Ep. 75 Digital Transformation Culture at the DLA

May 30, 2023

(Today’s interview was conducted at the Ron Reagan Building at the Qlik Global Tour: Public Sector.)

Theinterview is with Steve Forster, Senior Data Strategist, Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

Our interview is with Steve Forster, a business intelligence strategist from the DLA.

Steve started in the warehouse and through years of struggle and hard work managed to rise to the position of Senior Data Strategist. This parallels the transformation that the DLA is undergoing.

The DLA was formed in 1961 and has over 25,000 people supporting the Department of Defense worldwide.
To reduce costs and improve service to the military, the DLA is undergoing a transition from an outdated COBOL warehouse system to a modern system.

"We wanted to use it to drive insights and innovation and support different strategic initiatives throughout the agency"

Steve Forster, Defense Logistics Agency Tweet

Much of the warehouse has sensitive military equipment and as a result, the data that controls them must be secure. When it comes to keeping data safe, Steve draws an analogy to owning a firearm. During the interview, he said, “And just like any gun, you keep in a locked cabinet inside your house, data has to be treated the same way.”

Effectively handling data in a large organization allows everyone to be on the same page. You need to have a common construct so everyone can have the same level of understanding of that information.

Steve had attended several sessions at the Qlik Public Sector World conference – a few highlighted the ability of Chat GPT to assist in data management. From a high-level perspective, Steve thinks AI will cut down his learning time for new technologies.

From a practical, down-to-earth view, Steve has seen demonstrations where technologies like Chat GPT can help in classifying unstructured data to make it usable for leaders in much less time.

If you enjoyed this article, you may want to listen to Ep. 69 Digital Adoption Platforms Save Money for Federal Agencies while Improving End User Experience