Commercial

Case Studies

State of Texas Protective and Regulatory Services
Texas agency outsources its mission-critical IT needs to Northrop Grumman IT

Concerto Software, Inc.
Northrop Grumman IT keeps the phone lines humming for Concerto Software clients throughout North America.

Commonwealth of Kentucky
Battling a tight deadline, Northrop Grumman IT successfully installs thousands of PCs in 210 government offices scattered throughout Kentucky.

Northrop Grumman IT takes on Texas agency's mission-critical IT needs
Providing a full spectrum of IT services to Department of Protective & Regulatory Services

An urgent call awakens a caseworker. There's a report of a domestic disturbance, and children may be in danger. The caseworker logs on to her laptop, checks the family's records and discovers a history of violence. She alerts the police, who rush to the scene.

Making split-second decisions in emergency situations like this is all in a day's work for caseworkers at the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (PRS), which is charged with protecting Texas children, elderly, and disabled from abuse, neglect, and exploitation. These dedicated individuals depend on the agency to provide instant, failsafe access to up-to-the-minute information, which means the computers, networks, and databases involved require mission-critical levels of support.

Northrop Grumman IT has taken on that responsibility for the Texas PRS. The project encompasses virtually all IT functions - everything from help desk to desktop support in 262 offices statewide, network operations, and a technology refresh involving some 7,700 personal computers. Northrop Grumman IT is also assisting PRS in upgrading the agency's networks, servers, and applications.

Northrop Grumman IT won out over its rivals (including the incumbent outsourcing provider) because of its technical expertise, depth of experience, focus on process improvement, and willingness to tailor a solution to the agency's requirements. The overall value it offered, plus glowing references from state agencies and commercial clients, effectively clinched the deal. "We were pretty tough in the evaluation," admits Dave Gainer, director of data processing for PRS, who felt he personally had a lot riding on the choice.

In the months prior to the official start date, Northrop Grumman IT worked with PRS to lay the groundwork for what Gainer calls a relatively smooth transition. "From day one we set up a matrix defining responsibilities and identifying the key contacts at PRS, Northrop Grumman IT, and our outgoing provider," he says.

Such meticulous preparations paid off. As soon as the official start date arrived, Northrop Grumman IT was called upon to prove its mettle. PRS staged a disaster recovery test just weeks into the new engagement. Although its new outsourcer was barely getting started on the account, the team came through with flying colors. "They pulled it off better than it had ever been done by their predecessor," reports Gainer.

Northrop Grumman IT then moved on to tackle the most challenging aspects of the job. Tying PRS into Northrop Grumman IT's Colorado-based help desk was one of the first and most formidable tasks. The harried social workers depending on the help desk to solve their IT problems were tired of long periods on hold and frequent call transfers. They wanted better service than they had been receiving, so Northrop Grumman IT committed to lofty goals: answering all incoming calls within 45 seconds, troubleshooting within 2 ½ minutes, and solving more than half of all problems on the first call.

These metrics were intimidating at first. Snags in converting software and in making the helpdesk staff thoroughly familiar with PRS applications and terminology made for a bumpy start. "You should be prepared for a predictable drop in performance when you first make a change like this," Gainer says in retrospect. But within a few months, the help desk was meeting the 45-second-to-answer goal regularly, with hold times of just a minute or two on bad days. In February 2001, just one year after the contract took effect, Northrop Grumman IT hit the 45-second mark every day but one, when hold times ran only 15 seconds longer. Problem resolution has remained outstanding throughout. Even when hold times were long, Northrop Grumman IT managed to solve about half of all problems on the first call. Now it achieves first-call resolution in two out of three cases.

Field service also had an initial ramp-up period - not surprising, since the technicians were faced with old 486 PCs running Windows 3.1 and had to become familiar with a sprawling network of statewide offices, Gainer notes. They quickly mastered the tasks at hand and were soon meeting all objectives. A statewide technology refresh has gone off without a hitch. Over 5,500 personal computers were replaced within a 6-month period, and another 2,200 have been updated with new software. Looking back at the startup phase, Gainer notes that some of the bumpy spots during the early months may have been a result of what he calls "broken processes from the past."

The acquisition of seven new servers to replace five aging ones has been a major coup. Northrop Grumman IT negotiated a favorable deal under which PRS has leased application servers that are four times faster than their predecessors "It was ingenious," Gainer says. "They got us better equipment at a much better price."

Northrop Grumman IT kept all of the PRS servers up and running 24x7, with 99.9% availability, through the transition.

The conversion of the e-mail system from Microsoft Mail to Exchange has been another success story despite the size and complexity of the project. "We bit off a little more than we could chew at the outset," Gainer admits, "but we regrouped, fine-tuned our approach and did a few pilot sites. The remainder of the project went superbly. Mail used to crash all the time, but now it's really fast and reliable."

Northrop Grumman IT's performance in system administration and security has been "absolutely amazing," in Gainer's words. The staff is "always tweaking," he notes. "They see problems and fix them, and come to me with ideas on how to make things better. From day one, we've stayed ahead of viruses and hack attacks much better than before. I sleep a lot better now than I used to."

Northrop Grumman IT has conducted security assessments of the PRS network architecture. In a two-week evaluation that utilized the most sophisticated hacking tools, no gaping holes could be identified in external security. As a result of this exercise, Northrop Grumman Information Technology briefed Texas state agency CIOs on information assurance methodologies, and the PRS security program is being considered as a model for use statewide.

Just recently, the agency's disaster recovery plan was put to the ultimate test when a power failure shut down the systems running their primary database. Working closely with PRS personnel, Northrop Grumman IT relocated the database 300 miles, from Austin to San Angelo, providing caseworkers in the field with seamless coverage during what could have otherwise been a disaster.

Dave Gainer is equally pleased with Northrop Grumman IT's project management team, including the program director, who works full-time at the PRS offices. Experience with various Northrop Grumman IT managers has shown them to be "intelligent, level-headed, get-it-done types." "Sometimes the amount of detail involved is overwhelming," he admits, "but Northrop Grumman IT relieves me of the burden. They take the initiative and are busy poking, prodding, and gathering data. They're aggressive in the best sense. They're very focused and have a clear purpose and agenda."

The PRS executive admits he was inclined to extend the contract with the previous provider, but says he's very happy PRS made the move. "With the former regime, I used to be paged all the time, but I don't get that anymore," Gainer says. "And I don't find myself in the office on weekends dealing with system outages. But the biggest indication of success to me is that I'm no longer getting yelled at by my customers."

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Concerto Software, Inc. Partners with Northrop Grumman IT To Provide World-Class Service
Northrop Grumman IT keeps the phone lines humming for Concerto Software™ clients throughout North America.

Imagine a call center buzzing with activity as scores of agents field incoming calls, make outbound calls to customers and record up-to-the-minute account information. If the system powering this operation goes down, everything grinds to a halt, and productivity, sales and customer confidence plummet. It needs to be fixed and fixed fast.

Concerto Software, Inc. (formerly Davox Corp.), a manufacturer of call center contact solutions, relies on Northrop Grumman IT to do just that. For the past nine years, Northrop Grumman IT has kept the lines of communication open for Concerto Software's clients throughout North America.

During that time, the Westford, Massachusetts based Concerto Software has quadrupled sales to nearly $100 million, and Northrop Grumman IT has played an important part in that growth. "Northrop Grumman IT has allowed us to scale our service organization, and to do so cost-effectively," says Mark Donovan, Concerto Software's senior vice president of operations and customer service. "They've enabled us to fulfill our obligations as an end-to-end supplier."

The show must go on
Concerto Software has been helping clients make the most of customer interactions for 20 years. The company's latest interaction management software package, EnsembleProTM, optimizes contacts made by phone, by e-mail or on the Web. EnsemblePro includes all the tools needed to manage inbound and outbound calls and to provide e-mail response, Web callbacks, browser-based scripting and reporting capabilities. These tools are critical to the whole enterprise, since they integrate with a client's front- and back-office systems, e-commerce systems and desktop applications.

Keeping such mission-critical systems in perfect working order, often around the clock, is a huge challenge. But that's exactly what Concerto Software promises its 1,000 customers worldwide, including such household names as AT&T, Citibank, Continental Airlines, and Time Warner Cable.

It's an especially tall order to fill in North America, where some 640 clients are scattered throughout the United States and Canada. But the difficulty doesn't diminish Concerto Software's commitment. "If a system is down, you could have a few hundred people sitting on their hands, not selling anything, not making any money," points out Chuck Donahue, manager of customer service for Concerto Software. "They can't make up for the lost revenue and opportunity, so you have to be able to respond promptly and fix the problem once you get there."

During its early years, Concerto Software was able to provide this level of service on its own. But that became a problem as sales grew, the product line expanded and clients came to rely more heavily on its increasingly sophisticated systems.

Seeking the perfect partner
In 1992, Concerto Software decided an outside service provider might be the way to go. It crafted a wish list for the perfect partner: large enough to cover the geography, skilled enough to understand diverse and complex technologies, and flexible enough to satisfy its unique needs. Concerto Software considered some of the top players in the field but thought these firms were too structured to provide the desired flexibility.

Northrop Grumman IT was a different story. Its qualifications were top-notch, but that wasn't all. "This company was willing to work with us," Donahue says. "They said they'd do whatever was necessary to fix the client's problem. Their flexibility, in addition to their technical expertise, sold us."

The technical requirements were particularly challenging. Engineers had to be expert in Sun hardware, UNIX and Windows NT, telephony and T1 lines, as well as Concerto Software's proprietary products. Bolstering their existing expertise with a three-week training program and continuing on-the-job-training on the Concerto Software line, the Northrop Grumman IT team started out handling "break-fix" calls. As Concerto Software gained confidence in its new service partner, and the Northrop Grumman IT engineers gained experience, they took on hardware and software upgrades, system expansions and site audits.

Now, more than ten years into the contract, Northrop Grumman IT has 73 field engineers dedicated to Concerto Software™, installing, maintaining, repairing and upgrading the company's full line of systems. Northrop Grumman IT's technical staff, as a whole, has a "consistent skill set," which enables them to function effectively on Concerto Software's behalf, Donovan notes.

Double-teaming trouble
The partnership is a smooth, seamless one. If a problem arises, clients call Concerto Software, which dials in to the client's system to perform remote diagnostics. In some cases, the problem is traced to customer error or a software issue that Concerto Software can resolve remotely. But if the culprit is a failed component or other hardware problem, Concerto Software turns the case over to Northrop Grumman IT. "They act as our hands and our eyes at the client site," Donahue sums up.

Once at the client's office, the Northrop Grumman IT engineer coordinates with the Concerto Software staff, keeping the dispatcher up to speed on the status of the project. Complete recovery is the goal, and nothing is left to chance. "There are cases in which Northrop Grumman IT's engineers work through the night, grab a hotel room and go back the next day to make sure the system is functioning properly," Donahue says. Unresolved cases are escalated back to Concerto Software.

As effective as it is already, the teamwork should become even smoother this year when a new electronic call desk system is implemented. "That will automate the interface between Northrop Grumman IT and Concerto Software, taking the manual intervention out of the process," Donahue says. "Our next push is to build a larger group of elite engineers who can handle installations and software upgrades on all our new systems."

Keeping the customer satisfied
Given its dedication to its clients, Concerto Software follows up regularly to make sure they're satisfied with the service they're receiving. "Northrop Grumman IT typically gets high marks for their performance and customer satisfaction as measured by our annual survey," Donovan says.

Northrop Grumman IT likewise goes the extra mile to make sure its customer Concerto Software is satisfied. Northrop Grumman IT has an account manager working full-time within the Concerto Software headquarters. "That's helped us solve some nagging problems, get the installed base of systems in better shape and monitor upgrades more closely," Donahue says.

That level of attention has enabled the relationship between Concerto Software and its service partner to thrive for almost a decade. "As with any arrangement like this, there have been occasional issues over the years," Donovan notes, "but Northrop Grumman IT has always stepped up and addressed them. You can't ask for any more than that."

Supporting mission-critical systems is an ambitious undertaking, and entrusting that responsibility to an outside supplier is always a gamble. But the gamble has paid off for Concerto Software. Its successful long-term partnership with Northrop Grumman IT enables Concerto Software to fulfill its commitment to excellence. "There's no way we could provide this level of service on our own nearly as effectively or economically," Donahue says. "With Northrop Grumman IT as our partner, we have confidence we can do it."

Donovan agrees. "It's been a very effective relationship," he declares.

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Northrop Grumman IT Beats the Clock On Desktop Deployment For State of Kentucky
Battling a tight deadline, Northrop Grumman IT installs thousands of PCs in 210 government offices.

It sounded like a mission impossible: The state of Kentucky's Cabinet for Families and Children had to deploy 3,600 PCs and 400 printers in 210 government offices throughout the state, many in remote rural areas, and they had to complete the entire project in 11 weeks.

They turned to Northrop Grumman IT. And against all odds, the company managed to pull it off on time and under budget.

"No one thought we could do it," admits Maurice Garrard, director of the technical support division for Kentucky's CFC. "Everyone in the state government thought we were crazy, but Northrop Grumman IT came through for us."

The clock was ticking from the moment Garrard took over the project in mid-March 1999. The CFC wanted to deploy a Y2K-compliant billing application that would require an upgrade to almost all its computer equipment. In order to qualify for state funding, the project had to be wrapped up before the new fiscal year started July 1, 1999. Since the invoicing process required about two weeks, that meant the deadline was actually mid-June. "We had a drop-dead date of June 20, because we cannot pay for work still in progress," Garrard explains.

Initially, CFC management considered using two or three vendors, but concerns over possible communication and coordination issues convinced them to go with one company. They discussed the situation with Northrop Grumman IT, which had established a good reputation with the agency on prior projects. Although there was some skepticism that any one supplier could handle it, the company put together a detailed proposal showing a solid grasp of the logistical issues and a well-thought-out strategy. Impressed by the thoroughness of the plan, Garrard told Northrop Grumman IT that all systems were go.

With the deadline looming, the Northrop Grumman IT team swung into action. Realizing that logistics were the major challenge given the geography they had to cover, they assembled a staff of 60 people, divided the state into fifteen regions and drew up a plan for handling the project in five distinct phases.

The staff was organized into teams, and each team was assigned a specific task. To keep to the tight schedule, each team would concentrate only on completing its assigned task, moving from office to office and region to region. Because there was so much area to cover, requiring extensive travel time, it was imperative that every team complete its assignment before moving on. Problems would be handled by a fire team that followed behind.

The first step was a physical inventory of all 210 offices statewide to determine the number of systems and identify each user at that location. Stage two called for an assessment of the cables at each office, with cable upgrades and installation of hubs and routers handled by the state's technical staff. The third phase, pre-installation, included server upgrades, data backup, and user education at each office. The first three phases, each requiring a sweep of the entire state, were completed late in May, leaving only a few weeks for the actual installation.

Because of the time constraints, it was arranged that the PC supplier ghost the PCs during assembly. The systems were shipped to the state, which checked the equipment and turned it over to Northrop Grumman IT. The company's project team determined which user at which location would get each piece of equipment, tagged it with a locator, and then shipped it by truck.

For the installation phase of the project, installers were sent out in teams to unbox the PCs, set them up, connect them to the network, load the IP address, and make necessary configuration changes. Any problems were set aside for the troubleshooters, who would follow in the fifth and final phase. The fire team's mission was to stay at a site until every problem was resolved.

Coordinating an effort of this magnitude required constant monitoring and communication. The Northrop Grumman IT team based at the staging facility held two planning meetings daily to recap progress, review the next step, and revise plans as needed. Teams also stayed in touch via cell phone and beeper. Garrard was in the loop at all times. "Initially, I was very involved," he recalls, "but after a few weeks, I gained confidence that Northrop Grumman IT could handle it and backed off, so I could take care of other things."

A spreadsheet charting the progress of the project was posted on the Internet, where everyone involved could access it. The spreadsheet was updated twice daily to provide information virtually in real time. "These progress reports were very detailed and gave me exactly the information I required, in the time frame I needed," Garrard says. " Northrop Grumman IT went beyond what I asked for in defining where we stood and anticipating potholes, and they made adjustments on the fly to compensate." The result? The entire installation was completed by June 19, a day ahead of the seemingly impossible deadline.

"This was a first," Garrard says, noting that the state leaders were happily surprised by the outcome. "Nothing of this magnitude had ever been pulled off in the state before." The project was also an unusual challenge for Northrop Grumman IT. Although the company often handles larger deployments, this deployment of 3600 PC and 400 printers in 210 government offices within the State of Kentucky posed a big challenge. Few have such a tight deadline or involve so many far-flung locations.

Garrard says Northrop Grumman IT's capabilities and dedication were key to the project's success. "They were superb, truly extraordinary," he declares. "From the outset, the company was more like a partner than a vendor. When we ran into budget constraints, they came up with a game plan that worked within our budget without cutting corners."

"Although there were minor bumps in the road, the overall project was a success," continues Gerrard, who says that he'd team up with Northrop Grumman IT to handle the next mission impossible. "If I had to put out 10,000 pieces of equipment tomorrow, I'd go with them again. And I'd recommend them to anyone."

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