The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a radical shift in the work environment, resulting in increased number of people around the world working from home or other locations away from their official work space.
MITU did not lag behind in protecting its staff from the spread of the pandemic and allowed a vast majority of staff to work from home. Fortunately, the technology and the available ICT infrastructure at the Unit supported this move and helped the remote working staff remain connected and productive.
MITU is connected through fibre internet – a broadband connection that uses fibre-optic technology to provide fastest speeds data over greater distances without major lag time. With such infrastructure in place, staff are connecting to box drive (a cloud storage service) with ease enabling them to share documents remotely from anywhere anytime. With laptop computers, USB speakerphones, headphones and the internet, staff have been able to stay connected and maintain workflow continuity and conduct live meetings and presentations using Zoom – a video conferencing web platform.

With a virtual private network (VPN) connection – a secure tunnelling technology, staff have been able to securely access the Unit’s local resources from the unsecure public internet by connecting from outside MITU. Remote support tools have also enabled the IT technicians gain access to the remote laptops used by staff working from home and provide technical support in cases of need.

The COVID-19 pandemic has unleashed the new ways in which ICT could support remote working arrangements and allow organizations to remain productive during these challenging times.