TMI Department Spotlight: IT Innovation for Social Distancing

With much of the U.S. transitioning to working from home, Traffic Management, Inc. is grateful to say the transition has gone smoothly, with little to no down time in productivity – all thanks in part to our incredible IT team. A mere week after corporate staff settled in at a new HQ building, the IT team was given only a few hours to execute a Work-From-Home action plan for over 200 employees working at HQ in a proactive, precautionary response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Led by IT Vice President Fady Soliman, the IT department jumped to action right away, ordering equipment and launching a VPN infrastructure to support the whole HQ staff. “I don’t think anyone would have believed that you moved over 200 people to work remotely with literally a few hours notice, and only a week after moving us all into the New HQ no less,” TMI Executive Management said in an email to the IT Team. “You guys truly epitomize the TMI culture.” The IT department then shifted externally – how to help stop the spread out in the field. The IT Development team worked nonstop to launch a remote document signing solution to be used in the field. This hands-free signing solution protects both our Traffic Controllers and customers from any potential virus exposure by being able to maintain social distancing. Rather than having the onsite foreman or subcontractor sign the generated work receipt on a TMI iPad, this new signing system sends the receipt through an email or SMS text message to both the onsite contact and the customer contact in-office. Either parties can then access the receipt to sign digitally on their own device. TMI is able to capture that signature on a unique and secure website that the IT department developed. “We’re protecting both ourselves and the customers,” Lee Rice Epstein from IT Product Development explains. “The customer is going to have their own distancing protocol and we don’t want to breach the 6-foot social distancing to have them sign this receipt.” The IT department approached this new system to be “future-proof,” allowing TMI to innovate the way we track work receipts and signatures. As the needs of TMI employees and customers continue to evolve, so does the signing system. IT is continually updating the system so that it keeps up with the demands of the industry. “We saw this as a great opportunity to build something with a long-lasting impact,” TMI President and COO Jon Spano says. “Any chance we find to make it easier or safer for our staff and customers, we’re going to take it.”