FirstNet announces new staff positions as organization prepares for post-award challenges

Indeed, with FirstNet officials hoping to conclude its massive procurement process and make a contractor award late this year, things are “getting very, very real very fast,” Kennedy said, reiterating the organization’s need to be focused on serving publics safety’s communications needs.

“Public safety is a our partner and our customer,” Kennedy said. “We need to treat them like that. We need to make sure that we’re meeting their every need. Because they will be buying services from FirstNet, they’re going to expect an extremely responsive level of service. That’s the kind of organization that our chief customer officer will be able to respond to.

“I think it’s critically important, because they have options, in terms of who they buy services from. We want to make sure that we have the best-value proposition for each police department, fire department and EMS agency in this country.”

To achieve this goal, Swenson repeatedly stressed the need for FirstNet to be a lean, agile organization that is nimble enough to adapt and take actions quickly, because that inherently is the environment that public safety finds itself when responding to incidents.