State of Indiana looks to Baker Tilly for vendor management and contract oversight of software developer vendor

Client background

The state of Indiana Election Division is responsible for managing and maintaining an integrated Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS).

The business challenge

New federal regulations required Indiana to implement voter registration reform across the state. The state selected a vendor to perform the design, development and implementation of a new consolidated software application, but had concerns because other states had failed in working with their vendors. The state was interested in an aggressive and disciplined vendor management program.

The Baker Tilly approach

The state of Indiana selected Baker Tilly 14+ years ago as the implementation lead for the SVRS launch. As a result of the success, Baker Tilly remains involved in providing ongoing program management, vendor management, electronic poll book oversight and advisory services. Vendor management activities included:

Vendor monitoring and contract oversight

• Architected a “best in class” contractual agreement that gave the State protections throughout the SVRS journey.
• Designed, developed and implemented the vendor management framework for the SVRS program serving as the State’s advocate.
• Identified technology requirements and software solutions; facilitated RFP and vendor evaluations.
• Oversight of activities associated with SVRS service delivery and SVRS vendor execution.
• Identified and escalated contract and SVRS vendor’s Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance issues.
• Reported on vendor service delivery and SLA compliance, SVRS enhancement coordination, user acceptance testing, and quarterly deliverable audits.

Enhancement coordination and prioritization

• Assisted the state with evaluation, recommendations, prioritization and coordination of enhancements for upcoming builds and/or hotfixes.
• Coordinated vendors to facilitate county and state review and approval of proposed enhancements.
• Scheduled and facilitated state user acceptance test sessions for build releases and documented any issues.

Modernization management

• Reviewed vendor estimates. Assisted in refining scope for the development of the modernization road map.
• Established and maintained a vendor service delivery model for modernization projects.
• Evaluated earned value management and other program productivity metrics across modernization projects.

Issue resolution

• Evaluated and assessed activities for the state and assisted with documentation of action plans to resolve issues.
• Issued resolution action plans in coordination with vendors.
• Monitored vendor and state action plans. Tracked and communicated progress.

The business impact

The state had confidence throughout their journey that the vendor had been managed appropriately by aligning strategy with controls across the project life cycle. This was achieved by the development of contract Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and credits from the vendor if it did not meet agreed upon client service levels, delivery milestones, reporting and optimization performance. Earned value management techniques were used as an additional tool when services levels or milestones were not met by the vendor.