Prior to his current role as Chief Data Strategist, Accenture Federal Services, Portia Crowe He served the U.S. Army in various civilian positions for 20 years, most recently as Chief Data Officer for the Army Futures Command’s Cross-Network Capabilities Team.
After a long career in the military, Krogh moved to the private sector to “get the industry side of things.” She joined Accenture Federal Services because of her genuine passion for helping clients through innovative problem-solving, the company’s can-do attitude and strong leadership.
Recent Executive Spotlight In an interview with ExecutiveBiz, Crow delved deeper into data, what it means for organizations, and the challenges and opportunities that come with it. Watch the full interview below:
ExecutiveBiz: To use data effectively, it needs to be collected, analyzed and understood. What key challenges and opportunities do you see emerging for organizations to leverage data to make decisions?
Portia Crowe: The Department of Defense has significantly evolved its data posture, a key component of digital advantage. Key challenges include data quality and integrity, data privacy and security, and a data literate workforce. The Department of Defense must continually perform checks to ensure the quality and integrity of trusted data so it can be used effectively. Without a foundation of data quality, accuracy, consistency, and completeness, the analysis and insights derived from that data will be limited and unreliable.
The second challenge is balancing data privacy and security. The vast amount of data includes sensitive, classified, personally identifiable information, and infrastructure protection data. Protecting data without impeding access to it is a challenge, especially as it can impact operational efficiency. You also need to balance keeping data safe by complying with regulations and policies with timely and efficient data sharing.
The third challenge is building and sustaining a data-literate workforce. This is also an opportunity. Keeping up with various technological advancements will continue to drive our advantage as we build a data-literate workforce to stay competitive. Providing employees with opportunities to upskill, making data skills a key requirement, and offering incentives such as bonuses and promotions can support a data-skilled workforce.
Another opportunity is to create a positive, intuitive user experience with your data tools that makes them easy to adopt and use. Removing the complexity of using data tools, such as no-code or low-code platforms, automation, and drag-and-drop capabilities, removes barriers and helps drive faster, more reliable decision-making.
EBiz: One of the most pressing concerns about data in today’s digital environment is the sheer volume of data that needs to be processed and sorted. What do you see as a more viable solution to address this challenge?
Crow: One such solution is the continued use of cloud computing to take advantage of multi-cloud and hybrid environments and advances in data classification, processing, and storage. Faster computing and hardware enable scalable, cost-effective data processing.
When it comes to mission success, leveraging AI/ML to increase scalability and efficiency will continue to be at the forefront of innovation. Accelerating data pre-processing and model deployment can significantly reduce the time and effort required. Pattern-based workload predictions can optimize cloud usage and reduce costs. AI/ML can also be effectively used for real-time threat detection and data management tasks. Advancements in big data technologies and visualization tools have been game-changing in reducing complexity for users.
EBiz: Where do you see the most compelling opportunities to provide superior capabilities to the warfighter today, and how are you capitalizing on them?
Crow: I am continually amazed at the breakthrough innovations the DoD is currently enabling and leveraging. Advances in sensors and data fusion and analytics certainly provide opportunities for advantage in the kill chain as we can extract useful data, provide insights that may not be obvious to users, and rapidly integrate all types of data to get a more comprehensive battlefield picture. Electronic and cyber warfare is extremely difficult, but there are many opportunities to leverage industry innovation in this area as the DoD continues to develop tactics and techniques for disruption and deception capabilities.
There are also many opportunities for AI/ML in intelligence and surveillance, where it can be applied to automate target identification for increased speed and accuracy. Pattern recognition using ML algorithms can detect behavioral anomalies to support advanced kill chains. Predictive analytics leveraging vast amounts of data including logistics, personnel and combat data can help understand the highly contested and crowded environment and make the modern battlefield we find ourselves on more robust.
