Data Systems Analysts
Mission-Driven Consulting Solutions and Services

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) is continuing to increase its use of the Microsoft Product Suite to facilitate increasing collaboration and improving information sharing. The high-risk nature of the mission and associated data used by the DoD, including U.S. fighting forces, causes these information systems to be vulnerable to increased cyber threats, and CIOs and service providers are responsible for delivering Microsoft utility tools in a secure fashion. Data Systems Analysts (DSA) provides secure information management solutions to the Federal Government market. Substantially, the firm delivers Microsoft SharePoint solutions—including intranets, extranets, websites, collaboration and social media solutions, content management and flexible training to the DoD workforce and warfighters.

DSA is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner both in collaboration and content as well as hosting services including Windows Server, Azure and SQL Server. As an employee-owned company, the Microsoft Partnership program has proven to be a valuable resource to DSA and it has reflected directly to the success in helping its customer’s meet their mission of providing effective support to the U.S. Warfighter. “All of these competencies helped us gain greater insights into Microsoft’s latest technologies including training, pre-release software and other resources, and provided opportunities to host joint education clinics with Microsoft and other Gold partners,” asserts Kathleen Kirk, VP of DSA’s Strategic Solutions Group.

DSA designed, implemented and manages one of the largest SharePoint instances in the Army. They support over 10 major DoD Organizations in the use of Microsoft SharePoint and SharePoint add on products. DSA provides custom portal and workflow solutions that have significantly streamlined their customers operations. “We are often the first company to implement the latest Microsoft solutions in the DoD space. Examples of this include the upgrade to SharePoint 2013 across all the Organizations we support as well as the first to support the successful implementation of SharePoint Add-Ins (formerly known as the Microsoft App Model). This model will significantly reduce costs of future upgrades for all DSA customers,” adds Kirk.

Our collaboration with Microsoft has allowed us to run several tests and demonstrations of SharePoint collaboration sites in both Office 365 and Windows Azure, showing our customers the potential of the new technologies

Building on experience spanning five decades, DSA has deep expertise and comprehensive understanding of the operational, security, collaboration, and identity management challenges their customers must address. “Our collaboration with Microsoft has allowed us to run several tests and demonstrations of SharePoint collaboration sites in both Office 365 and Windows Azure, showing our customers the potential of the new technologies,” notes Kirk. In tandem, this technology enables DSA’s customers the ability to influence policy to support wider adoption across the DoD space.

To its credit, “In one of its first major programs in the early 1960s, DSA partnered with the U.S. DoD to provide a secure and reliable messaging system for America's fighting forces and our allies,” explains Kirk. These innovative solutions have been critical in supporting U.S. fighting forces to command, control, and communicate on battlefields from Vietnam to the most recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a pioneer in the employee owned company, Kirk believes in the adage that every employee has a stake in the success of his or her company and customers. DSA’s focus in the coming year is to leverage fully the Microsoft business intelligence capabilities and to implement several pilot moves to the commercial cloud. With cloud and mobile technologies playing a big part in DSA’s roadmap, the company will focus on the impacts of cyber security and identity and access management within these solutions. “We will continue to help our customers utilize the full capabilities of commercial offerings as we continue to push the pace of technological change,” concludes Kirk.