How to Sync Government Contacts to Smartphones (2024)

From first responders in a disaster to caseworkers in the field, government agency employees often need to contact each other and access vital information immediately. 

And since government agencies often handle sensitive data and are mandated to ensure strict security, their IT teams need to ensure that contact information is updated securely and compliant with official cybersecurity regulations.

At the same time, IT teams must control which devices will get which specific contact updates and how often these updates occur. 

And how do IT teams usually push these contact updates? Manually, and it just isn’t sustainable. 

But how do you automatically sync government contacts to smartphones?

Key Takeaways:

• Government agencies need to sync contacts to smartphones for improved emergency response, remote work efficiency, organizational structure maintenance, and data security.
• CiraSync is a solution government agencies use to sync and update contacts to employees’ smartphones automatically.
• CiraSync is secure and compliant with national and international regulations (like GDPR, HIPAA, CJIS, etc.) and encrypts data with the AES-256 algorithm.

Why Do Government Need to Sync Contacts to Smartphones?

Employees must access essential contacts on their smartphones when out of the office. This is crucial so they can complete their tasks efficiently.

That’s why automatic contact sync solutions like CiraSync are so crucial.  

CiraSync is a “bridge” between a government firm’s contact system and smartphones. This means that whenever changes are made — like a number is added or deleted — CiraSync will automatically push those changes to employees’ devices.

It also intelligently scans through contact lists to merge duplicates and delete obsolete contacts and inaccurate information. These are why 12,000+ organizations (including governments) trust CiraSync to sync their contacts.

But let’s discuss a few key reasons in more detail.

Emergency Response and Crisis Management

Imagine a big, rapidly spreading wildfire that has entered a national forest where it threatens to destroy towns. The fire department, forest service, and sheriff’s office must act quickly to quench the fire and evacuate the residents.

Keep in mind that each of the agencies uses its contact directory. 

Inevitably, in the process of communication, contact information gets muddled up. While each agency tries to locate the right person on the other side to talk to, the fire spreads, and the residents continue to suffer. 

Wouldn’t it be great if these agencies had their contacts synced on their phones?

The incident commander could have immediately looked for the Sheriff’s contact number and asked for his assistance in evacuating residents. The fire service would have shared the site’s location with concerned parties for better coordination.

If every stakeholder had access to the same information, the risk of misinformation could have been near zero.

That’s the concept of syncing contacts. In an emergency, it allows people to ensure an uninterrupted communication channel.

Remote and Fieldwork Operations

Most government employees do not have a fixed office. They must visit construction sites, client or contractor offices, field inspection locations, public meetings, or community events.

This concerns social workers, building inspectors, park rangers, and other workers who have to go to the middle of nowhere to carry out field operations.

Take Jeremy from the San Francisco Human Services Agency.

He has been working as a social worker for about five years. He said his typical day starts with scheduling appointments. He also does intake for new clients, visits, fieldwork, and assessments throughout the day.

Question: How will Jeremy perform his tasks if he doesn’t have up-to-date contacts?

That will be impossible.

With automatic contact sync, colleagues and authorities are always a tap or a click away, so government workers can contact anyone they need for instructions or information.

Maintaining Organizational Structure

In large government offices with several departments, divisions, and hierarchies, it can be tricky for employees, especially newer ones, to know who is who or who does what.

People are often transferred in and out of offices or positions and may hold similar names or titles. By syncing contacts to work smartphones, government agencies can help employees understand the organizational structure more easily. 

For example, an employee may organize a momentous event requiring a government official’s presence, e.g., a cabinet member.

Instead of going through a document listing all the workers in the organization, he can identify the right person to set up the appointment by simply searching the contacts synced on his smartphone.

Efficient Data Management, Security, and Compliance

Data leaks at government agencies are pretty severe.

According to a report by IBM, the cost of a single data breach in 2024 reached a staggering $4.88M, and government agencies are prime targets for bad actors, such as hackers.

The Digital Guardian wrote an article that listed ten US government data breaches. According to the article, the biggest government data breach happened in 2015, when a database of 191 million voters was exposed.

And there is more. In 2023, hackers accessed the email addresses of approximately 632,000 employees of the US Justice and Defense departments. This breach adds to the growing list of government organizations, including other U.S. agencies, airlines, and universities, that data breaches have impacted.

A successful breach or leak of sensitive information can have devastating consequences – from identity theft to national security risks. That’s why government or international regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and CJIS have established guidelines for handling sensitive contact information.

Non-compliance with cybersecurity standards is strongly frowned upon by the federal departments.

As such, a government agency must choose a contact sync tool that strictly complies with these regulations. At CiraSync, for example, we are GDPR and SOC 2 compliant. Moreover, we are open, honest, and transparent about our steps to ensure security.

For example,

• CiraSync integrates with Microsoft Azure and the Azure Consent Network.
• All subscriber data is kept within the Microsoft Cloud
• CiraSync does not store passwords.
• Its servers in Azure are all in a secure VNET with 10.x addressing

How to Sync Government Agencies Contacts to Smartphones?

Now that you know why government agencies need to sync contacts to smartphones, let’s dive into how it works on CiraSync.

I will use CiraSync because it’s the best tool for syncing contacts to Android and iPhone devices.

Here is how it works

1. Sign up for CiraSync. It’s completely free.

2. After following the embroidering process, you’ll get access to your dashboard. Click the + sign next to “Contact Lists.”

3. You’ll see multiple source types to choose from. The CiraSync platform needs to know where your contacts come from before pushing them to smartphones.

For this example, I will use the “Global Address List” as our source of contacts.

4. Next, select “Active Directory Items.” Here, you’ll just need to choose the contact sources you want to sync. Click NEXT in the top right corner.

5. In the GAL field, search for a name and select the user (smartphone) you want to target. These users will always receive synced contacts. Click “Next” in the top right corner.

6. Fill out “Provide Contact List Name” to name the contact list and click “Save.”

7. The sync summary dashboard will briefly appear. Open the CiraSync main dashboard by clicking on the “Return” icon at the top-left of your screen.

8. Check the “Update Cache” option in the “Sync Status” at the top right side of the Dashboard and click on SYNC NOW to sync your contacts.

That’s it! 

You have set up the process to sync government agency contacts to smartphones. 

CiraSync will regularly scan your contacts, identify changes, and push those updated contacts to employees’ mobile phones.

Frequently Asked Questions