From Federal News Network:
The Baltimore Ravens football team may be better known for its winning ways on the field and its rabid fans in the stands.
But the Social Security Administration turned to the NFL team because of its prowess in using data to drive customer experience decisions. It also didn’t hurt that SSA headquarters is located in Baltimore County, Maryland, and many of the staff are big fans of the team.
Patrick Newbold, the assistant deputy commissioner and deputy chief information officer at SSA, said the Ravens are known for providing a great customer experience for their fans so it just made sense that the agency would reach out.
“One of the questions we asked the Baltimore Ravens was how business intelligence analytics changed their service delivery model?” Newbold said on Ask the CIO. “The Ravens shared an excellent use case with us on how data was able to challenge one of their assumptions on fan demographics. Early on, when they started to aggregate that data, that data disproved assumptions they had about their season ticket holders. Their fans were a lot younger than the marketing assumed. ...
The Ravens brought their chief data officer or equivalent position to the table to meet with executives from SSA’s CIO, CDO and mission offices. ...
“We want to use data to monitor and improve the way we do business and services, and deliver our services to our citizens,” Newbold said. “We also shared several challenges. One was the importance of data collection. The Baltimore Ravens leverage NFL-wide data as well as their Baltimore Ravens-specific data. They use that data to inform decisions. We, at SSA, want to create a primary source of SSA-wide data that is beyond assumptions and that supports that ad hoc, cross-cutting capability to do some data analytics. While we are completely different organizations, we have the same goals and mission desire when it comes to how we can use data to really inform the way we want to move forward.” ...
“We also met with a couple of thought leaders since June, the former General Motors CIO Ralph Szygenda and the former IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti,” he said. “We take these conversations and we’ve highlighted about three important lessons learned from these conversations, and we are baking those into our strategy. They are around governance, data and culture.” ...
Learning from the experiences of others is a good idea but this still sounds weird.
Right they should have consulted the Carolina Panthers instead huh Charles?
ReplyDeleteRaven Chief Data Officer:
ReplyDelete"Ladies and Gentlemen, THIS is a telephone. When it rings, pick the receiver and say, "hello"...
So, is the point the Ravens are trying to make, is that your "customers" are younger than you think? That's alright. They'll be older by the time SSA helps them.
ReplyDeleteMediocre? I guess based on last season’s record but we have the 7th best winning percentage the last five years. https://www.statmuse.com/nfl/ask/best-teams-in-the-last-5-years-in-nfl
ReplyDelete32 NFL teams; many professional teams in several leagues; why such a small field? This was a CRAZY exercise; too much $ to burn on nonsense.
ReplyDeleteBrady as commissioner
ReplyDeleteNFL teams are cutting edge businesses in several areas, but none that give a good direct translation to SSA's practices. It reeks more of an excuse for HQ employees to hang around a football team.
ReplyDeleteThey'd be better off studying private companies like Publix or Chick-Fil-A, who have made good customer service a core competency and an integral part of their work culture. Or for another field in which SSA needs massive improvement, companies like Barclays or Cisco have established agile IT development that could provide valuable lessons.
They could also learn a good bit on responsiveness and handling scaling workloads from the people that run the SNAP program. And truly, they should already have eyes on SNAP and other similar social services, just because SSA should be integrating operations with them to a much higher extent anyway.
But, none of the above give a GS-15 a chance to take a photo with Lamar Jackson. So they're non-starters.
At least they didn't consult with the NY Jets!
ReplyDeleteA team that went 8-9 last year and lost six straight games to end the season below .500, thats where I want to get help from, SSA needs to find new and creative ways to lose.
ReplyDeleteSeems a little odd. But the Ravens are by no means mediocre. They won a title each of the last 2 decades. This coming from a Commanders/Redskins fan.
ReplyDeleteThis is the epitome of boondoggle.
ReplyDeleteyou really don't like the ravens...must be a browns fan. The headline was gratuitously nasty and didn't even serve the purpose of a headline, which is the key details. You're ridiculous!
ReplyDelete