NDW's work began in October 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for digital services, including digital collaboration tools, exploded during the beginning of the crisis, as more staff were asked to work from home. It became essential to implement digital collaboration tools and practices as rapidly as possible to ensure the NATO enterprise could continue to work safely.
Skills and expertise were pulled from across the Agency to form a new unit focused on establishing a digital workplace. The team rapidly defined what a digital workplace would look like for NATO and for the NCI Agency by aggregating its current digital collaboration practices, structuring them and beginning to build upon them.
"The world and the way we work has completely shifted as a result of the pandemic. The NDW Centre will respond to this new normal by maturing NATO's digital toolbox to ensure staff across the NATO Enterprise can connect, consult and collaborate whenever and wherever they are," said Jean-Paul Massart, Chief of the NATO Digital Workplace Centre.
NDW will be responsible for consultation and collaboration services for more than 20,000 users across NATO, delivering digital solutions such as desktop computing, instant mail messaging, video teleconferencing (VTC), portals, telephony, printing and mobile services, as well as other operational services.
NATO requires secure solutions so that staff can consult with each other, and with Allies, at every hour of the day, seven days a week. One key priority for the NDW team will be facilitating a hybrid workplace, where staff members can work efficiently and easily collaborate in digital spaces, whether they are at the office or working remotely.
NDW will also facilitate the organization and support of digital events, meetings and large-scale conferences for NATO customers.
Furthermore, NDW also has the responsibility to enable the future roadmaps of these services across the NATO enterprise to deliver the NATO Digital Workplace through new services based on evolving requirements. NDW intends to facilitate a cultural shift in NATO from traditional command and control to a paradigm where people connect, communicate and collaborate, a digital #OneNATO, working in a completely digital way.