IRS gives teleworkers high-speed access to networks
Previous systems only allowed access through a dial-up connection.
Recently implemented technology at the Internal Revenue Service will allow employees high-speed secure access to the agency's computer systems from a remote location, as if they were in their offices, an agency IT official said Wednesday.
The system, dubbed the Enterprise Remote Access Program, or ERAP, lets teleworkers get behind the IRS' firewall and onto its intranet.
The program is budgeted to receive $10.2 million this fiscal year -- $9.5 million less than the system's four predecessor programs, which only allowed network access on dial-up Internet connections.
Currently 28,000 IRS employees are using the new system at 136 sites across the country. The agency is aiming add 250 sites by the end of this year. Officials expect the number of users to rise to 40,000 in that time.
An IRS document explaining the new system stated that ERAP is helping the agency comply with a congressional mandate to support teleworking, and said the program also will improve continuity in the event of a disaster.
The transition to the new software took nine months and was completed at the end of fiscal 2005, nine months ahead of schedule, the agency said.
Employees are expected to download the ERAP program on their own, though technical support is available if needed, and are expected to provide their own broadband connection to the Internet, according to the IRS.
Frank Kist, the agency's associate chief information officer for enterprise networks, said the service has been tested and works across any high-speed Internet connection. It only works on computers supplied by the IRS, which are all Windows-based, he said.
"People on the old system never bothered getting [the old program]," Kist said. "We're now much more secure than ... a lot of commercial organizations are."
He added that he cannot say if the new technology will increase the number of IRS teleworkers because that is influenced by policies on working away from the office. But ERAP "takes technology limitations out of the decision," he said.
According to an agency spokeswoman, 26,880 IRS employees were part of the agency's flexi-place program, which allows teleworking, in 2004. That is the most recent year for which numbers are available, but participation has increased since then, she said.