At the time that last year’s annual report went to print, the world was in the early throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global economy was in freefall, and American democracy was under the strain of an intense debate about race and identity. We challenged our people to be resilient and to find ways to turn adversity to opportunity, and they did just that—literally transforming themselves, the company, and client agencies to respond to mission-supporting imperatives to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of our fellow citizens. So, transformation is not just a fitting theme for this report. It captures the spirit and strength of Atlas Research (Atlas) and speaks to the alignment of our capabilities with critical federal client needs. We prioritized the safety of our employees and their families and made the decision to go to a remote and flexible work posture in early 2020. From the many anecdotes we have heard from across the company, we know that this early decision—and the direction to our managers to be maximally accommodating of health, childcare, and other needs—was the right call; and our employees more than reciprocated, leaning in to deliver on our aspirations and our commitment to service delivery excellence. We call out for special recognition those employees who, by virtue of the essential client missions they supported, volunteered to continue going to client sites as the pandemic raged, putting themselves at risk for the wider good. Their commitment is just one example of the ingredients that combined to make 2020 a year to be proud of and the foundation for a strong and impactful year ahead. As we reflect on our transformative 2020 body of work, a few things stand out.
We also had success pivoting existing projects and resources to address immediate needs. Atlas experts have been working with VHA’s Office of Connected Care to expand the use of telehealth for Veterans who live in rural areas or are homebound. When lockdowns made telehealth a necessity for nearly all Veterans, we helped the Office rapidly scale its telehealth capabilities to well over 100,000 appointments per week. As we responded with agility to emerging client needs, we also worked to transform the strategies and plans for our own work environment and the journeys of our Atlas staff and leadership to promote resilience and the promising new practices best aligned to a thriving, learning organization.
While the pandemic dominated the headlines in 2020, our nation’s other challenges persisted and evolved. Our focus on national-level engagements and deep subject matter expertise in health and organizational transformation contributed to critical, innovative federal efforts impacting our nation at large, with a particular focus on enhancing health equity and on modernizing government agencies.
Further, we continued to advance projects focused on improving access to primary and mental health care for vulnerable populations, on modernizing supply chain management and equipment lifecycle systems, on grants management and financial audit services, and on human capital and performance improvement training and workforce management efforts. We supported data modeling efforts and managed major transformation efforts across the VHA Innovation Ecosystem, the national oncology program, the clinical research enterprise, the Office of Discovery Education and Affiliate Networks (DEAN), the Care and Payment Innovation (CPI) portfolio, and in benefits claims processing. Meaningful, impactful programs have been the animating force of Atlas since our founding, and we continued to leave our mark across all of our expanding markets.
Moving through challenging times allowed us to re-imagine the future of Atlas. We made strategic capability investments and strengthened our human capital resources to respond to new possibilities in a changing environment. We funded new growth areas and pursued new opportunities that aligned to our mission and values. We focused on resetting our digital and technology initiatives to map to the sources of customer value and worked to implement process improvements and high-impact actions throughout the organization.
We have seen our prior investments bear fruit in the form of continued growth in strategic program wins, an expansion of qualified pipeline opportunities, a shift in contract mix to full and open awards, and the deepening of capabilities that support transformation, market diversification, and the winning of prime contract vehicles. Our energies are focused now on leveraging our new wins and new capabilities to fortify the path ahead, to continue building on our strengths, and to share the exciting vision and experience with every level of the company and with our diverse network of clients and partners.
As the post-COVID world emerges, we welcome it with optimism and deep appreciation. Our people and our capabilities put us in a position of strength, and we look forward to what we expect will be more banner years to come. We are grateful to our dedicated employees and to our partners with whom we work tirelessly to support the missions and programs of our clients, including transformation and innovation initiatives, health equity programs, pandemic response and preparedness, human capital and training efforts, digital and technology services, and a host of other critical performance areas.
It is an exciting time, as we look ahead to a bright future.
Onward and upward,
Ryung Suh, MD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Mark H. Chichester, JD
PRESIDENT
