Videoconferencing Is Critical for Federal Engagement and Teamwork

Videoconferencing today provides government employees with more flexibility than ever. Conferencing tools have become more intuitive and easier to use over the past several years, simplifying office life for federal workers. And enhanced features — such as the ability to use generative artificial intelligence to create meeting summaries — support equity between onsite and remote federal employees, says Denise Lund, IDC telecom and unified communications team research vice president.

“The software itself is more intelligent,” Lund says. “One of the first improvements was having the camera move around the room. Some of the early trials of this technology, where a device would zoom in on the speaker when it recognized the audio was coming from that person, would not move to that person’s face. That’s been fine-tuned.”

Implementing a Unified Suite of Tools for Communication

The EPA had been using Microsoft’s email, word processing and other products for many years when it implemented Teams in 2020, giving the agency a unified suite of tools.

With roughly 10 regional offices across the U.S., and agents from criminal investigation and emergency response units potentially working in the field, the agency needed to ensure employees would be able to adequately communicate from the office and disparate locations.

The Teams solution, Abney says, has helped employees safely connect with each other by supplying security elements such as Microsoft patches and updates and the ability to verify that employees have an active license every 15 minutes.

“We have single sign-on,” Abney says. “If you’re already logged in to your computer, that’s automatic in the background, as long as you’re connected; it’s seamless to the user, while still maintaining security. If they go away from their desk for 15 minutes and log out, then they’ll have to reauthenticate through the network.”

The EPA added bandwidth to accommodate the influx of pandemic-era remote workers. So, instead of having to use a virtual private network connection to access the solution, employees just need a home connection or Wi-Fi.

“We have an app through Microsoft to allow them to do that,” Abney says. “Not having to use the VPN means we don’t saturate the internal EPA network. It’s also faster, not having to log in to their computer and then make a connection to the VPN, which is an extra step.”

Employees are able to share documents and call each other through Teams for a quick chat. The system also shows who’s online and available. With some employees and managers working remotely two or more days a week, this has helped agency members keep in touch, says Abney.

“Being able to collaborate through Teams has made fieldwork easier, in addition to having meetings,” he says. “Teams has been a big benefit to the agency, allowing us to collaborate with our regions, customers and everyone else more efficiently.”

Boosting Hardware Compatibility with Conference Rooms

The hardware available to support Cisco Webex for Government, along with the Webex videoconferencing software, was a point of interest for the Farm Credit Administration when it implemented the technology in 2020.

“It’s a streamlined equipment solution that we could put in each conference room that is able to connect with our laptops and iPhones,” says Ricardo Matos, network team supervisor in FCA’s Office of Information Technology. “It was much more flexible when we were looking at the options.”

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The agency outfitted approximately 20 of its conference rooms with equipment from the provider, including microphones and cameras that provide 1080p resolution if a call occurs on FCA’s network, and 720p resolution if internet connectivity is involved, says Deputy CIO Gerald Versace.

“This flexibility in video resolution and bandwidth requirements allowed users with varying internet performance to connect to virtual meetings,” Versace says. “This was especially useful during the pandemic because it allowed us to have more connectivity with folks who might not be in major cities or might be out on a farm, for example.”

To safely use the Webex system — which received FedRAMP certification in 2016 — FCA employs security methods such as transport layer security connections, multifactor authentication and privilege-based access control. Passwords are required for meetings.

Some of the solution’s specific features have helped the agency safeguard publicly shared events.

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“We didn’t want somebody stumbling into our board meeting and being disruptive,” Versace says. “Webex had a capability where people would not be able to interact via video, audio or chat; we could disable that. People who are simply attending are just receiving the content.”

Today, FCA uses Webex primarily for large staff gatherings and events that involve external participants, and Microsoft Teams for person-to-person videoconferencing and small internal meetings.

Using More Than One Videoconferencing System

A number of agencies use more than one videoconferencing system. The Department of Veterans Affairs, for instance, deployed Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams solutions in 2020 as part of what Unified Communications Director Sean Mitts says is a FedRAMP-based integration strategy.

To facilitate this setup, the VA implemented private networking links between the agency, Cisco and Microsoft; deployed client software on employees’ PCs; and reconfigured existing videoconferencing endpoints to work with the new platform.

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The Webex and Teams resources have supported employee meetings and other touchpoints, including veteran telehealth services, Board of Veterans’ Appeals hearings, new VA employee onboarding, and agency conferences with affiliate universities and research institutions.

“More than four years after their initial rollout, both of these systems are embedded in the daily operations of the VA,” Mitts says. “Particularly during the height of COVID, Teams and other teleconference components were paramount in helping the department to pivot and continue providing great services to veterans without requiring a physical presence.”