R U there? Feds want presence systems, survey says

When it comes to next-generation communications systems, what federal network managers want most is the ability to identify and notify employees in real time.

That’s one of the more interesting findings of a telephone survey of 200 federal telecommunications officials conducted by Market Connections for Cisco. The survey was conducted in April, but the findings were released today.

Survey respondents ranked "real-time notification and identification of employees" first in terms of importance to an agency’s ability to deliver on its mission. The other choices were: remote access, wireless networking, mobility, video conferencing, audio conferencing and instant messaging.

Overall, 62% of respondents said presence was very important or somewhat important to agency mission. Presence is an application that makes it possible to locate and identify a device or user when connected to a network.

Federal interest in presence technologies "may come from the fact that agencies want to know where their workforce is to be able to look at the effectiveness and the efficiency of what they’re able to do," says Aaron Heffron, vice president of Market Connections, a market research firm that regularly conducts telephone surveys for Cisco. "They want to be in contact with them at all times."

The federal government is focused on "emergency response, response times to citizen requests and workforce productivity," says Brent Byrnes, federal unified communications manager for Cisco. "You need to have access to people quicker in order to have better decision making and drive productivity."

The interest in presence technologies seems to be new, given that few federal agencies have deployed the technology. Less than half of survey respondents – 44% – said they use these systems, but another 28% said they plan to roll it out over the next 18 to 24 months. The remaining 28% of respondents have no plans to use the technology.

Indeed, real-time notification and identification of employees was ranked last in terms of the communications capabilities now in use in federal agencies. Topping the list were audio conferencing, mobile devices, remote access and wireless networking, which are all in use by more than 70% of survey respondents.

The interest in presence technologies seems to fit with other survey findings that point to increased use of mobile phones, BlackBerries and other PDAs. The survey found that 83% of respondents use PDAs and 73% use wireless laptops.

A smaller share of federal network managers use instant messaging – only 46% – and soft phones only 21%. Both of these technologies often come bundled with presence features.

"A lot of the mobile devices used by first responders and warfighters support presence," Byrnes says. "This finding is a recognition that you can offer new capabilities that will directly address the mission of the agency."

Federal IT officials say mobile communications devices are improving productivity: 96% of survey respondents said communications devices helped them at work, and 84% called them a blessing rather than a curse.