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September 20, 2021

Kern County finds new possibilities and strengths in COVID-19 response with Microsoft 365, Power BI, and Teams

California’s Kern County has simplified its IT and built trust and confidence with constituents through digital transformation, especially in the county’s response to COVID-19. Kern County has created new workplace efficiencies across its 40 departments and 8,500 employees using Microsoft 365 Government and Power BI, and Microsoft Teams has provided new channels for government-public interaction.

Kern County

Situated on the southern edge of California’s San Joaquin Valley, Kern County is the state’s third largest county by geographic size. It’s one of the richest regions in the nation for agriculture, crude oil, and renewable energy.

In 2018, Mac Avancena, Jr., moved from NBC Universal Media and the world of media and entertainment to the world of government, becoming Chief Information Technology officer for Kern County. Since then, the county has earned recognition for delivering data-driven solutions, especially in response to the health and economic crisis of COVID-19.

Avancena credits his 90-member Information Technology Services team for creating modern workplace efficiencies using Microsoft 365 Government and Power BI that benefit the county’s 40 departments and 8,500 employees. He’s also proud of the quick response from the county when the health crisis hit. The county enabled continued participation from residents in weekly Board of Supervisors meetings via Microsoft Teams live events, and it used data and analytical insights to help small businesses and nonprofits overcome impacts. “It’s a very interesting journey we’ve taken here at Kern,” says Avancena.

Simplifying, rationalizing around Microsoft 365

That journey began when Avancena joined Kern County, with no experience working in government, and inherited a disparate environment of almost 70 separate Microsoft volume licensing agreements and six Office 365 tenants. 

“I wanted everyone to have the same access … and I didn’t want to have to deal with the variability and sprawl of having to manage multiple iterations of Microsoft products,” says Avancena. “It was really, from my perspective, an opportunity for us to elevate and grow our overall maturity, with Microsoft helping us derive next-generation solutions” with the enhanced security and compliance required by government organizations in the US.

Avancena led efforts within the county to simplify and rationalize its Microsoft 365 budget, resulting in a single enterprise agreement covering all employees. “That was a huge precursor to our successes with COVID,” he says, noting the efficiencies of centralizing IT services, unifying technology standards, and eliminating variation across the county with a comprehensive meeting, chat, call, email, and collaboration platform. “From the moment that we signed the contract in 2019 … it was just organic growth for how we were able to adopt into Microsoft OneDrive, Teams, SharePoint, and all these products,” Avancena says.

As a measure of that growth, countywide Teams adoption went up 82 percent from pre-pandemic levels, with triple-digit growth in some departments. Avancena notes Teams has been “the big game changer for us,” especially given budget constraints, getting “everyone to a common standard for office productivity ... and fundamentally shifting how we solve our problems.” 

OneDrive cloud storage and other Microsoft 365 resources add value as well, he points out. “Being able to displace traditional departmental share drives and personal drives, and moving those over to the OneDrive ecosystem, where you have a full arsenal of tools for data protection and backup and recovery—those are all critical enablers for keeping the business afloat,” Avancena says.

Maintaining public-government interaction

Early in the health crisis, one of the first county services affected was in-person access to weekly Board of Supervisors meetings. “We lost that critical link to how we engage our constituents,” says Avancena. Like many local governments, Kern County turned to Microsoft Teams live events to maintain public interaction in a trusted, virtual environment. “By mid-March, Kern County was already broadcasting, by way of Teams, our Board of Supervisors meetings,” he says. “We had the full audio and video experience as if they were physically there,” with live video streaming on Kern County’s website, YouTube, and cable television.

While in-person participation in Board of Supervisors meetings resumed in May 2021, Avancena points to Teams as “another avenue for us to be able to reach and communicate with our constituents …. To have the voice of our constituents be heard is a huge, huge benefit of this platform.” He gives the most credit to the Board of Supervisors for setting a high standard of excellence, being “technologically forward-thinking,” and embracing Teams and other ways of delivering services effectively.

Supporting “Kern Recovers” with data and analytics

As the county strategized how to help small businesses and nonprofits adversely affected by COVID-19, it created an assistance program called Kern Recovers, which is supported by the data and analytics capabilities of Power BI. Kern Recovers provided no-charge PPE support, forgivable loans for small businesses, and nonprofit grants “addressing the needs of the neediest in our society or improving the quality of life in Kern County,” says Avancena.

“We have a full interactive Kern Recovers dashboard … that transparently illustrates how we’ve allocated $30 million of CARES Act [funding],” says Avancena, with Power BI producing visibility on countywide distribution of funds and PPE. “We supported 938 businesses across 255 industries and our average [small business] loan was $30,300. So from a constituent point of view, think about how empowering that is. That level of transparency … fills a void that people naturally have when it comes to what government is doing for them. It’s really exposing and democratizing … how we’re making investments on their behalf.”

Delivering the right services, in the right way, with the right team

Avancena’s vision is to use technology capabilities and data-driven solutions to deliver the services Kern County residents need. He continues driving IT Services to add value, serve as a model of excellence, and foster a culture of innovation that enhances Kern County’s quality of life. “We set out to hit a high standard,” he says. “The silver lining is that this put IT on the map. I want to ride the wave of momentum that we have now that really demonstrates our ability to show agility, flexibility, and scale [in providing] 8,500 people, 40 different departments … a unified, homogeneous experience.”

Ryan J. Alsop, Kern County’s chief administrative officer, recruited Avancena in 2018, and credits Avancena’s leadership for helping change the way constituents feel about government. “Mac Avancena and his team are leading Kern County’s digital transformation to better serve residents, empower collaboration, and build confidence and trust in government,” Alsop says.

As California begins reopening, Avancena reflects on his transition from the media and entertainment world to government service. “My journey in the private sector really helped me navigate some of the unique characteristics around government,” he explains. “What I’ve learned [is] ... your choices matter. To be living and breathing in my community and seeing how our investments are impacting our local businesses, our investments are impacting continuity of services—that’s a huge deal. There’s a tremendous amount of fulfillment and pride … working in this environment than I’ve ever had before.”

“It was really, from my perspective, an opportunity for us to elevate and grow our overall maturity, with Microsoft helping us derive next-generation solutions.”

Mac Avancena, Jr., Chief Information Technology Officer, Kern County, California

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