Growing State and Local Government at AWS

When I joined the State and Local Government, and Education (SLED) team at Amazon Web Services, the division was in its infancy, led by Frank Digiammarino, who previously was appointed by Obama to lead the White House Recovery Implementation Office. We were a small team of eight, tasked with breaking into a skeptical market. Local government agencies were wary of cloud computing, and competitors like Microsoft were leveraging existing relationships to gain a foothold.

Our primary task was to understand the unique challenges faced by local government agencies and offer quick, meaningful solutions. We aimed to build trust and establish long-term relationships with these agencies, focusing on strategic issues like CJIS (Criminal Justice Information System) compliance from the get-go.

To gain insights into customer needs, we attended various conferences such as GISA and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. We initiated discovery meetings, followed by more in-depth discussions involving AWS solution architects and AWS leadership, making computing credits available for proof-of-concept projects. We identified immediate needs like backups, archiving, and disaster recovery, and tailored our solutions accordingly. I also spearheaded efforts to develop Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and geospatial solutions to address widespread needs in natural resource departments.

The results were transformative. Over my three-year tenure, our small team doubled in revenue and headcount annually. We established CJIS agreements in over a dozen states and became integral to systems like Bay Area 311 and multiple MTAs. Personally, I transitioned from a mid-market account manager to managing enterprise accounts, exceeding my quota by an average of 116% each year.