City staff could soon be working from home, cars

Employees of the City of Windsor could soon be working more from their homes or even their vehicles, rather than coming into the office.

Council's executive committee Monday night approved a mobile computing strategy for all municipal workers.

"Organizations themselves will require increasing levels of mobility to remain competitive, including the public sector," the strategy reads in part. "Mobile technology can provide efficiency and improve effectiveness for employees, as well as deliver information to citizens in a way many of them will embrace."

Coun. Alan Halberstadt said it's important for the city to keep up with the pace of technology.

"I think it's up to some of the older employees to get in tune, including some of the older councillors. I still have a lot to learn; I do have a Blackberry and a computer," Halberstadt said. "But I'm not a whiz at it. But I've been able to adopt. So, hey, you either adopt or you die."

Harry Turnbull, the city's executive director of information technology, said the strategy doesn't mean every municipal worker will get an iPad.

"One of the things we have to do is be careful about focusing on any particular device, and rather look at what is the problem we're trying to solve," Turnbull said. "Then, what is the right solution to solve that problem.

"The devices change so quickly, that we don't want to tie ourselves down to a particular device. It's really about finding the right solution. And there's a lot of different problems, so there may be multiple solutions."

Turnbull said there is no budget for the mobile computing strategy, yet.

Money will be allocated on a case-by-case basis.

Halberstadt said the move, in the end, could save the city money on office space when it builds a new city hall.

The report refers to "mobile officing," which would allow employees to work away "outside the traditional office."

Mobile officing will not "forfeit productivity and job satisfaction," according to the report, and will:

• Maximize the return on real estate
• Optimize efficiency of workspace locations
• Automate the reservation and scheduling of workspaces
• Optimize mobile work strategies
• Decrease carbon footprint