LaVerne Council, chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, discussed three key objectives that guide VA’s information technology transformation efforts in a blog entry posted Monday
She said that VA’s office of information and technology has worked to stabilize and streamline core processes and platforms; address material weaknesses; and institutionalize new functions to boost outcomes.
VA established its office of development and engagement to support employees through new career tracks; targeted and flexible training modules; and events that sought to provide direct contact between employees and OI&T leadership, Council added.
VA’s OI&T ranked fifth out of 24 federal agencies in the Office of Management and Budget‘s 2016 Benchmarks for Customer Satisfaction survey — up from 19th in the previous year.
Council noted OI&T formed the enterprise program management office to transition more than 200 projects into a new “veteran-focused” process designed to create a project management approach that required fewer artifacts and a shorter delivery cycle.
OI&T also created four new functions such as IT account management, strategic sourcing, data management and quality and compliance.
VA currently tests a mobile application for veterans that will work to send appointment reminders, receive progress reports and urge veterans to track and upload basic health data and readings.
