“The Small Business Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs are asking their technology employees to step outside their comfort zones.”
“The two agencies are helping technology employees take a people-first approach to development and services.”
“Nagesh Rao, the director of business technology solutions at the SBA, said one of his main priorities for 2020 is called CX360, which brings together the customer experience with all parts of SBA…”
“Over at VA, Jim Trinka, the chief talent management officer in the Office of Information and Technology, said the agency has had a people-first focus for some time, but getting the IT folks on board is a bigger challenge.”
“Trinka said this people-first, mission-always mantra has made a huge difference over the last three years around improvements in customer service, federal employee satisfaction and engagement, and most importantly, veterans experience has improved more than 20 percentage points in the last three years…”
“Another way SBA is trying to ease the customer experience is by implementing a single sign-on to its services through the Login.gov service from the General Services Administration.”
“Rao said the enterprise service is called SBA Connect to get rid of the need for multiple log-ins…”
“VA also is changing its culture, or as Trinka likes to say, going from the ‘waiter/waitress’ mode of the IT office taking orders to one of collaboration across the mission or business areas.”
“’We are focusing on an outcome instead of measuring activities. The outcome we are focused on is improving the veteran experience,’ he said…” Listen to the interview here.
Source: SBA, VA driving the customer to center of IT projects – By Jason Miller, February 14, 2020. Federal News Network.
