With its picture-book location on the northern bank of Lake Geneva, Lausanne is not only a popular holiday destination for tourists from all over the world; it is also a bustling economic, cultural and education centre, not to mention a key logistics point for western Switzerland. It is the fifth largest city in Switzerland and has over 125,000 inhabitants, but it is best known as the home of the International Olympic Committee.

The Challenge: Remote Access for Application Testing During an IT Upgrade

To meet the demands of a 21st-century community, the Lausanne municipal council is implementing a modern information and telecommunication infrastructure to be used by 4,000 employees every day. As well as standard office applications, this infrastructure is used for special applications for the seven administrative departments.

The main focus of attention during the switchover project was on adapting these special applications. Gianfranco Moi, chief information officer, explained: “It was absolutely essential for us to involve the users in the testing phase for the new software solutions. Only the users themselves are in the position to go over the new applications with a fine-toothed comb and identify implementation errors. Thankfully our ‘test pilots’ were — and still are — willing to give up some of their free time for this. In return, we sought to provide access to the new applications in the simplest way possible, without requiring them to visit the office each time.”

Plans quickly formed to implement a solution that would provide remote access to applications. “The IT team was also keen to implement a remote access solution for engineering and IT support that would increase their flexibility and efficiency during the switchover project. Only a tool such as this would enable our employees to deal with the large number of projects relating to the switchover and provide all participants — developers, users, project managers — with access, no matter where or when they were working,” Moi elaborated.

Implementing GoToMyPC for Secure Remote Access

Following an evaluation phase, the City of Lausanne opted for Citrix® GoToMyPC®. GoToMyPC is an Internet-based, on-demand service providing simple and secure remote access to PCs from any conventional Internet browser. Using an encrypted connection, GoToMyPC provides instant access to the host PC’s e-mail, files, directories and network resources. Users can manage their remote desktops as if actually sitting in front of them. Customers pay a monthly flat fee for the service.

“The evaluation phase quickly revealed that GoToMyPC met all our requirements and also fulfilled all our expectations regarding security,” confirmed Moi. “Our goal was to retain all the rules and regulations in force at employees’ workstations when using GoToMyPC remote access. Protecting citizen information is at the top of our list of priorities.”

Delivering Optimal Security and Efficiency

GoToMyPC offers maximum security with 128-bit AES encryption, dual passwords and end-to-end user authentication. This means that no one but the user himself has access to the data. “To ensure that the above data protection requirements are met, we suppress functions such as cut and paste and the option of importing and exporting data. Our comprehensive tests showed that GoToMyPC posed no security risks.

“The entire IT team and the employees involved in software testing are now using the solution,” Moi continued. “Colleagues can test the re-engineered software applications from the comfort of their own homes, using their own PCs. They do not have to travel into the office so the task takes up less of their free time and the feedback they submit to the re-engineering team is quick and precise.”  

On average, 1000 hours a month are spent using the remote access solution. The typical user session currently lasts an hour, but this is continually increasing. No special training for GoToMyPC was necessary. “We provided a page of GoToMyPC user instructions on the intranet for our employees. We provided our helpdesk with a half-day induction in order to prepare them for in-depth questions relating to GoToMyPC functionality,” he said.

Providing the Basis for Telecommuting

GoToMyPC is also increasingly being used by Lausanne municipal council in areas outside the IT switchover project. For example, employees in the geographical information systems department responsible for drawing up map material work in the field much of the time and they use GoToMyPC for remote access to their workstations.

Moi smiled about another example of remote access. “One of our employees lives on the other side of the lake and generally comes to work by boat; otherwise he would have to drive halfway around the lake. Unfortunately, the wind and weather conditions on the lake influence the commute time by boat. With GoToMyPC available, the employee can take a look out of the window every morning and decide whether to risk a boat trip or access his workstation from home.”

The human resources department even got involved with the introduction of GoToMyPC, revising work contracts and agreements to incorporate it. “We have already collaborated with the HR department to draw up a new contract that incorporates telecommuting. Because the implementation of GoToMyPC has been so successful, we are thinking about expanding telecommuting within the municipal council. This would provide more-flexible working hours and reduce the amount of time employees spend travelling to and from work. As is so often the case in life, you just need an initial spark to get an idea going,” Moi concluded.

Future Plans

Lausanne municipal council is already considering implementing a Web conferencing solution as the next step. “We work with other authorities on some projects, and have already identified the need for a remote collaboration solution to reduce the amount of time and money spent on face-to-face meetings.”

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