The ministry of public administration and security for the South Korean Government has selected Polycom RealPresence video solutions for its SmartWork Centre Building Project (3rd stage).

The project is designed to promote flexible working practices in organisations across Korea, and encourage government officers to telework from anywhere, at any time.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security expects that if each remote worker utilises their local SmartWork centre as opposed to travelling to the central government facilities in Seoul for between 1-2 days per week, it will be able to reduce emission trading and transportation costs by approximately USD$310 per one remote worker per year, and reduce commuter time by up to 90 minutes per day.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security is replacing many in person meetings with virtual meetings in which, government officers can meet and collaborate from anywhere in highly secure, true to life HD quality just as if they were sitting across the table from each other. Further, it plans to provide additional benefits to workers worth approximately $USD2,090 per year per person by investing time earned through remote working into learning and career development.

With benefits of this significance, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security is planning to further expand the use of video collaboration for remote working to reach all of its SmartWork centres across the country, with a goal of having 30% of the total government officers working remotely.

 “An important part of this project was for the SmartWork centres to be easily accessible by all government officers, and the technology easy to use, thereby enhancing user efficiency and productivity. With Polycom, we have achieved these mandates and are benefitting from more streamlined processes and transforming to a culture of collaboration that supports flexible working,” said Yong tak Jo, senior consultant of SmartWork Support Division, Future Informatisation Promotion Department of National Information Society Agency.

“The initiative, supported by our video collaboration solutions, reduces the need to commute to work, thereby saving hours in travel time and employee downtime while increasing productivity. By changing the way organisations collaborate, we are helping to promote a more flexible and smarter way to work,” said Dae-jun Shin, country manager of Polycom Korea.

The Korean Government aims to build 50 public centres specifically for government officers’ use and 450 private SmartWork centres designed for wider enterprise use, equipped with high definition video collaboration solutions by 2015.