Closeout

Request for Project Closeout Certification Form

All Certified Projects Must Follow NM State Policies and Procurement Code

1.  Project Governance /

Project Name

Project Short Name(s)

/ GenTax Upgrade to Version 9 Project
Date / 09/17/14
Lead Agency / Taxation and Revenue Department (TRD)
Other Agencies / None

Executive Sponsor

/ Demesia Padilla, Cabinet Secretary, TRD
Agency Head / Demesia Padilla, Cabinet Secretary, TRD
Agency CIO/IT Lead / Greg Saunders, CIO
Project Manager / Jim Wastvedt/Elizabeth Sanchez
2.  Project Abstract
(Provide a brief description and purpose for this project.)
The purpose of this project was to upgrade the GenTax Software (TRD’s Tax Administration software for the State of New Mexico) to the vendor’s most current version: GenTax version 9. The Taxation and Revenue Department implemented the GenTax system as the tax system of record for New Mexico beginning in 2002. GenTax is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product provided by Fast Enterprises, LLC that delivers integrated tax processing. The GenTax software processes revenue for 30 of the tax programs administered by TRD; and currently processes $5.5 to $6.5 billion in annual revenues. There was a critical need to upgrade the overall system to the most current version of GenTax; a system version that is compatible with current Microsoft software. In this upgrade project, TRD implemented and upgraded 30 tax processing modules. These upgrades included: a new Business Credit Manager module to handle the ever increasing types of business credits; a new refund module to better leverage new technologies in preventing fraud and detecting the use of stolen identities for refund fraud; implementing the latest security technology to protect our tax payer data; implementing the latest generation web-centric architecture that allows us to better utilize our IT resources; implementing a new GenTax data warehouse (Discovery) to allow TRD to better facilitate the use of external data for increased productivity and increased revenue streams on the audit and compliance side, as well as increase our efficiency and fraud prevention on the revenue and return processing side.
3a. Scope Verification

Requirements Review

/ Yes / No /

Explanation/Notes

Were the project objectives (expected outcomes) accomplished? / X
Were all Deliverables submitted and accepted? / X
Did the IV&V vendor verify that all deliverables met the requirements? / X
Have all contracts been closed? / X
Have all final payments been made (i.e., invoices paid) / X
Have all project documents/records been appropriately stored for future reference? / X
Has adequate knowledge transfer been completed? / X
3b. Major Project Deliverables and Performance Measures Met
Major Project Deliverable and Performance Measure

(Include an explanation if deliverable or performance measure was not met.)

/ Budget /

Date

/

Project Phase

System Design & Development V6 Refunds/Top / $200,000 / 06/30/2012 / Implementation
System Design & Development V9 TAP & Data Warehouse Pilot / $200,000 / 07/31/2012 / Implementation
System Validation Production Implementation V6 Refunds/TOP / $400,000 / 10/31/2012 / Implementation
System Validation/Production Implementation V9 TAP & Data Warehouse Pilot / $250,000 / 10/31/2012 / Implementation
System Design & Development V9 GenTax / $1,200,000 / 01/31/2013 / Implementation
System Validation V9 GenTax / $1,800,000 / 05/31/2013 / Implementation
Production Implementation V9 GenTax / $500,000 / 06/30/2013 / Implementation
System Design & Development Business Credit Manager / $250,000 – 10% retainage / 01/31/2014 / Implementation
System Validation Business Credit Manager / $650,000 – 10% retainage / 05/31/2014 / Implementation
Production Implementation Business Credit Manager / $350,000 – 10% retainage / 06/30/2014 / Implementation
Project Close-Out / $125,000 or amount of retainage / 06/30/2014 / Closeout
4a. Certification History
Cert. Date / Cert. Amount / Funding Source(s) – Funding Total Amount
(Cite the specific laws, grants, etc. and total amount.)
05/23/2012 / $6,230,000 / Laws of 2012, Chapter 19, Section 7, Item 4
04/18/2012 / $0 / Laws of 2012, Chapter 19, Section 7, Item 4
4b. RFP / Contract History
(List all RFP’s and contracts issued for the project.)
List RFP and Contract
(Purpose and/or Description) / Contract
Number / Compensation
Amount or NA / %
Complete
GenTax Software Upgrade to Version 9 Project / 20-333-00-11311, TR12-38 / $6,230,000 / 100%
5. Schedule and Budget
Planned Start Date / 05/30/2012 / Actual Start Date / 05/30/2012
Planned End Date / 06/30/2014 / Actual End Date / 06/30/2014
Planned Cost: (Budget) / $6,230,000 / Actual Cost: (Total) / $6,081,072
§  Professional Services / $6,230,000 / §  Professional Services / $6,081,072
§  Hardware / §  Hardware
§  Software / §  Software
§  Network / §  Network
§  Other / §  Other
6a. Independent Verification & Validation

(Include summary of the last IVV Report or Risk Management Summary Report.)

With the move of the Business Credit Module and its support through the end of June, a two year cycle of active collaboration between the TRD GenTax team and the FAST Enterprise project and development team comes to an end. It has been the privilege of Burger Carroll and Associates and Nicolas L Behrmann to have been the IV&V team on both the V9 upgrade and the Business Credit Module projects.
The strength of both projects has been in the interaction between those division/bureau assigned TRD Implementation Coordinators and the FAST Enterprise project and development team members. They brought the best of current TRD expertise with an openness of the vendor’s resources to listen to the customer and to fathom out the best way to solve the business needs through the framework of the GenTax application.
The challenge in the BCM project was the complexity of moving from the manual or spreadsheet treatment of the numerous existing business credits to an automated process of creating, managing and reporting on these credits within the context of the GenTax application. And where in the V9 upgrade there was a relatively straightforward matter of applying the vendor upgraded functionality to the business practices, with BCM there were the nuances and specifications of legislative language and approval processes from other State of New Mexico departments that had to be factored into the mix.
From a project management and IV&V perspective there was a major challenge of the project beginning without any real formal requirements or provision for “requirements traceability” for tracing these requirements through the design and testing of the proposed new module. While the assigned Implementation Coordinators and the FAST development team were at work talking about the new module, TRD project management resources were concerned about shaping actual written and actionable requirements that could be approved by TRD executives.
IV&V on this project was instrumental in resolving two key risks. The Vendor proposed fast tracking the project in a manner that would have shortened the requirements development time and it was conveyed by the Vendor that their methodology does not include requirements traceability. Based on the existing contractual framework between TRD and FAST calling for a draft design document in their development effort deliverable, IV&V was able to insert two vital elements as part of the executives’ approval of the vendor deliverable that included this draft design document.
The executives’ approval for the “System Design & Development Business Credit Manager
Acceptance of Deliverable Eight” would be dependent upon their approval of two TRD project documents. The first of these documents would be a formal requirements document created by the Implementation Coordinators and the TRD Project Management Office resources. This document represented a concerted effort by the ICs and the PMO. The document was to and did contain a set of items that TRD would expect to be able to be traced in the vendor Design document. Once the executives signed off on this BCM requirements document, the subset of to be traced items was used to evaluate the completeness of the vendor design document. This Gap Analysis was used as the basis of the PMO and ICs recommending approval of the vendor design document as part of the Vendor Deliverable.
Through these two approval processes, TRD was able to own the project, assure that the BCM was based on executive approved requirements and that there would be enough time for the development of formal requirements for the business credit module.
Even while the TRD team was formalizing the requirements, FAST Enterprises and the various teams were analyzing the business credits and their specifics, making a corporate decision to use their work effort with TRD as the basis for adding the Business Credit Module functionality to their core GenTax Product, and follow their established internal development practices.
For TRD and the State of New Mexico, having FAST committed to the BCM functionality will mean that future GenTax upgrades with include this functionality and that New Mexico will not have one-off upgrade costs later on. For the development process, this also has meant an additional layer of FAST oversight from corporate.
With the two additional TRD approval steps, the project moved to the strengths of the collaboration with vendor supported development of test scenarios and test scripts as well as BCM training materials as steps on the way to production. Active interaction between TRD and FAST was exemplified in the various team and status meetings, demonstrations of development concepts and the BCM at various steps of development.
6b. Lessons Learned
1.  Strong emphasis on implementation of a comprehensive integrated user training plan
–  Different forms of training: videos, handouts, formal classes, computer labs
2.  Committed business user divisional resources onsite for the duration of the project
3.  Internal PMO and PMO business analyst dedicated to the project
4.  Highly effective interaction between the TRD project management staff, vendor staff and IV&V vendor ensured quality of product and on time project delivery
5.  Standardization and consistency of GenTax v9 has benefited employees
–  Knowledge and experience is more easily transferred between functional areas
7. Transition to Operations
Yes / No /

Explanation/Notes

Are there recurring maintenance/operational costs for the product/service? / X / $2.7M per Year – for Enhanced Maintenance Contract # ID 403331415525
Are there any recommended enhancements or updates? / X / (Attach comments)
Summary of agency plan to support project solution in production.
The GenTax Bureau of TRD ITD along with the FAST Contractor onsite personnel have been effectively supporting the GenTax Software since its implementation in 2002. With the Enhanced Maintenance Agreement that has gone into effect in 4th quarter FY14, TRD will effectively be able to support and maintain current revision levels of the GenTax Software.
Summary of agency plans to fund the maintenance and Operations of this project.
TRD has executed an Enhanced Maintenance Contract ID 403331415525 with FAST Enterprises to provide support for the GenTax Software Application which will constantly enable TRD to maintain the application at its most current revision level while adequately supplementing the staffing needs required by the bureau to support the 30 tax applications in GenTax.

Revision: 6/18/13

Page 1