Vanessa is a cloud architect at the Indiana Office of Technology focused on helping state agencies adopt Software-as-a-Service solutions. The Indiana Office of Technology is a trusted enterprise-technology provider that enables its partner agencies in Indiana state government to securely deliver high-quality services to citizens.
Working in state government since 2012, Vanessa has been a fixture in the state’s journey to the cloud. She is extremely proud of the state’s work to build foundational cloud enablement capabilities focused on governance, standards, and strong identity. It is thanks to this work that state agencies have many options for building their own cloud story.
Driven by a desire to help her co-workers deliver better citizen services by working smarter, she started an initiative in 2018 to drive adoption of Office 365 and specifically Microsoft Teams. Dubbed WorkSmart 365, the program has been instrumental in creating a 500-person strong Champions group. The third annual WorkSmart 365 fall conference will be held in October 2020 with a focus on celebrating the resilience of state employees during the pandemic.
Vanessa has a MicroMaster in Cloud Computing from University of Maryland Global Campus and a Bachelor of Science from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. She loves gardening and completed her Master Gardener intern training and has a certificate in Urban Agriculture from Purdue Extension.
She is the author of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 For Dummies.
Vanessa lives in Edinburgh, IN with her wife, Stephanie, and their six children (including two sets of twins).
Presentation Overview
Title: Powering Business Resilience with Microsoft Teams at the State of Indiana
During the month of March 2020, the State of Indiana saw active usage of Microsoft Teams skyrocket from 4,000 to 20,000 users. Virtual meetings and 1:1 calls surged from a few dozen a day to thousands. While Teams was a new technology to many of our users, it was not new to the Indiana Office of Technology. The Office of Technology had been laying the groundwork for statewide Teams adoption since 2018. Using peer champions, on-demand training sessions, a Yammer community, and lots of 1:1 sessions, state workers rose to meet the challenge of remote work.
From training case workers to collaborating with county auditors, this session will showcase the many ordinary and interesting ways that state workers are delivering citizen services using Microsoft Teams. Plus, hear about our roadmap for continuing innovation with Microsoft Teams.
