Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1234806
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 APRIL 2020 8 COMMERCIAL Ian Bonello & Katia Bonello ACROSS its different de- partments, MITA have multiple teams that offer services directly to the cli- ent. These include Call Centre Services, Desktop installation and support services, Email Services, Network Operations Centre, Change and Configu- ration Management and also the support of other backend systems which are used ensure operational automation. While monitoring the COV- ID-19 situation, MITA had al- ready anticipated that its em- ployees and most government departments would be remote working and hence a number of simulations were undertaken. Since the year 2001, MITA has adopted the use of teleworking. This included having the ap- propriate technology and back- ing to enable remote working. A few years back, MITA had al- so started allocating all its em- ployees' laptops that allowed hot desking while employees were working across the vari- ous MITA offices. Moreover, it recently implemented unlimit- ed mobile services both from a voice and a data perspective. In addition to this, during the last year, MITA has adopted the use of Microsoft Teams as a collaboration tool. The Agency carried out an as- sessment to ensure that its in- frastructure and ancillary sup- port services were in place, to be able to offer all government employees the facility to work remotely. Another related as- sessment was carried out to de- termine whether MITA could provide its services remotely with no im- pact to the client. G o z i t a n s working at MITA Over the years, par- ticularly during the last few years, the number of Gozitan employees across the Agency kept increasing, and so MITA decided to set up an office in Gozo. Today MITA has more than 20 Gozitan em- ployees working from Gozo. The Agency has decided that due the COVID-19 situation all Gozitans are to work from Gozo, either from our Gozo premises or even from their home. MITA Call Centre With the arrival of COV- ID-19, the Service Manage- ment Department kicked off a number of simulation exercis- es to allow more employees to work from home. The initial implementation was to allow a few different members from each team to work from home, thus proving that their duties can be done seamlessly from home. This training allowed the Agency that more than 20 Call Centre agents were able to work completely from home. This simulation was one of the first simulations that helped build a very high level of con- fidence in remote working. It was indeed not a usual scenario to see monitors reporting that calls were being processed with an empty Centre office and a silence that was usually inter- rupted by a number of ringing phones. During this period, the MITA Call Centre was experiencing the highest number of calls due to government employ- ees shifting their operations to home. Such operations re- quired users to configure their workstations to connect to the Malta Government Network through MITA's Secure VPN Service. Desktop support Remote working was possible immediately in a number of teams responsible for the Gov- ernment Email Infrastructure, Change and Configuration Management, and the backend support team who is respon- sible for the various tools that bring about operational effi- ciency within operations. With the Desktop Support area, MITA configured secure equipment to augment the use of remote support for all re- mote workers through VPN. Network Operation Centre The Networks Operations Centre is one of our critical operation areas, and required a permanent presence at the of- fice. This team deals with the Data Centre and an element of physical presence is always required to load backup tapes, physically relocating equip- ment from one part of the Da- ta Center to another and other duties. However, the Agency took action to reduce the num- ber of NOC personnel at the office using also some remote working were possible. Once work shifted to work from home, a strict schedule of team meetings was set up to en- sure the smooth flow of opera- tions. Team Leaders and Man- agers met every day to discuss operations, reports and review outcomes. Clear goals were set up and detailed reports of the work output were reviewed and assessed daily. The meetings also had the purpose of keeping close con- tact. One to one meetings were scheduled with each employee MITA and the COVID-19 MITA's priority is to safeguard the Government's critical operations while working with the highest efficiency in this unprecedented situation