Situation
A complex, multi-component agency with disparate needs and complex business processes required support to migrate to the cloud. GP Strategies implemented the original agency Enterprise Learning Management Systems (LMSs), which were legacy Plateau on-premise (GP Strategies hosted) solutions. Within the agency umbrella, which consists of 20 components, all had unique business processes and branding requirements and were on separate, standalone instances. As the SuccessFactors product evolved from on-premise to Software as a Service (SaaS), there was a need to migrate the agency system(s) from the GP Strategies on-premise solution to the SAP NS2 Cloud Intelligent Enterprise, FedRAMP Moderate Baseline solution.
Solution
GP Strategies led an upgrade and migration from the legacy on-premise Plateau/SuccessFactors LMS to the SAP NS2 Cloud Intelligent Enterprise for the 65,000 active users within the parent and respective agencies.
Prior to the migration to SaaS, GP Strategies recommended for the agency to upgrade on premise and consolidate their solution, which would allow for a smoother migration to the cloud while the SAP NS2 hosting facilities were preparing for operational readiness. GP Strategies worked with the agency to establish a baseline of common configurations within the new software suite that was satisfactory to the various agency stakeholders. While most software integrators lead with the configuration workbooks, GP Strategies leads implementations with business processes and best practices learned from implementing learning solutions for hundreds of customers over the past two decades. GP Strategies led the agency through a series of configuration workshops to determine, document, and apply global configurations to the system. GP Strategies then worked with the five stakeholder agencies on the approval board, which had unique requirements to establish and implement domain-specific customer configurations.
Once the system was upgraded on premise, GP Strategies led the agency migration effort in partnership with SAP NS2. GP Strategies’ support included migration planning, custom extensions, a Lift & Shift data migration methodology, and a custom HR data transformation solution to accommodate the agency’s unique HR feed requirements. GP Strategies partnered with SAP NS2 to manage the implementation of an Authority to Operate (ATO), Single Sign-On (SSO), Lift & Shift, and custom extensions. GP Strategies led and executed delta system configurations, testing, the data verification process, content migration, integrations, and custom reporting to meet each component’s requirements in addition to the agency-wide requirements. GP Strategies led the initial training efforts for the enterprise implementation. GP Strategies continues to provide training for product releases, addition of new modules to the SuccessFactors suite, and additional component rollouts.
Achieving and Maintaining FedRAMP Certification and Client ATO: GP Strategies was responsible for developing and managing the overall project schedule and maintained strict project-management protocols in accordance with the SuccessFactors Activate methodology. GP Strategies ensured the agency was able to secure the ATO, Authority to Test, and intersystem agreement for integrations and ultimately had a FedRAMP-authorized Moderate Baseline solution, which SAP NS2 is responsible for as the product company. The SAP NS2 Cloud is a FedRAMP-certified SaaS offering for federal agencies https://marketplace.fedramp.gov/#!/product/sapns2-cloud-intelligent-enterprise.
The SAP NS2 Cloud Intelligent Enterprise solution has 27 ATOs across the federal civilian government and Department of Defense. This agency is one of those ATOs, having deployed the SAP NS2’s SuccessFactors Learning (LMS) solution.
Patching, Security Updates, and Meeting SLAs: GP Strategies upgraded the legacy system to the current version prior to migration and supported SAP NS2 as they applied a patch to bring the agency to the most current version during migration. There were no security breaches throughout the implementation and all SLAs and uptime requirements were met throughout the engagement.
Data Migration: Large amounts of data can impact performance of the application, specifically relating to reporting and search capabilities. The system had been around for 15 years prior to migrating to the SAP NS2 solution, and the agency accumulated large amounts of data that they either were not using or no longer needed for reporting purposes. GP Strategies conducted a thorough analysis, identified data integrity issues, and resolved those issues prior to the migration. Additionally, GP Strategies helped the agency eliminate data (items, content) that they no longer needed. This allowed for a more streamlined migration process. The customer benefited in the short and long term by not having duplicate, missing, or bad data. These issues are amplified in a SaaS environment and we strongly recommend proactively reviewing and cleansing data prior to migration.
GP Strategies supported the migration efforts of the various components for content, items, ID conversions, and custom reporting. GP Strategies planned and supported multiple dry runs, including staging and User Adoption Testing (UAT) efforts, before the actual migration to production.
Handling and Correcting Trouble Tickets, Incidents, and Problems: For the agency account, GP Strategies serves as their Tier 1, 2, and 3 support. As part of ongoing operations and maintenance support for the agency, GP Strategies can log, track, and monitor tickets through resolution by hosting our own ticketing service. Because GP Strategies supports the customer enterprise, we are able to identify trends and holistically determine the root cause of issues and consolidate them into a master ticket that improves communications and time to resolution agency-wide. GP Strategies has a strong relationship with SAP NS2 that allows us to partner together to escalate and resolve tickets. When needed, GP Strategies escalates issues to SAP NS2 by creating tickets directly with SAP NS2 on the agency’s behalf. GP Strategies handles all communications, and resolves and closes the client ticket. On average, GP Strategies supports 250 tickets per month across all 20 agency components. The time to resolution depends on the complexity of the request.
Results
This implementation was a full upgrade and modernization for the government agency. GP Strategies helped the agency to streamline their processes, improve system usability, and maintain their solution easily. The agency has seen:
- Increase in system usability
- Improvement in ticket resolution time
- Ability to receive and take advantage of new product releases and functionality quickly and more frequently
- Adaptation of business processes to a cloud environment
- Access to other modules and additional capabilities in the platform
