Amivero
Effective IT for Law Enforcement

In Italian, the root word ami means “friendly and passionate,” while vero implies “truth.” Since 2002, federal IT leader Olivia Trivisani Bowker has consistently achieved excellence with her teams by leading with these principles. In 2018, seeking to turn her winning values into something bigger and satisfy a noticeable industry need, she founded her company, Amivero, as a passionate and trustworthy partner in the client-centered delivery of efficient, cutting-edge IT initiatives across the country’s law enforcement and homeland security agencies. Just one and half years later, CIOReview selected Amivero as a “Top Law Enforcement Company to Watch in 2020”: earning over $800,000 in revenue in 2019, the company met and surpassed that goal within the first two months of 2020 and anticipates a six-fold revenue increase this year. Amivero’s client base continues to encompass the Department of Homeland Security (including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration Customs Enforcement, Transportation Security Administration, Federal Protective Services, Science and Technology and Citizenship Immigration Services), and now includes the Department of Justice and Department of Defense. They provide services ranging from software delivery, design thinking, and data analytics—applied to everything from cloud migration investment analysis to business intelligence for targeting and vetting— to infrastructure support and data encryption for improved cyber security.

Explains Olivia, “Our goal is to enable agencies to focus on their core duty of law enforcement in the field by delivering human-centered and data-driven technology that prioritizes security and speed to mission.” Amivero leverages state-of-the-art yet accessible applications to enable professionals in the field and at the office to make critical, high-value decisions in real time and help agencies focus on what matters most: keeping citizens safe.

Human-Centered, Data-Driven Solutions for Clients

Identifying and Addressing Existing Challenges

Amivero’s philosophy is evident in part in its external-facing products and services: being human-centered means thinking critically about how those products and services are going to meet immediate user needs and honor the user’s perspective while also addressing deeper, unmet challenges. As one example, Olivia notes that IT modernization—while revolutionary—did not necessarily make things easier for law enforcement because of challenges in inter-agency dynamics. “An understanding of IT is critical for law enforcement because of the numerous cyber threats they face. We offer IT experts who can fight these threats proactively—and who recognize the complex reality of communication and collaboration between multiple branches of law enforcement.” One IT team at one agency location does not define the entire agency.

Frequently, several agencies and departments work with independent and isolated IT teams, creating inefficient silos that hinder crucial inter-agency problem-solving. As a company with deep roots in the law enforcement community, Amivero’s expertise can bridge that gap, paving the way for increased collaboration and integration.

Our goal is to enable agencies to focus on their core duty of law enforcement in the field by delivering human-centered and data-driven technology that prioritizes security and speed to mission

The sprawling nature of these diverse agencies highlights another challenge: the need for simultaneously agile and reliable systems with a design and interface that is tailored to the unique working environment of each law enforcement agency. Within Customs and Border Protection, for example, there are thousands of officers on duty who are always at risk. The tools they depend on are crucial to their well-being and safety, so effective IT solutions must get these officers the information they need to their mobile devices with corresponding immediacy. Only then can they make real use of technology in their day-to-day decision-making.

Finally, Amivero recognizes that budget constraints deeply affect law enforcement clients—as with most government organizations. The law enforcement agency focus on front line officers means that the improvement or modernization of their IT programs is often deprioritized. This is why Amivero uses a value-driven model, more often seen in startups and the private sector, to ensure that the focus of any IT initiative is to deliver measureable value to users that omits costly extra features—also known as Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

The Amivero Approach: A Clear Path to a Modern IT Ecosystem

Amivero’s team structure and problem-solving approach further illustrate its commitment to its human-centered philosophy. Company directors are not only technical subject matter experts—they are also highly focused on quality of staff and service, with such areas of expertise as enterprise enablement, talent management, delivery experience, and service strategy. When implementing any new solution with a client, these directors and their teams strive to discover the “why” behind each project or product. Strategic objectives such as “improved efficiency in case adjudication” or “faster access to relevant information for the public,” for example, frame each project’s overall end-user discovery and engagement process. Using these agreed upon strategic objectives as guideposts, Amivero continuously assesses and measures all its efforts to ensure that each and every step contributes to measurable success.

This methodical approach is evident in Amivero’s recent work on projects using AWS infrastructure and advanced open source development stacks. These projects were delivered in fast-paced, value-driven environments applying Lean Startup methodologies and advanced DevSecOps best practices . Amivero has also performed this work successfully in hybrid government/contractor teams, in some cases directly alongside U.S. Digital Services personnel.

They apply humancentered design thinking in focused end-user and management personnel interviews, prototypes, and design experiments to create the most actionable and valuable solutions for their clients’ highest priority problems—consistently arriving at the perfect intersection of software delivery, cloud engineering, and cyber security to a critical mission need.

Amivero is also at the forefront of offering best of breed Agile IT implementation services and data analytics solutions in the offices of finance, technology, and innovation. As Olivia puts it, “The biggest compliment that we get from both our employees and our customers is how transparent and collaborative we are.” Indeed, Amivero is presently looking to both expand its client base to the agencies that are already aligned with its current clients, paving the way for better inter-agency collaboration, and invest in partnerships with new technologies that can support their business strategies.

Human-Centered, Data-Driven Infrastructure for Their Team

Equally important to the human-centered products and collaborative services Amivero provides for clients is the internally employee-centric foundation evident in the company’s own infrastructure. “We recruit and retain the best and brightest through a performance and growth-based culture,” says Olivia. “We never settle. We encourage our team to be on the cutting edge of their profession by exploring new strategies and tools and turning lessons learned into continuous improvement.”

In practice, that support shines through in a number of managerial tools and systems. To encourage professional development and stay fresh, Amivero maintains a Trello board with new projects. Interested employees can choose a project and partner with a manager to see that project to fruition—reflecting an understanding that each team member carries a unique set of skills, cultural assets, education, and experience. An unlimited training budget for all employees complements this commitment to professional development, as do biweekly “lunch and learns,” each with a new agenda to offer voluntary opportunities for employees to learn or share new skills (i.e. personal/family financial planning, workforce trajectory within their respective fields, writing tutorials, and strategies for leveraging social media).

Additionally, the company crowdsources much of its high-level infrastructure decisions. Amivero hires team members who are looking to make a difference in an organization, both internally and externally, as well as in their community. Once hired, Amivero gives them a platform to state their opinions and crowdsource their views while making critical decisions about which collaboration tools the company uses, how they incentivize new business growth initiatives, which charitable organizations they should participate in and contribute to, and—most recently—what new applications they can build to help the community during COVID-19. “We design and make decisions to build and allow for experimentation, not being afraid to try it out even if it fails,” adds Olivia.

Olivia continues, “In an effective IT services company, the people you provide to deliver the services are the most critical. It's not just their skills and knowledge and experience—it's also their attitude and approach to problems. We really do pride ourselves on selecting employees and partners who aren't necessarily like all of us but instead complement what we already have and aren't afraid to fail by innovating. We encourage it, we incentivize it—and we're able to retain these innovators by being genuinely supportive, authentic, and transparent.”