Corporate Overview
Faced with aging Pension and Payroll Systems, Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) turned to BAU Solutions for direction in meeting the goal of providing better services to some 600,000 public service employees and pensioners. The result is the development of an on-line system, providing public service employees and pensioners with dynamic pension benefits or options information in regards to the Public Service Super-Annuation Plan. It also distributes information on the protection offered to them by their group benefit plans. Current employees and pensioners will be able to monitor, analyze, and input on their pension plan during their working years and into their retirement. This project is a Government On-Line initiative and adheres to its standards.
Business Challenge
In September 2001, PWGSC called upon BAU Solutions to develop a modern online Pay Pensions System in turn securing a direction for the future. PWGSC recognized that services to government employees and pensioners were not at optimal performance and that the interface with them could be more effective. Outdated technology meant that maintenance costs were increasing and, given the department's aging workforce, employees with knowledge of the systems would be retiring in five years. Also, given the federal government's mandate (Throne Speech) to have all departments on line by 2004, the modernization imperative to incorporate web-based applications and technology intensified. To arrive at with a recommendation for the future, BAU conducted various stages of analysis and evaluation, helped in the selection of the technology platform, and development of a migration plan to chart the course for the move to the new technology platform. Furthermore, BAU played an integral role in the execution of the migration plan by aiding in the architecture, design and development of the new Pay Pensions system.
Strategy
Throughout the scope of the project, BAU worked closely with PWGSC, including representatives from both operations and business, to define options for modernization and provide a client-driven solution. BAU reviewed the existing technical environment for Pay and Pension systems and identified options for modernization by categories—principally where it concerned the presentation layer and database layer of the future system. Modernization criteria included alignment with vision and strategy, compliance with government adopted technology and standards, migration from hierarchical to relational technology and web enablement in an IBM mainframe environment. The requirement for more modern technology supporting these complex business services had to be carefully balanced with a phased implementation of new technology by leveraging existing business processes. BAU organized joint application development workshops, ranked the options, presented timelines, costs, risks, and assessed the impact of modernization on the department. Final recommendations were made in concert with senior management. The result was a well-crafted migration plan that did not disrupt the ongoing business.
Solutions
BAU has played a major role in providing exceptional expertise and leadership in the migration, execution and delivery of the new Pay Pensions system. The modernization of this system involved the integration of web applications with legacy applications. This included the migration to the Web as a presentation tool and to a relational database to provide more flexibility, moving away from obsolete technology and providing a solid foundation that allows for scalability. The migration to web technologies has allowed two new areas of service. The first service is the issuance and management of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) certificates online. Users are able to register themselves, recover themselves, and revoke themselves without any human intervention, and at the time and place of their choosing. The second group of services is a centralized infrastructure that facilitates the operation of online applications, which use PKI to authenticate users. Together, these services form a secure, comprehensive, and affordable solution to providing electronic services online.
Benefits
The benefit of the Pay Pensions modernization initiative is to provide better services to some 600,000 public service employees and pensioners. The result is the development of an on-line system, providing public service employees and pensioners with dynamic pension benefits or options information in regards to the Public Service Super-Annuation Plan. The key to this new online system is the PKI feature because it provides the security needed to conduct its business electronically. In turn, this provides assistance to PWGSC in the areas of increased efficiency of internal operations, cost savings and in the delivery of the federal government's mandate to have all departments on line by 2004.
Technology Employed
Visual Age for Java, J2EE, IBM Websphere, OS/390, IBM DB2, LDAP, Rational Rose, UML, SQL, XML, Struts, Entrust TruePass, Windows NT/2000, Unix |