Page 25 - FCW, July 2020

How cloud makes
telework smarter
Cloud-based tools are transforming teamwork and employee productivity regardless of location
Ignacio Martinez
Vice President of Security,
Risk and Compliance, Smartsheet
ADVANCES IN SECURE cloud-based tools are helping agencies modernize their workflows and processes, which has been especially important during the response to the coronavirus pandemic. When government employees were directed
to work from home to slow the spread of the virus, their everyday responsibilities still involved accessing a variety of systems so they can analyze data, make decisions and then input the results into various systems or share those insights with other employees.
Seamless collaboration with colleagues
Smartsheet Gov enables employees to do all those tasks more easily,
efficiently and securely by working with those systems on an automated or integrated basis. In addition, employees can access Smartsheet from wherever they are. They can share information and the results of their work via dashboards that multiple employees can view at one time and continue that seamless collaboration with their colleagues even when everyone is working from home.
Smartsheet datasets are housed in a secure, FedRAMP-authorized cloud environment, which assures agencies that they can adhere to the same security protocols from outside the office. For example, if an agency needs to conduct a yearly audit that would normally take place with all the participants at a physical location, they can do the work remotely using Smartsheet Gov to run the same playbook, the same audit and the same workflow regardless of where those employees reside.
Such borderless teams can reduce costs while increasing employee satisfaction and productivity.
Maintaining critical workflows
The federal government has undertaken some ambitious initiatives
to modernize its IT environments and more widely adopt cloud technology. As more and more companies achieve FedRAMP authorization for their products and services, agencies are beginning to discover some of the tools that the private sector has been using for a while now.
During the coronavirus pandemic, FedRAMP has made it possible for agencies to quickly deploy new tools to support a remote workforce. Recognizing that pressing need, we made Smartsheet Gov available for free to government entities during the pandemic, and we’ve had over
a hundred agencies and departments take advantage of that offer to quickly create routines for collecting and managing large amounts of data specifically in response to COVID-19.
The pandemic has made government leaders aware of the need to provide tools that enable employees to keep critical workflows going during a crisis while at the same time helping agencies manage those employees remotely to keep teams aligned and productive. The lessons agencies are learning now will go a long way toward helping them achieve their long-term modernization goals.
Ignacio Martinez is vice president of security, risk and compliance at Smartsheet.
Learn more at Carah.io/Smartsheet-FedRAMP-FCW
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