Virtualization Could Improve Government Productivity By Four Hours Per Week

In the FedScoop study, underwritten by VMware, virtual digital workspaces top the list of things government IT users believe would make their digital experience more productive. Half (51 percent) of government users who do not have access to digital workspaces believe if they did, they could gain four or more hours of productivity per week, which equates to more than 200 hours of increased productivity per user per year. Nearly six in 10 government IT managers believe a digital workspace that serves up a standardized environment, regardless of device or location, would make users more productive.

The online survey, conducted in April 2017, identified top friction factors impeding government worker productivity. Half of government users experience moderate-to-high levels of friction using smartphones and tablets to access the information they use for work, while one-third report moderate-to-high levels of friction using desktops and laptops at work. When it comes to accessing work information on desktops and laptops, government IT users report twice as much friction as their industry counterparts polled in the study, and 25 to 33 percent more friction than industry on smartphones and tablets.

"This new report points to a significant opportunity to improve the productivity of government employees who depend on technology to perform their work and help their agencies deliver on their missions," said Goldy Kamali, CEO and founder of Scoop News Group, which publishes FedScoop.

Government users most often report application-related issues that hinder their productivity, including:

• Work-issued devices that do not support the applications they need (82 percent);
• Inability to access all the apps they need (64 percent);
• Multiple password requirements that hinder access to apps and information (58 percent); and
• Applications that are not optimized for mobile devices (56 percent).

Network issues also slow government productivity: Two-thirds of government IT users report network-related friction when accessing information for work, compared with only one-third of industry IT users. The top three network-related friction factors for government users include network availability, network speeds and latency and lack of Wi-Fi network reliability.

"With this study, we listened to the market to understand what government customers need. We need to solve the challenges of easy, secure access from any device for them — not force them to figure it out on their own," said Robert Ruelas, vice president of end user computing at VMware. "It's the CISO's role and the role of IT to make access secure and easy."

Download the report, "How Reducing IT Friction Can Boost Government Workforce Productivity," for detailed findings.

Other findings include:

• Gaps in support for workers' personal devices create user friction and security risks. Three-quarters of users (74 percent) rely on personal tablets and half (51 percent) use personal smartphones for work, while only 35 percent of managers support these personal mobile devices.
• Tablet and smartphone users report lower levels of trust. Two-thirds of tablet users (66 percent) and half of smartphone users (51 percent) have only low-to-moderate levels of trust in the security of their data.
• Government IT users and managers both say single sign-on would improve productivity. Two in three users (64 percent) and half of managers (52 percent) ranked single sign-on to all applications on their devices among the top three things that would make government IT users more productive.

Contact:
Claire Corbett
1-202-255-9599
[email protected]

SOURCE FedScoop

Related Links

http://www.fedscoop.com