By Harry Aderton
2021 begins a new year, and also a new decade. At NetCentrics we’re discussing how we can apply the lessons of 2020. How can we use the institutional knowledge built up over 25+ years? We are poised to use tomorrow’s emerging technologies on behalf of our customers.
We look ahead with great anticipation.
We’re not the same company we were a year ago this day. Far from it. This company — much like everyone else who struggled, survived, and made it through the other side – transformed over the last year. We’re stronger for it. Wiser. We’ve been tested and we found something within ourselves that’s resolute and true.
Bleeding Edge Technologies Are Moving Mainstream
The new decade will bring fascinating changes due to rapidly advancing technical innovation. Artificial intelligence, automation, blockchain, robotics, and space exploration are just a few examples. These technologies are moving from the edges, even the fringes, into the mainstream. All of these technologies are moving to the center of conversations with strategic partners, customers, and employees.
We made decisions over the last year that reset the course of this company, in bold ways towards new horizons. We’re moving into the healthcare IT world, to include Veteran Affairs telecommunications and secure cloud hosting for patient support systems. We’re moving into Mobile Security to protect our customers from ever increasing cyber threats, domestic and abroad. We’re making strategic alliances with partners we know and trust as well as new teammates to break into new markets such as the Air Force and Intel communities.
Teams Are Evolving to Remain Globally Competitive
Team requirements are changing, too. NetCentrics will always favor professionals with deep expertise. But, we are actively looking for people with well-rounded educations, perspectives, and experiences, too. It’s no longer effective in today’s marketplace to work exclusively with narrowly credentialed experts. NetCentrics’ teams of today and tomorrow must have expertise, of course. But we’re also seeking professionals with multiple skillsets, diverse perspectives, and the desire to learn. Complex problem-solving requires deep expertise and fresh takes on approach.
Investing in our people is critical for us. When we invest in them through training opportunities and outside education, they invest their expertise back in the company. (By the way, we are hiring.)
Customer Relationships Will Deepen and Expand
Customers have always relied on NetCentrics to perform high stakes work. We build systems that cannot fail to protect vital information and services. So, our work has always been based on customer trust.
What will change in the decades to come is an expansion of this trust. That’s because the work we’re doing now, and the work we anticipate doing in the future, will be, by necessity, more interconnected.
One example is the government’s mandate to make armed services’ IT solutions interoperable, enabling faster response and better coordination. That’s a welcome objective. It also means we’ll need to work even deeper within and across government agencies and departments — and that is only possible with ongoing transparency and trust.
Similarly, on the private sector side of our services, companies are no longer thinking in silos. They understand that cybersecurity isn’t just about protecting their business. It’s about understanding how their business is interconnected to so many others, whether by software supply chain or mutual, industry interdependence. Cybersecurity requires trusting a vendor like NetCentrics to evaluate internal and external considerations accurately.
In short, we know the next 25 years will be nothing like today – and we’re ready.