“Before the novel coronavirus crisis began in mid-March, the Department of Veterans Affairs supported up to 50,000 remote workers on any given day — more than 10 percent of the agency’s 400,000-person workforce, which includes thousands of healthcare workers.”
“Within a few weeks, the department scaled up telework by more than a factor of three, with around 135,000 employees consistently working remotely. But the department’s largest expansion of remote tools has been for clinicians delivering telehealth services.”
“James Gfrerer, VA CIO, says that the agency’s 8,000 IT staffers worked seven days a week at one point to support employees across the organization and navigate the crisis. The department has relied on tools including Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, cloud infrastructure and VPN connections to provide employees with secure access to IT resources.”
“The VA Office of Information and Technology’s (OIT) Office of Strategic Sourcing also collaborated and partnered with vendors at the onset of the pandemic to help them understand VA IT requirements. This office, led by Luwanda Jones, with Tina Burnett, James Bryant and supporting offices, worked to ensure OIT stayed ahead of customer demand.”
“Gfrerer tells FedTech how the VA has responded to the challenges of the novel coronavirus crisis…” Read the full article here.
Source: The Pivot to Mass Remote Work: VA Tackles a ‘Once in a Century’ Event – By Calvin Hennick, August 3, 2020. FedTech Magazine.
