Commerce Bureau Gives Employees a Helping Hand

Problem: Limited IT Budgets Slow Modernization

Working with a limited IT budget typically forces an agency’s IT leaders to put up with outdated technology longer than they would. But at some point, something’s got to give.

For instance, an employee at the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) was having trouble working with a spreadsheet. The problem was that the spreadsheet was massive, and their laptop didn’t have enough processing power to handle it, making it very unstable.

So, G. Nagesh Rao, Chief Information Officer at BIS, suggested a simple solution: Use the cloud version of the spreadsheet. “All of the sudden, stability went through the roof, because they were no longer relying on the processor of the computer — it was relying on the cloud servers,” he said.

BIS, which is part of the Commerce Department, oversees export controls and treaty compliance around sensitive advanced technologies. A small bureau in a massive agency, BIS does not have a robust IT budget. When Rao arrived at BIS in 2020, many of the systems were archaic. “We would have email outages because the system just wasn’t stable, it wasn’t working,”he said.

Employees needed systems they could rely on or productivity would suffer. Not having the budget to overhaul the data center, Rao turned to the cloud. “I needed cloud solutions to ensure reliability and redundancy,” he said. “And having worked on this a few times at other federal agencies, it was a no-brainer for me to use a known, trusted and reliable solution.”

Solution: A Phased Approach

BIS is going all-in on the cloud, but in phases.

The agency began by moving basic, core functions, like email, to the cloud, and is now adding shared files. By the end of this summer, they expect to migrate all applications. Initially, they are taking a traditional lift-and-shift approach, leaving the applications essentially unchanged.

Once everything is in place, they’ll start reengineering the software applications to take full advantage of cloud capabilities. They also plan to take a SaaS approach to managing data organizationwide. All those applications and data will be protected with zero-trust security.

“I’m literally taking everything and putting it in the cloud,” Rao said.

The IT staff will benefit from increased reliability and redundancy and better security. But one of Rao’s main objectives is to improve workplace efficiency, he said.

“This will allow our staff to access what they need in real time seamlessly, without being concerned, for example, about how many other people are looking at a dataset at the same time,”he said.

The move to the cloud also supports other initiatives that will make life easier for employees.

For example, Rao is moving BIS toward a mobile-first approach, in which mobility is a default option with all IT services. “My goal is to be so mobile that people can actually do their work on an iPhone or iPad and not need their laptop,” he said.

That’s not to say that everyone is interested. Many employees — for example, those who work in export administration — spend most of their time on laptops at their desks. But others, such as those who work in export enforcement, are constantly on the go. Ideally, someone should be able to work on their iPhone or iPad throughout the day, then sync it with the laptop when they return to their desk.

Rao also plans to invest more in automation, including in big data and AI. Although some people envision AI taking jobs from people, Rao sees it as a way to relieve employees of much analytic grunt work.

“I don’t like to refer to AI as artificial intelligence, but as augmented intelligence, because I’m using it to augment the way I do work,” said Rao. “I’m increasing my brain power capacity by ‘outsourcing’ certain things that are rudimentary in nature. In return, I can focus my energy and time on areas where I need to do more nuanced work.”

That’s the larger objective of BIS’ cloud initiative: not to make people into cloud aficionados but to augment their efforts. When that happens, like the employee with the massive spreadsheet, the cloud initiative should sell itself.

3 Takeaways

Know your customer’s business. Your “customer,” in this case, is the employee. Understand what it is they do, why they do it and how they do it, then figure out how to make them more effective.

Remember that words matter. If you go heavy on the tech talk with non-techies, they won’t get it. Take the time to explain a technology or concept in plain language.

And remember that actions matter. Although it’s good that they understand the technology or concept, they’re most interested in seeing the outcomes.

This article appears in our guide, “Why Cloud Matters to You: A Reality Check.” To learn more about why cloud isn’t just the bailiwick of IT anymore, download the guide.

Photo by Gülizar Şener at pexels.com