October 2004
Michigan Launches MCTI Project
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic
Growth recently contracted with Alliance to implement the
AWARE Service module. This Service Delivery component will
enhance service to VR clients served at the Michigan Career
and Technical Institute (MCTI). MCTI has seven major
programs including career assessment, skills training and
job placement.
By adding the Service module, VR counselors and their
counterparts at MCTI will be able to improve the integration
of client services data and have access to this information
in real time. Michigan’s vision for the project includes
being able to increase their ability to report on
performance objectives and to measure outcomes, efficiency
and customer satisfaction.
This AWARE Service module implementation will include
customizations specific to MCTI. In addition, some
customizations will provide enhancements for Alliance’s
other customers using the Service module. Michigan is now
the 3rd agency to implement the AWARE Service module.
5top
of page
August 2004
Alliance Hires New Administrative
Manager
Alliance is excited to welcome Wendy
Massey as Administrative Manger for corporate Operations.
Wendy comes to Alliance with significant experience in
accounting, office administration, customer service, and
office automation. She enjoys office reengineering and
setting up new office systems. Previous experience also
includes acting as liaison between developers and her
customer service unit.
Wendy will be responsible for overall corporate operations.
She plans to assist in updating and developing new employee
materials and procedures. Her work will enhance each new
employee’s start up time and keep existing employees
well-informed about corporate matters.
In addition, Wendy will facilitate a plan to keep the
Operations staff informed about AWARE,
the company’s flagship product, and the 10 customers that
are part of the ongoing Upgrade, Maintenance and Support
program. Wendy believes, “When we support staff directly
involved in the product, we will have an improved
understanding of that product and how our customers use it.”
Wendy will be a great addition to the Alliance team.
Alliance Hires New Development
Specialist
Alliance is excited to welcome Bill
Burlison as a Development Specialist on the Maintenance and
Support Team. Bill comes to Alliance with 18 years of
systems development and support experience. He made the
transition from an office technician to IT professional in
1986 at the Oregon Dept of Transportation. Bill then went on
to work at a private company in Portland as a systems
engineer before he moved to Dupont to work at Intel.
Bill has a wide background in information technology
including programming (ASP.NET, VB), network administration,
server maintenance (SQLServer), training and support. He
explains his work experience as varied with a thread of
technical support throughout.
Bill will be working on the Maintenance and Support team,
providing second tier support and troubleshooting. We also
envision Bill working to become another “Brian Cousineau”
type resource for Release Master and more technical support.
Welcome Bill!
 |
|
Alliance's 2nd 2004 Baby
Kevin Torgerson, one of Alliance's System
Specialists, along with his wife Jennifer and son
Andrew, are proud to announce their new daughter
Elizabeth Rachael. Born June 23, 2004 at 3:25 p.m.;
weighing in at 8 lbs 14 oz and 19" long. We're sure
she'll keep them all busy!
Congratulations!
|
Michigan Launches MCTI Project
Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth recently
contracted with Alliance to implement the
AWARE Service module. This
Service Delivery component will enhance service to VR
clients served at the Michigan Career and Technical
Institute (MCTI). MCTI has seven major programs including
career assessment, skills training and job placement.
By adding the Service module, VR counselors and their
counterparts at MCTI will be able to improve the integration
of client services data and have access to this information
in real time. Michigan’s vision for the project includes
being able to increase their ability to report on
performance objectives and to measure outcomes, efficiency
and customer satisfaction.
This AWARE Service module
implementation will include customizations specific to MCTI.
In addition, some customizations will provide enhancements
for Alliance’s other customers using the Service module.
Michigan is now the 3rd agency to implement the AWARE
Service module.
5top
of page
July 2004
Alliance Conducts In-Service Training
During the last week of June, Alliance concluded the fiscal
year with a company-wide retreat. All Alliance staff
participated in a review of accomplishments, lessons
learned, the Alliance Development Framework Workshop, and
planning for the first half of the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
Lisa Gifford, President; and Rick Gifford, Chief Technology
Officer, conducted the training. They considered the retreat
as essential to the success of Alliance’s development
projects. The workshop portion integrated the principals on
which the company was founded. Rick sums this up by stating,
“Alliance uses a set of Best Practices, Models and Patterns
to help organize ourselves and our work. This structure is
not prescriptive, but provides tools to balance resources,
with measurable steps to work toward a specific outcome.”
Staff immediately applied these principals through
individual and team exercises. In turn, the exercises had
direct relevance to upcoming work. The retreat was also an
opportunity to re-examine the company’s founding principals.
In addition, the retreat also promoted a common
understanding of our roles that meet the needs of customers
and their development projects.
5top
of page
June 2004
Alliance Contracts with the Florida
Division of Blind Services
Alliance and the Florida Department of
Education, Division of Blind Services completed negotiations
of a multi-year contract to customize and implement the
AWARE product for the agency.
“We are very proud and excited to have the agency select
Alliance from a total of nine vendors who submitted
proposals in response to the agency’s Request for Proposal.”
said Lisa Gifford, President.
The project involves replacing the agency’s existing CRIS
system by developing a custom accounting system interface,
converting existing data, and customizing it for the agency
and independent service providers statewide.
Alliance Publishes FY04-05 AWARE
Product Plan
Working closely with the national
AWARE Users Group, Alliance published its Product
Plan for the upcoming fiscal year. The Plan is based on the
changes prioritized by the AWARE
Users Group, Design and Enhancements SIG. The document
summarizes the highest priority enhancements in three
categories: Federal Changes, Technology Improvements, and
Users Enhancements.
“Besides the 4,000 - 5,450 hours of system enhancements
identified in the Plan, we will continue to make corrections
to the system and incorporate features funded through new
AWARE implementation contracts.”
explained Rick Gifford, Alliance’s Chief Technology Officer.
“In addition, Alliance will continue to fund and work on
version 5.0; the most significant upgrade since the
conversion to web-based technology in 1997.”
Version 4.2 Released
The AWARE Version 4.2 release is
now available to the 9 state VR agencies on the ongoing
Upgrade, Maintenance and Support program. The new upgrade
offers many enhancements that touch counselors, support
persons on the Help Desk, and server administrators.
As an example, there are changes in Ticket to Work and
Delayed Status/Order of Selection functions, and the
addition of Spell Check for letters. The Structured Ad-hoc
Reports tool has been significantly expanded and now
includes reports for open cases. This release also expands
on the logging capability introduced in v4.1 that gave
agencies the ability to record and view financial
transaction activity on a per authorization basis.
More than two-thirds of this release consists of
enhancements that were prioritized by the national
AWARE Users Group as part of the
2003-2004 Product Plan. In addition, Alliance included
maintenance corrections and reference documentation to make
the release go smoothly.
Barb Conley Retires from Alliance
Alliance staff said goodbye to a valued co-worker and
friend, Barbara Conley, who retired after a 33 year career
in systems development and state government. Barb joined
Alliance three years ago after retiring from Washington
State Department of Social and Health Services. She wanted a
“fun place to work” until her husband retired and the two of
them could sail off into the sunset… literally!
Barb and Craig are leaving this month on their 36’ sailboat
for life on the open sea. Barb spearheaded the creation of
the AWARE On-line Help and was
very involved in documenting and testing every release.
We’ll miss her and wish her well!
5top
of page
April 2004
Data Conversion EARLY Delivery Success
Rick Gifford, Alliance’s Chief Technology Officer, has a
reputation. He is known for announcing at the first Steering
Committee meeting that “Data Conversion is behind schedule!”
Data conversion always seems to consume more resources and
take longer than anticipated.
Alliance staff and the Alliance Data Conversion Engine
proved Rick wrong!
On Wednesday, March 31, 2004, Alliance staff delivered the
first version of Louisiana’s case data converted into AWARE,
a full (three months before) Alpha Testing! In a Steering
Committee meeting later that week, Louisiana project team
members expressed their excitement in seeing their data so
early in the process. This approach allows them to “divide
up the data conversion testing process into manageable
chucks instead of having to test it all at once.” They were
also impressed with the documentation Alliance provided
which guided agency staff on the lookup and parameter values
that greatly impact data conversion results.
Congratulations to all involved!
5top
of page
March 2004
 |
|
A New Baby At Alliance
Brian Muckian, one of Alliance's
Development Specialists, along with his wife Marvy
and son Isaac, are proud to announce their new son
Daniel James Secoquian. Born March 22, 2004;
weighing in at 7 lbs 14 oz and 19 3/4" long. We hear
he was not shy about sharing his vocal chords his
first day.
We wish the Muckian's the best of luck and lots of
rest!
|
5top
of page
February 2004
Amanda Joins Alliance
Alliance is proud to announce the addition of a new
Development Specialist to our team. Amanda Kincaid-Kass
brings to us five years experience in enterprise-level
application and database design and development, and system
architecture, along with two years experience as a senior
developer, technical team lead, and mentor.
She also has 18 years of experience in accounting and
business consulting. Amanda is assigned to our Version 5.0
Development Team. Welcome Amanda!
East Coast Support for AWARE
We are pleased to announce that we now have an
AWARE Support Specialist based on
the East Coast of the United States. Ken Goss joined
Alliance in January after several years at the New Mexico
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation.
In New Mexico, Ken gained extensive experience in analyzing,
adapting, maintaining, testing, interfacing, troubleshooting
and providing help desk support for New Mexico’s
installation of AWARE. He is also
skilled at extracting and analyzing fiscal and budget data
and previously served as a rehabilitation technician
providing service to vocational rehabilitation clients and
support functions to caseload counselors. Ken currently
resides in Florida.
Starting March 8, 2004, Ken will be taking the early shift
on the AWARE Support Desk,
responding to calls and emails beginning at 8:00 am EST.
He’s relieving Brian and Betsy Cousineau, who previously
held the primary responsibility for providing this support.
Brian and Betsy will serve as backup when Ken is not
available due to his other responsibilities at Alliance.
The Alliance Support Desk telephone number is still (360)
456-1500, but expect to hear Ken’s friendly and helpful
voice responding to your concerns and coordinating
resolutions between 8:00 am and 11:30 am EST.
Former Senator Bob Dole Speaks Up for Vocational
Rehabilitation
The following Opinion Editorial appeared in this past
Friday's Washington Times newspaper. It is a terrific
commentary by former Senator Robert Dole about the
tremendous work of the Public Vocational Rehabilitation
program.
BENEFITS OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
By Robert Dole
Thousands of American men came home from World War I blinded
by exposure to mustard gas or with limbs lost in the
trenches to enemy fire. Our nation realized these veterans,
although disabled, could still lead productive and
successful lives if given the necessary support and
training.
So Congress created a federal program called Public
Vocational Rehabilitation - VR for short.
Today a number of American men and women serving in Iraq are
returning home, like those before them, with combat-related
disabilities. Thanks to VR and its sister program at the
Veterans Administration, our sons and daughters wounded
overseas can be assured they will be able to continue
working in civilian life in the same way that they
faithfully served in our armed forces.
These veterans join millions of other Americans with
disabilities. The vast majority are people ready to work and
be contributing members of their communities. As a disabled
veteran, I have seen the enormous contribution that
individuals with disabilities make when given a chance.
They are people like Tom Gordon, a truck driver whose career
ended when he lost the use of his right arm in an accident.
Tom was able, with VR assistance, to open his own
contracting business. Or Laurie Pederson - a high school
dropout who suffered from degenerative disc disease - who
now owns her own law practice. There was even one woman
whose life was so profoundly changed by the program that she
made VR a beneficiary in her will.
These are just a few of the more than 14 million people who
have been helped by the VR program. Last year it placed
222,000 Americans with disabilities in productive jobs -
jobs where they earn wages, pay taxes, and add to the
productivity and resilience of our economy. In fact, the
taxes they pay cover the cost of their services in just two
to four years. Last year, they earned $3.5 billion in wages
and paid $1 billion in taxes. This is no small economic
contribution.
To do this important job, VR provides prostheses, college
education, vocational training, job placement and various
support services to a broad range of disabled Americans, as
well as assistance to cognitively impaired individuals. All
this is done through a community-based network that allows
the program to assist an often hard-to-reach population.
And this strategy pays big dividends. More than two-thirds
of young adults who receive services successfully enter the
work force, significantly reducing their need for long-term
public assistance programs such as welfare and food stamps.
No wonder the White House budget office rates VR as one of
the government's most effective programs in meeting its
goals. Yet, today VR only has funds to serve around 10
percent of the eligible population, and some states have
long waiting lists.
The facts show the VR program not only benefits its
participants. It also is a cost-effective way to assure
America retains a talented and expanding labor pool that can
contribute to all of society. Vocational Rehabilitation
represents a critical part of what we pride ourselves on as
a great nation: opportunity for all.
Robert Dole, former Senate majority
leader from Kansas, 1996 Republican candidate for president
and disabled World War II veteran, is special counsel at
Alston & Bird LLP law firm, which represents the Council
of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation.
5top
of page
|
