Tim Conway said the focus has always been supporting NTT DATA’s clients and their respective missions.
“In 2020, mission support took on a whole new meaning,” he said.
At the start of the new year, NTT DATA had just acquired NETE and was looking forward to the synergies of the combined companies.
“But as winter melted into spring, the public health community had much bigger concerns,” Conway said. “The government was on point for the pandemic response.”
NTT DATA’s focus quickly shifted, and its work had deeper meaning.
NTT DATA leveraged its cloud-based digital transformation capabilities to provide clients with a head start with solutions. It supported 30,000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists in their critical work managing and communicating the national and global response — throughout the world, the company made sure they remained connected.
The company’s trusted partnership with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases also deepened as it marshaled its teams to provide 24/7 support to researchers investigating therapeutic and pharmaceutical cures, while calming a nervous public and endeavoring to provide guidance stopping the spread.
“Certainly, it was anything but business as usual this year,” Conway said. “COVID-19 impacted every aspect of our lives.”
NTT DATA’s education team worked round the clock to deploy technologies so children throughout the country could continue learning. In New York City, it enabled over 300,000 students to move to distance learning in a manner of weeks. NTT DATA quickly built and deployed cloud-based apps for testing, contact tracing and back-to-work solutions. Across multiple accounts, the company helped its clients shift to telework securing networks, data, and access.
“We maintained. We mobilized. And most importantly, we helped them deliver on their missions,” Conway said.
Considering COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on the federal government — from responding to the pandemic, teleworking, stopping the spread and developing a cure — COVID-19 became a catalyst for technological change. Aging systems that had been limping along as budgets were deferred, buckled under the weight and volume of citizen demand.
NTT DATA saw modernization in many other places as well. Through various administrations, federal agencies have heard the call to move to the cloud, but few have heeded the call and successfully taken advantage of all the benefits the cloud can offer for security, accessibility, performance, automation, agility and savings.
“Now, cloud is top-of-mind for many and ‘lift and shift’ is not the answer,” Conway said. “It is strategy, planning and protection — and that is where NTT DATA is helping our clients.”
Cybersecurity is also a priority and imperative across government. With telework, new networks and infrastructure, threats are coming from all vectors. Optimization and automation are necessary to ensure cyber resilience in the new work-from-home world.
“Everyone needs to step up their game — vulnerabilities, web scanning, phishing assessments, authentication, zero trust and cyber compliance automation — it runs the entire gamut of cyber protection,” Conway said. “With the recent very public breaches, NTT DATA is not only helping our clients, but we are proactively insisting that they allow us to help with assessments and protections.”
Why Watch
NTT DATA is committed to helping clients emerge from the pandemic with technology solutions that meet their mission needs. The company believes its investments in these capabilities are rapidly deployable to serve its clients.
“We know our clients are counting on us, now during these challenging times and well into the future,” Conway said. “At NTT DATA, we pride ourselves on putting our clients first. It is one of our core values, I am confident that if we continue to focus on our clients, we will be successful.”