Ensuring continuity of essential work for government employees

This diverse Australian Federal Government department comprises a number of portfolios covering specific policy areas and statutory authorities, trading enterprises, boards, councils and other public bodies. With operational autonomy, the department works with other Australian government agencies to deliver frontline public services and administrative functions.

DXC had been working with this government department on a Workforce Modernisation project to implement a contemporary Office 365 environment across the entire organisation. The project aimed to transform the department’s workplace experience and improve mobility, productivity, collaboration, and security through a holistic strategy combining technology, operations, culture, and employee experience.

When COVID-19 lockdowns were enforced, the department required its employees to continue its essential work — critical for the country’s viability during a global pandemic.

Business challenge

Before the pandemic, around 300 employees had remote work capability, however, with the new COVID-19 isolation restrictions in place, the department needed to immediately transition its 4,000 largely office-based workers to a work-from-home model.

To enable remote capability for its entire workforce, the transition required building and deploying hundreds of devices, expanding email processing capacity, implementing a cloud-based environment and ensuring appropriate bandwidth. 

There was also the need for appropriate security to meet strict government guidelines, and the capacity for employees to collaborate efficiently and effectively to maintain business continuity.

Solution

With the government department already well advanced in work with DXC towards implementing cloud-based productivity and collaboration applications, the DXC team mobilised quickly, and the project rapidly accelerated to scale up and expand remote capability. Working collaboratively, a joint transition plan was developed with the department and its partner organisations to move forward.

DXC drove initiatives with solutions evolved through a collaborative, iterative process. This included twice-daily stand-ups and ensuring the right resources were available to help troubleshoot a range of third-party vendor issues as they arose. With the provision of realistic and straight forward advice backed by experience, the department was in a position to make informed and timely decisions.

Working in short sprints through the planning and discovery phases, minimum viable products (MVP) were identified, launched, reviewed, and iterated quickly - resulting in rapid and highly effective outcomes.

The transition to enable 4,000 team members to work from remote locations was delivered in just two weeks by:

• Expanding the existing remote device and email processing capability 
• Implementing new collaboration tools (Microsoft Teams)
• Building and deploying some 500 new mobile devices for people with no suitable home device
• Working with the gateway provider to maximise bandwidth
• Implementing cloud-based Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) allowing staff to access Department systems from their home PCs
• Maintaining compliance with the Protective Security Policy Framework (PSPF)

Bruce Gartshore, DXC Account Delivery Leader, for DXC commented, “DXC’s team of local specialists work on a variety of projects and issues daily. We have access to people with capability and skills across the entire IT landscape. This wealth of knowledge and experience was of great benefit and enabled the completion of approximately 12 months’ worth of work in just over two.”

The extent of organisational change necessary in such a short time was immense. Essential to success was employee engagement, but with everyone working remotely, this was challenging. The department appointed a Modern Workplace expert to manage communications, and DXC worked with them to help articulate the significant associated organisational changes to employees. DXC also facilitated the necessary training, support and troubleshooting of issues for remote workers.

Results and benefits

One of the most significant outcomes of this project was that it demonstrated what can be achieved quickly. Remote access capacity was boosted in days, and collaborative capacity increased within just two weeks.

Rapid uptake of the new collaboration tools was crucial to the success of this project. The use of Microsoft Teams has taken off and is now accepted as the standard collaboration platform. A significant shift is people realising they don’t need to be on-site to effectively work together. Bruce Gartshore commented, “People now expect to work from home, collaborating, streaming videos, and accessing their software upgrades. The success of this project will help make the department’s move to full digital transformation easier.”

The government organisation has effectively responded to the twists and turns of the events during the pandemic while still delivering its essential services. Productivity is up, and staff have greater flexibility with remote working accepted as part of life.

A spokesperson for the department said, “Like many organisations, we had most of our staff working from home during the initial lockdown around Australia. Thanks to their commitment and a lot of hard work from our ICT teams, we were able to keep the department running smoothly despite the radical change in our working arrangements.”