PROJECT MANAGEMENT
In support of a high-visibility program and project management environments, Sprezzatura employs a Project Management methodology based upon respected industry quality programs such as the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). This approach ensures work activities are performed within scope in a timely and cost-effective manner, while maintaining the highest quality.
IT SERVICES
Sprezzatura provides requirements support for enhancements, process improvements, and policy changes. Our solutions provides visibility, awareness, and tracking of software installations, hardware replacements, system upgrades, patching, and other release and/or deployment activities in the VA production environment. It is a centralized calendar available to everyone and is required to be used for any deployment or other code change activities. The team is a mix of government staff and contract resources who serve multiple roles to support the development, operations and maintenance.
ENTERPRISE DATA GOVERNANCE AND DATA QUALITY
Sprezzatura provides key support to the VA Profile initiative, which will create a single location for all pertinent data supporting every veteran. Our expertise in enterprise data models has enabled the Data Governance Council to create and maintain governing documents which define the standards for VA databases. Our requirements documents govern the definition and retrieval of all data for every domain, sub-domain, and data source (e.g., database, data repository, and web service) contractually requested by the VA. Our in-depth research into data sources results in complete data dictionaries, data models, and data diagrams. Our support includes defining the requirements for processing specialized parameters establishing qualifications for Veteran status in the form of very sophisticated pseudo code specifications supplied to Oracle programmers.
DATA ARCHITECTURE
Sprezzatura normalizes data into a single format that meets Department of Defense (DoD) and VA occupational health nomenclature and must be linkable to acceptable Veteran ID types. From data recorded 45 years ago for Agent Orange exposures to a recent toxic chemical spill, terabytes of individual, location, and exposure data are ingested. These data are then transformed, stored, and made available in a variety of formats to the various VA systems that house the medical records of Veterans. They are used to substantiate claims or are analyzed by a variety of epidemiological ‘big data’ tools to look for trends and relationships.
FINANCIAL SYSTEMS SUPPORT
Sprezzatura maintains a .NET solution that de-queues EDI 837 medical claims from Tascore; stores the messages to a database; and picks up and enqueues, via RabbitMQ, EDI 277 acknowledgements for consumption by Tascore. Recently, we re-designed the code for stabilization. The project passed a critical go/no-go gate with the product owners, based on the new Rabbit MQ Uptime (high of 90%).
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
Sprezzatura employs Microsoft Power Business Intelligence (Power BI) for extended reporting capability via interactive data visualizations. The dashboards include distilled data from several project schedules into visual results for stakeholders. The visuals include Gantt charts that provide an overview of schedule milestones across various Programs while reflecting the current status of the milestones in real time. The dashboard uses pie charts and heat maps to reflect Portfolio-level risks and issues while tying schedule milestones as applicable to the same. Furthermore, the dashboard employs various relationship visuals to show intra- and inter-program dependencies across Programs. The data on the dashboard is always kept up-to-date with automated refreshes and is shared across the organization.
IT/API GOVERNANCE
Sprezzatura creates, reviews, and applies quality assurance documentation deliverables using the data/research garnered from each entity leading to recommendations on governance models. We proactively anticipate varying answers from respondents in order to quickly respond. We apply criteria such as initial cost, total operating cost, industry adoption, time to market, and security to ultimately inform the provided API governance recommendations.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Sprezzatura completes a multi-month Organizational Change assessment for our client. For this engagement, our team members consulted with government leadership and recommends organizational restructuring for the IT organization brought about by changing leadership requirements. This change impacts a headquarters staff of 20 government employees overseeing a $50M annual budget and 100+ government IT staff supporting infrastructure, security, code maintenance, and configuration changes.
There were multiple drivers leading to the re-organization; the key is the $10 Billion EHR Modernization (EHRM) effort mandated by Congress requiring a centralized office for VistA governance. The VistA Office responsibilities include configuration management, planning and oversight, and information assurance. We organized the new office, which is focused on IT Governance and supports interfaces with Cerner Millennium.
ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD SUPPORT
Sprezzatura facilitates the maintenance of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) legacy Electronic Health Record (EHR), Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), which is a collection of 130+ administrative and clinical IT systems and applications used in all VHA medical facilities for Veterans healthcare management. As part of the new EHR, Cerner Millennium, we oversee the Integrated Master Schedule used by VA Senior Leadership to manage the initial operating capability (IOC) sites.
TRAINING
Sprezzatura wrote a User Guide, produced training slides, and provided direct assistance user support. The team was able to enhance our outreach to the user community by providing additional training via the organization’s Talent Management System (TMS). Over multiple work sessions, we partnered with the IT Workforce Development personnel, who provided us the rules of the ‘video’ road, we produced a presentation package that consisted of an event book, presentations, four brief videos, and a class handout. The result was the production of two 508 compliant accredited TMS courses.
Robotics Process Automation
Sprezzatura provides the expertise and operational best practices, resulting in greater value from the Robotics Automation Investment for our clients. The reduced cost and risk facilitates a better return on investment. We offer Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) in different phases: Process Discovery, Solution Design, Infra and Admin Console Set Up, and Implementation. RPA/RDA is used to automate the routine tasks repeated in a workflow. Pega robotics enables task automation using the user interface of existing applications by emulating human execution of repetitive processes with existing applications, performing as a virtual work force controlled by the Business Operations Teams, controlling robots trained by business users via configuration, and working with existing IT architecture.
CYBER SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Sprezzatura provides cyber security services for the VA Education Service’s Long Term Solution (LTS) application organization to ensure that the application is secure for Veterans and their families to access and utilize their education benefits. We provide ongoing Authority to Operate (ATO) support by performing, monitoring and tracking, vulnerability scans to the hardware, software, and code. We generate Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms), waivers, disaster recovery plans, systems security plans, and privacy impact documentation. We post scan results and maintain in the Governance, Risk, and Compliance tool, Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMass).
DATA ANALYTICs SERVICES
Sprezzatura is taking Data Analytics and the Customer Experience to the next level. We are analyzing Contact Center Data to better improve customer service and customer experience. By collecting data from multiple locations and sources we provide Contact Centers with deeper insights into call center metrics/performance and customers’ needs by using interactive data visualization tools such as PowerBI. Various types of data are being collected from Health Record systems, Benefits systems, and Call Center Communication Systems, just to name a few. Gathering this data assists in developing a better-integrated system, a one-stop-shop for customers, and contact centers will be able to provide faster results with all the information needed in one centralized data warehouse.
Our customers are handling real-time data need real-time answers to create a customer-centric environment. With this type of demand, we are beginning to use Cloud technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Machine Learning is helpful in predicting call volume, staffing, faster and smarter routing, and realizing business and customers’ needs at a faster turn-around rate. With AI, we develop chatbots to assist customers in making an appointment, learning about their benefits, understanding the status of pending claims, and accessing quick information to other resources. We foresee great technological possibilities in being able to provide the best customer experience for customers.
