MERIT Team Award

MERIT Team Award: MACWIS

Maine Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (MACWIS)

MACWIS is truly a high performance team that supports each other and their program. They are committed to high quality and timely deliverables.  They are flexible but are very focused on the priorities.  Many of the team members have also picked up the additional support of Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services ( DLRS) initiatives without impacting the needs of the Office of Child and Family Services ( OCFS).  With the Maine Integrated Health Management System (MIHMS) project and the short turnaround on the requirements, they have quickly stepped up to the plate and worked with the program to identify the requirements, scope and delivery schedule which met the project current requirements.  They are also in the process of finishing up on a release for MACWIS. 

The Team, Ted and Bob Blanchard were recognized in July by OCFS leadership for their leadership and contribution to the MACWIS certification by the Feds. Ted does an excellent job providing the coaching, mentoring and guidance, as well as, helping set the priorities.  He has also taken on the management of the support of DLRS, the project manager position of Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) integration with the Automated Client Eligibility System ( ACES), and many other program requests. 

With all of the challenges facing us today and the constant change in priorities and direction, this is one team (and manager) that we can count on to do the right thing, at the right time, and still have a smile on their faces!

MERIT Honorable Mention Team: Unemployment Compensation

This team, comprised of the members noted below, has implemented four new programs since June 2008. All of these programs were a result of federal and/or state legislation for additional unemployment insurance programs that were needed to extend unemployment benefits for thousands of the unemployed in Maine.

In almost all instances, the programming team was coding to most likely to pass versions of legislation, in order to reduce the amount of time between legislation passage and program implementation. The work this team was able to accomplish exemplifies the idea of public service, working to provide government services when the public most needs these services.

They worked long hours, under considerable stress, making coding changes to a legacy based system that is large, inflexible, and difficult to change on such tight timelines.

OIT Unemployment Insurance (UI) Benefits Team Members:

Elizabeth Watts, Senior Programmer Analyst
Patti Hatke, Senior Programmer Analyst
Christine Morancie, Systems Analyst (now retired)
Robert Simard, Senior Programmer Analyst (since transitioned to DAFS system support)
Denise Jones, Information System Support Specialist II
Patricia Taylor, Senior Programmer Analyst (new to the team since May 2009)
Dave Poulin, Systems Team Leader
Patricia O'Brien, Systems Team Leader

In summary we have accomplished the following:

Introduction

Almost all Mainers know someone negatively affected by the recession, someone who has lost a job or someone who has seen a dramatically reduction in hours. The United States unemployment insurance program is intended to offset income lost by workers who lose their jobs as a result of employer cutbacks.

The program, launched by the Social Security Act of 1935, is the government's single most important source of assistance to the jobless. The program counters the negative impact on the national and local economy of major layoffs, seasonal cutbacks, or a recession by sustaining the level of income and hence the demand for goods and services in areas hard hit by unemployment. In short, unemployment insurance supports consumer buying power. Unemployment insurance is an economic shock absorber to individuals losing their jobs and to the economy of the state of Maine .

The payment of unemployment benefits is through an unemployment insurance trust fund. The transactions, both being paid out in benefits and the correlating charges to an employer's unemployment tax account, must reconcile on a daily basis. When someone files for unemployment, it is determined if they are monetarily eligible (based on the wages they have earned) and non-monetarily eligible (the circumstances under which they lost their job).

Each of new programs noted were implemented under extremely tight deadlines. As you are aware, when the economy began to decline, it declined rapidly. Thousands of unemployed were running out of their regular unemployment benefits after a normal maximum of twenty six (26) weeks of unemployment benefits with few to no job prospects. In response to that, a series of emergency unemployment legislations were enacted over the last year.

Each of these programs had unique language, resulting in a unique set of business rules. All changes were made to most likely to pass scenarios. The Labor Commissioner, Laura Fortman, priority was to make sure that if additional benefits were available per legislation, she wanted to be able to pay those benefits as quickly as possible.

Statistics prove that the OIT UI Benefits Team was able to accomplish that.

Emergency Unemployment Compensation

In the spring of 2008, the economy began to decline and the first Emergency legislation was passed as part of bill HR 2642 on June 30, 2008. Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation allowed claimants who had run out of up to 26 weeks of Regular Unemployment benefits have up to 20 additional weeks of benefits.

For unemployment compensation purposes, the bill was effective 7/7/08. The OIT team supporting the unemployment insurance system was able to get out payments on 7/12/08.

This new program, being funded by the new legislation required all unemployment benefits paid out by this new program to be tracked separately and reported separately on all federal financial reporting. The implementation of this program required the following:

37 programs revised
10 screen revisions
19 reports changed

Tier II Emergency Unemployment Extended

As part of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Obama February 13, 2009 (H.R. 1), Tier II Emergency Unemployment Benefits were extended again via stimulus funding.

Due to the high unemployment rate, Maine qualified for this expanded federally-funded unemployment program, known as EUC Tier II Benefits. The first week for which EUC Tier II benefits were paid was February 20, 2009.

The implementation of this program required the following:

25 programs revised
10 screen revisions
19 reports changed

Federal Additional Compensation (FAC)

This new program was part of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law by on February 13, 2009.

The FAC program allowed claimants receiving benefits under certain unemployment programs to receive an additional $25 weekly benefit payment.

Again, this was stimulus funding, but had a different funding stream that the Tier II stimulus funded benefits. So, again, this required all unemployment benefits paid out by this new program to be tracked separately and reported separately on all federal financial reporting.

The FAC program began paying additional compensation starting March 4, 2009.

The implementation of this program required the following:

10 programs revised
10 screen revisions
3 reports changed

Extended Benefits

Extended Benefits (EB) is a temporary program providing up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits to workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, are still unemployed, and have run out of other unemployment benefits.

The program is a federal program that is only triggered on in times of extreme unemployment. This program is triggered by the average unemployment rate for a three month period averaging 8% of more. Once the state hit the rate noted, a state bill has to be drafted and passed to formally be designated an extended benefits state. A bill was signed by Governor Baldacci on 4/16/09.

Within hours of Governor Baldacci signing legislation allowing the Extended Benefits program to start paying benefits in Maine , notices were sent to over 200 workers identified as potentially eligible for benefits under the program. Extended benefits payments were initially made on 4/20/09.

Again, this program requires all unemployment benefits paid out by this program to be tracked separately and reported separately on all federal financial reporting.

The implementation of this program required the following:

14 programs revised
10 screen revisions
19 reports changed

Summary

In addition to the new programs, the overall number of transactions being handled by this legacy system is at an eighteen year high. At times, the daily problems that occur with a legacy system that in April, hit volumes double those handled a few years ago, has been a challenge.

The increase in volume is as follows:

In Calendar Year 2008, Unemployment Initial and Continued Claims totaled 892,121, an average of 17,157 claims a week.

As of the week ending 8/29/09, Unemployment Initial and Continued Claims have totaled 1,244,847 for an average of 35,567 a week, showing the workload has more than doubled in 2009. (See the chart below)

In calendar year 2008, a total of $163,870,293 was paid out in unemployment benefits in Maine from all state and federal unemployment insurance (UI) programs. That amount was surpassed during the week ending 5/23/09.

In calendar year 2009, as of the week ending 8/29/09, $283,412,759 of unemployment benefits has been funneled back into the Maine economy from all state and federal UI programs in effect in Maine.

                                           2008                                            2009

MERIT Nomination Team: Radio Services

The Radio Communication Services group was nominated for the team merit award based on their outstanding efforts over the last year in a number of areas.

• consolidation of statewide support of radio operations,
• developing a balanced skilled team,
• building a new radio operations facility,
• and implementation of best practices to stabilize and improve radio communication services.

A one time less than a handful of people were maintaining approximately 75 tower sites, 200 tower repeater radios, 4,300 mobile/portable radios, and 40 dispatch consoles. More than one once technicians drove, walked, snowmobiled, or snowshoed to remote tower sites in freezing/stormy weather to restore services, after hours and on weekends. It was not unheard of for a technician to drive over 50,000 miles a year.

Over time the radio communications group came together with a mix of energetic individuals who brought complementary skills and a desire to participate in and contribute to the new organization.

The group has stepped up to challenge of maintaining the older department centric systems and will be ready to transition to the new consolidated IP based system that MSCommNet will deliver.

MERIT Nomination Team: MEGIS-E911

Thanks to the MEGIS-E911 Team, not a single 911 call was dropped during the transition from Verizon to FairPoint. In 2008, Maine 's biggest phone service provider, Verizon, sold its landline phone business in Maine to FairPoint Communications. Included in this transfer was the management of databases required for the state's E911 system to function. This transfer, if done incorrectly, could have had major repercussions in providing emergency services to Maine citizenry. Through the application of strong interagency teamwork and good planning, this transfer occurred without the disruption of a single E911 call.

There are three main components of the E911 system that provide the location of a 911 call: the Automatic Location Identification (ALI) database, the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG), and the E911 roads GIS data with its address ranges. Together, these three put a 'dot' on the map where the call originated from, and allow the dispatcher to send the appropriate resources to an incident.

Prior to the Verizon/FairPoint sale, only the roads GIS data had been maintained at the state, by the Maine Office of GIS (MEGIS) team. When phone service was transferred to FairPoint, there were great concerns about the management of these data. The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) agreed that in addition to the roads data, the MSAG would also need to be managed by MEGIS. With January 2009 set as the deadline for transfer of the database from Verizon to MEGIS, the PUC's Emergency Service Communication Bureau (ESCB) and the MEGIS E911 team worked together to plan and implement this transfer. MEGIS had to develop new protocols for managing the MSAG, including data confidentiality policies, and mandated turnaround times for providing addresses to new residences (new residences cannot get phone service until an address has been provided that meets the 911 guidelines). PUC had to provide oversight of the business requirements and coordinate these efforts with Verizon, FairPoint, and the E911 call centers.

Teamwork and good planning provided results that exceeded all expectations. The transfer from Verizon to MEGIS went without a hitch and with no calls dropped. More than six months have passed since the transfer, and the resulting efficiencies are now evident, with no backlog of requests and consistently met deadlines. Indeed, even though MEGIS now manages two databases, the synergy created by having them both under one umbrella actually reduced the total maintenance overhead, and saved the state over $1 million a year. Today the management of both databases is a model of teamwork, with PUC and MEGIS working together with towns as well as FairPoint, all to keep the E911 system running smoothly.

MERIT Nomination Team: Enterprise Operations & Monitoring (EOM)

With the recently selected new Director, Dave Maxwell and Bob Arbour as the EOM Section Manager, EOM consists of 4 units:

Data Center Facility; High Speed Print (HSP); Central Print; Operations.

Data Center Facility:

Managed by Terry Burton who, until recently, has essentially been a one person team. He now has Roger Gagnon (an EOM ISSS) as an assistant.

Duties include insuring the performance of Data Center power (UPS-PDU, Generator), HVAC and all facility related tasks and expectations, to include being available 24/7 to respond multiple types of issues at any time and to any of the 3 primary OIT sites of responsibility.

High Speed Print:

Managed by Mike Violette with a staff of 2:

Karen Waterman and Paulette Ritzi.

Duties include; forms administration; developing/maintaining a HSP network currently between 2 sites with testing at Central Print as a 3 rd ; configuration and support of 4 Ikon printers with 2 at Edison Drive and 2 at CMCC; interfacing with state agencies re: print output such as various checks processing and applications reports.

Central Print:

Managed by Bruce Trask with a staff of 8:

Bob Gerard, Bill Drake, Deborah Trask, Yvette Veilleux, Bill Towne, Wellman Cromwell, Germaine Chabot, Duane Fiehler.

Duties include; scanning documents for high volume printing; collating; book making; stitching/stapling. A primary responsibility is the administration of the state's copy machine contract. Central Print is also embarking on a new venture in offering up scanning to other agencies having such a need.

NOTE: Members of both High Speed Print and Central Print are working on plans to further consolidate printing such that, current existing print locations (3 within OIT and possibly a 4 th from another agency) will be reduced to only 2 sites. This will greatly improve efficiencies and dramatically reduce costs in this environment, should the plans be accepted and approved.

Operations:

Managed by Bill Hart with a staff of 19 covering three shifts on a 24/7 basis at Edison Drive , two shifts on a 16/5 basis at CMCC and staff on an 8/5 schedule at MDOT.

EDOC 1st shift: Roger Gagnon, Bruce Hanson, Dan Incze, Dave Schermerhorn.

EDOC 2nd shift: Roger Clark, Ron Clark, John McLaughlin, Tom Burton.

EDOC 3rd shift: Temple Hill, Cindy White, Edgar Cormier, Jeff LeClerc.

Becky Marquis of the production services backup group will, on numerous occasions, support and assist EDOC Operations when additional shift coverage is necessary.

CMCC (Two shifts): Deborah Jones (Admin), Kayani Benning (Media Library), Roland Quirion (Finishing/Folding), Doug Crochere, Jeremy Wilson, Mark Rohman (All 3 in Operations).

MDOT: Lloyd Turcotte (8/5).

Duties include: state agencies' applications processing/printing; Tier I/II customer support (Help Desk) after normal working hours, weekends, holidays and now shutdown days; 1 st response to facility emergencies when facility staff isn't readily available; monitoring most state agencies' high volume of servers and mainframes; 1 st to report incidences via the State's FOOTPRINTS  trouble report system and notify the appropriate personnel when required; purchasing/ordering IT hardware/software, supplies and specialty forms (i.e. MDOL checks, Pressure Seal stock); maintaining an organized documentation library at CMCC and act as liaison between OIT and supported users.

EOM can be perceived (and so often is) as the forgotten' group there in the background, by customers not totally aware of its broad functionality.  Every member of EOM can be counted on to fulfill their assigned tasks and many go above and beyond normal expectations during times of limited resources. The group is made up of hard working, conscientious, dedicated people and their interaction is such that, the support they provide each other demonstrates  their compassion for and understanding of their fellow workers.

MERIT Nomination Team: Client Technologies

As a team Client Technologies has functioned together in developing new processes and procedures, while working with all of OIT to ensure that customer service levels were met. They have ensured calls are answered and have provided outstanding customer service. For the last year they have raised the average calls answered from 95% to an average of 98.5% sustained. Along with the Call Center the Field Technicians have been raising the bar as well, by ensuring that service level agreements are being met. In July of 2008 service level agreements were an average of 78.5% achieved for all of Client Technologies, today it is still climbing at 86.5% sustained average. Not to be over shadowed, the Build Center has made tremendous strides in customer satisfaction. What would normally take 2 weeks to 2 months to get a device out has now been reduced to 24 hours for every device. They have also begun to maintain a standard level of stock, ensuring that device's are always on hand. All devices are now green packaged, this aided in OIT receiving the Silver Partner Environmental Award for 2008. Client Technologies continues to raise the bar for themselves and are not satisfied with maintaining the status quo.