ELearning! Magazine

Tasked with providing information technology to support Coast Guard engineering business practices, the Logistics Geospatial Integration Center (LoGIC) faces complex assignments that can impact the effectiveness of the U.S. Coast Guard. Assigned as the Coast Guard center for geospatial data solutions, LoGIC not only determines what technology solutions civil, naval and aeronautical engineers should use in day-to-day program activities, it also supports and trains users on those technologies.

Additionally, LoGIC needs to act in accordance with the Coast Guard’s strategic goals, which specify that all IT systems, including data and databases, be designed and evolved to support full interoperability of data, information and knowledge — both internal and external — to the various engineering programs.

When the organization’s officers began to suggest implementing aWeb conferencing solution to reduce travel time and costs, enable distance learning and improve overall communications, LoGIC undertook an evaluation of the Web conferencing space and its leading vendors. After agreeing thatWeb conferencing would be financially and operationally beneficial, they began to look for a solution that would promote collaboration through Web meetings and conferences, facilitate remote technend-users to easily adopt.

Among its technical requirements, LoGIC determined that Web conferencing would need to provide high voice and video quality, enable easy access for both scheduled and on-the-fly training sessions, and allow for on-demand editing and archiving of sessions. It also required session control by both participant and presenter, text chat, online testing, application sharing, breakout sessions, and integration with Microsoft Outlook.

As a government organization, LoGIC demanded the highest levels of security forWeb conferencing. The product needed to operate in locked-down environments, be installed as an onpremise solution within its network, and function without altering users’ root directories.

CHOOSING THE IDEAL SUITE

After examining offerings from the leading vendors, LoGIC found that iLinc’s Web conferencing software and audio conferencing solutions met all usability, technical and security needs.

“The choice wasn’t difficult,” says Gary Green, the configuration manager for LoGIC. “iLinc software met all of our requirements. As an added benefit, the pricing model made it more affordable than other products.”

LoGIC immediately made iLinc licenses available to engineers and other officers throughout the organization. Now, with access to an entire software suite—MeetingLinc, ConferenceLinc, LearnLinc, and SupportLinc—LoGIC can offer comprehensive collaboration capabilities to staff members across varied job functions.

INTERNAL EMPLOYEE TRAINING

Now, using LearnLinc, LoGICical support and provide cost-effective online training—all while being approachable enough for delivers mandatory iLinc training for all new personnel, especially Regional Information Asset Coordinators (RIACs). In turn, RIAC trainers take frequent advantage of SupportLinc to provide oneon- one support with customers as well as to collaborate with each other. RIACs based on the East Coast are able to provide full training sessions to participants on theWest Coast, taking advantage of application-specific experts who are not in close geographical proximity.

“The ability to quickly share either user’s desktop in-session, along with an uncluttered interface, has been ideal for our collaborative sessions,” says Regional Information Asset Coordinator Kristine Thayer.

Reducing travel and other expenses, LoGIC delivers effective staff training on the organization’s document management system, scanning procedures and other applications as necessary in both one-on-one and group settings. In addition to providing live training, LoGIC can now create video sessions for self-paced instruction. At no additional cost or effort, it makes archived training courses available.

“We’ve developed our own trainingmaterial to introduce users to the software and quickly get themproficient,” says WilliamBaker, a senior network engineer for Perot Systems Government Services, a full-time contractor for the Coast Guard. “We particularly like being able to record sessions and provide anytime-anywhere access to that material. It’smore convenient for us and for trainees.”

CREATING A MORE CONNECTED STAFF

LoGIC uses MeetingLinc to host weekly meetings that allow headquartered staff in Washington, D.C., to actively participate without traveling and with much greater interactivity than a conference call.

“The synchronizedWeb browser is particularly useful in meetings with headquarters,” says Green. “We can walk throughWebsites as a group. And, when they want to show us aWebpage, we simply give them control of the session.”

MeetingLinc is also being used to host corporate communications and informal meetings. RIACs have adopted the system for their weekly meetings.

“We appreciate being able to use the iLinc software, whether in an instant or planned capacity,” says Baker. “The instant meeting capability works very well for informal meetings. In about 10 seconds, we’re up and running, and any participant can take control of the meeting, as needed.”

During intense periods, such as the extended hurricane season of 2005, the software enabled remote users to exchange critical information with LoGIC. Teams can take advantage of desktop sharing to quickly and easily collaborate on documents.

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