Created in 1879 by a state constitutional amendment, the Board of Equalization administers tax programs in four general areas: sales and use taxes, property taxes, special taxes and the tax appellate program. In 1999 - 2000, taxes and fees administered by the Board yielded $39.46 billion to provide essential services for the people of California. Board-administered programs provided more than 34 percent of the state's tax revenue.

Scope: VIP has been retained by the BOE to manage a four-year technology project, to integrate California's 19 Fuel, Excise, and Environmental tax programs into an existing Sales and Use tax system, called Integrated Revenue Information System (IRIS). The new system is called Revenue Database Consolidation (RDC). VIP responsibilities included managing BOE's large multi-phase project from conception to completion, including full system life cycle services for a web-based e-filing systems for motor fuel tax returns. We provided requirements and process definition, system design, system build, testing leadership, system deployment, implementation planning and rollout, and project management.

Client: State of California, Department of Transportation

For more than 100 years, Caltrans and its predecessors have been responsible for planning, designing, operating and maintaining California's state highway system. Caltrans has more than 23,000 employees with an annual budget of $10 billion. VIP has established relationships with five areas of Caltrans, and served in a variety of capacities since 1998.

Scope - IT Project Management Office (PMO) Definition and Deployment: established and deployed an enterprise-wide Information Technology Project Management Office, including vision, mission, structure, policies, tools, metrics and methodologies based upon the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). In fact, we recently received the following accolade from Caltrans:

"VIP did an outstanding job implementing our Program and Project Management Office here at Caltrans. I look forward to working with them in the future." - Mark Rayback, Division Chief Information Technology Program/Project Management, California Department of Transportation (Caltrans).

Scope - Capability Maturity Model Assessment (CMM): Conducted a Level 2 Capability Maturity Model (CMM) assessment of Caltrans' information technology organization.

Scope - Project Management Training: Offered a 16-day course using lectures and hands-on exercises to focus on teaching new skills to project managers, including preparing participants for the PMP exam sponsored by the Project Management Institute.

Scope - Zero Baseline Budgeting Project: Assisted in the identification and definition of their IT core baseline and non-core IT services.

Scope - Requirements Definition and Feasibility Study Reports: Defined detailed business and technical requirements and feasibility study reports for various systems including the Case Management System that provides payments of $4 billion to construction contractors.

Scope: - Extra Work Billing Oracle Database Assessment and Review: Conducted an assessment and review of the Extra Work Billing (EWB) Oracle Database System. VIP's responsibilities included analyzing the existing client/server application, confirming functional and technical requirements and database design, and documenting a report of 'Best Practice' observations and recommendations related to all aspects of the life cycle and platform viability.

Client: State of Nevada, Department of Human Resources

VIP was retained by Nevada Department of Human Resources / Nevada Department of Information Technology to define and deploy a Child Support Transition and Conversion Project Management Office. This Project Command and Control Center was responsible for the coordination and guidance of the State and 17 counties as they transitioned and converted to an integrated statewide child support and welfare system.

Results: [Result]. VIP later received a special commendation for "exemplary performance" from Governor Kenny Guinn, former Welfare Administrator Myla Florence, and current DHR Director Mike Wilden.

Client: Leading Retail Financial Services Firm

Compliance and trend reporting for trade activity was not servicing the broker community in a timely manner. The trading mechanisms slowed to unacceptable levels, resulting in lost revenues and inefficient information sharing across the enterprise.

Scope: Assisted client in planning and designing an enterprise data warehouse technical strategy and assisted client in planning, designing, and implementint a series of associated data marts. The overall solution is tightly coupled with the company’s on-line web strategy and capability.

Results: Created competitive advantages by enabling speed to market with technology to reduce both cycle times and costs associated with legacy methods and allowing the client to use new cross-selling and customer analysis information. Client’s IT organization was able to begin deployment faster and deploy with quality and confidence. The business can also complete compliance review process faster and with fewer resources.

Client: Major Airline

The Client had separate business units, each with their own application portfolios maintained by different teams with their own standards and development processes. The client had to support and enhance a real-time operating system environment because some applications required near real-time data (e.g., a reservation system). The client also needed to provide consistent development and maintenance standards and processes for all teams.

Scope: Assessed current software development and project management methodologies for client. Recommended improvements and worked with client staff to implement them. Developed a corporate policy for End-User Platform Computing. Provided recommendations to assist the client in implementing an organizational infrastructure to support ISO 9000 requirements.

Results: Provided a completely new Software Development Process (SDP) that could consistently be used by all development and support teams. Delivery included the development of the entire product Maintenance Phase with appropriate tasks and deliverables.

New maintenance concepts were introduced such as updating products through new release instead of system patches, allowing the client to more efficiently use resources. VIP also provided recommendations for the development of a comprehensive training curriculum to effectively implement and support these software development methodologies. The ISO 9000 organizational infrastructure recommendations positioned the client to transition the IT organization to pursue external consulting engagements.

Client: Nuclear Controls Manufacturer

Client manufactures plant control systems for electric power utilities, water and wastewater treatment plants, etc. The control system consists of a combination of hardware and embedded software elements, customized for each client. Client desired to do business with major Korean customer, but was unsure they would meet their strict QA requirements.

Scope: Assessed the software development practices and the hardware/software integration practices to recommend improvements. The recommended improvements were implemented through follow-on projects. QA consulting and mentoring helped the client win nuclear controls business with their Korean client. These included planning and implementation assistance with software and hardware verification and validation.

Results: Allowed the client to gain ISO 9001 certification and win the business with their Korean customer. Helped client established enough credibility with their Korean customer, that the customer eventually purchased the client business unit.

Client: Key US Healthcare Provider

The client felt their IT processes, technology, and staff utilization were not as effective and efficient as they could be. They needed help in assessing problem areas and making improvements.

Scope: Performed an assessment of client¹s software development, maintenance, and support practices and procedures. Interviewed representatives from every IT department, compared their practices to industry standards, and presented a final evaluation report along with an action plan for improvement.

Results: The action plan included steps for establishing an organizational infrastructure for software configuration management and quality assurance, improving the maintenance of software products, identifying product management and ownership, developing a software development methodology with appropriate standards and procedures, establishing a training organization and curriculum, and identifying improvements in staffing and processes for their software help desk.