Reimagining Government Space with Public-Private Partnerships

Amy Thode Lawson is the CIO and Director of Technology Services at Calvert County, Maryland. She began her career as an officer in the US Air Force in 1991. In the years that followed, Amy worked for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, where she dealt with e-verification platforms that allow employers to check the legality and eligibility of their workforce to work in the United States. Amy also provided services to the Security and Exchange Commission. There, she fulfilled the crucial role of leading the digital transformation and modernization of the EDGAR system. Amy also has experience working for the federal government in General Services Administration's Technology Transformation Service, where she focused on improving user experience with FedRAMP— a cybersecurity framework. 

Apart from the public sector, she also holds extensive expertise and experience in the private sector. She worked as a consultant for iXL, where she managed DuPont websites worldwide. Currently, Amy is fulfilling the role of the CIO & Director of Technology Services at Calvert County, Maryland. 

In a conversation with Government CIO Outlook magazine, Amy has talked about the importance of public-private partnerships and how technology is disrupting the government sector during COVID-19.

Almost every industry has seen a lot of changes during COVID-19. What do you think has changed or evolved over the last year in the government space?

The present pandemic scenario has helped the culture of remote working to take center stage even in the public sector. The government has turned on a dime, including Calvert County, to transform the business processes and expectations of people by shifting them from in-office to work-from-home culture. Full-time telework and mail work is turning out to be the new normal for every sector. Furthermore, today, video conferencing platforms are the primary means of communication between team members for both public and private entities. Hence, to ensure a better working atmosphere, our government must procure technologies & hardware and work closely with the HR departments and attorneys to ensure that their employees are ready to adapt to these radical changes. 

Has this latest shift to the work-from-home scenario brought any new pain points into the industry?

Cybersecurity is one of the major pain points we are facing right now due to the sudden shift into remote workspaces. It has given rise to a significant risk of online security breaches and has also brought in the danger of our systems being attacked by threat actors. I think the present and primary trepidation stemming from this current scenario is the possibility of witnessing our systems getting hacked or tampered. Given that we have so many remote workers, the top thing on my priority list is to ensure protection for our cyber systems from every angle possible. 

What are the new technological trends that you have witnessed in the market recently? Are you using these to tackle the challenges in this space?

Lately, I am seeing more and more collaborations happening in the government space. Though I do not think it should be deemed as technology but its importance is in no way lesser than disruptions done by technology. I am witnessing CIOs reaching out to their peers to understand how they can reinforce their systems better and protect it from potential attacks. This trend of building relationships can play a huge role in tackling these pain points today and, undoubtedly, tomorrow. People need to cooperate and stand by each other to deal with these sudden and new changes happening all around us, especially during this pandemic. 

“Many CIOs in today’s world have started maintaining this private-public partnership to ensure that the government sector has the best-of-breed software, technology, and culture available to them”

Can you elaborate on one of your recent projects that have made a positive impact on the industry?

The most recent project that we worked on was building a COVID-19 vaccine registration site for the people of Calvert County. We had only 48 hours to build a website that could intake information of citizens, direct it to the registrar, and then coordinate the same with the health department to procure vaccines. We were very fortunate to have completed the website within the given deadline by using Zendesk—a customer service software, which proved to be an excellent tool for creating those intake forms and managing the back-end data. We also established several call centers to quicken the process, led by people with good communication skills. We trained these folks on-site on how to use the applications and take calls. Within a couple of days, we saw a turnover of 10,000 visitors, which is a successful outcome for a small county like Calvert County. 

With all these technological disruptions and transformations happening, how do you envision the government sector's future?

I think the government should join hands with the private sector. The latter has already been disrupted by technology, and this is why we can learn from them how to implement these cutting-edge solutions to run our operations efficiently. I would stress that the federal government has been walking on this path for quite some time now, through organizations such as 18F in the Technology Transformation Service. They bring in Silicon Valley professionals on a four-year tenure to help introduce the newest trends and ideas into our space. I also have the experience of working with former Amazon and Facebook executives. They showed us the ways to apply different innovations in various government scenarios effectively. We should acknowledge the success of the private sector and learn the way of using technology for the growth and betterment of government space. Many CIOs in today's world have started maintaining this private-public partnership to ensure that the government sector has the best-of-breed software, technology, and culture available to them. 

What piece of advice would you like to give your colleagues?

Back in my days at Citizenship and Immigration Services, I worked with a gentleman named Mark Schwartz. Currently, he is working as an Enterprise Strategist for Amazon Web Services. One of his books—A Seat at the Table—is something that every CIO or aspiring CIO should read. The book explores the role of IT leadership as it is now and reveals how it should be—an integral part of the value creation engine. I have been so impressed with his witty yet straightforward delineation, insights, and how he shows the way to become an agile IT leader. I would recommend his works over and over again to anybody who dreams of being not just a CIO but a courageous leader. The book also talks about why the relationship between IT and businesses is critical and how the former can move from being just a consultant to establish a peer-to-peer connection with the latter. Hands down, there is so much to learn from A Seat at the Table.