7 6 Ideas are then refined with real-time feedback from peer participants and AT&T leaders and, ultimately, project funding is secured for the development of selected ideas. Since its establishment in 2009, TIP has attracted more than 130,000 active members from all 50 states and 54 countries, and more than $44 million in seed funding has been allocated to develop TIP ideas. “These suggestions can and do get funded, some to the tune of millions of dollars,” Reardon explained. “Obviously we’re a huge organization. And we’ve been retraining our employees since the past decade to run an entirely different company from the one AT&T was just a few years ago. That’s another thing we share with the DoD—an intimate understanding of the cultural and retraining requirements of IT transformation.” Fortunately, when it comes to driving innovation with government clients, a new contract vehicle is in place to support the move to modernization— the GSA Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract. EIS is a 15-year, $50 billion-dollar, solution-based vehicle, designed to address all aspects of federal agency IT telecommunications, infrastructure and modernization requirements. The shorthand description of EIS for AT&T is “Transition & Transform”—it can provide the services to meet immediate modernization goals today and continue to offer technical innovations, as emerging technologies open new opportunities to the DoD. EIS is a new way of contracting that removes capital expense and clears the path for procuring services rather than simply telecom. One such model is network as a service (NaaS). EIS and NaaS provide a rapid modernization path for the DoD. With this approach, the DoD doesn’t need to worry about network obsolescence, because AT&T is constantly investing billions of dollars in technological upgrades. Reardon points out that AT&T brings end-to-end solutions as an EIS contract holder, with wired, wireless and professional services expertise. In her spare time, Reardon mentors master’s degree students in the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, where she earned her degree. She loves to travel and hopes that someday there will be more time to relax and enjoy the countries she visits on a regular basis. But she’s driven to help her Defense customers through a transformation of their IT networks. “To do what I do, you have to understand and appreciate technology,” she concluded. “But technology is just a means to an end. I never forget what I’m doing is about mission enablement, supporting my customers to be faster and more nimble.” LEADING THE FUTURE “Technology is just a means to an end. I never forget what I’m doing is about mission enablement, supporting my customers to be faster and more nimble.”