Nevada Department of Wildlife
Background:
The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) performs a variety of wildlife management and boating safety functions.
Included in their charter is the issuing of tags and licenses for hunting and fishing. This hunt application process
typically includes more than 65,000 applications, in excess of $6,000,000 in receipts, and the issuance of more
than 20,000 tags and 30,000 refund checks totaling more than $4,500,000.
The Problem:
Historically, big game tags have been issued via a computerized random draw of hunter applications. This process
ran on state mainframe computer equipment using a suite of COBOL programs, many of which were 20 or more years
old.
Nevada Senate Bill 506 authorized NDOW to solicit bids for the development
of a computer system for the issuance of tags. NDOW issued an RFP on August 28, 1992 for computer software, hardware
and administration of the process. The Senate Bill specifically directed that the 1993 hunt application and draw
process (March 1993 to June 1993) be handled by the new system. This necessitated a very rapid development schedule.
The Solution:
Systems Consultants (SCI) and 15 other firms bid to develop the software. SCI won the open competition and was
engaged in December of 1992 to develop the system and administer the process for 3 years. The SCI solution utilized
a PC based Local Area Network (LAN). Programming began immediately and the establishment of the hunt application
office began in early 1993. The first task involved the mailing of pre-addressed applications to the hunting public.
This occurred in early March of 1993 and applications began arriving shortly thereafter.
All of the programs critical to the application process, the draw and
the issuance of tags and checks were completed in time to hold the draw on time at the end of May 1993. Remaining
system functionality including hunter response card processing, annual reporting, etc., was completed after the
first year's draw.
SCI passed an independent performance audit in 1995 and the entire process
has been universally declared a success and a model for privatization of governmental activities.
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Utah Division of Wildlife Resources
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Arizona Game & Fish Department
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New Mexico Department of Game & Fish
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Idaho Fish and Game
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Churchill County District Attorney's Office
Background:
The Churchill County District Attorney's office is located in the city of Fallon, the county seat of the sixth
largest county in Nevada. The office handles more than 1,500 civil and criminal cases each year.
The Problem:
With the exception of two IBM PC AT's running a word processing program, the District Attorney's office was not
automated. Attorney's and administrative personnel did not have access to the county computer systems or outside
information services such as WestLaw. Most important, case management was based upon a manual notebook shared by
office personnel.
The Solution:
Systems Consultants installed a Local Area Network (LAN) which utilized the existing PCs and printers and added
new PCs so that every staff member had a work station. One PC is used as a gateway communications device to allow
all staff members concurrent access to the county's IBM System/36. A network modem sharing device was similarly
installed to allow everyone access to a common modem and telephone line for access to WestLaw and other outside
information services.
A new word processing system was installed which included a means of
automatically converting documents created in the old word processing system. In addition, a document scanner and
software was installed to facilitate translation of hard copy documents. The county code (more than 600 pages of
text) was scanned into the word processing system. The publishing of the county code has been brought back in-house
at a potential savings greater than the entire cost of the network system.
Systems Consultants provided training to staff members in the use of
the word processing system and assisted in the development of word processing macro tools, style sheets and prototypical
document.
Systems Consultants developed a Paradox data base system for case management.
This system is multi-user and tracks cases, charges, witnesses, property forfeitures, notes, activities, and follow-ups.
The system produces a variety of statistical and management reports reflecting case loads and activity.
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Truckee-Carson Irrigation District
Background:
The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID) is a quasi-governmental agency located in Fallon, Nevada. TCID is
tasked with managing irrigation, water storage, and water deliveries in the Newlands Water Project, one of the
oldest Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects in the United States. TCID maintains information about water rights
and property ownership for thousands of parcels in churchill and Lyon Counties in Nevada. TCID operates the Lahontan
Reservoir, several smaller reservoirs, and an extensive system of canals for irrigation.
The Problem:
TCID had legacy accounting systems and a water rights management system written in RPG II and running on an aged
IBM System/36 mini-computer. The water rights system was the single largest application tracking thousands of land
parcels and more than 10,000 water delivery orders a year. System/36 hardware was failing and nearly out of capacity.
Personal computers had been introduced. Small data bases and word processing
bad been moved from the System/36 to individual work-stations. TCID needed shared access to common data from the
individual PC work-stations and there were shortcomings in the accounting and water systems.
The Solution:
Systems Consultants was first engaged to install a PC Local Area Network (LAN). A file server with Novell Netware
was installed along with cabling. Existing workstations were connected to the network and printers shared. With
the network in place, the existing accounting systems (General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, and Accounts
Receivable) were migrated from the System/36 to a PC based accounting system, Great Plains.
Approximately a year after the original conversion and implementation,
TCID engaged Systems Consultants to re-write the water management system in Access data base system. The existing
data was downloaded to the LAN and converted into Access. The new system was designed to roughly parallel the existing
system to minimize conversion and training efforts. However, many user friendly features were added to ease locating
information and improve the water ordering process.
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The Angeles Group, Inc.
Background:
The Angeles Group develops PC LAN based software to manage telephone
systems including call accounting, network design, least cost routing, cable management, trouble tracking, and
consolidated billing. The Angeles Group's customers primarily consist of colleges, universities, the military,
telephone companies, and large corporations.
The Problem:
The Angeles Group had clients who needed to be able to consolidate
all of the information in their other Angeles Group systems (call accounting, trouble tracking, etc.) to create
a bill for in-house and outside clients. Included in this requirement was a need to handle large volumes of check
receipts, check returns with appropriate batching and interface to in-house mainframe accounting systems. While
The Angeles Group has its own programming resources and has created most of their own software, this project required
specific financial expertise (i.e., handling batched cash receipts, returns, refunds, etc.) not organic to the
organization. In addition, the entire project from initial requirements definition to a tested, installed, and
documented system had to be completed in less than five months.
The Solution:
Systems Consultants was engaged to design and develop a consolidated
billing system which would run as a multi-user PC network based system and would integrate with existing Angeles
Group systems. The system features include:
- Table driven definition of billing cycle parameters, charge codes, etc.
- Automatic interface of data from three other Angeles Group systems.
- Batched cash receipts for payments and deposits.
- Automatic application of deposits and return refunds.
- Invoicing outside "paying" clients and inside "chargeback"
clients.
- Accounts recievable aging reports.
- On-line inquiry into customer and transaction status as well as history.
- Transaction, cash receipts, audit reporting.
The system was completed on schedule and was successfully installed at
the first client less than five months after project start. Subsequently, the system has been installed at several
other large clients. Systems Consultants was able to complete and install this system in such a short period of
time because of our ability to use our existing software, subroutines, and techniques from similar applications.
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Affiliated Research Centers, Inc.
Background:
Affiliated Research Centers, Inc. (ARC) operates networks of
research investigators in Internal Medicine, Neurology and Urology throughout the Unites States. The ARC clinical
research site conduct phase two and phase three clinical trials of new drugs and devices prior to RDA approval.
ARC is headquartered in Gurnee, Illinois.
The Problem:
To successfully manage and control the clinical trials, ARC needs
to track a substantial amount of information about individual sites, clients, studies (protocols), patients and
visits. A key benefit that ARC provides to its clients is the correct and timely completion of trails in order
to lengthen the period in which the product patent is operative. ARC required a data base which could provide access
to information to a variety of clinical, managerial and financial personnel within the organization. At the same
time, the business is growing and changing rapidly and so the data base needed to be able to handle large volumes
of data and accommodate change.
The Solution:
Systems Consultants was engaged to develop a large Microsoft
Access multi-user data management system. This system tracks clients, sites, studies, patients, and visits. It
provides functions for developing study budgets, assigning studies to sites, enrolling patients, recording patient
visits, recording payments, calculating commissions and paying sites. Furthermore, the system integrates with the
off-the-shelf accounting system, Great Plains, to provide general ledger information.
The ARC system has grown significantly since its inception. When ARC
expanded from a single network in Urology to networks in Internal Medicine and Neurology, the system was easily
modified to support associating and filtering data by these different business segments.
When ARC created a Web Site on the Internet to allow its sites to key
and access information regarding study and patient progress, the interface was developed in less than two weeks.
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Eubonics
Background:
Eubionics is a partnership founded by noted Oncologist Ronald S. Citron, M.D. Eubionics is primarily engaged in
heath education.
The Problem:
Eubionics developed a questionnaire which examines personal and family medical history, occupational and lifestyle
history, typical nutritional intake and stress. In conjunction with this questionnaire, Eubionics developed an
"expert" decision tree of rules to evaluate respondents' answers and assess their risk of cancer, heart
and atherosclerosis problems. This expert system is called "CHARRT" - Cancer, Heart, Atherosclerosis
Risk Reduction Test.
The Solution:
Systems Consultants developed a micro-computer based system which allows medical experts to code their knowledge
into a set of rules which examine specific answers to develop a unique heath risk assessment.
Rules are described in an English like language. Rules reverence specific
answers and make complex logical tests. Rules have powerful consequences. They can be used to print particular
passages of text, to accumulate totals (i.c., caloric intake), to perform calculations(i.e., percentage of fat
in diet) and even correct answers to resolve ambiguities.
A unique risk assessment is printed for each answer sheet. This report
uses high resolution laser printing features including graphics, publication quality proportional fonts, and micro-justification.
Systems Consultants assisted medical experts in translating the initial
expert rules into the rules language. Subsequent modifications to rules and text have been made entirely by the
medical experts.
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CB Commercial Real Estate Group, Inc.
Background:
CB Commerical Real Estate Group, Inc. (CB Commercial), formerly Coldwell Banker Commercial was founded in 1906.
CB Commercial is headquartered in Torrance with offices in more than 85 cities accross the United States.
CB Commercial provides its clients with commercial real estated services
including Brokerage, Management, Appraisal, Corporate Consulting, Investment Banking and many other services. CB
Commercial is in the process of developing major new LAN.PC - based systems to provide the power of the computer
to all sales, management and support staff in Brokerage and Management Services offices.
The Problem:
The CB Information Technologies Group (IT) is tasked to evaluate, order and install computer sytems for the nationwide
offices. Once installed, IT prepares disbursements for capitalized and expansed equipment and journal entries for
leased equipment. IT maintains an inventory of this equipment and records equipment transfers and changes of custody.
There are more than 19,000 line items of equipment recorded and more than 500 invoices paid monthly. Inventory
and accounting information was recorded in Q&A data bases but these were not integrated and a substantial amount
of manual effort was required to achieve the service levels expected by the
field offices. Purchases and payments were frequently delayed.
The Solution:
Systems Consultants (SCI) was engaged to review the entire asset management process from purchase through payment
and ultimately to disposition of the equipment. SCI staff developed a management report describing the defiviencies
of the existing processes and recommending an integrated solution. Several off-the-shelf systems were reviewed
but none were a good fir tof the CB environment. IT Management engaged SCI to develop a Windows based integrated
solution using Access as the data base.
SCI Developed the AIM (Asset Inventory Management) System to track vendors,
parts, purchase orders, inventory, invoices and payments. The system is fully integrated from initial request through
disposition of the equipment. The volume has increased substantially without a proportional increase in staff.
Purchase Orders are now issued on a timely basis and vendor payment times have been reduced. SCI has been retained
to maintain and enhance the system.
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