Closeout

Request for Project Closeout Certification Form

All Certified Projects Must Follow NM State Policies and Procurement Code

1.  Project Governance /

Project Name

Project Short Name(s)

/ RIO Upgrade Project
Date / 06/24/2015
Lead Agency / Public Employees Retirement Association
Other Agencies

Executive Sponsor

/ Wayne Propst
Agency Head / Wayne Propst
Agency CIO/IT Lead / Greg Portillos
Project Manager / Leonard Martinez
2.  Project Abstract
(Provide a brief description and purpose for this project.)
The Retirement Information Online (RIO) System is PERA’s mission-critical retirement pension administration system. The objective of the RIO upgrade project was to refresh all servers, storage, networking infrastructure and third party software for RIO. PERA received $2.8 million for this project.
PERA maintains a full production and test environment in the Santa Fe data center and a Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity environment in the Albuquerque data center for the RIO system. All of these environments were updated.
The upgraded hardware and third party software improved the performance of the RIO pension administration system and improved customer service to retirees, members and employers. These upgrades improved infrastructure reliability for the RIO pension administration system since all hardware and software are now covered on a maintenance and support contracts.
3a. Scope Verification

Requirements Review

/ Yes / No /

Explanation/Notes

Were the project objectives (expected outcomes) accomplished? / X / The goals of the upgrade project are accomplished.
Were all Deliverables submitted and accepted? / X / All deliverables have been accepted.
Did the IV&V vendor verify that all deliverables met the requirements? / X / The IV&V vendor received all deliverables.
Have all contracts been closed? / X / The contract for HP services has been closed and the contract for IV&V has been closed.
Have all final payments been made (i.e., invoices paid) / X / All final invoices have been paid.
Have all project documents/records been appropriately stored for future reference? / X / All documents and test cases are stored in a repository.
Has adequate knowledge transfer been completed? / X / PERA IT staff members were trained on the new deployment procedures and the administration of new third party software.
3b. Major Project Deliverables and Performance Measures Met
Major Project Deliverable and Performance Measure

(Include an explanation if deliverable or performance measure was not met.)

/ Budget /

Date

/

Project Phase

Third Party Software Procurement / $706,200 / 09/01/13 / Implementation
Servers and Storage / $1,060,000 / 01/30/14 / Implementation
Code Changes Hyperion, GECS, Microsoft Office / $59,503 / 11/26/13 / Implementation
UAT Testing Hyperion, GECS, Microsoft Office / $19,011 / 02/11/14 / Implementation
Production Hyperion, GECS, Microsoft Office / $11,079 / 04/28/14 / Implementation
Code Changes IBM Websphere / $97,558 / 04/28/14 / Implementation
UAT-IBM Websphere / $37,630 / 03/31/14 / Implementation
Production IBM Websphere / $33,095 / 04/28/14 / Implementation
Code Changes Microsoft SQL 2012 / $43,244 / 05/30/14 / Implementation
UAT Microsoft SQL 2012 / $18,522 / 05/30/14 / Implementation
Production Microsoft SQL 2012 / $12,107 / 06/12/14 / Implementation
Code Changes Filenet P8 / $286,372 / 06/28/14 / Implementation
UAT Filenet P8 / $23,950 / 06/28/14 / Implementation
Production Filenet P8 / $17,006 / 06/28/14 / Implementation
Administration Training / $27,240 / 06/30/14 / Implementation
Independent Validation & Verification / $23,500 / 06/30/14 / Implementation
Softec Filenet P8/Kofax Integration / $158,000 / 06/30/14 / Implementation
ABBA Technologies Doubletake Replication / $20,000 / 06/30/14 / Implementation
Fax Server Fax Board / $10,000 / 06/30/14 / Implementation
Cisco Core and Endpoint Switches / $75,000 / 06/30/14 / Implement
4a. Certification History
Cert. Date / Cert. Amount / Funding Source(s) – Funding Total Amount
(Cite the specific laws, grants, etc. and total amount.)
07/24/13 / $2,276,000 / Laws 2013, CH 227, Section 7 (8)
03/26/14 / $524,000 / Laws 2013, CH 227, Section 7 (8)
4b. RFP / Contract History
(List all RFP’s and contracts issued for the project.)
List RFP and Contract
(Purpose and/or Description) / Contract
Number / Compensation
Amount or NA / %
Complete
HP Integration Services / 14-366-0100-00014 / $687,143.05 / 100%
POD Independent Validation and Verification / 14-366-0100-00140 / $23,540 / 100%
5. Schedule and Budget
Planned Start Date / 07/01/2013 / Actual Start Date / 09/01/2013
Planned End Date / 06/30/2014 / Actual End Date / 07/30/2014
Planned Cost: (Budget) / $2,800,000 / Actual Cost: (Total) / $2,709,883
§  Professional Services / $725,000 / §  Professional Services / $868,683
§  Hardware / $1,300,000 / §  Hardware / $1,060,000
§  Software / $700,000 / §  Software / $706,200
§  Network / $75,000 / §  Network / $75,000
§  Other / §  Other
6a. Independent Verification & Validation

(Include summary of the last IVV Report or Risk Management Summary Report.)

Report Summary
The project is several weeks behind its original schedule, and the project team is actively working toward achieving Go-Live by 6/30/2014, the contract end date. Stages 1 and 2 are complete with deliverable sign-off. Production rollout, the final effort in Stage 3, is currently under way. Stage 4, Administration Training, will occur post-project. Barring any unforeseen occurrences, POD expects Go-Live to occur on 6/30/2014.
POD’s last status report on 5/31/2014 reflected that the project was approximately 2 weeks behind schedule for its planned 6/15/14 Go-live date. In a meeting with PERA IT management on May 20, POD was told that the 2-week delay would be made up in time for the scheduled Go-live. But because of numerous testing and coordination issues in June, the delay was not made up. The project team is working to complete Go-live on 6/30/14.
·  Major accomplishments/deliverables
o  The most important major accomplishments and deliverables achieved will be the new modern hardware―storage and networking components―with the latest software versions. This update will eliminate end-of-life issues, carrying PERA forward for the next 6 to 8 years.
·  Lessons Learned
o  Learn lessons from PERA incorporate lessons learned from prior IT projects, applied to the current one.
o  More knowledge sharing and transfer among PERA staff internally, and also with vendor staff, is needed.
o  Mistakes that impact the project in time and money will occur. Allow the vendor to do its job in assessing and recommending the appropriate equipment needed, but then follow up internally with PERA staff, researching, confirming, and knowing internally that the recommended hardware products integrate properly and knowing how they integrate.
·  User Satisfaction
o  Throughout the project, POD found highly engaged PERA personnel from different departments participating. The project has not gone into production at the time this report is being written, so end user satisfaction cannot be completely reported on. But PERA IT management has done an excellent job of keeping end users involved throughout the project’s duration.
o  The hardware and third-party software upgrade will improve RIO’s performance and reliability overall, impacting customer service to retirees, members, and employers. Infrastructure will be upgraded to current modern levels, impacting user acceptance, which in turn impacts user satisfaction.
·  Implementation
PERA already has a functional RIO application. In regard to effectiveness and efficiency of the system, the project is an upgrade to the existing RIO pension administration system and thus constitutes a noteworthy improvement to it. The major accomplishments and deliverables achieved are the new modern hardware, storage and networking components with the latest software versions eliminating current end-of-life issues, carrying PERA forward for the next 6 to 8 years. Once implemented and online, PERA will have achieved its business and technical objectives and performance metrics as defined in the Project Management Plan, Sections 3.1 and 6.6.
6b. Lessons Learned
1)  Develop detailed deliverables in contract. There were some requirements where the vendor didn’t believe they were in scope but they were listed in the contract.
2)  Have weekly status meetings to confirm progress. This also ensures that communication is taking place and expectations are being met.
3)  Develop strong project governance. If escalation is needed there is a path through governance if needed.
4)  Include business staff as much as possible to allow them to also take ownership and acceptance of the project.
7. Transition to Operations
Yes / No /

Explanation/Notes

Are there recurring maintenance/operational costs for the product/service? / X / $ 937,190 per Year -
Are there any recommended enhancements or updates? / X / See Appendix A
Summary of agency plan to support project solution in production.
PERA IT staff members have been trained on administration of third party software that is utilized in the RIO system and PERA IT staff members are the primary support for the system. PERA IT staff also deployed new versions of code to the test and production environments. PERA also has a support contract with HP to support the application and environments.
Summary of agency plans to fund the maintenance and Operations of this project.
PERA has had the RIO pension administration system in production since April 2005. PERA requests funding for this maintenance contract as part of the base operating budget each year.


Appendix A – Future Enhancements for Retirement Information Online

n  New functionality has been implemented in jClarety which is the framework that RIO is based on. Since RIO is ten years old and major functionality has not been implemented, PERA will review and implement this new functionality.

n  The business processes that are in place have not had any major improvements since implementation. PERA will consult with a pension administration system consultant that has extensive experience and knowledge with business process improvement and design a plan to modernize and improve required processes.

n  Some data issues exist from the original conversion and as a result of edits not being enforced for employers reporting member contributions. PERA will work with a data consulting firm that has extensive experience in pension administration systems data to assess and systematically fix data based on business rules.

Revision: 6/18/13

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