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GCN Home > 07/30/07 issue

Study finds agencies’ COOP planning outstrips telework

By Trudy Walsh

Government is making great strides in continuity-of-operations planning, but frequent teleworking — increasingly seen as an essential component of COOP — is still relatively rare.

That’s the upshot of a survey released last week by Juniper Networks, “Government Action Survey: Status and Progress of Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations.” More than 1,400 civilian, defense, and state and local government officials responded to the survey.

The survey, available free at www.junipercoop.com, shows that 88 percent of responding officials said their agencies have taken steps to prepare for COOP. Sixty-three percent said that their agencies are aligning their infrastructure to support COOP.

But only 28 percent of those surveyed use telework at least one day a week.

This contrasts with a recently released Office of Personnel Management survey just on federal workers, which found that 9.5 percent of eligible workers in 52 small and large agencies telecommute at least one day a month (GCN.com, Quickfind 809).

Haywood Talcove, Juniper’s vice president of the public sector in the Americas, said the survey underscores the connection between telework and COOP planning. The survey showed some interesting trends. For example, state and local government respondents felt they were best prepared for natural disasters. Both defense and civilian agencies reported that they were prepared for cyberattacks. “They deal with that every day,” Talcove said.

Data loss is a big concern as employees become more mobile, and it was the top concern of Defense Department agencies surveyed.



More news on related topics: COOP / Telework, IT Management



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