Client Name

State of Arkansas DF&A-Revenue Division Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE)

Protech's initial contract with the State of Arkansas began in March of 1996 and continues today with Protech providing the State of Arkansas with new technologies, saving the taxpayers millions of dollars.

Description of Services Provided

Protech's initial task was to review deliverables sent by the implementation contractor and determine if they met the State's requirements. Due to the intimate knowledge of the transfer system and experience with Arkansas Child Support Tracking System (ACTS), Protech reviewed these deliverables very thoroughly and provided design alternatives and solutions where required by the State. Protech was instrumental in ensuring that critical financial subsystem tables were properly converted. Protech provided conversion solutions for complex situations, implementing some of these conversions themselves under tight deadlines.

In October of 1996, Protech began work on developing a detailed User Acceptance Test plan and thoroughly tested the functionality of the system for the State testers. A GUI front-end was developed using PowerBuilder on Windows NT for the user acceptance testing, which was used by all testers to record and analyze test results. Protech helped the State team analyze the results and provided input to the implementation contractor. From June 1997 to June 1998, Protech was responsible for troubleshooting ACTS, providing resolutions to issues, and analyzing batch processes and inefficiencies of the mainframe system. Simultaneously, Protech developed GUI prototypes and an Intranet demonstration to help users visualize financial information such as on-line payment systems.

Protech began its most recent contract with the State of Arkansas in July 1998. The major areas of this contract include:

• Development and Implementation Application Testing
• Quality Assurance Migration Network Design and Implementation and Support
• Project Management Operations
• Systems Support Training Staffing Support.

Development and Implementation

The current project grew out of requirements for system changes necessary for the State to successfully implement the welfare reform initiatives as required under the Federal PRWORA requirements. Faced with the knowledge that technology was quickly changing and that there are frequent changes required in the world of child support enforcement, the State decided to move to a client server environment while implementing these changes in phases.

• The first phase, the financial module, was successfully implemented into production in 2001.
• Protech completed the second and final stage of the two-phased migration in the summer of 2003, providing Arkansas OCSE with the only third generation, fully Web-enabled, federally certified system in the country.

Some additional major initiatives completed during the migration effort include:

• Data warehousing providing users with increased efficiency in reporting requirements including online access to all reports and wide recognition from both the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement and child support enforcement administrators around the country
• Successful redesign, development, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of a new application used by the OCSE State Disbursement Unit
• Development of user-friendly online training documentation, user documentation broadcasts, and user training for the new system

Migration

Protech resources are responsible for all migration efforts required in conjunction with OCSE Information Systems Operations. This includes the ongoing tasks and coordination efforts with the State of Arkansas Department of Information Systems supporting the remaining mainframe operations, as well as, all migration requirements associated with the operation for the new client server system.

Network Design Implementation and Support

Under the State's direction, Protech implemented the hardware and software setup for the OCSE Cluster Farm, which includes the Office of Child Support Enforcement Intranet.

Operations/Systems Support

Within this project, Protech has assumed the development, maintenance and full service operation responsibilities for the ACTS mainframe programming, in addition to the maintenance and full service operation responsibilities for the ARCSIS client server system. This project required a delicate balance between keeping the mainframe system operational and adopting urgent changes within that system, while developing the new system for eventual complete migration.

Staffing Support

Some of the roles filled by Protech resources through the course of this project include:

• Project Manager
• System Architect
• DB2 and SQL Database Administrators
• Developers.

Technologies Employed

Servers - Windows 2000, MS IIS, MS SQL, Server 7.0, DB2, COMServer Client Comp. - Windows 2000 with IE 5.5 Tools - ERWin, VSS, MS Interdev, VB, Visual Basic .NET, MS Project Programming Languages - VB, Javascript, Legacy Systems and Languages - IBM ES-9000, DB2, CICS, VS-COBOL II RDBMS - Oracle, DB2 Web Site Architecture - HTML, XML, JavaScript, VB Script Middle Ware - MQ Service

Testimonial

Stan King - OCSE IT Coordinator - Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration

"...I have had the pleasure of working with Protech Solutions, Inc. since 1992, and I cannot express enough gratitude to them for developing Child Support programs for Arkansas OCSE. Their functional and technical knowledge of child support blended with their technical expertise make a powerful team...".

"...It is with high recommendation that Arkansas would give anyone considering the IT services of Protech Solutions, Inc. They have earned high regard with the delivery of quality products. We hope to continue our relationship with them in the future..."