BRMS EXPAND SUPPORT FOR DEPARTMENTS DURING COVID-19 CRISIS

By Stephanie Todd

For many departments, Teleworking was a wish list item or used in pilot testing for emergencies and/or disasters. But with the spread of COVID-19, all County departments faced an unprecedented challenge in keeping employees safe at home, but still working. In uncharted territory and unfamiliar with remote technology, the departments needed a way to continue "business as usual," and that's when ISD’s IT Team provided guidance. County departments faced limited devices, and employees required various options of remote access from home. The departments needed a secure way to access their applications and files, and continue their communication with their teams. That’s when the Business Relationship Management (BRM) team expanded their support to all Departments to anticipate the department's business needs and ensure the right technology.

As ISD was testing new Enterprise Cloud based options for remote access, the BRM team started to reach out to all departments to gather remote access requirements. Some employees had County-owned laptops, but the majority of employees would be using their home computers. This led to security concerns.

How did we know if their home PC was patched? How were they going to access their applications and files that were on-prem, just like they were in the office? Each department has their own set of critical applications that needed to be accessed by their employees. IT staff from many departments were used to utilizing SSLVPN for their remote access, but this needed to be reserved for the essential front -line workers. Many different scenarios had to be covered for all departments.

As the service demand increased and departments urgently prepared for their staff to work at home, the BRMs established and streamlined communication with the new help desk process and a one-pager decision tree. All 35 departments were assigned with a dedicated 24/7 point of contact for urgent and critical requests. The new process resulted in immediate attention and continuity of business operations. The BRM partnership also included regular check-in, consistent follow-up, and daily remote connectivity reports.

the remote access options were being put into place, the BRMs gathered documentation to help employees work from home, establishing the Connect Site (http://connect.lacountygov). The website became the central source of instructional guides for remote access options, collaboration tools and telecommuting tips. The BRMs also coordinated live training from Microsoft and Cisco on collaboration tools. For employees unable to attend scheduled training webinars, the BRMs worked with Brainstorm and offered a self-paced training platform. The BRM team is proud to provide excellent customer service to the County Departments, and support the internal IT teams

Our goal has always been to serve as the main strategic connection between ITS and the Departments, providing Department leadership with guidance and solutions that help achieve growth, realize efficiencies and drive innovation. With the ongoing budget cuts, now more than ever, our team is working to leverage existing technology across the County to save Departments money. We look forward to a continued successful partnership with the Departments that we support.

The BRM team is managed by Stephanie Todd and consists of Anh Ly, Diane Waskul, Jamel Thomas, Janet Brito, Kenneth Nakahara, Phil Crippen and Ryan Edpao.