• Establish trust and know how to keep it. Understanding what true customer service and consistent delivery mean to a government agency, and not pushing too hard when it’s time to meet those year-end sales targets is key, said Trinh Mac, deputy general manager of the customer applications branch in the Los Angeles County Internal Services Department (ISD). She spoke at the April 23 Techwire Industry Briefing With Los Angeles County in Hacienda Heights.
Some vendors only call for year-end renewals, Mac said, while others — she referenced an unnamed content management vendor — work to make things right. The individual Mac mentioned onboarded a county department at minimal cost by consolidating licenses.
“Things like that, to me, conjure up what trust is really about; and to me, that’s the epitome of a partnership,” Mac said.
• Don’t be afraid to tell the truth. Group-think and being too close to developing issues or problems can make them difficult to spot, said Chaeny Emanavin. The director of the California Health and Human Services Agency Office of Innovation spoke Monday at a quarterly Techwire Member Briefing. Emanavin, a former director of product at U.S. Digital Service, advised audience members to “Find the truth, tell the truth,” noting that the maxim is one of his former agency’s mission values. Making waves can be tough, too, he said, but can sometimes lead to next steps.
“And as a group of vendors and civic tech, as part of the larger community, you play an important role in this, because a lot of times you can’t see the mistakes you’re making, and you depend on people from the outside to bring that up. If someone’s not brave enough to stand up and do that, it’s going to continue to be a problem forever, and that benefits no one,” Emanavin said.
• Know your agency and how it does business. ISD is all about passing value on to the departments it serves, Mac said, but officials also work hard to ensure they’re pairing solution and agency — not delivering a “big, heavy enterprise content management back end” if it’s not required. She recommended that vendors also keep up on master agreements, pointing out that sometimes her agency can’t do business unless a vendor is on one of those lists.
Architecture is significant, said Jagjit Dhaliwal, deputy CIO in the Los Angeles County Office of the CIO. His agency, he said, leans into Software as a Service-based and Platform as a Service-based platforms, pointing out that if a vendor recommends on-prem architecture, “I’m definitely going to question” that.
Mobile is important, too, said David Cardenas, CIO at Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, telling listeners that roughly one-fourth of his agency’s workforce of around 5,000 uses mobile devices daily to do their jobs, making the technology “a real, significant priority.” Vendors, Cardenas said, should keep that user experience and interface in mind.
• Sometimes one size should fit all. The LA County CIO's Office, Dhaliwal said, always seeks synergies across departments to facilitate large buys, and that’s why a product or solution has to be scalable. Seamless integration with existing tech is also crucial, he added.
• Security is paramount. “There is no compromise in there, so if you are responding to any one of our RFIs, RFPs, please make sure you call it out, how this platform or solution is secure and how it is ensuring the business intelligence and PC data,” Dhaliwal said.
Cardenas said his department frequently works with confidential personally identifiable information and health data — also necessitating top-notch security.
“Multifactor authentication, active directory integration — those are all things that we’re doing. It’s certainly leading towards us being able to provide more access and making sure that we streamline all our products so that they are aligned to that common security requirement,” Cardenas said.
• Check those certifications. Like being on a master vendor list, not having a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-certified (HIPAA) solution can sometimes make it tough to do business with his agency, Cardenas said.
