The public sector launches hundreds of RFP/RFQs on a daily basis. Most focusing on documenting decades-old business processes and system transactions in excruciating detail that invariably result in the same “usual suspects” bidders with the “same old software”.
These RFPs are difficult (and expensive) to develop, evaluate, negotiate and administer let alone deliver as a project.
Rethink your business through the lens of business outcomes and customer engagement as opposed to “this is the way we have always done it”.
Innovative Government Solutions
Modernizing Workers Compensation
Top 10 State
Bureau of Workers Compensation
Opportunity
This State's Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) is the largest state-fund system in the United States and one of the top 10 underwriters of workers’ compensation insurance in the nation. BWC provides wage-replacement and health insurance coverage for employees hurt on the job to more than 250,000 businesses -- making it the country's largest state workers' compensation insurer and operates as a $28 billion company with 2 million open claims.
In 2011 the agency decided to integrate its core systems, including claims, policy and employer billing, in one new system that resides in the State’s private cloud and replaces a decades-old mainframe based application. As part of the systems implementation, BWC implemented a change in business model that changed from paying premiums based on actual payroll, after employees had been paid, to charging employers would be charged a premium in advance based on estimated payroll and settle the difference the following year.
Our Role
Following a successful systems implementation, the BWC engaged Stonyhurst to develop and negotiate innovative managed technical services contract with the software vendor designed to support and maintain this mission critical application and provide systems evolution services designed to support BWC in changes to the regulatory climate and drive synergies within its administration, adjudication and payment of all workers' compensation policies and claims in the State.
Results
The scope of the contract includes core processing, including, claims, policy, and premium billing that utilizes a comprehensive solution delivered in a completely browser-based J2EE technology that can be deployed BWC’s needs. As a result, the State’s legacy mainframe environment has been retired in lieu of a fully-modernized, modular software platform and able to accommodate a wide range of insurance requirements both currently and in the future. In addition, BWC will utilize an advanced service-oriented platform to provide easier business process automation, integration, scalability, and a rich user interface framework.
Safe, Secure, Convenient
... and Digital
Top 10 State: Department of Public Safety
Next-Generation Driver's License,
Identity Card (RealID)
Opportunity
Our client, Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) sought a solution for the origination, verification, issuance and distribution of its next generation driver’s license and identification (DL/ID) document system as to compete an 8+ year old contract, continue compliance with Federal RealID Act requirements and position the State to utilize next-generation digital credentials that are under development for official forms of identification. Further, as part of this strategy, the State elected to move to a Central Issuance drivers license model as to gain access to industry best practices as they relate to the chain of custody of drivers license data, card production and citizen convenience.
Our Role
Stonyhurst was selected by the State and worked closely with the BMV Registrar to research best practices in the industry as they relate to Federal and State requirements, card counterfeiting, citizen convenience and emerging mobile/digital standards. As part of our work, Stonyhurst researched more than 26 State efforts that preceded our client, National and International card production standards and developed an innovative RFP that allowed a fair and objective basis of evaluating vendors while affording them opportunities to differentiate themselves through innovation, timeliness/responsiveness and incorporation of next-generation card features that will position the State as a national leader in DL/ID credentials.
Results
The sourcing effort received six qualified offers from leading industry vendors that offer AAMVA/RealID compliant cards and resulted in the following outcomes:
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Significant Improvements in the Security, Integrity & Quality of the DL/ID card
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Reduction of Future Risk & Costs associated with card data gathering, security, card production, card dissemination and replacement/renewals;
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An increase to the Privacy & Security aspects of the system and processes associated with card production for State Residents
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A marked Improvement in the Auditing & Accountability of system, data and processes
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Better positioning of the State to offer convenience to the Public through the use of emerging digital technology solutions in the future
UNLOCKING STATE DATA FOR PUBLIC GOOD
A Nationally Acclaimed State
Enterprise Data Analytics Initiative
Opportunity
This State maintains more than 1,600 IT systems which span and address the needs of Health and Human Services, Business and Industry, Administration and Finance, Public Safety and Criminal Justice and Infrastructure and the Environment. These IT systems organize and support State Agencies in delivering services to the citizens and businesses of the State as well as serve as vital linkages between the public and the State to seek help and assistance, start and grow businesses, obtain services, work and live statewide. The use of State data assets to increase the well-being of citizens, their health, their property, security, livelihood and prosperity is essential.
In aggregate, these systems maintain a wealth of data and historically have been commissioned and operated expressly to serve the purposes of Agencies. Unlocking this data would allow the State to identify and drive meaningful social change to make a difference for the citizens of the State – fixing communities, restoring hope to those most in need, identifying inefficiencies, creating jobs and economic growth, adjusting policies, and predicting and preparing for otherwise unexpected events.
The challenge for our client was how best to organize this data into information, identify meaningful social applications and develop policies and programs to focus the State on what is most important to citizens. In realizing this challenge, there are several opportunities that present themselves that will require coordination, consideration and resolve to design and orchestrate a program that delivers results for our citizens. Better use of the vast data, analytical resources and talent pool in our university systems and across the State must be applied to pressing problems such as poverty reduction, job creation, infant mortality and bettering our environment.
In consideration of these State systems and the data they maintain, there is an extraordinary opportunity in performing sharing, unification and analysis of the underlying data sets by placing them under the lens of advanced analytical tools, data scientists, State program experts and policymakers that are now possible and commonly available across the State and the country.
Our Role
Stonyhurst has collaborated with the Office of Information Technology, several cabinet Agencies and the Office of the Governor to identify and implement this profound opportunity to do good in the State through a unique, cross-agency collaboration for a first-of-its kind procurement that includes: data sharing and privacy agreements, hybrid private/state cloud analytics platforms, and an innovative sourcing approach designed to contract with multiple hundreds of eminent data analytics firms nationally to both use State data for public good as well as to foster a next generation economic development engine.
TRANSFORMATIVE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
Top 10 State
State Department of Medicaid
Integrated Eligibility System
Opportunity
This State presented Stonyhurst the challenge of attempting to modernize 30+ year old systems to address the Affordable Health Care Act of 2012 (“ObamaCare”) Medicaid requirements. As part of adopting this legislation, the State was able to receive a 90% Federal match on the systems implementation effort – with the proviso that key program dates associated with “go-lives” were met.
Our Role
Stonyhurst practitioners engaged the State Medicaid Agency and Department of Job and Family Services in the late stages of functional requirements and RFP development. In a three week period, a 3rd party developed RFP was re-engineered to be market ready, commercially reasonable, and include key managed service, systems development and security/privacy elements in its scope.
Results
Using Stonyhurst innovative practices, the State was able to successfully negotiate and award a $300M+, 3,000+ page contract in less than 8 work weeks and qualify for a 90% federal match. Further, Stonyhurst partnered with the State to develop an innovative Organizational Change Management RFP ($40M+) designed to: elevate the Department of Medicaid to a Cabinet-Level Agency and ensure that all 88 counties in the State were prepared to utilize the system on Day 1. Finally, in concert with rigorous Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) standards, Stonyhurst sourced an Independent Validation and Verification (IV&V) firm ($7M+) to perform critical program oversight functions.
As a result of this initiative:
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The State delivered the technology to enable Affordable Care Act eligibility and expanded Medicaid in record time.
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Via the Project, $2.5 billion in extra Medicaid funds from the federal government benefited citizens.
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1,790,914 Individuals applied for Medicaid Benefits through the system and now have access to healthcare services through new channels and systems.
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Workers are able to use the system to process applications on time and deliver medical services to individuals despite unprecedented demand on the State.
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1.7 million individuals converted from the legacy system - all expected legacy covered children and families-CFC cases (existing enrollees who are eligible under a Medicaid category) were converted.
FIGHTING BLIGHT THROUGH 21ST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY
State Legislature, Sheriff's
Association &
County Clerks of Court
Statewide Foreclosure
Auction Website
Opportunity
This State's Legislature sought to implement a cloud-based solution for use by the Counties and their Sheriffs that will dramatically reduce the State's Foreclosure inventory while providing for a secure, highly competitive Auction process to:
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Reduce Statewide Foreclosure Inventory – Automate complex and time-consuming County-level processes that are contributory to building a backlog of properties across the State.
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Provide for More Competitive, Convenient and Transparent Auctions and support Sheriffs Statewide in drawing as much competition as possible on properties through convenient web and mobile-based buyer tools while gathering, maintaining and providing all required information related properties and the buying and selling process.
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Drive Common Processes across the State so that all Counties would utilize a common technology and process framework for the management of the overall Foreclosure auction process – from receiving of a Court Order to sell a property, listing the property to the public via the website and newspapers, conducting online and in-person (and hybrids thereof) auctions, recording the results of the auction inclusive of deposits and other filing requirements, through closure and final settlement of the transaction.
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Allow county staff and citizen users to use this service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week requires fewer resources to meet the operational demands of the Counties inclusive of the Courts, Sheriffs, Property Holders, Citizens and Treasurers across the State.
Our Role
Stonyhurst collaborated with the Sheriff's Association, multiple Clerks of Court, Legislators and the Banking and Legal communities to develop a RFP which is the first-of-its-kind nationally to facilitate the listing, bidding, buying and completion of Foreclosures across the State. This system, once fully deployed will significantly reduce Foreclosure inventory statewide and position our client as the country's leader in putting real estate back into productive citizen use.
Results
In March of 2017, the State awarded this contract to a leading provider of cloud-based “Auctions as a Service” solutions and commissioned a county-by-county phased deployment that both aligns with the implementation deadlines required by law, with an initial deployment wave for five counties scheduled for the summer of 2017. Due to the highly competitive nature of this procurement, the State was able to obtain world-class services at approximately 1/3 the price of comparable solutions.
BUILDING TRUST BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND CITIZENS
A Top 10 State
Enterprise Identity, Access Management
and Fraud Detection
Opportunity
In the wake of several data breaches effecting governmental entities nationally, Stonyhurst conducted an analysis of several large Cabinet Agencies to better understand system capabilities to manage user identities, identify personal information and financial fraud origins and defenses and methods to better protect sensitive data maintained in the State’s IT systems portfolio. The goal of this initiative is to specify, design and implement a core set of capabilities as an Enterprise Framework to allow Individuals (citizens and businesses) and State Agencies (employees and State workers) to utilize secure, efficient, easy-to-use, and interoperable identity solutions to access State online services and applications in a manner that promotes confidence, privacy, choice, and innovation.
Our Role
In addition to the aforementioned analysis, Stonyhurst engaged several Cabinet Agencies to identify meaningful pilot projects to implement:
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Definitive Identity Proofing for citizens and businesses using the State's licensing, revenue/fee collection and tax portals;
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Include 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) in these systems as well as within the State's ERP and trusted Cloud Infrastructure systems; and
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Implement a programmatic identity/access fraud analytics platform to help the State identify unapproved or inappropriate access attempts to State systems.
As part of the work, and in concert with developing the State's strategy and RFP for this initiative, Stonyhurst engaged Cabinet Agency CIOs and business stakeholders to gain critical buy-in to the effort that will serve as the basis for all new systems deployments throughout the State.
Concurrent with the sourcing of this solution, the State decided to apply for a Federal grant opportunity issued by NIST for The National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) to conquer different issues with digital identities, collaborate across state boundaries and leverage national standards in creating, managing and implementing trusted identities maintained in State systems.
Results
As a result of this $15M+ initiative, in 2017 our client has:
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Implemented Identity and 2FA in several of its most important public facing systems (Licensing, Gateway and Tax);
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Saved more than $5M / year as a result of moving to a cloud-based Identity Service Provider for Identity Proofing;
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Implemented a comprehensive Identity / Access fraud analytics platform (also cloud-based) to stop identity and password hackers in their tracks.
In addition, our client was successful in obtaining a $2.97M grant from NIST to accelerate this initiative and conquer different issues with digital identities - one of only 2 states to be acknowledged nationally for its work.
MAKING STARTING AND GROWING A BUSINESS EASIER
Leading State
Offices of the
Lieutenant Governor, Taxation and Information Technology
Business Filing and Tax Gateway
Opportunity
Established in 2002, the Gateway established a long term vision to become the primary hub for business interactions with the State.
This State's Gateway is an online destination where 500,000 - 600,000 business users submit transactions and payments for 23 different service areas. In 2009, a revision to the system went live as the first major release and update to the original system.
Since 2009, transaction volume on the gateway has increased as more service areas have come online, foundational and user-facing technology has evolved at a rapid pace, and the needs of the OBG’s end-users and the state agencies have changed. These factors have contributed to the State’s desire to modernize the Gateway.
In calendar year 2017, more than $18B in state and municipal revenue flowed through the Gateway via billions of transactions for more than a million businesses.
Our Role
Stonyhurst collaborated with State stakeholders to develop and execute an innovative sourcing approach that resulted in an innovative re-imagining of the Gateway with a singular vision:
Make doing business in easy and efficient by providing e-Government services that are simple and secure
Based on this mission statement, Stonyhurst developed an innovative RFP that was designed to create a consolidated hub for business activities in the State. Our strategy and sourcing approach encouraged a focus on the end-user experience, while providing the flexibility to serve state agency partners in a more efficient way and supporting the following objectives:
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Implement a clear customer journey for starting, managing, and growing a business in the State
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Establish a unified front-end (Ux) experience across agencies and partners
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Decrease the amount of time business users spend on compliance with the State
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Extend value-additive tools and information to businesses operating in the State
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Create an adaptable and scalable cloud platform that integrates with differentiated back-end systems
Results
Stonyhurst introduced a set of new procurement processes to the State that (based on Innovative Competitive Dialog processes) we designed to inform the vendor marketplace of the opportunity, objectives, design/development considerations as well as the very real stakes associated with redeveloping a business facing system with multiple hundreds of thousands of users and multiple billions of dollars in transactions flowing through the system.
Following a hotly competed procurement process, a systems integrator and business change management vendor were selected to design and implement this system within and across the State. This system is being developed on a leading cloud platform as a service and went live late in 2018.
eGOVERNMENT@24/7
ENTERPRISE eLICENSING
Top 10 State
Opportunity
Our client wanted to an Enterprise eLicensing system for the application, renewals, enforcement and inspections of a variety of professional and operating Licenses for the State's Agencies, Boards and Commissions across more than 700 professional and business licenses for nearly a million licensees administered by the State. As part of this initiative, the State wanted to dramatically increase the ease of use, features/functions and end user experience for licensed professionals and businesses statewide.
As part of this opportunity, the State determined that this was a superb opportunity to break from the past and leverage a modern cloud platform to move these systems into the 21st century and offer access 24/7 on mobile devices and tablets as well as traditional computer based access.
Our Role
Stonyhurst’s market research and strategy work positioned our client as one of the most individual/business friendly States in the country to start and operate a business or get licensed, and resulted in a flexible and easy-to-use licensing process from both the State’s perspective (operations and maintenance) and an end-user perspective (simpler, more efficient license filings and renewals). Our research and strategy included a comprehensive analysis of functional requirements and successes in the licensing space both from a platform and “as a Pure Service” perspective and resulted in the development of, migration to and use of a cloud (Software as a Service - SaaS) platform that resulted in standardization of the State’s approach to eLicensing based on a configurable platform; removal of "programming based" custom software applications to a more "configuration driven" approach that allows the State, to more efficiently design and deploy new License categories while migrating from the legacy application set.
Results
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As of June 2017, more than 11 boards have adopted and implemented the solution, with more agencies to come under quarterly agile-SDLC releases.
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A recent survey of more than 4,500 end-users (licensees) say the system is far easier to use and more responsive than the legacy systems it replaced and rank the State licensing environment on par with some of the best applications on the web. Almost than 85% of the users cited the online experience has highly positive and 90% were able to complete their transaction in one session. Nearly 90% said the new system was far superior to the system it replaced.
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State employees design, configure, operate and maintain the eLicensing platform. The State has set a live example for the public sector that validates that a SaaS/Cloud platform is a viable and sustainable development and operating platform for eLicensing needs for all Agencies with regard to time to market, agility in responding to new or changing requirements and cost effective from a development and operations perspective.