“We were able to pivot to a remote workforce almost seamlessly. Prior to the pandemic, we might have 10,000 folks teleworking and using the VPN solution on any given day. Within a couple of days of social distancing in place, we had upwards of 70,000 personnel teleworking.”
Beth Cappello
Deputy CIO, Department of Homeland Security
“Once people got used to the tools for telework, they found that they were really productive… That cultural shift would have taken years had it been left to the normal course of events. In our telework survey, people have said, “Please, please keep us teleworking.” That’s the overwhelming sentiment – don’t revert.”
Michael Mestrovich
Principal Deputy CIO, Department of State
“If you think about what we did almost overnight, we went from defending the traditional perimeter – post camps, stations, and the Pentagon – to literally defending the living room because of telework… In a span of a couple months, the Army has gone from zero CVR/Microsoft Teams users to over 348,000. We’re averaging about 1,500 more per day, which puts us on a path to eclipse 400,000 over the next month.”
Lt. Gen. Bruce Crawford
Former CIO, U.S. Army
“In the long term, [the pandemic] changes the game on the footprint and enablement of our workforce. Technology tools help people who may have other types of challenges fully participate and contribute in the working environment. I look at it as expanding the potential workforce, and that’s really exciting.”
Suzette Kent
Former Federal CIO, Office of Management and Budget