HSDF THE PODCAST

Optimizing Enterprise Services for Critical CBP Operations

• Homeland Security & Defense Forum

Share episode

Optimizing enterprise services for critical CBP operations helps ensure seamless integration of advanced technologies to enhance mission efficiency, data management, and operational responsiveness. Scalable and secure enterprise solutions enable CBP to streamline workflows, improve situational awareness, and maintain resilience in support of border security and trade facilitation.

 Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP

  • Darby LaJoye, Vice President and Strategic Account Executive, Leidos/former TSA Executive Assistant Administrator (moderator)

 This discussion took place at the HSDF’s Border Security Symposium on December 11th, 2024 

Follow HSDF THE PODCAST and never miss latest insider talk on government technology, innovation, and security. Visit the HSDF YouTube channel to view hours of insightful policy discussion. For more information about the Homeland Security & Defense Forum (HSDF), visit hsdf.org.

• Darby LaJoye, Vice President and Strategic Account Executive, Leidos/former TSA Executive Assistant Administrator (moderator):

So thanks Megan and thanks Dina for being up here with me today. I didn't know that's what our panel it sounded like. We have a pretty fancy title for this fireside chat, but what struck me is we got to spend some time chatting this week about this panel, and what occurred to me is really how much you, how much Dina, the AC Cooper, cares for the workforce of CBP writ large, and so I think the theme that you'll hopefully hear emerge over our half hour together is everything that she's doing and how she supports the entire workforce of CBP. So let's start by talking about the workforce a little bit. I mean, every company in here today wouldn't be here if they didn't care about being able to support CBP. So talk about, if there is such a thing, what a typical day might look like for CBP. Sure, so to your point.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

If there is such a thing, what a typical day might look like for CBP. Sure, so to your point, if there is such a thing, right. So we do a day in the life. And I'm going to give you those numbers just to kind of contextualize what our CBP officers, our border patrol agents, our air and marine personnel and, of course, our office of trade folks see day to day. In terms of processing, we process and I'm going to round these unless you really like the decimal points 1.15 million passengers and pedestrians, almost 89,000 truck, rail and sea containers, over 270,000 incoming privately owned vehicles, 9.2 billion worth of imported products, 105,000 entries of merchandise and 241 million in duties, taxes and other fees collected. In terms of encounters between the ports of entry, we average over 4,200 a day and over 3,600 today encountered at the ports of entry, and this is one that always sticks with me On any given day, someone usually, but not exclusively in a uniform is rescuing or performing some sort of significant medical life-saving event. Chief Huffman used to say CBP is the most humanitarian organization in the federal government and we have the stats to prove it. And if you think about that happening every day, it's very hard to think that that statement is anything but right. We seize almost 1,600 pounds of drugs, including 60 pounds, potentially, of fentanyl. To give you a sense of what we seized just last year, you're talking about enough fentanyl to create millions of lethal doses. We even discovered 247 pests.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

Order of letters is important at ports of entry.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

These are things that protect our agricultural system as part of our economic security, but none of that is possible when we talk about a typical day.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

None of that is possible without the work that our men and women in enterprise services do, because the reality is is really effective operations are supported by an infrastructure that has their back all day long, and that infrastructure is everything from information and technology specialists providing physical infrastructure through facilities, through tactical infrastructure like roads, fences, things like that, and including everything up to our accountability structures, making sure that we have the right oversight in place internal to the organization to make sure that we're focusing on the things that are important and making changes as we need to to be effective in our operations. And the last one I'll flag is the acquisition professional, and I think we're going to go there, so I won't pick at that too much. But the reality is none of the things we buy and most of the engagement we have with all of you. None of that would be possible without the acquisition professionals that sit in our Office of Acquisition and that sit inside of our individual operating components, bringing technology, bringing infrastructure to bear for our operators on the line.

• Darby LaJoye, Vice President and Strategic Account Executive, Leidos/former TSA Executive Assistant Administrator (moderator):

Hear, hear. It's actually kind of tough to follow those numbers with any type of dialogue.

• Darby LaJoye, Vice President and Strategic Account Executive, Leidos/former TSA Executive Assistant Administrator (moderator):

So enterprise services? It sounds like a cool title. I'm sure that it really is. But you've got everything from acquisitions to IT to real estate, from acquisitions to IT to real estate. You've got HR, you've got hiring, you've got budgeting and policy and everything that goes into that. And I know this morning David and Pete talked a little bit about on PPBE, and don't worry, this is not going to be a one-on-one in federal budgeting. But let's talk about requirements for a second, because acquisitions is great, budgeting is challenging but usually fun. But none of it works unless you really nail the requirements piece. And like every good interviewer, I had to do my homework and many of your current and former colleagues credit you with really bringing tools and rigor to that requirements process. So talk a little bit about how you sort of frame that out from requirements to acquisition policy strategy and how that's informing your future investments, for budget asks Sure.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

Well, nothing is ever individually credited in this business. First of all, the reality of CBP is it is a team every day, and without everyone to bring their skills to bear, we would not be able to succeed as we do In terms of requirements. What I often say is everything we do starts and ends with requirements. If we don't clearly understand the problem we're trying to solve, already, our target is off, right, our aim is off, for lack of a better way to put it. So for me, especially with the time I spent with the US Border Patrol figuring out really how to clearly articulate what the requirement was, starting with a conversation with the operator, that's the foundational element of everything we do. So if the operator articulates a need, it shouldn't be a solution, right, it should be a. What do you need to be able to do? And I characterize that specifically because we often talk about requirements but we're actually talking about solutions. Right, I need to be able to move a group of people from point A to point B as a requirement. I need a van as a solution, for lack of a better way to put it right. So when we start to think about this, we really want to get into the nitty-gritty of what do you need to be able to do, what form does that need to take? How quickly do we need to be able to deploy it? What does the scale look like? Because CBP I'm sure you heard from the deputy commissioner this morning right, we say 65,000 employees. We actually finished the year last year, I think, at 66,975, right, everything we do is at scale. So that's part of that requirements conversation.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

Once we have a clearly articulated vision for not only the requirement but what success looks like when that requirement is met, what does success look like?

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

That's how we start to build the acquisition process, and one of the things that I call kind of the magic is we are both helped and hindered, I think, by our own expertise and our own experience.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

So, as someone who did not grow up as a technologist, I am absolutely limited in my understanding sometimes of what technology can bring to bear. But I grew up in a brick and mortar construction world, so if we're talking about that, I'm your girl. But bringing the technologist and the brick and mortar construction person and the human resources person and, most importantly, the operator all together to classify not only from requirements through acquisition strategy, but also end user testing to make sure that every step of the way we're looking back, we're tying back to that requirement of are we meeting it? And that's really how we think about it in the acquisition space. And having acquisition professionals not only inside of enterprise services but embedded in each of the components, creates that magic of operational and administrative and technical expertise that, I think, is what has allowed us to make these huge scale acquisition investments over the years fairly successfully.

• Darby LaJoye, Vice President and Strategic Account Executive, Leidos/former TSA Executive Assistant Administrator (moderator):

So let's keep talking about the operator for a second, if we can. I know Sunil talks a lot about this. You mentioned the importance of the operator's perspective, but, culturally speaking, how important is that? Because a lot of companies here we're going to have a lot of these conversations. We heard the previous panel on whether it's counter UAS, whether it's you For user acceptability. I mean, we could all envision a really great technical solution, but if the workforce, if the frontline operator, doesn't accept it, so culturally, talk a little bit about why that's so important, just from your acquisition strategy, sure.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

Would you use something that you thought made your life harder? I mean, at its core right, that's the issue. If it doesn't work for the operator, if the perception, let alone the reality, if the perception is there that the thing that you have just cast out into their world doesn't support the operation that they're trying to execute, you're done, you've lost and, frankly, we should never be casting things out into an operator's world that hasn't had them at the table as part of the user acceptance testing. You know I have this frame in my office. It's an old poster from a strategic plan that we developed back in about 2010. And there's a few of you in the room that might remember this. At the top of it it says what have you done for Border Patrol lately? And I was working on Border Patrol projects at the time not all of CBP, but that's the mentality that when we start to think about building technical solutions, we have to walk into the conversation with what have you done for Border Patrol lately? What have you done for CBPOs, ofo lately, air and Marine, et cetera? Because the reality is is that if what we're casting out into their environment doesn't help them, they're not going to use it, and then we've not only wasted taxpayer dollars, but we've gone about delivering the wrong thing.

• Ntina Cooper, Executive Assistant Commissioner, Enterprise Services, CBP:

So having them at the table from day one is a critical piece of it. And doing things agilely right, to use the technology term, bringing the operator in at multiple junctures, not just at the requirement. But is this what we meant? Is this what you meant when you said it? Because often technologists, construction folks and operators talk past each other. So making sure that we use every opportunity to make sure we're speaking a common language, then we actually deliver something that works, and when it does, you then see the operator look at what you've delivered and go and what if we did this, could we add this on? That's when you know you've sort of cracked the code when they're looking at what you've delivered and gone. I can take this one step further. This is great.

• Darby LaJoye, Vice President and Strategic Account Executive, Leidos/former TSA Executive Assistant Administrator (moderator):

Okay, well, dina, thank you and thank you for what you and your entire staff do every single day. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for what you and your entire staff do every single day.