Government today must tackle a range of complexities when it comes to technology. “Our public sector customers are facing heightened challenges from dealing with legacy systems, to budget constraints, compliance issues and talent shortages — just to name a few,” said Jill Kavalsky.
More than ever, they’re dealing with technical debt, the cost of maintaining legacy systems and outdated infrastructure, she added.
As vice president of strategic alliances at Iron Bow, a global IT solutions provider, Kavalsky is dedicated to addressing complex IT issues across the Defense Department, civilian agencies, state and local governments, and health care agencies.
“We have the highest levels of both technical prowess and overall domain knowledge — not only in the security space, but across the network,” she said.
Iron Bow applies those capabilities to directly impact the mission.
“We’re always looking to deeply understand what is mission-critical then design the right solutions with our partners to address these common challenges,” she said.
What does that mean in practice?
It starts with harnessing the power of the channel. “Building the best solutions requires tapping into best-of-breed technology. To do so, we have to foster relationships with key industry partners,” Kavalsky said.
“My team’s responsibility is to maintain the overarching compliance in the relationships with our ecosystem partners. From teaming with our CSO and CTO organizations to ensure that we have deep technical expertise and the highest technical certification levels, to navigating varying partner program requirements,” she said.
“At the end of the day, our success relies on solving for the mission and that requires strong partner and customer relationships,” she said. “If we can’t execute in these areas, we won’t be successful.”
Kavalsky also focuses on prioritizing the customer experience.
“There’s a lot of talk about as-a-service as the solution to solve technical debt for our government customers,” she said. “We have an opportunity to create a better experience for our customers in the way they’re consuming technology.”
She points in particular to the pay-as-you-go, or consumption-based, spending model.
“It’s like leasing a car, rather than buying,” she said. “You’re paying by the mile or paying based on consumption. By doing so, this enables the government an additional layer of government security and predictability, without a huge upfront capital expenditure.”
Consumption-based spending also gives the government greater flexibility. With budgets always in flux, “IT spending based on true usage has proven to be the most cost-efficient approach,” she said.
With over 15 years of experience in the GovCon space, Kavalsky said she takes personal pride in Iron Bow’s work.
“Government IT impacts every aspect of how we live,” she said. “My kids are young, and I take a real interest in anything we can do to keep them as secure as possible, making sure that all of that is running as efficiently as possible. For me, and I think for all of us at Iron Bow, it’s personal and why we’re so passionate about the mission.”