As it celebrates its 10th anniversary, OrangeSlices AI sat down with Peter L. Levin, former Senior Advisor to the Secretary and Chief Technology Officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs, who is Co-founder and CEO of Amida Technology Solutions, a software services company focused on data interoperability, exchange, governance, and security. We talked with Peter about Amida’s secret of building a strong team over the last decade, its culture of doing things that matter with people they care about, and the company’s success within VA.
The Chance to Tackle the Most Difficult Data Problems with a Wide Lens
Wrapping up his time in public service, Peter had the opportunity to move in a variety of directions. Opting for intellectual freedom, and the chance to tackle some of the greatest public-sector data challenges in creative and strategic ways that would achieve the greatest impact, Amida was born.
From the start, the focus was on opening the aperture of opportunity to a diverse workforce inclusive of different backgrounds and national origins, who were eager to expand their professional experience and expertise and work at a venture backed or, at that time, venture-like startup.
Commitment to Values
Amida’s company values are more than a checkbox on a marketing plan. The company was founded on and still maintains three core pillars – Impact, Excellence and Joy. Those who were drawn to the company, and those who have stayed as the company heads into its 10th anniversary, are committed to these principles. Amida’s values are reflected in the everyday work of its employees and their commitments of “doing work better than anyone else because of the Impact, Excellence, and Joy that fuel our work.”
While COVID-19 and the move to more remote work could have made adhering to these values challenging, the team is more aligned with them than ever before. Because interactions and collaboration are different without the visible cues of someone’s activity or background environment, that are plainly visible within a shared office, and recognizing that electronic communication can be misinterpreted or carry hidden meaning, Amida placed extra emphasis on making connections. That means giving thought and care to finding an optimal communications balance, to being sensitive to the limitations of virtual communication, and working patience, integrity, and above all: trust.
“It’s no secret that there are plenty of successful firms that rely on a different set of values than we do,” Levin told us. “I get it. But the people who love Amida, who stay with us for years, are really committed to those ideals. They help all of us – including me – stay on that less-travelled road. It keeps me going.”
Building a Team of Trust
Amida’s progressive and open-minded leaders are the driving force behind the team’s success, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to improve, see beyond their own perspectives, and advance their abilities and knowledge. Amida’s success is driven by trust that every team member takes ownership and responsibility for their actions, is consistent, reliable, and truthful to their core. By doing so Amida can build an environment in which employees have a safe space to express their ideas, but also admit their mistakes.
Encouraged to bring forward new perspectives, people recognize they have a voice. The decisions are the result of candid, open dialogs, where forward motion only happens with collaboration, feedback, and adjusting to new information. The leadership is grounded in achieving Impact through Excellence and Joy. They look to the team to derive the best new ideas, so the opportunity for innovation and ideation is large and growing.
Do Stuff that Matters with People You Care About
Through a constant mantra that is shared regularly, there is an authenticity and integrity within this company and evident in the business it pursues, the relationships it engages in, and in its dialogue. With the team now numbering around 100 members, the importance of preserving Amida’s foundation and culture is as critical and non-negotiable as ever.
Balancing the need to attract and retain people who are like hearted but not necessarily like minded, who align with its values, the company remains intentional in its hiring. The company looks for the right blend of humor, tolerance, resilience and mission focus. “We’re fortunate in the United States, and especially in government contracting, that the market is large enough and fluid enough that you can find the team – or create the team – that you feel comfortable with, that is pulling in the same direction. So why wouldn’t you do that?”
Leading VA Outside the Realm of SDVOSB
Over the last decade Amida positioned itself outside the SDVOSB socioeconomic category, by creating and managing solutions that enable the reliable exchange of sensitive information. Amida is in a unique position to offer its expertise as a Prime contractor or sought-after subcontractor within both the federal and commercial spaces.
With an expectation of vivid transparency, continuous alignment of goals and processes, and sometimes, finding partners through sheer luck, Amida takes a lot of pride of its partnerships, including those with B3 Group and Octo. “When you can work with a partner doing impactful work, do it better than anyone has done it before, when you’ve got a sense of humor about it and you enjoy doing the work, you can find success beyond whatever money will follow.”
“When you can find a place where you are impacting individuals, creating a work environment where they can professionally excel and grow, have the mental health supports they need, where those around you find themselves in an honorable and comfortable economic situation, and you enjoy the time you are spending together, you get to that precious place of doing stuff that matters with people that you care about. That is a great place to be. Our people know that. Our customers know that.”
About Amida
Amida Technology Solutions, Inc. (Amida) is a software services company that solves the most complex challenges in data interoperability, data exchange, data governance, and data security. We create and manage solutions that enable the reliable exchange of sensitive information — from conception through deployment. Amida securely develops and configures data resources for our clients, which include federal, state, and commercial enterprises. We build custom, open-source solutions that collect and prepare data from a variety of sources – independent of structure, format, provenance, and schema – for applications like business intelligence, predictive analytics (including AL, ML, and NLP), and downstream transactions. Additionally, we help select, configure, and run commercial-off-the-shelf applications for our clients. We are especially known for open data architectures and production services that are scalable, efficient, modular, and secure. Our software engineers and data scientists have extensive knowledge in data modeling, reconciliation, administration, and visualization – with vast experience in health IT.
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