President Obama just signed a new executive order from the Office of Management and Budget for agencies to develop and update IT purchasing policies to ensure teleworking employees are properly equipped.  Agencies have 90 days to determine the best policies that will eliminate any unnecessary work obstacles and cyber threats as federal employees transition to their new teleworking environment.

The order allows for agencies to determine and design their own IT policies as it meets their individual needs, but must include:

• Selecting and acquiring IT that best fits the needs of the Federal Government,
• Determination of allowable IT products and services, including remote access servers, client devices, and internal resources accessible through remote access.
• Prioritizing use of government-wide and agency-wide contracts for new acquisitions and renewal of services to leverage the government's buying power,
• Deploying new and modernizing existing agency IT systems and infrastructure,
• Compliance of all devices and infrastructure with federal security and privacy requirements.

This executive order was released just prior to May, the deadline set in the Telework Enhancement Act for agencies to determine which employees are eligible to work from home and which aren't.  The expected increase in the number of teleworkers makes the need for new IT and computer policies critical and timely.  While many fear the expected $30 million cost to implement telework, including IT expenses, the savings per year will actually exceed this cost.  Not to mention the unbelievable savings on oil, commuting, carbon footprint, time, productivity and so much more!  For more statistics and numbers on these savings, please visit the Telework Research Network.