Photo: Seattle CIO Bill Schrier. Photo by Amanda Koster.

William Travis, CIO of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), has spent the last several years introducing mobile computing to caseworkers.

Instead of writing progress notes by hand and then entering them into the state's database when they return to an office, caseworkers can access the database in the field and enter notes into the system as they conduct interviews. They also can catch up on their paperwork at home or while waiting to testify in a courtroom.

Now in its third year, the mobility project has brought laptops and mobile broadband access to 4,500 workers in 46 of the 57 counties in upstate New York. "Mobility is now part of their business process," he said. "It has definitely increased productivity in the field."

But it also has forced Travis' office to plan around issues involving real-time field access to applications, encryption, security, asset tracking, field support and human resources.

For instance, to support far-flung workers, the OCFS trained county government network administrators to act as local champions supported by the OCFS help desk. To simplify that support, the agency is gradually eliminating desktop PCs for caseworkers and hooking their laptops into docking stations when they are in the office. "From a technological perspective it makes things easier because we only have one version of what they are seeing at their desktops instead of two," Travis said.

Planning, Security More Critical

To cope with the increasing number of office workers who want to access e-mail and other applications on their mobile devices and field workers, such as building inspectors using customized handheld devices, proactive CIOs are developing mobile policies and procedures as a regular part of the IT strategic plan, said Liza Lowery Massey, CEO of The CIO Collaborative, a Las Vegas-based consultancy.

But sometimes, she added, mobility gradually creeps up on CIOs as more of their employees start using BlackBerrys. "I have seen folks who have so much on their plate that they feel like they can't deal with one more thing, so they just ignore it," Massey said. "There's a lack of planning, and no standards and policies are in place. They are thrown into it and either try to put the breaks on or end up herding cats."

For Steve Chapin, director of IT for North Las Vegas, Nev., a mobility strategy grew out of a larger strategic planning process. In surveys, city employees expressed a strong desire for "virtual office" capabilities, he said.

In response, the city implemented BlackBerry Enterprise Server and standardized BlackBerry devices for mobile e-mail. "I would say we have more control and centralization with the BlackBerrys than with any of our other stuff," Chapin said. "We can wipe them remotely, and find them and inventory them very easily."

Chapin has an information assurance specialist on staff, and employee orientations now include mobile IT security briefings. People who use laptops and have virtual private network (VPN) access to applications get additional training on security. "We are aware of security considerations, but try not to let it stop us from doing things," Chapin said. "Security is job No. 1. You have to take precautions, but don't let it stand in your way."

As much as IT leaders like standardization, the business application has to drive the technology choices, Chapin said. "For instance, our building inspectors have to simply approve or reject an application. It is yes or no. They can use their BlackBerry for that. But our code enforcement staff has to write longer descriptions. For that, we decided they need a ruggedized laptop."