Solutions

Case Study

Client: Western Reserve Transit Authority – Comprehensive Plan for Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS)

Role

Strategic Planning, Business Process Redesign, Project Management Office, Procurement Support and Implementation

Objective

Development of a Comprehensive Plan for an Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS), Development of RFP, Procurement Support and Implementation Management

Background and Solution:

Mindboard was engaged in developing a Comprehensive Plan for Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) at the Western Reserve Transit Authority (WRTA). Mindboard initiated this project by interviewing key WRTA personnel in an effort to understand WRTA's APTS vision. Following our analysis of the interview findings, reviewing WRTA services, facilities and IT resources, and shadowing critical business processes and documents, we defined WRTA's APTS vision. Based on our observations and findings, Mindboard developed document shadowing tables, dataflow maps, “As-Is” process maps, application architecture maps, network architecture maps, and functional maps. Furthermore, we conducted a SWOT analysis of WRTA information technology and conducted a systems audit of business-critical systems including Trapeze, Maximus, FleetMate, Fleetlynx, ABRA, and ABS. Based on our reviews we defined APTS specific future requirements for WRTA.

The Mindboard team conducted a benchmark study and best practices review to identify gaps in WRTA’s APTS processes and developed an APTS Action Plan. Mindboard identified suitable applications that fit WRTA's future requirements and budget allocations. Mindboard additionally prepared an APTS implementation plan and defined technical specifications for selected applications and developed a request for proposal (RFP) for identified APTS.

Mindboard also managed the APTS vendor review and procurement process by evaluating vendor proposals, developing vendor information packets, conducting qualitative and quantitative analyses, managing vendor demonstrations, providing recommendation for vendor selection, and conducting contract negotiations with selected vendor.

Mindboard also served as the Project Manager throughout the duration of the implementation of selected technologies, working on behalf of WRTA to ensure that projects were delivered on time, within budget and with the highest levels of quality.

Case Study: Public Transit

Case Study

Client: Large Suburban Water Agency

Role

IT Assessment & RFP Development

Objective

Comprehensive Peer Review of the Large Suburban Water Agency’s Technology and Business Systems, and IT Support Services RFP Development and Vendor Selection

Background and Solution:

Large Suburban Water Agency (“Agency”) engaged Mindboard to conduct an independent comprehensive peer review of the Agency’s technology and business systems to ensure the effectiveness and reliability of its Information Technology environment. The initiative was aimed at identifying and assessing critical challenges of the Agency’s IT function and ensuring that the Agency maintains its IT infrastructure and operations according to the industry standards and best practices.

Mindboard’s approach in conducting this study included three major phases,

1. Data Gathering,
2. Critical Analysis and
3. Recommendation Development.

During the data-gathering phase, Mindboard Project Team (“Project Team”) obtained information through a series of on-site interviews and also reviewing available documentation. Personal interviews were utilized as the primary tool for data gathering, which enabled the Project Team to obtain a clear picture of the challenges faced by the Agency at present. The critical analysis phase was utilized to synthesize the information captured into an actionable format. A major part of the analysis phase was to develop a comprehensive GAP analysis, utilizing prior information gathered, combined with our institutional knowledge of public sector IT best practices. As part of the gap analysis process, Mindboard utilized a three-dimensional approach, namely People, Process, and Technology (PPT) to develop a high-level understanding of the current state of the Agency IT environment by assessing how these three elements interact with each other within the Agency. Finally, recommendations were developed utilizing key findings from the gap analysis. For implementation purposes, Mindboard categorized the strategic recommendations to immediate (0-3 months), short term (3-12 months), and medium term (12 – 36 months), and long term (36-60 months).

The Agency also engaged Mindboard to assist them in the IT Support Services Request for Proposal Development and Vendor Selection. To develop comprehensive RFP document, we conducted series of interviews to various department personnel to gather information what services are rendered right now and what services they want the new IT Support vendor to render. Following the interview and outcome of comprehensive analysis of Agency’s technology infrastructure, we developed the RFP document in two segments – Managed Services and On-demand services. After publishing the RFP document, we are currently conducting proposal evaluation and analyzing the received proposals from the cost benefit analysis viewpoint. After this analysis, we will participate in the vendor demonstration for short listed vendors and then conduct next round of qualification check via references. We will also assist the Agency in contract negotiation and development of contract performance matrix for monitoring and control.

Case Study: Water Management

Case Study

Electronic Integrated Case Management (eICM)

Client

Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services

Role

Technology Architecture, Design, Implementation, Reporting and Test Support

Objective

Integration of 140 disparate processes across six program areas into an integrated, “no wrong door” process that will allow recipients of HHS services to apply for and obtain services more efficiently while providing a single, integrated system of record for caseworkers.

Background and Solution:

Montgomery County, MD is one of the largest counties in the State of Maryland and serves a diverse population, some of which requires assistance from the County’s Health and Human Services programs. Montgomery County DHHS provides services within six program areas (Aging & Disability Services, Behavioral Health and Crisis Services, Public Health Services, Special Needs Housing and Administration), each of which houses multiple discrete programs and associated processes. The objective of this project is to integrate DHHS services to:

• Enable citizens of Montgomery County to obtain DHHS services through a “No Wrong Door” approach
• Enable DHHS case workers and management to efficiently administer, manage and track services

Mindboard team is spearheading design and implementation using Oracle/Siebel platform. To provide full case information, the system integrates with both State systems and other County systems. Integration with the state systems use Web services, including middleware and a National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) structure for communication. The communication with other County systems (e.g., eHR) use a master data structure implemented using Oracle Enterprise Data Quality (EDQ) tools. The case outcomes, analytics, and reporting is performed using Oracle’s Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) and Oracle’s Case Management Analytics package.

Case Study: Health & Human Services

Case Study

Client: State of Maryland, Department of Human Resources

Project: Maryland Department of Human Resources – Implementation of xPression Document Generation and Delivery solution

Role

UI/UX Redesign, Business Process Redesign, Project Management Support, Technology Architecture, Design, Implementation and Test (including UAT support) of the end-to-end technology overhaul of the legacy system for customer communications to a brand new platform for the online and batch processes to support 50K+ users; migrate 2500+ templates.

Objective

Implementation of xPression Document Generation and Delivery solution for the four MD DHR legacy towers.

Background and Solution:

MD DHR legacy systems produces several million (in double digits) notices per year using a batch notice generation process based on COBOL and in some cases send to CDC for batch printing and mailing, and in other cases printed using local printers, which are then manually folded and stuffed in mailer envelopes for a mail out. The notices are based on ‘000s of templates, some in English and some in Spanish, and business logic embedded in the primary business process. Historic notices are stored on the shared drive (SAN) and retrieved through custom green screens. The absence of a standardized editing tool makes On-Demand creation of case documents challenging. The current notice generation technology is outdated, difficult to maintain, and restricts full functionality.

Mindboard is the primary provider of the integration, implementation and testing services for the customer communications modernization effort at MD DHR. Through the implementation of xPression, notice generation and delivery processes have become centralized in an enterprise system of record and will significantly improve notice generation efficiency.

Case Study: State & Local Agencies · User Experience

Case Study

Client: Verizon Enterprise Solutions (VES)

Role

Data Warehouse (DWH) Evaluation, Repository Modeling Development, Team Development, Data Model with Scorecard and Report Development

Objective

Provide expertise in the implementation and organization of OBIEE including evaluation of DHW structure, repository development and modeling, knowledge transfer to in-house developers, security, release processes and best practices.

Background and Solution:

Performance Management Reporting and Analysis is responsible for development, delivering and providing on-demand operational and performance analysis reporting. The group wanted to migrate the existing reports (.NET/C#, SSRS with Oracle 11g) and models to Oracle OBIEE platform to provide executive to center to rep-level reporting from fully integrated dashboards to “delivered” reports to ad-hoc reports. The business team was in the process of implementing OBIEE using new IT-managed/administered infrastructure.

For this project, Mindboard partnered with Accenture.

This project scope included

1. evaluation of the current data warehouse (DWH) structure,
2. repository development and modeling,
3. Scorecards and report development, and
4. team development including knowledge transfer to the in-house developers, and train them on application security, release processes and best practices.

The project was approached in 2 phases:

• Phase I – Project Initiation and Data/Information Gathering
• Phase II – Data Modeling with a Dashboard and 4 executive level Reports

During Phase I, the Mindboard’s OBIEE Hands-On-Consultant-Team reviewed the existing (“as is”) ETL/database and evaluated with the group the amount of expansion expected within the timeline of the project, outlined development of subsets of four subject areas and population through the Admin Tools provided in the Standard Edition Client, the Scorecard RPD sufficient to allow flexibility (Kimball). Phase 1 deliverables were Data Structure Evaluation Report, which included

• Data Structure Evaluation for the identified Scorecard
• Data Structure Evaluation for up to four (4) executive level reports across Order Management, Provisioning and Maintenance Functional Areas

During Phase II, Mindboard’s focus was to get the “right” data model ready for dash boarding and reporting. The client team was an Agile shop, thus the tasks were performed through a modified Agile (Extreme Programming) approach with a subset of the SCRUM in two week iterative sprints for the life of the project. The data model was developed in conjunction with in house business users and DHW developers, care was taken to allow the model for Global / Regional / National and International reporting. Model was sourced from multiple reporting tables and allowed for complex dimensionality. Reports developed, allowed users to Drill to various provision and order-level detail tables and the model was optimized/tuned for good user experience.

Case Study: Corporate · (BIG) Data Engineering · Data Science/Machine Learning