Otto Contreras, City of Miami | BMC Exchange VIP

This is texturong TV. Hey guys. We're at The BMC exchange event.

And we're talking with one of the leaders of the IT department for the City of Miami and we're going to be talking about what was the impact of covid post the pandemic because frankly, you know, we all talked about what was happening during it, but I think it has been forever changed. So let's just talk about we know that covid's not going away, but we are getting better at living with it. So, what does that mean from a work perspective and how did that impact the city of Miami?

Absolutely my god. Well, let me talking about change. We're no longer the IT department.

We actually the department already Innovation and technology which you know, I like the the name that we actually have for about four years now because the the changes on how innovated the city has become due to the changes that the pandemian actually forces to do we were fortunate to actually have done some great things prior to the pandemic that allows us to actually put all the employees being able to work from home in a week and a half which municipalities in other areas probably smaller than the city of Miami or even bigger. We're not as ready and it took them months to actually get that going so that helps the city of Miami on making sure that actually continues with the revenues providing the services that actually the citizens and the business required so that help us a lot. One of the things that we did is prior to the pandemic we started actually utilizing technology to help them to.

Utilize tools for collaboration so being able to actually do it. But since the need was not there the adoption was going too slow. So and I was The Advocate I was the champion to actually get that one because I know that was gonna help the city it was going to create a lot of efficiency as well, but it wasn't working.

So I think someone actually said from over there and says I'm gonna send you the pandemic and I'm gonna help you out on that. So the adoption became automatic and and it helped us incredible with that. And since then the CD has changed completely like I mentioned before the public sector you can hear that.

We're going to have employees working virtually from home. And now it's a transformation is something that is we're able to actually talk and how that hybrid environment because we we learn about the the good things that we did and performance didn't go down didn't degrade at all on the contrary. Actually.

We were performing more employees were happier. And I always say happy employee produces more and that's that we have actually experienced that there are a little bit of changes now that because we're kind of testing again, we're gonna bring the employees back or not. We have done a little bit of changes and we're just testing that's what's the results of that and while we had to do to make sure that actually we continue doing business and providing the services to our citizens and business that transact the city.

They say luck is the residue of good design. So it sounds like you guys were doing some things up front that just happened to come together. Correct?

How is the way that the IT department thinks about itself changed as a result of all of this or they constantly on call 24/7 or they still operating in more of a nine to five mindset or how do they react when there are hiccups in the system where they much more responsive agile? Yeah. Both not just technically but culturally how has it changed.

Well, we actually are having a challenge now about capacity. So obviously we're working towards and that doesn't happen overnight. So when it comes to actually responding to any incident or anything like that, we have the processes in place to make sure that actually we reach out to our teams and depending on the on the crisis or the incident that is happening.

We bring the right resources. And actually we increase the resources that are needed throughout the night through the day whatever the time actually may happen. So I think we're okay on on that sense and we understand that actually the city doesn't work 24 by 7.

So that helps us a lot but system may go down, you know at the time that actually during the night they have to be ready to be operational to continue with the revenues or providing the services being able to procure being able to pay employees the next day. So we have to react to that immediately and so far. I think we have, you know had an amazing response from our team.

You know, I'm very proud to actually say that I have a very good team. I don't do anything without them and they they are the ones that actually have been doing all these amazing things that have helped us to actually continue in leader in technology from the public sector standpoint. And you guys are transitioning your itsm platforms right now.

What do you guys looking at? You're thinking about moving over to some of the latest versions from BMC. What's driving that Well, you know, I always say how you actually do the things or transform things.

This is one of the internal ones we want to make sure that we provide the best customer service to our customers in this case our internal departments and we identify a little bit of Some deficiencies with the system that we were using it helped us for almost six years remedy Force but we realized that actually through demos that we actually saw and uh main on the on the goal that we have the objective to provide the best customer service Helix is the one that we're transforming right now within the middle in the middle of the implementation with the target date mid December to go live and that's gonna help us a lot because this system that is very driven oriented and we want to make sure that we have the right we're measuring the right the right things to have the right metrics to show the organization or analyze ourselves. Where are the deficients that we have on how we can actually get better and we're definitely looking forward to that. Now the city has a mayor who's very it Savvy shall we say we have seen maybe more business Executives than ever starting to appreciate the value of it.

We've been talking about the Divide between it and business Executives and governments forever in a day. Is that getting better in your mind or those things starting to come together where the conversation has or the tenor of the conversation as at least shifted to something that's a little more proactive. Well definitely helps a lot but also puts a lot of pressure on our department because you know, he's a very active major and he talks about technology incredibly and you know, sometimes he promotes things that our team is now ready for it, but we have to react to it, you know about a year and a half ago.

He mentioned is I want to make sure that actually we have the technology in place to be able to allow the cost the companies that are coming or startups to be able to actually open your business from your cellular and we were like, oh wow and and you know really team we actually put it together and it's you can actually open your business in the city of Miami from your phone. so he helps a lot and also helps promote the understanding of how important technology is in the overall strategy of the organization and And now it's not a separate strategy. So the technology strategy.

Is not online into the overall strategy it's embedded in it. So the way it's part is part of the overall strategy and that helps a lot also. As a department usually technology departments are not very good marketers and that's what actually we fall into all the time in in a position that we do amazing job, but we don't promote it or we don't advertise.

What was the value actually added to the organization and I think we're becoming better on that and that is helping a lot getting the support the upper management and technology one of our priorities is a cybersecurity, but we're making sure that we're Creating an organization that is data driven for decision making and and that's adding another layer on our department that we're actually through that technology being able to help leaders. Where can actually they they can actually Act on many things without reacting to things so they can actually go directly to the problems that they are having solving them before actually they become problems and they have seen the value of that. And that's one of our priority Zone data.

The mayor is also signaled his interest in running for president. Do you think that it issues will become a bigger part of the political discourse because it does affect the quality of life of people. Do you think that as we go along we will see more government leaders saying we're going to drive around digital business transformation and change people's lives.

And is that going to change the tenor of the conversation as a society? Well, I I definitely think you know the several organizations now. They're only in public sector are depending a lot in creating that differentiator from any organization.

If you actually implement the right technology and having a politician actually talking the way it is and transforming these region South Florida bringing different talent in technology. So that's that's a great thing because before it was very hard to actually get the right talent to do the right things and now by being virtual being able to actually hire from different location that helps definitely to do it in the way we're seeing with how he promotes trying to make the city of Miami the next Silicon Valley. We've seen a lot of technology companies coming which Five six years ago that that was something that was very difficult to us.

And his aspirations politically I think is going to help this region incredibly. So one thing you wish that if you had a magic wand somebody would fix for you tomorrow. Is there a particular it issue or a thing that yeah you wake up in the morning and go this thing just doesn't go away.

How do I make this issue be fixed permanently forever using technology. Is there what's that one thing that kind of like Nas at you probably not using technology but you know our customers the leaders from other departments that actually all the time, you know, wake up and get out of the out of bed and someone actually get this initiative going. And they always forget that there is a technology component in that initiative and if I could change them mentality it says from the moment that I think about it.

I want to have the technology department involved. It will make those initiatives a lot more successful and it will help. The entire organizations not that the department will be will look better, but it will actually have the entire organization with the outcomes are and success initiatives.

All right, folks. I heard it here first every It event is a correlation to some sort of business or government or process event. We just need to make sure everybody's thinking along the same way at the same time.

I don't think's coming by. Absolutely. Thank you Mike for having me.