Leadership Insights: Managing Mobile Devices with DJ Oreb

Hello and welcome to the digital CXO Leadership Insight series. I'm Amanda Razani. I'm excited today to have DMIs president of managed services at DJ Oreb here today on our show.

How are you doing? Good. How are you?

Doing well. Glad to have you on our show today. Can you share a little bit about your company and the services that you provide?

Well, DMI has been a long time company, uh, celebrating more than 23 years in the business. Uh, started as a federal contracting based company, uh, expanded past that and, uh, entered into the commercial and federal sector. Uh, really primarily focused on, uh, digital transformation.

Um, and that's digital transformation from everything from app dev to, uh, managed services, managing infrastructure, managing mobile devices, um, and in turn in that running, uh, large scale federal as well as commercial based programs, um, in the industry. Wonderful. Well, let's get right to it then.

Our topic of the day is how to manage this plethora of devices that are all over the place. So first off, can you share from your experiences and who you work with, what are some of the primary problems that are, uh, faced when it comes to managing all these devices? This is a really great question.

So, federal agencies primarily operate at scale, right? And it completely unique to their own missions. So really what that creates is specific challenges directly correlated and tied to the mission and the mobile aspect on how they manage those things.

They need to secure thousands of devices while honestly being seamless compliant and secure, right? So they need to have access to critical data at any time. Um, they also need to have it anywhere.

So for them, even today, mobility has become indispensable. It really transforms how agencies are responding in real time, but it also, uh, connects remote teams and executes their mission critical tasks more effectively and faster. Uh, so to give you kind of an example maybe, um, take for instance, field agents who rely on mobile access to make split second intelligence, uh, decisions or collaboration decisions, uh, which can be different between simply responding and fully delivering on an agency's mission.

So it allows 'em access to data with their devices no matter where they're at, and to be able to get that data and make split second decisions are extremely important in most agencies missions today. Yeah. Imagine even more so within those agencies that they need to be able to respond back quickly and act Correct.

And, you know, with the more and more design of, you know, federal agencies after Covid moving more towards that remote, but also field agents and different, uh, pieces of agencies having to actually react in different areas in different locations, it's become really critical for them to have a secure way to access it. Um, and mobile really brings that secure access capability to them to be able to respond more effectively and faster. Uh, really minimizing the timeframes that it used to be in the past when it was more paper driven or more, Hey, let me get back to you.

Or once I get back to the office and I'm able to, you know, get on a secure network, it's really enhanced the ability for them to honestly perform their missions more effectively. Absolutely. Can you share a little bit about how has this landscape evolved over the past five to 10 years or so, Or, well, it's funny 'cause I use really real weird words, but I'll use that.

You know, the federal mobile landscape from basic connectivity has become a strategic powerhouse in how they operate and how they leverage and use things from cloud integration to enhanced security protocols. And it moved to hybrid, right? Uh, work has propelled agencies to adopt mobile solutions that are not only resilient, but also highly adaptive.

I mean, it's extremely important for them to have automation and AI now is starting to play a role in that and how they evaluate AI and how the AI will play a pivotal role in the future, just really enabling more predictive monitoring that anticipates issues before they escalate, right? So mobile's advance in that piece, giving 'em that reliability and that visibility that they didn't quite frankly have before. Right.

Um, I would say another one is, uh, uh, security. So today federal can work more flexibly and have more of an assurance, um, and that they're more in reach to be able to reach the constituents or even, quite frankly, other people within their mission in order to be able to accomplish things, right? Allowing them to respond in more dynamic environments, um, and sustain operations in ways that they never could imagine a few years ago.

I think it's just continuing to evolve them, whether it be on the defense side of the house and how the military interacts with mobile and how they leverage it, um, all the way to the assessors and auditors that are a part of the, uh, FDIC or any other component piece that that is there. It's just given them a little bit more flexibility, a little bit more communication, um, and a lot more rigor and access to stuff in order to do things more effectively and efficiently. So as we increase the level of these mobile devices and the internet of things is increasing rapidly, all these connected devices, is there some security concerns and, um, what, what advice do you have for handling those security issues?

You know, I think there's always gonna be security concerns in any aspect, especially since the mobile market is not necessarily owned by a federal agency, right? It's all designed and developed by third party companies and how it's managed and housed. I think the rigor that the federal government is put on some of these organizations and the powerhouse that the federal government plays in that has shifted a lot of the dynamics of how security can do.

Zero trust is a big thing that is continually talked about in the industry. I think more of that zero trust towards mobile and that adoption that gets taken by multiple agencies will help those security concerns. I don't think in any world we'll ever be able to eliminate all security concerns.

Um, we could only wish, right? Um, however, what I believe it does do is it's allowed the capability of there to be shifts in even the commercial based market by some of the rigor that the federal government has around security. It's helped organizations, whether it be a carrier or even device manufacturers to create more robust technology and more stuff behind it in order to create a little bit more higher level of security.

So I think security will continue to advance once you find one loophole and you fix that from a security standpoint, a new one comes out. Um, but I think as long as we stay attentive on it and, you know, through partnerships and different collaborations, uh, with the federal government and the different security protocols that continue to get released, I, I think there's always opportunity to improve in security. Um, but I don't think that that posture will ever go away.

But I would say zero trust is a big one in order to be able to access to data. I think from a mobile perspective, making sure that your devices are secure, uh, especially with the amount of different types of employees you have and different mantras of how the devices are used within the federal space. Uh, so creating secure workspaces on devices where it separates personal from uh, uh, private right.

Um, being able to control certain aspects of what can be downloaded on a device or what can be removed from a device. As that technology has continued to advance over the years, it's continuing to make a strong impact and how you can really secure a device and the data that's contained on that device. So I think the continued evolution will be something in the future that will continue to look at as security as our primary focus and pretty much all we do.

Awesome. So as these agencies evolve and um, most are probably in some area of digital transformation, how do they handle all the legacy technologies? You know, that's a tough question and I didn't really expect you to ask me that one.

So I, in true transparency, I think the federal government has made many strides in advancing. Um, we typically see from a commercial enterprise based market from to federal. They're typically a few years behind, right?

In terms of updating technology, enhancing that technology, I think the migration to cloud has really, uh, attracted the ability for them to be able to do more and migrate more. Um, I think that continued evolution and push towards more cloud enabled, uh, access versus the traditional on-prem, I think there's components that the federal government has made major strides and I've seen a lot of investment in, which is like ServiceNow and the automation capabilities to be able to manage situations a lot faster and a lot quicker. Uh, really living off of that ITIL based process.

Um, I think the federal government, just like even a commercial enterprise in some cases, has a long way to come. Um, I would say that when I first started this industry, they used to be four to five years behind. I now see that they're more two to three years behind technology.

So I look at that as a win of course. Um, and I look at it as an opportunity for continued advancement. I think continued partnerships with outside, uh, companies like DMI right, allow them to really see what the advantages are of accelerating and finding new ways to enhance their technology posture.

Um, and a lot of conversations we have with government agencies today, they are really interested in seeing what the future holds, right? So continuing to show them what's out there, what security, um, components we can bring to it by bringing new technologies that may be more commercially enterprise based or are built directly for the federal government. Um, I think with the evolution of AI and what's coming out with that and more of the automation that it creates, I think it's going to create a lot more opportunity for more accelerated growth for the federal government to increase where they sit today from that intersection of, you know, outdated technology and what the future can hold.

Absolutely. So looking toward the future, what do you suggest are some things that these agencies might look to doing or do you know about things they are looking at trying to do within the next few years? Yeah, I would say the biggest piece is visibility.

I think we all think that we have maximized the visibility standpoint of how things function and how things work. Um, I think giving more visible insights, uh, having the ability to understand what's being done. I think even traditionally today, a lot of stuff is still done manually.

It's not connected from a a, a system perspective where it's more audited from a a system basis. I think the big push that I see is gaining more visibility and understanding what's out there, optimizing their infrastructure to understand where maximized cost savings can come essentially to where they can spend that on more advancements and technology is gonna be the big driver I see over the next few years. Um, and I think by doing that and getting that visibility and understanding what's out there and maximize on those cost savings, it'll help them one, increase the ability to do security, adopt more programs for migration to the cloud, develop new applications with strong security rigor behind them that allow the mobile piece of what the federal government does today to expand, right?

Whether that be on defense or civilian or any of those things. Um, I, I think there'll be a strong push in what we're starting to see a little bit more. Um, I don't know, about seven years ago the census did a a thing, I don't know if you remember the census, just a, a real quick story.

Census used to do it all by paper, if you remember there, people knocked on your door, can you fill out this clipboard? Um, in a sense it said, well, we have a driver. We have to find a way to automate this.

We have all these auditors going out there and getting this information. We need to digitalize this. We need to figure out how we do it.

And they move to essentially the phone, right? And people are doing it on the phone now and I think that they're continuing to find ways to advance that and make it quicker. Right?

And I think the more that we see that we optimize and increase technology within the federal government, they'll see how much faster and how much responses is that they'll get from constituents in a faster way, right? A clipboard, having, filling something out that can get frustrating for someone like you and I, right? Like, oh, it's 15 questions, someone holding a phone, we all know how to tap it really quick and do the survey and get it done.

I mean, I think those continued advancements and the continued look that we're trying to drive the federal government to do, um, is look at those things and what are the tasks that you have today that may be onerous? How can we digitalize those tasks, simplify them, and provide access to real data insights that give you insights on how you can evolve and continue to make what you do today more insightful and gather more information for not only your mission, but also for the community alike. Absolutely.

I think that was a, a much needed move, not only for the efficiency, but because we're a little bit less trusting of opening the door to strangers. So I imagine it was pretty difficult for for them. Yeah, exactly.

Well, if there was one key takeaway that you could leave our audience with today, what would that be? You know, the one key takeaway I can probably say is a lot of times we get mixed in this thing where we think everything that we have runs efficiently and perfect. Right?

Um, I would say the one key takeaway I would say is take a look at what you have today and ask questions about how you're doing it or how are you trying to achieve or accomplish your mission? And leverage outside companies or outside, uh, perspectives that come in and show a different way on, on how to potentially do things. Not necessarily to gain more business for companies like ourselves, but to gain more insights on what the future can hold and, and what's possible and capable.

Um, mobile is something that we all know is not gonna go away. So the key takeaway is, is more embrace it, understand the different components behind it, um, and understand what you can do from it and how you can leverage it in order to advance one, your mission objectives, um, but two, create more efficiency within your agencies. Awesome.

Alright, well thank you so much for coming on our show and sharing your insights. Perfect. I really appreciate It was great talking to you, Amanda.

Thank you very much And thank you to our audience. Stay tuned. There's more.