Louisville, Ky., Continues Its Virtual Shift With New Tools

Source: GovTech Published: January 20th, 2021

Last year upended the government technology status quo. For the city government of Louisville, Ky., 2020 was when the number of desktops dwindled, staff training began to go virtual and people stopped thinking that a John Hancock required a pen and paper. 

Louisville IT Director Chris Seidt remembers when the city’s rigid telework policy only allowed someone to work from home once a week. But today, laptops make up 3,500 of the city’s fleet of 5,500 devices. Most employees are at home most of the time. 

“Where I had 78 employees normally … I now have four in the office at any point in time,” Seidt said, adding that other departments have seen similar shifts. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, the city started small with an order of 500 laptops. During the fall, Seidt and his deputy director, Ken Hillebrand, determined that 2,000 more employees could give up their desktops and work more safely from home. There was a hurdle, however: how do you receive, configure and distribute thousands of pieces of equipment without someone getting infected with COVID-19 in the process? 

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Photo by Emmy Gaddy on Unsplash