December 2005
Alliance Trains State Agency on
Accessible Web Development
Where do you go for real-world experience
in developing “accessible” web applications? For Allen
Schmidt, Business Manager for Washington State Office of
Financial Management, the answer was with Alliance.
OFM’s goal is to provide web applications for its agency
customers that are accessible by all state employees. To
help the OFM project teams achieve this goal, Allen asked
for training on “Alliance’s Experiences Developing Web-Based
Applications for Accessibility.”
The result was a seminar last November at the Alliance
offices in Lacey, Washington, for forty OFM developers,
testers, and project managers. They joined Rick Gifford,
Terrie Flaten, and Brian Cousineau to hear what Alliance had
learned in a decade of developing the Accessible Web-based
Activity and Reporting Environment called AWARE.
To bring the issues to life, the Alliance team projected the
current 4.4 and the in-development 5.0 version of AWARE on
large screens side by side. Through examples, they
demonstrated the accessibility features in the current
system--and improvements made to the new system based on
lessons learned.
How did it go? In a letter to Alliance, Allen Schmidt had
this to say:
“The feedback I have been receiving from OFM staff who
attended yesterday's seminar on building accessibility
applications has been very positive. I consider it a great
success….I want to commend you on your innovative approach
to the seminar program and your willingness to share your
real life experiences on the topic.”
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November 2005
Welcome Back!
Barb Conley, a past employee of Alliance,
has found her way back to us! As a good number of you may
remember her, Barb and her husband Craig have been out
sailing since their retirements a couple of years ago. They
recently decided to stay in the San Francisco area for the
next year to explore the waterways in that area before
venturing south to Mexico. Barb decided to use the
opportunity to work with Alliance again, and the timing
could not have been more perfect. Barb will be spear heading
the documentation for Version 5.0.
Welcome back, Barb! We are very happy to have you back.
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October 2005
Alliance Continues To Grow
Adrian Vogeltanz is one out of two new
System Specialists to join the Alliance family. Adrian has
an IT background including a mix of application development
and system administration. His most recent experience was
with a Federal Credit Union in Texarkana, TX. He and his
wife, Jennifer, recently relocated to our area due to
Jennifer's work.
Adrian will be working with the v5 Team to provide technical
testing, as well as, looking at testing tools and various
other tasks.
Alex Gifford is our second new System Specialist to join the
Alliance family. Alex will be focused on testing and
assigned to the v5 Data Conversion Team. Some of you may
remember his name; Alex worked for Alliance a couple years
ago testing, writing data integrity scripts, and supporting
customers. He enjoys digging into meaty areas such as the
performance statistics, federal reports, data conversion,
and interfaces.
He is looking forward to working with all of us again.
Alliance is very excited to announce and welcome both Adrian
and Alex to the Alliance family.
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September 2005
Alliance's Newest Employee
Alice Kosanovich is our newest System
Specialist to join the Alliance family. She has six years
experience working with databases and over eleven years of
customer service experience. Prior to her employment at
Alliance, Alice worked as Coordinator of Admissions at
University of Washington, Tacoma. Alice graduated from UW
Tacoma with her degree in Liberal Arts in 2000.
Alice's first project will include working closely with the
Oklahoma Team to analyze and convert their data to
AWARE.
Alliance is very excited to announce and welcome Alice into
our Alliance family!
AWARE
Training at Oklahoma DRS
The Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation
Services has officially kicked off the AWARE project.
Oklahoma teams are involved and committed to the project’s
success. A class of fifty-one DRS team members participated
in Hands-On AWARE training at the ballroom of the University
of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. This number sets an
Alliance Enterprises record for class size. The remarkable
success of the training can be attributed to strong
sponsorship and outstanding planning and support.
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AWARE Training
Darlene Decourcey (OK DRS) and Phyllis Hansen
(Alliance)
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AWARE Training OK DRS Group |
August 2005
Welcome!
The following employees have joined the
Alliance family:
Chris Hill is our new Executive Assistant to President Lisa
Gifford. Chris will support the corporate operations of
Alliance Enterprises, Inc. Chris comes with a strong
background in employee information systems including payroll
and personnel operations for a major petroleum company,
worked as an administrative assistant for a state dental
association, and was a labor relations and human resources
assistant for a longshore/maritime association.
Chris’ new responsibilities include designing a Personnel
Framework that will assist Alliance employees with their
career paths; overseeing the process of employee performance
reviews, standardizing new hire goals, and facilitating in
the recruitment of new employees. In addition, Chris will
work directly with Lisa Gifford, assisting in daily
activities and special projects related to the corporate
operations of Alliance Enterprises, Inc.
Phyllis Hansen is our newest Project Manager. She has 23
years experience in the field of vocational rehabilitation
as a counselor, a program administrator, and a policy
analyst. Phyllis comes to us from the Washington State
Division of Vocational Rehabilitation where Alliance first
initiated an electronic case management system known as the
Service Tracking and Reporting System (STARS). Before coming
to Alliance, Phyllis was primarily responsible for the
Washington State Vocational Rehabilitation Service Manual.
In this role, Phyllis worked closely with STARS to
coordinate the vocational rehabilitation policies and
procedures with the applications in STARS. Phyllis recently
completed national certification in public management with
an emphasis in project management. Phyllis holds a Masters
degree in Public Administration and is a nationally
certified rehabilitation counselor.
Phyllis is becoming familiar with AWARE and helping the
Oklahoma Team with AWARE implementation.
Sherrie Prentice is Alliance's first Librarian! Sherrie
comes to us with many years of experience in the library
profession. She became a professional Librarian in 1999. Her
work experience spans public, academic, government and
corporate environments; working with diverse collections of
materials.
Her initial project will be cataloging and organizing all
Alliance’s technical documentation and user documentation
within SharePoint. Hooray!! She will also be learning AWARE
so she can help with the v4.x to v5 conversion/rewrite of
our technical and user documentation.
Alliance is very excited to announce and welcome all three
new employees!
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July 2005
A New Home for Alliance -
Alliance Has Moved!
NEW CONTACT INFORMATION
Starting July 1st, our phone numbers will remain the same
but our address will change to:
Alliance Enterprises, Inc.
2625 Willamette Drive NE
Lacey, WA 98516
Phone: 360-456-7000 (Same)
Fax: 360-456-7100 (Same)
Support: 360-456-1500 (Same)
We will also be contacting your agency Contract
Administrator in July to provide contract notification of
the change.
Thank you for your consideration of this important
transition for Alliance.
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June 2005
Oklahoma DRS Project Begins
“At implementation, we envision having a system that meets
our business needs, and is flexible and easy to use”.
With that vision statement from Linda Parker, Director of
the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services, nearly
20 new Oklahoma DRS AWARE Project Team members kicked-off
the newest Alliance project. During the Kick-Off meeting,
team leads were selected and planning for the Needs
Assessment Phase began. Oklahoma staff also attended their
first Users Group Coordinators and Design and Enhancement
SIG meetings!
The Oklahoma contract will add approximately 350 new
AWARE
users; these field staff represent both the Vocational
Rehabilitation and Visual Services Divisions.
Alliance is excited to welcome Oklahoma to the
AWARE “family”!
Congratulations to the Jenkin's
Toni Jenkins, one of Alliance's Systems Specialist, along
with her husband Barry, are pleased to announce their
official adoption of their son Nakota Sky Jenkins.
Nakota is 31 months old and means 'to be friendly' in Souix,
(but he is not Native American).
All of us here at Alliance extend our happiness and
congratulations to the Jenkins; it has been a blessing in
waiting!
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April 2005
Louisiana Starts Pilot
Louisiana Rehabilitation Services (LRS) kicked off their
Pilot test of AWARE on March 22, 2005!
Their pilot strategy focuses on evaluating business practice
and system performance on a statewide basis. To accomplish
this, LRS created 13 three-member teams who represent all
their regional offices. The teams – made up of a counselor,
counselor assistant, and their supervisor – volunteered to
test AWARE while continuing to track casework in their
legacy system.
In addition to the Pilot, LRS has initiated Statewide
Training and, by the end of the first week, had trained 60
end users!
Initial feedback from end users was very positive. Pilot
Team members from a regional office listed some of the
things they like about AWARE – already! These included:
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Access to file data without having to pull the hard copy
file
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Reminders (Activity Due)
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Letters that become part of the online case record
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Real time data
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Navigation from page to page
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Rules and parameters that keep things “in order”
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On-line reports
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Ability to gather statistical data
One newly trained staff member even requested that she be
allowed to join the Pilot Team, she was so anxious to begin
using AWARE!
Congratulations to LRS and their parent agency, Louisiana
Department of Social Services, on this move to Pilot. Their
hard work in planning, data transfer, system analysis, and
testing has paid off by making this transition smooth.
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March 2005
Alliance Welcomes the Commonwealth of Virginia
After a comprehensive evaluation process, the Virginia
Disability Services Agencies (DSA) selected AWARE as their
new case management system. AWARE will replace multiple
existing systems with an integrated case management system
for two agencies, the Department of Rehabilitative Services
(Field Rehabilitative Services), and the Department for the
Blind and Vision Impaired, and their two comprehensive
rehabilitation centers.
The system will include links to other program areas for
data exchange, and will provide more effective management of
case data and more efficient management decision tools.
The project is expected to begin March 1, 2005, and to
continue through December 2007.
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February 2005
Congratulations to Anne Wax
Last week, Alliance's employee Anne Wax completed her
studies and passed her certification from the Project
Management Institute! She has become a certified Project
Manager Professional (PMP). It is a major accomplishment and
we are all very proud of her!
The next time you see Anne, be sure to give her a pat on the
back. She deserves it!
For more information about the certification, see
http://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_CertificationsOverview.asp?nav=0401
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January 2005
Alliance Sponsored a DVR Family for the Holidays
Alliance Enterprises, Inc. staff sponsored a local DVR
family again this year. With smiles abound, Wendy Crapo and
Angela Sanders of Alliance Enterprises, Inc., delivered a
car full of presents to the local DVR office. For the fifth
year in a row, Alliance contacted the local DVR office to
coordinate sponsoring a family in need. Although not a
formal program, the DVR office selected a family
participating in the rehabilitation process, which needed a
bit of help this year.
New Years greetings from the Alliance staff!
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