Remote Access for Municipalities

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Today's workforce is connected to the Web and wants to be able to work flexibly, with maximum mobility and efficiency. With ROAM, you can provide rapid, dependable and secure access to the internal network so elected officials, support staff and consultants can work remotely from anywhere.

ROAM provides each user with an individualized and personal portal solution, with secure access to only the file shares, virtual applications and legacy systems that have been authorized for that specific user – based on role. Because ROAM is scalable, additional users can be added in moments – and because ROAM is “clientless,” new users are able to login and begin using the system immediately.

ROAM economically leverages your existing human resources and IT infrastructure. ROAM improves communications, decision making and productivity while allowing IT Departments to concentrate on municipality stability and innovation.

Freedom Has Never Been So Affordable

Modern organizations rely on cross-functional, multi-skilled teams made up of managers, staff, vendors and outsourced specialists – all working towards a common goal. Collaborators often work in separate offices, in separate cities (or countries) and under very different circumstances.

For years now, manufacturers and suppliers have been integrating information systems in order to speed up decision-making, increase productivity and reduce bureaucracy. Often, access to information is no longer demarcated by business entity, but by individual role. ROAM is a flexible, fast and scalable remote collaboration infrastructure, with access privileges allocated by role, that ensures your municipality can operate following the best practices of top performing organizations.

Adopting a secure remote access strategy helps your municipality build on your “green” reputation – shrinking your city's carbon emissions, reducing real estate costs and improving regulatory compliance.

With ROAM, authorized management, staff and contractors can securely access shared computer systems from distant offices. Whether at home or on the road, users input requirements, update time-sheets, download documents, share applications and collaborate on projects, using whatever computer, operating system and browser is at hand.

Citizen Portal

Citizen Portals improve the democratic and equitable distribution of information and access to municipal services / systems. Citizens are better able to participate in municipal activities and events when provided with a personalized user interface. A citizen portal is recognized as innovative by today's Web-enabled citizens and demonstrates forward-thinking leadership in municipal government. A citizen portal also helps government to meet accessibility and independence criteria for physically challenged citizens. With a citizen portal, your city can provide access to shared systems like building permit applications, animal licenses etc. as well as access to relevant information pertinent to specific types of users such as contractors and immigrants – based on “role”.

What Remote Access Should Deliver

To be able to meet the needs of a nimble and collaborative working environment, a remote access solution must allow for immediate deployment to new users with no need to install software on distant computers. It must provide access to virtualized applications. It should be able to monitor workflow between professionals working in different organizations and different locations. It ought to be compatible with the highest levels of point-to-point security, and be flexible enough to allow cities to select their preferred method of user authentication. It should enable traveling users to access their personal workspace around-the-clock, from an airport, a hotel room, a plant site or in a distant office. To put it simply: it should have all the features and benefits of ROAM.

ROAM is a “Platform as a Service” – designed to leverage your city's existing technology investments without the cost of replacing them. With no complicated software licenses to purchase; no equipment to buy and no additional staff to hire, ROAM eliminates the risk of choosing the wrong technology while simultaneously reducing the total cost of ownership and increasing the return-on-investment of your existing technology investments.

Because ROAM is compatible with existing technology, users can work remotely with the same tools and information they use in the office. For instance, a user is given the privilege to access a database of the city's municipal code (based on role), enters search criteria and the relevant ordinance is made available to her, regardless of where she's working.

The ROAM portal aggregates your existing timesheets, expenses, email and calendar systems; provides access to virtualized versions of your existing applications (e.g., Microsoft Office Suite); and provides an interface to client/server legacy systems (e.g., AS/400), including systems in multiple facilities.

ROAM extends the reach and accessibility of authorized users from within the city as well as collaborating external professionals. ROAM utilizes SSL VPN technology, the same encryption method used for online banking transactions. ROAM is “clientless” – users need not install special applications or proprietary plug-ins, so new users are able to login and begin using the system immediately through any browser on any operating system (i.e., Windows, Macintosh or Linux). ROAM is scalable – new users can be quickly activated, ad infinitum.

With ROAM, your municipality can share capital costs for new IT systems across multiple organizations and provide authorized workers from partner organizations with access to only the information / systems that they need.

The ROAM Platform speeds up the implementation of remote access by combining components, (e.g., security, user access management, system integration tools, administration, etc.), into a single solution that is delivered via the Internet. Yet, the ROAM platform leaves your IT Management in control through an easy-to-use administration interface.

ROAM improves operational effectiveness through centralized identity management and distributed administration of users and data systems. ROAM administration creates a searchable electronic directory containing user and organizational profile information. ROAM interfaces and synchronizes with existing internal directories, such as LDAP, RADIUS, or Active Directory.

Compatible with 11 proven technologies for authenticating users and assigning access permission, ROAM is adaptable to the authentication methods that your municipality requires, including RSA /token based systems. ROAM meets confidentiality compliance standards as ROAM is “touchless” – your organization's data is never stored by ROAM.

Providing each authorized user with their own ROAM portal helps facilitate adherence to municipal policies. Management can use the memo field to deliver important announcements that every user will see when they login, whether it's to search for documents, enter property information or just pick up their e-mail. ROAM allows for tighter management control through monitoring of the work flow, billings, staffing, and decision-making that takes place outside the office walls.

ROAM is an integral component in your organization's continuity plan. Reacting, operating and recovering from a disaster, a strike action, an outbreak of disease, or other uncontrollable obstacle often depends on a scalable remote access solution. ROAM is especially advantageous as much of the shared remote access infrastructure is safely outside the walls of city hall. Management can quickly and securely provide employees and outside consultants with role-based access. Workers use the ROAM portal from anywhere for rapid consultation and collaboration. Management can quickly locate, organize and care for staff and avoid unnecessary building entry when faced with a picket line or during an epidemic.

ROAM facilitates regulatory compliance (e.g., HIPAA, SOX) through detailed usage logs and reports for accountable monitoring of access authorizations and usage by user, organization and resource.

Optional ROAM functionality includes secure video conferencing; real-time recording of computer activity (to easily create software simulations, videos, demos, screencasts and tutorials) and the ability to access your office PC desktop from anyware. The HR Department will appreciate the online training and employee wellness components available through the ROAM portal.

ROAM enables the creation of new on-demand applications that converge database access, with content publishing, collaboration and communications. Such convergence will enable your city to create next-generation Web-based applications (e.g., facilities booking forms) that are much more responsive to the needs of your teleworkers and citizens and allow workers and managers to spend less time getting the computer to work and more time focusing on getting the job done.

ROAM is so easy-to-use, intuitive and convenient that user “buy-in” is immediate. ROAM's personalized portal allows people to manage their workflow to suit the rhythms of their lives. Users work when they're available, alert and ready, improving the quality of work, productivity and work/life balance.

Large or small, your municipality can profit from the economies of scale afforded by ROAM, reducing operating costs and eliminating capital expenditures through shared infrastructure. ROAM allows your municipality to standardize on one remote access solution across a large region in all facilities. ROAM is your key to competitive advantage, lowering capital outlay, enabling growth, fostering collaboration and improving relationships with workers and clients.

The ROAM “Platform as a Service” rapidly adapts to ongoing changes in staff and technology, providing the utmost in simplicity, security, savings and scalability.

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