Government through the Communications Ministry and its implementing agency, National Information Technology 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, government accelerated its deployment in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic to enable public sector workers to work remotely to reduce personal contact, curb the spread of Covid-19 and ensure the safety of public servants.

The rollout of the Smart Workplace is being carried out by NITA.

Currently, 300 government agencies including the Ghana Health Service are on the platform as NITA facilitates the onboarding of the next batch of agencies.

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.

The 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.

The Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP) has urged all 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 Owusu-Ekuful.

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

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 forms are also available on NITA’s website.