Department of Labor Office of the Chief Information Officer - Technical Professional of the Year

Company: Department of Labor Office of the Chief Information Officer, Washington, DC
Company Description: The Office of the Chief Information Officer is a customer service organization dedicated to providing information technology solutions and leadership to advance the Department of Labor mission.
Nomination Category: Information Technology Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Technical Professional of the Year

Nomination Title: John Arrington, Branch Chief of Network Services and Telecom

Mr. John Arrington’s tireless commitment to deploying IT infrastructure and remote capabilities to the DOL workforce make him an excellent candidate for Technical Professional of the Year. As Branch Chief of Network Services and Telecom, Mr. Arrington leads DOL office infrastructure upgrades to enable the successful deployment of Unified Communications (UC) solutions: secure wireless networks; Jabber soft phones allowing users to place/receive desk phone calls across mobile devices; video teleconferencing (VTC); and electronic faxing. He manages all aspects of UC office deployment, including federal IT labor, vendors under contract for field deployment labor, engineering support, and Program Management Office (PMO) activities.

Since January 2019, John Arrington has led Network Services in deploying UC to 44 offices, reaching 3,702 employees. Thanks to John, UC has now reached 155 offices, representing over 12,000 employees, or 76% of total DOL employees. Overseeing technology infrastructure upgrades at DOL office locations throughout the United States, Mr. Arrington empowers employee productivity and collaboration by providing wireless solutions and a secure environment to access network documents and applications. Via video teleconferencing systems, the VTC solution connects DOL teams virtually, increases the impact of discussions, expedites decision making, and reduces travel costs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the technology infrastructure deployed to office locations has provided DOL employees with robust telework capabilities.

With the UC Program financially constrained in FY19, Mr. Arrington implemented creative solutions to deploy to more offices with less funds. He orchestrated a funding swap between four DOL organizations to access funds to install VTC at 50 offices, optimizing each organizations’ ability to serve the American public. Mr. Arrington personally deployed UC to smaller sites to save funds. He deployed UC solutions to four offices in FY19, reaching 185 employees. His leadership in the deployments saved $350,000 in unused contractor labor. Mr. Arrington managed DOL’s process to obligate OCIO and Agency funds to the Washington Interagency Telecommunications System (WITS 3) contract vehicle. Although UC Program funds available to obligate were outweighed by the funds from other OCIO organizations in FY19, he ensured OCIO had an organized process in place to accurately track and expedite progress of all WITS 3 requests, which totaled more than $8M by fiscal year-end. For FY19, MSHA provided Mr. Arrington funds to deploy UC at five offices. He completed nine more offices than expected by using federal staff and the UC Program to supply the hardware, configuration, remote program management support and training. By extending the funds for deployment at five offices to 14, Mr. Arrington nearly tripled the reach of the American tax dollar.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Arrington collaborated with the Director, Network Services and the Network Services Federal team to continue UC deployments, despite US state shut downs for travel. They provided DOL employees technology to enhance their completion of mission work while on maximum telework with 95% of DOL’s workforce remote in March and 91% currently remote. Mr. Arrington and his team developed the “UC FY20 Revised Strategy” to deploy a remote capability to large regional offices (typically over 300 users), including Jabber soft phone and headsets (delivered to employees’ homes to minimize COVID-19 exposure) and an e-fax solution (which eliminates the need for fax machines and lines throughout DOL). Since March, Mr. Arrington has upgraded infrastructure at 11 locations, implemented 45 switches (network hardware that connects devices on a computer network), deployed 506 phones, and installed 11 Wi-Fi access points.

Mr. Arrington is a worthy candidate for Technical Professional of the Year for improving DOL operations through deploying IT infrastructure upgrades nationwide. Thanks to Mr. Arrington’s tireless commitment to UC deployment, over 12,000 DOL employees currently benefit from the increased connectivity, efficiency and collaboration opportunities offered by UC solutions—qualitiescrucial to performing mission-critical work in a majority-telework environment. Through his efforts to extend deployment funding and expand IT infrastructure, Mr. Arrington provides DOL employees the technology needed to serve the American public.

-To-date in FY20, John Arrington has led Network Services in deploying to 155 offices, representing over 12,000 employees, or 76% of total DOL employees. The number of offices represent a mix of DOL locations across the United States.

-Since March, he has continued infrastructure upgrades at 11 locations, implemented 45 switches (network hardware that connects devices on a computer network), deployed 506 phones, and installed 11 Wi-Fi access points.

-Mr. Arrington coordinated Jabber deployments across 21 Agencies and 139 Agency Offices, reaching a total of 2,527 users.

-Mr. Arrington extended the funds for deployment at five offices to 14, nearly tripling the reach of the American tax dollar.

-He orchestrated a funding swap between four DOL organizations to access funds to install VTC at 50 SOL offices. Mr. Arrington saved $350,000 in unused contractor labor and brought UC solutions to 185 employees at four offices in FY19.