State of Nebraska Nebraska Information Systems

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The Customer

The State of Nebraska employs more than 12,000 residents in its many government divisions, the State's computer Information Management (IM) division, the Nebraska Information Systems (NIS), previously managed and maintained multiple centralized systems, including those for the state's budget and statewide inventory system.

The NIS project was a highly visible effort by that state to bring all state offices onto one integrated platform. This endeavor involved nearly every J.D. Edwards' business module, from Finance to Distribution to Human Resources.

The Challenge

The NIS project was one of the largest statewide government implementations designed to implement J.D. Edwards OneWorld and use the system's functionality to replace shadow systems that still exist in the State. The NIS divided its J.D. Edwards OneWorld Xe system implementation into five phases over a 16-month period:

		Financials/Purchasing
		HR/Payroll
		Capital Projects/Grants/Fixed Assets
		Budgeting
		Inventory

As the team's documentation and training lead, Intelligo was instrumental in helping coordinate end-user documentation, along with classroom and online training for more than 12,000 users throughout the state of Nebraska.

The first and biggest challenge was to train and manage the team's four non-Intelligo documenters, and help them learn Intelligo's unique methodology and toolset. Once Intelligo accomplished this task, the documentation team-managed by Intelligo-was given less than six months to produce hundreds of business-process flow diagrams, workshop documents, and end-user training materials. Intelligo used their custom toolset, and Microsoft Visio and Word to craft these deliverables to allow the NIS the ability to easily perform maintenance in the future. Each task had to be finished within a fixed budget that mandated a per-person workweek of no more than 40 hours.

In addition to documentation team management, Intelligo was asked to assist with training planning, coordination, scheduling, and delivery.

The Solution

Intelligo provided accurate and customized documentation, given the unique business environment of state government. The key to Intelligo's success on this project was the experience level, responsiveness, and flexibility of Intelligo's staff.

Using their knowledge of J.D. Edwards' software and multi-industry knowledge of essential business processes, Intelligo's staff participated in workshop meetings. The staff actually facilitated many of them by asking questions that enabled large groups to reach consensus and make key software-setup decisions.

By generating concise, clear workshop documentation as a result of these meetings, Intelligo enabled team members to set up the software "quality-right the first time." With the software properly set, Intelligo was then able to produce end-user documentation that required minimal edits from the client and IBM subject-matter experts (SMEs), resulting in measurable time and cost savings.

Intelligo delivered hundreds of end-user work instructions, quick reference cards, and related training materials for J.D. Edwards' HR and Payroll, Financials, and Procurement modules.

Intelligo's custom-designed Microsoft Excel spreadsheet helped to produce quality planning and expedited the scheduling process. Intelligo's custom Microsoft Word toolset also added to the quality experience and helped to speedily produce materials.

Intelligo's Value-Add

Intelligo consultants' added value by actively participating in the documentation process. In other words, they were not passive scribes, but rather, active participants who asked questions and learned the client's business in order to accurately document critical system-setup and business decisions.

In addition to conducting Documentation Analysis Workshops, Intelligo delivered extensive documentation training and a complete toolset, which enabled NIS and IBM staff to write and edit documentation on their own. Specifically, Intelligo made its presence on the team as transparent as possible, to ensure a seamless turnover of the final deliverable. The resulting cost-savings and client ownership in the project's documentation and training effort resulted in a high level of customer satisfaction.

Intelligo's ability to quickly grasp and distill complex government business operations was essential to produce all of the customized end-user training documentation needed by NIS' 12,000+ employees in the short timeframe available. Intelligo finished its tasks ahead of schedule and under budget, while ensuring that the NIS team had the capability to produce the same quality of documentation after Intelligo rolled off the project.

INTELLIGO, Inc. 2450 S. Downing Street | Denver, CO 80210 | Phone: 303.721.1187