A physical infrastructure that was losing its validity
Since previous years, the Colombian House of Representatives had an email service based on local servers. However, this service constantly generated inconveniences and incidents. For example, 1 GB storage per user led to trays frequently reaching their capacity limits. “Likewise, we didn't have a good instant messaging tool. In the past, we used IceWarp, which brought us frequent difficulties: multiple failures in terms of receiving messages, very important messages were constantly being sent and they did not arrive, the platform was offline. All this forced us to use alternative instant communication tools (typically, WhatsApp), without the official domain of the Chamber,” says Sebastián del Toro, Information Technology Engineer.
In fact, the Chamber had been experiencing many problems inherent to the platform. There was no proper security filter and this was reflected in inboxes that were constantly filled with spam. In addition to this, the infrastructure on which the email was based had accessibility problems: being local, it could not be accessed remotely. Thus, officials who worked or had to carry out a mission outside Bogotá could not access their emails.
This background led the Chamber to hire Google Workspace.
Covid-19 and the need to get on the cloud
Google Workspace was offered as a solution. Eliminated dependency on local servers for critical email information. In an initial phase, the licensing was Basic; In this way, storage went from 1 GB to 30 GB per license.
The Google Workspace migration was carried out in 03 phases:
First Phase: Migration of the technology team
Second Phase: Pioneers, 78 people who are sponsors in the different committees of the Chamber and administrative staff.
Third Phase: 100% of the users go live and start working with the platform.
After the activation and migration of the licenses, the tools of the new adopted platform were launched and socialized. This included technical user sessions, accompaniment during the day of the live broadcast at the entity and dissemination in the media. Finally, Xertica's change management team led the enablement of users in all Google Workspace tools through a self-learning site and training sessions on in-person and virtual functionalities.
Covid-19 and the challenge of maintaining legislative functions
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Meet was used so that legislative sessions could take place virtually and, from the Xertica Services area, an extension was created where a platform was set up from where attendance control can be verified , online voting, points of order, attached documents and other actions such as:
- Access Validation
- Assistance Take
- Access to Meet Video Conferencing
- Roll Call Voting (Agenda, among others)
- Time Control
- Request to speak (Moderation and Monitoring)
- Reports
- Profiling according to the roles of the attendees and actors of the process
As Alejandro Muñoz, Digital Government Policy Advisor, highlights: “Covid-19 changed the way we work. In Colombia, a mandatory quarantine process began, which meant that the Honorable Representatives to the Chamber and the administrative team could not attend the offices in person. For this reason, an entire process of taking face-to-face processes to virtuality begins, which began with the use of Meet so that legislative sessions are generated virtually by scheduling the sessions through Calendar. Additionally, we saw the need to create an application to control the virtual plenary sessions. “Xertica accompanied us in this project.”
Likewise, a Commission Sessions module was created that must have the same tools and profiles, dividing the platform for Plenary Sessions and Commission Sessions.
Impact
With Google Workspace, the House of Representatives adopted teleworking at the Enterprise level that includes the following functionalities:
- Information security and backup
- Plenary sessions open public information to citizens
- Live transmission of plenary sessions through YouTube
- Recording as Public Transparency.
- Constant accompaniment and support
Beyond allowing it to remain current despite the quarantine resulting from the global spread of Covid.19, Google Workspace has prompted the House of Representatives to transform the way its teams work. As Dary Hurtado, Systems Team Engineer, concludes: “Through the administrator's reports, we can see the use of the tools. The increase has been notable. Even officials who previously did not have assigned email accounts have now begun to request access to the platform and even learn about what new Google Workspace brings.”
In short, the implementation of Google Workspace led by Xertica gave mobility to the Honorable Representatives of the Chamber and synchronization problems were eliminated: the possibility of accessing emails, files and communication from remote devices (laptops, desktops, tablets, cell phones). During the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to the use of Meet, legislative sessions have been able to take place virtually without problems.
