Aggregating Data to Meet the Challenges of COVID-19

I was ending my first week of telework and on my way to pick up pizza when I received an unexpected text. It was an urgent request from my client. 

We were in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and we were all operating in a new and unknown environment. Understanding the criticality of the moment, I rushed back home and quickly ate my pizza as I opened up my laptop. Over the next 3 hours the Dignari team collaborated virtually on a video call with our client, discussing, researching, and developing new data reports to meet their mission needs. We ended the evening with a plan of action and early the next morning the reports were updated and automated while we analyzed the data and tried to anticipate what was next 

But could we really anticipate what might happen next? Could we anticipate when we all might resume a life of normalcy? 

Our lives have been turned upside down in so many ways – social distancing, teleworking, distance learning, shopping for necessities while avoiding others, caring for loved ones through windows, unemployment, and scarcity of medical supplies. These are just some of the challenges you hear about every day on the news. However, there are also a number of national security challenges being met at the same time. This is the work quietly being done by our mission focused clients working the front lines. 

Using the data to meet unanticipated challenges 

With rapidly changing executive orders, new public policies, and shifting operations we are actively working with our clients to solve emerging challenges in multiple ways. 

Strategically, we are working to accelerate the implementation of new business rules and workflows to accommodate essential operations. With that comes additional data, complex data transformations, and advanced reporting and analytics. We are using our foundational knowledge of our client’s environment to discover and define data relationships that will provide necessary insight. 

Tactically, we are working to rapidly enhance data systems to meet the mission needs based on changes in operations. This is fundamentally changing functionality of systems to meet emerging mission needs. We need to make sure the data is relevant, current, and consistent while also working with stakeholders to explore and define the information they need. 

Consequently, such dynamic data changes also bring increased scrutiny and adherence to policy compliance and quality control. It requires new analyses and models for staffing, recommendations for policy decisions, and rapid responses to requests for information from various internal and external organizations (e.g. FOIA, Congress, executive briefings).

An evolving operational environment

Tracking the spread of COVID-19 also presents a new set of challenges that requires us to modify our methods beyond simply knowing data related to individuals. We must now correlate and understand this data in relation to the movement of goods. What are the impacts of interactions between people and goods in relation to the virus? How can we gain enhanced operational intelligence in order to be in a better position to respond? 

The operational environment has immediately become more complex and interrelated while at the same time continuing to evolve and shift. As a result, we are consistently alongside our client working on immediate issue remediation while also positioning the organization for a new operational tempo.  

As we solve interesting challenges together, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis is shaping our collaboration in ways we have never seen before. We have implemented virtual methods of communication with our clients that allow us to discuss new ideas over video, to share screens for virtual whiteboarding, and to ensure we genuinely maintain a human connection with each other.  

As existing policies evolve and new ones take shape, so are our partnerships with our clients. The COVID-19 crisis has fundamentally altered how we interact and support each other. Things that we took for granted are no longer the norm. Even with the uncertainty ahead, Dignari looks forward to meeting the challenges alongside our clients. And, we especially look forward to the day when we can sit down in person and share the pizza together.