Amy Button, the vice president of aerospace, defense and government system integrators at Salesforce, said while every business is on a digital transformation j...
For companies moving more digital, any business disruptions will be reduced, especially as this new normal presents us with a lot of unknowns. If the company is more digital and they have some of those systems in place, that enables their employees, partners and customers to pivot more quickly.
Vice President, Aerospace and Government System Integrators, Salesforce
When you have a homogenous group, you don’t get that diversity of thought. You are around people who think like you. You don’t get those different perspectives. [Having heterogeneous groups is] good for the company and the core values of the people you are recruiting. It’s also better for business and they have better results better revenue, better growth and it’s a full circle of benefits for everyone when companies do adopt that.
Vice President, Aerospace and Government System Integrators, Salesforce
Federal and contractor employees have been at the center of the coronavirus pandemic. First in facing the uncertainty of what working remotely looked like, then under intense pressure to meet citizen needs.
But as agencies and contactors settled into the remote working routine and now are starting to slowly head back to the office, a lot of the lessons around collaboration, process improvements and the value of technology will remain front and center for the long term.
The Office of Management and Budget offered a framework for agencies to consider as they reopen offices.
The framework mirrors the national guidelines the White House released in April, which charged individual states with meeting certain “gating criteria” before reopening the local economy in phases.
Contractors have less direction because so much of their decision depends on state and local rules and criteria.
At the same time, companies are also facing a shortage of workers, particularly in the technology, data and cyber fields. The hardest jobs to hire consistently are security analysts, data research scientists and database administrators.
Companies can take steps to ease the burden of employees across the board.
Amy Button, the vice president of aerospace, defense and government system integrators at Salesforce, said while every business is on a digital transformation journey, many aerospace and defense companies must figure out which technologies can enhance productivity and efficiency, which will help them recover from the economic loss due to the pandemic.
“For companies moving more digital, any business disruptions will be reduced, especially as this new normal presents us with a lot of unknowns,” Button said on the Innovation in Government show. “If the company is more digital and they have some of those systems in place, that enables their employees, partners and customers to pivot more quickly.”
She said it was clear that investments in cloud and collaboration tools let these firms and agencies pivot more quickly when the coronavirus pushed the surge in remote working.
The ability to pivot when situations or circumstances change also depends on the workforce.
Button said companies have to make it easy for employees to be in a position to change direction when needed.
“If it’s easy, everybody can spend their time on different tasks that allow for higher productivity,” she said. “When we think about talent, and maintaining talent, if we make it easy to apply, if you make it easy to onboard and if you make it easy to learn, that also will keep people at your company and keep wanting to come back.”
She said the goal for each of these companies to make that entire hire-to-retire experience the best one possible, and many times that’s through a consolidated platform.
“Data can be everywhere, but it really should not be managed everywhere. The power of having a consolidated platform is to have a single source for everyone to be able to access,” Button said. “It’s a 360 degree view of either a customer or a candidate you are trying to hire. It’s a single source to access that same information in real time. That’s a critical piece for data because data is everywhere and has to be managed more effectively.”
The consolidated platform also will help companies address diversity and inclusivity in hiring processes.
“When you have a homogenous group, you don’t get that diversity of thought. You are around people who think like you. You don’t get those different perspectives,” Button said. “It’s good for the company and the core values of the people you are recruiting. It’s also better for business and they have better results better revenue, better growth and it’s a full circle of benefits for everyone when companies do adopt that.”
About Salesforce:
Salesforce transforms the way aerospace companies and the community of government contractors meet the unique demands of today’s customer and more effectively deliver on their mission. With the innovation of the Salesforce Customer 360 platform, Salesforce is helping enterprise companies accelerate their digital transformation and continue their business growth. The FedRAMP-authorized Salesforce Government Cloud Plus gives stakeholders the mobile, self-service tools they need to connect data, process, and people while also reducing the risk, cost, and complexity of traditional IT. Salesforce’s trusted cloud accelerates transformation to rapidly deploy solutions with a multi-tenant cloud infrastructure that meets all security and compliance requirements.
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Vice President, Aerospace and Government System Integrators, Salesforce
Executive Editor, Federal News Network
