Workforce mobility for government from IBM and Cisco

The goal - Serve your community well

Stimulate economic growth. Meet the demands of your citizens. Enhance workforce mobility to increase productivity, speed responsiveness, and improve communications between government functions, regardless of location. IBM and Cisco have partnered to provide governments with a comprehensive solution to help reduce complexity and offer the investment protection of a standards-based, modular foundation in a single converged network.

The advantage - Workforce mobility in action

With information available almost instantly for download, mobile workers with wireless access can answer questions faster, enter data and complete tasks right from the field such as duties related to property taxes, fees, assessments, inspections, boundary lines and more. Whether you decide on a point-to-point solution or city-wide broadband workforce mobility for government helps keep your field workers on the front lines longer, where they are more productive. And when your field agents are more responsive your citizens and businesses reap the benefits of instant gratification.

• Social and health workers can visit more sites each day by retrieving reports and filling out information while they visit homes or restaurants. They don't have to spend the time commuting back to the office to enter data into a computer.
• Police officers, working in patrol cars or walking the beat, can make faster decisions by checking criminal records, downloading mug shots and sharing information with other first responders, thereby increasing situational awareness before responding to an incident.
• Firefighters can download building plans and check incident reports directly from their fire engines or emergency sites to help provide faster response.
• Building inspectors could start their day out in the field with the tools to access files back in the office, upload information instantly and print reports on the spot.
• Water utility workers would be able to pull up virtual real-time maps and information about the infrastructure for the street or run tests in the sewer system, all of which makes it more efficient for them if they can look at material, update information and upload it while they're out in the field.
• Appraisers can load property information on a tablet PC before they go to the field. When they review a property, they have a photograph, property record, building diagram and other information at their fingertips. If they see anything that's different from the records, they can knock on the door to get more information.

The benefits - Increasing productivity through workforce mobility

Provide government services when and where they are needed through workforce mobility.

• Enhance economic development and community competitiveness, while improving employee work-life balance, by freeing up location-bound government operations.
• Create interagency collaboration by integrating existing communication systems and providing flexibility to easily connect private companies, wirelessly, as needed.
• Improve citizen service delivery by rerouting basic customer service to self-help channels for access to public information, allowing city employees to focus on more complex issues.
• Enhance public safety through building safety improvements by providing fire departments with virtual real-time access to applications, such as incident management reports, building plans and hazardous material information.
• Rapidly deliver security-rich wireless data transfer of sensitive information, such as live video and case management files, to public security personnel in the field during emergency response, allowing for faster apprehension of suspects and criminals.
• Streamline transportation management with sensors that enable smart monitoring of city streets and highways, alerting the right agencies to unusually heavy traffic, weather conditions or accidents.

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The goal - Tools for instant communication and response

Widen your agency's reach. Sharpen your effectiveness in providing citizen services. Empower case workers with critical data, on the spot. Monitor assets and control points more effectively. Workforce mobility for government can help your agency work more efficiently, respond faster and mitigate risks earlier by giving field agents tools to for near instant communication and access to the information they need the moment they need it.

The advantage - Partners in innovation—helping you protect the public

IBM and Cisco have an established partnership with some of the highest levels of expertise to advise and implement complex customer environments with ease. Our proven and tested solutions accelerate market-leading innovation.

• IBM is a worldwide pacesetter in business and IT consulting services.
• Cisco is a global leader in networking for Internet with a strong background in routing and switching, voice, security and wireless.
• IBM and Cisco support the development of open standards and applications, essential to the distribution of digital media.
• IBM has pioneered the development of core digital asset technologies including MPEG, data storage, encryption and security features such as watermarking, broadband distribution, digital rights management and wireless.

The benefits - Workforce mobility for better constituent services

Address aggressive economic growth, rapid emergency response and communication across urban and rural areas with workforce mobility for government from IBM and Cisco.

• Equip first responders with communication links to command centers.
• Help monitor and secure assets and security control points.
• Enable field workers to upload and download information and forms, on the fly, to improve productivity and create new efficiencies.
• Enhance customer service by reducing the amount of time it takes to input, upload and download materials in areas like social, health, inspection or assessment services.
• Improve accuracy and reduce paperwork because data is entered at the point of collection, decreasing data input errors and redundant recording of information.
• Increase communication by providing employees with instant access through wireless devices, enabling them to send and receive e-mail, read calendars, conduct research on the Internet, and more.

The approach - Successful county implementation

A county in Idaho teamed with IBM and Cisco to deliver a convergence strategy to improve productivity, increase customer satisfaction, reduce operational expense, and simplify network management. To keep pace with the county's robust growth, the dedicated team of professionals from the county's Information Technology Department realized that the number of technological challenges would likewise accelerate. This organization is committed to providing the county's diverse departments and agencies with innovative and effective technology-based solutions.

Working together, IBM Global Services and Cisco collaborated with county officials to design and build a server-based VoIP solution that will support more than 1,000 Cisco IP phones at the county's new courthouse, as well as an additional 500 IP phones at four remote sites. The county selected IBM and Cisco due to the innovative products, understanding of traditional voice systems, and proven methodology for implementing IP telephony solutions the two working as one are able to deliver.

The financial advantage - Reducing your overhead

Realize significant savings and efficiency by expanding the traditional government workplace into a mobile environment. The workforce mobility solution for government from IBM and Cisco can help your agency to:

• Decrease the necessity of central office space, reducing the costs for real estate, electricity and furnishing.
• Increase revenue through additional citizen services and enhanced government workforce productivity.
• Reduce communication infrastructure and management costs while offering mobile access to current and future applications.

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The issues - Reducing the complexity of wireless networks

IBM and Cisco have partnered to provide a security-rich wireless network infrastructure for government workforce mobility that can help take complexity out of seemingly endless choices. Our robust solution offers the investment protection of a modular foundation that can expand as your needs change.

The benchmark - Proven capabilities for government agencies

IBM and Cisco offer proven capabilities in complex wireless network implementation and systems integration with security-rich and scalable solutions.

• IBM is a pioneer in wireless technologies such as SiGe chips which greatly accelerate the performance of wireless devices like cell phones, transcoding technology and Bluetooth technology for short range wireless communications.
• Cisco solutions provide government and public safety agencies greater operational and situational awareness to make the best decision, and to deliver actionable information to the decision makers.
• Cisco brings significant industry expertise in the public sector with over a 20-year track record in deploying some of the largest government networks in the world.
• IBM offers a practice of over 1,500 professionals dedicated to wireless technologies.

The components - IBM and Cisco—putting it all together

Depending on your unique needs, IBM and Cisco components may include:

• IBM Network Consulting to help optimize the value of your current network infrastructure and extend the reach of existing capabilities. We think beyond the constraints of today's wired technology to help you pinpoint and deploy the appropriate wireless technology for an end-to-end solution designed to increase productivity, profitability and responsiveness.
• IBM Lotus® software to help extend the reach of your information through remote access and wireless devices.
• IBM Tivoli® security event management which helps you actively monitor, correlate and quickly respond to IT security incidents across your agency.
• IBM WebSphere® software to help you move the workplace to any space, using wireless and voice middleware on the server side to support the broadest spectrum of mobile networks and a wide array of devices on the client side.
• Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers, responsible for system wide wireless LAN functions, such as security policies, intrusion prevention, RF management, quality of service (QoS) and mobility. They work in conjunction with Cisco Lightweight Access Points and the Cisco Wireless Control System (WCS) to support business-critical wireless applications. From voice and data services to location tracking, Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers provide the control, scalability, security and reliability that network managers need to build secure, inter-agency-scale wireless networks.
• Cisco ASA Series Adaptive Security Appliance, a new security appliance for small county or large government environments, provides the next generation of network security and VPN services.
• Cisco Integrated Service Routers (ISR)—simplify deployment and management, lower the costs and complexities of your network, and support mission-critical applications, by providing a platform designed to be highly secure.
• Cisc o Switches—help maximize network value by providing optimal support for your agency's requirements while delivering superior investment protection.

The implementation - Successful county implementation

Working together, IBM Global Services and Cisco collaborated with a county officials to design and build a server-based VoIP solution that will support more than 1,000 Cisco IP phones at the county's new courthouse, as well as an additional 500 IP phones at four remote sites.

The VoIP solution utilizes the award-winning Cisco Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data (AVVID) and IP telephony products and interfaces with private branch exchange (PBX) solutions in three other county buildings. With Cisco Unified Messaging capability, county employees will also be able to manage e-mail, voice and fax messages from one mailbox.

The IBM Global Services implementation methodology included extensive interviews and design work prior to installation. Once the equipment was installed, IBM helped the county launch pilot programs and provided user training. IBM is also providing onsite service that permits the county to pay only for hours of service used.

The cost of ownership - Reduce costs and increase satisfaction

Workforce mobility from IBM and Cisco can enable tremendous work and life benefits to constituents as well as government employees. Our solution is designed to provide:

• Flexible and scalable systems that can leverage your investments for future growth.
• Implementation of a wide variety of devices.
• Less strain on IT employees and support resources.
• Security-rich wireless infrastructure.
• Easy deployment and management.
• Improved workforce productivity.
• Seamless wireless roaming.
• Cost effectiveness with an end-to-end solution.
• Enterprise-class security without the enterprise cost.

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