Mr. Lloyd partnered with Ying Chan, the chief of IT operations for the city of Austin, Texas. They reached out to tech companies like Adobe, Oracle and Splunk to see if they would help them optimize COVID-19 testing, data and response solutions.
“These companies could have said there wasn’t any revenue, or that it was someone else’s problem, or they weren’t committing until they saw federal and state governments weigh in,” he said. “Instead, they did what was right. They left their badges at the door and asked what the nation’s communities needed at the moment COVID-19 caught fire.”
Several tech companies stepped up to help for months. A COVID-19 testing system was developed that supports Nueces and Tarrant counties in Texas and is slated to be launched in Alameda County, Calif. From the tech partnership, more than 100,000 people have been tested through the system’s ability to supply test sites and supplies. In Texas, more than 3 million people have benefited from the pandemic management provided by the public-private partnership.
The tech team helped public administrators save lives and were focused at every step, Mr. Lloyd said.
“We solved purchasing and legal questions with speed,” he said. “The comradery and accomplishment will remain one of the high points of peoples’ careers. Can big tech be ‘good?’ The example here shows that it certainly can.”
