THE EVOLUTION OF TECHNICAL SUPPORT DURING NEW YORK CITY'S RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

May 16, 2020 — Today, it is no surprise that the backbone of most workplaces is a technical support department. As regions find themselves in various stages of social distancing across the globe, the scope and role of tech support teams continue to grow behind the scenes.

"What I love about doing IT work in an emergency management setting is that each day is different with a new challenge or need," said NYC Emergency Management Desktop Support Technician Torey Rowe. "The support that a planner needs is different from one of our in the field guys or those working in mapping and data."

The NYC Emergency Management Department is New York City's coordinating agency for emergencies. The department plans for, responds to, and assists the city's recovery from emergencies. It takes a mix of various disciplines and job functions to accomplish this mission. There are teams within NYC Emergency Management focusing on health and medical response, transportation and infrastructure planning, interagency logistics, human services, hazard mitigation and recovery, geographic information systems, external outreach, and messaging. In addition there is Watch Command, a 24/7 field operations team that work around the clock to monitor developing emergencies throughout New York City and send personnel into the field to coordinate emergency work among City agencies. For all of these disciplines, technical support is critical.

Torey Rowe (left) troubleshoots a desktop issue in NYC Emergency Management Watch Command.

As a desktop support technician, Rowe's job is to be the first contact for any and all tech issues throughout the agency. "We're the 'look-and-see crew,' as our boss says," Rowe jested. Rowe is one of three desktop support technicians in the 14-person IT support team at NYC Emergency Management. The team includes engineers and programmers specializing in application development, cyber security, telecommunications, and systems administration.

"Most of our engineers work behind the scenes keeping our servers, applications, and networks running, but like anyone working in emergency management we're all cross-trained to help each other when needed," Rowe said. The team deals with an average of 75 different tech issues per day.

Scaling up for COVID-19

"We've on-boarded about 150 people since this emergency started," Rowe said. Most of these individuals are contractors brought on to bolster the ranks of NYC Emergency Management during the pandemic, but each of them needs a cellphone, a computer, an email account and more to do their jobs.

It started with three to four new people per day, but as the pandemic grew so did the need for tech support. “It became obvious that I couldn’t have a line of new people every morning waiting on IT to start their day,” Rowe said. He created a workflow for onboarding new team members: a step-by-step guidebook for setting up new users and deploying work cellphones and other tech devices. The guidebook along with a color-coded spreadsheet to track each new hire’s tech status (onboarding needed, set up and working, or demobilized) allows Rowe to track progress and assign tasks to colleagues as needed.

Rowe created similar workflows for the growing tech needs of longtime employees who suddenly found themselves working remotely amid increasing social distancing measures in the city. Laptops, monitors, printers, and headsets are all common things his team has sent to emergency managers working from home.

As the response to the COVID-19 pandemic continues, NYC Emergency Management is supporting field hospitals, logistics warehouses, hotels, and food distribution sites throughout New York City. Devices and various tech needs are spread throughout the five boroughs, all of which Rowe and the IT team support.

Now some 10 weeks into the pandemic, Rowe thinks of himself more like a quarterback. He's created various protocols for tracking employee onboarding, device deployment, inventory, and other needs and spends most of his time monitoring the various workflows, looking for gaps and anticipating needs for improvements. "Each day is a new problem, but we've got our playbooks; we've got our hands on the ball at this point," Rowe said.

Adapting to change

"At the beginning of this pandemic, there were literally more call requests than we had available phone lines," Rowe said.

"Across City agencies we were dealing with the same vendors for large conference calls and the system couldn't handle everyone wanting to have a noon conference call at the same time,” he explained. "So we brought on Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and other programs that support video conferencing and remote team work."

More than just a growing phone system, these new programs expanded the virtual workspace allowing team members to interact, collaborate, and share content fluidly. Features that recently enabled NYC Emergency Management to host a virtual graduation ceremony – for the John D. Solomon Fellowship for Public Service – with 13 individual speakers, multimedia sharing, and a live stream of the event.

NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Deanne Criswell has also quickly adapted to the changes. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, the commissioner has appeared in interviews with local and national news outlets and participated in virtual press conferences with the support of Rowe and his team.

"Commissioner Criswell is very tech-savvy. She's been our biggest advocate in terms of leaning forward and making sure we have the resources needed to expand the agency's telework capabilities," Rowe said.

Torey Rowe readies laptops for deployment to NYC Emergency Management staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking ahead

COVID-19 has changed the lives of millions but the size, scope, and lasting impact of those changes remain to be seen. The role and importance of the technologies we use however, is clear. Workplaces in the 21st century will continue to depend more and more on IT professionals. For Rowe one thing is sure:

"We're still going to do business the same way, pandemic or not, were still going to have to support end-users, making sure our employees have the devices and software access they need to do their jobs," he said. "What will change is the way we support with telework. I might have to talk you through how to reset a device instead of putting hands on it – the nature of how we support you might change but our job won't."