More than 300 government agencies are currently on the Smart Workplace™ platform, which is supported by Government for use by all public institutions.

A statement signed by Richard Okyere-Fosu, Acting Director-General, the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), which is carrying out the rollout of the Smart Workplace™ said it was working to facilitate the onboarding of the next batch of agencies.

The Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Communications and its implementing agency, NITA, is deploying the Smart Workplace™ solution to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

The pilot of the Smart Workplace™ solution commenced in 2018. However, the Government accelerated its deployment in the wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic to enable public sector workers work remotely to reduce personal contact, curb the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the safety of public servants.

Commenting on the development, the Minister for Communications, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful urged public servants to utilize the platform, which is supported by Government, for use by all public institutions, especially during the pandemic period.

“Changing our way of doing things is not easy but with practice, we will become more comfortable using these digital tools, and at such a time as this, Smart Workplace™ will help with the transition safely, without sacrificing speed and efficiency”, said Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.

She called on all public institutions to give NITA the necessary support to ensure a successful implementation of the project.

The Smart Workplace™ solution has over 19 features and several benefits. It provides Staff with a highly efficient virtual work environment with a single access point to all resources by interfacing with MDAs and MMDAs internal (in-house) systems.

These include Enterprise Email, Calendar, Microsoft Teams (video conferencing), Document Management, Correspondence Management, and Electronic Memos.

Others are Corporate News/Announcements, Enterprise Search, Task Management, Knowledge Management, and Workflow Automation.

Other features include Business Intelligence and Analytics, Timesheet, Project Monitoring, Business Application Access, Notifications, Survey, Media Gallery and Mobile Access.

Smart Workplace™ can also automate manual business processes such as Leave schedules, Vehicle and Payment requests, as well as Stores Requisitions.

NITA will submit forms to all MDAs and MMDAs for collation of information which will be used for onboarding of institutions onto the Smart Workplace™ platform, the statement added.