Stories

The coronavirus pandemic drastically changed the way our teams operate. In just a matter of days, network bandwidth and capacity increased in record time and more than 90 percent of our global workforce began delivering solutions remotely. Despite these sudden changes, we met the challenge and continued to deliver.

KBR is in the midst of a transformation – quickly becoming a more modern, sustainable company that is adept to meeting the needs of our world’s ever-changing work environment. KBR’s Information Technology (IT) department has been a crucial aspect in these efforts, having to reimagine their own delivery methods and offerings to support today’s working climate.

KBR IT’s reimagining strategy is one of continuous evolution and improvement with the goal of providing the best user experience and overall business support to its customers. Cloud-based automation has become the new norm in today’s digital age and KBR IT has increased its digital offerings to make KBR a more agile business.

In April, KBR IT successfully deployed Microsoft Teams, a hub for teamwork located in the Microsoft Cloud. Now offered to all employees across the global KBR network, the application brings together several collaboration tools and features in one place to enhance productivity, efficiency and creativity. Since then, our teams from Houston to Dubai to Beijing have been utilizing Teams to its full extent to ensure global business continuity and collaboration remain intact.

KBR IT is also leveraging the Teams platform to reimagine the use of equipment, office spaces, workstations and conference rooms throughout KBR offices around the world. IT is deploying several Teams-enabled devices in an effort to standardize the user experience and environment. For example, gadgets such as digital whiteboards, call centers and more will allow employees to work and connect through Teams no matter their office or work from home location. In addition, IT is making an effort to ensure each employees’ hardware and personal working devices are modernized and up to date. Equipment such as laptops, monitors and docking stations are refreshed through the IT’s leasing system, ensuring the best user experience for IT’s customers.

Another aspect of the KBR IT reimagining strategy is centered around group and individual sustainability initiatives. With working from home as the new normal, the IT group has pushed for personal environmental impact in reducing its global office footprint and individual travel. Additionally, IT has set in motion Project Paperless, a campaign with the goal of moving to a paperless environment by 2023 by implementing DocuSign as a company-wide electronic signature service and deploying a universal copier system designed to limit the use of paper. As many countries continue to aim toward reducing emissions to the Net-zero 2050, KBR IT believes it can play a big part in this effort.

“All of these accomplishments and initiatives would not be made possible without the hard work and dedication of global KBR IT team,” said John Thomson, Vice President and Chief Information Officer. “That delivery was on display at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when work from home orders were initially announced. Our team quickly went to work to increase employee bandwidth and capacity on the KBR network.

“More recently, our team set in motion a number of action plans to ensure network connectivity and with Hurricane Laura approaching the Houston area,” Thomson continued. “This is just another challenge we successfully navigated thanks to our outstanding team who continue to deliver for our customers and the global business no matter the circumstances.”

KBR IT’s number one priority is to serve its customer – the KBR employee. As part of this ongoing transformation within KBR, the IT team is committed to innovation and change while delivering top-of-the-line services that meet the needs of today’s modern worker.

“The IT workforce worked around the clock to ensure we met our employees’ needs and now we have an opportunity to leverage this momentum to continue to deliver”, said Diana Hipp, Deputy CIO, KBR Information Technology. “I am proud to work with such a great team and I am very excited about our future.”