confusion amongst people. This service will require further investigation and recommendations will be made to Government on the correct course of action to be taken. |
| Digitally enable Call Centres through use of CHATBOT’s as a the first contact point where a large number of queries can be managed by the BOT's and only move exceptional queries to call centre operators, example: HEALTH BOT - Quickly triage potential patients specifically to COVID-19 exposure criteria, symptoms and risks, according to the evolving protocols. The HEALTH BOT is currently in use by NHS UK, CDC and Family Welfare India - the Health BOT is on offer at no cost to Government. | |
| Mass Communication Tool for Government to communicate to all citizens through all available connected digital platforms. Currently Bulk SMS is being used when required - Does the current system still meet the requirements based on the current situation? |