By Jeff A.
Back in 2012, ActioNet coined the term ActioNetAnywhere® – Live Anywhere, Work Anywhere. Play Anywhere…on the planet! In order to support our customers and employees across ten time zones and multiple countries, we needed to be Agile, Flexible and Responsive. Our “Think Global, Act Local” focus prepared us for these challenges as we leveraged emerging technologies to facilitate this transformation. When the pandemic hit in 2020 with both immediate and long-term challenges that affected the entire world, we were able to adapt quickly.
Leveraging Technology Transformation
Over the last decade, a paradigm shift has occurred for remotely accessing computing resources with the shift from On-Premises Solutions to Fully Managed Services in the Cloud. This evolution includes the following technologies:
- Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which were more common a decade ago, are secure but lagged in performance with latency issues due to slow network connections that were not stable.
- Remote Desktop Services (RDS) allow remote computers to access a central server. The server may be in the office premises or a data center. RDS is a server-client model, which lacked the ability to support graphics-intensive apps.
- Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a virtual desktop environment that enables the creation of virtual desktops on a remote server setup. Every virtual desktop can be personalized to meet the unique needs of each user. The cost of operations is considerable in terms of system administration and capital investments if provided internally.
- Desktop as a Service (DaaS) is a Managed Service which provides VDI services in the Cloud, you get advanced security features, such as OS patching, antivirus management, network monitoring, DDoS protection, etc.
Empowering our Employees and Supporting our Customers
Meeting the challenges of 24×7 support requirements across multiple time zones and geographic locations requires robust self-service capabilities leveraging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) to supplement support resources.
Some great examples and use cases are as follows:
- Employee Center – Enables managers, employees and contractors with mission critical duties aboard ships, planes, centers and field sites to request services from anywhere with a unified portal. Employee Center keeps everyone engaged, productive, and informed. Our ActioNetAnywhere® approach provides the capability to deliver services to both internal and external customers no matter where they live or work where Issues can be reported, services requested, knowledge accessed and status obtained spanning across applications, software, cybersecurity, employee, hardware, network, end user devices and the project management office.
- Employee Services – Enhances the employee service experience providing a multi-departmental intranet to easily get help from HR, Recruiting, IT, Facilities, and other departments. New modern look and feel and Artificial Intelligence (AI) provides minimal clicks to standardize, automate and elevate Federal employee and contractor user experience.
- Integrated Service Operations Workspace – Support a hybrid multi-duty workforce from anywhere transforming how work gets done with cross-departmental services, information, and tasks. Automates manual processes with a centralized approach. Provides real-time visibility, notifications, reporting, and access to My Requests, My Work and My Team’s work with improved end-user satisfaction, security, access and reduces cost and risk.
Remote Work and Productivity
By leveraging a broader workforce that is geographically dispersed, we have been able to continually improve service delivery across all locations that are not solely dependent on resources in a single time zone. Enabling our workforce to spend more time supporting our customers and each other rather than spending time stuck in traffic reduces stress and enhances focus. At the end of the day, we are all responsible for achieving desired outcomes. The ActioNetAnywhere® approach continues to enable us to achieve those goals and keep raising the bar.
