Project Planning

Request for Certification and Release of Funds Form

All Certified Projects Must Follow NM State Policies and Procurement Code

Project Governance

Project Name

/ NM WIC Systems Replacement Project
Date / 4/22/2015
Lead Agency / New Mexico Department of Health
Other Agencies / n/a

Executive Sponsors

/ Mark S.R. Williams, Public Health Division Director
Terry Reusser, CIO
Agency Head / Retta Ward
Agency CIO/IT Lead / Terry Reusser
Project Manager / Lyndi Dittmer-Perry
Project Abstract (Provide a brief description and purpose for this project)

The New Mexico Department of Health’s Women Infant and Children (WIC) Program recognizes that a modern and contemporary information system is necessary to improve program effectiveness for both the State of New Mexico WIC staff and local WIC Agency and Clinic staff. Importantly a new system as envisioned for WIC will also improve the State’s ability to engage, empower and serve its consumers of WIC services. The Scope of this project is to procure and implement a new WIC system that meets the stated business objectives. The State’s recommended approach for the new system will meet the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) requirements for Management Information Systems (MIS) and Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) delivery of WIC client benefits.

Some of the key features desired for the future WIC Systems for New Mexico, include but are not limited to:
·  Comprehensive Clinic and Participant case management system
·  Robust Participant scheduling system
·  Automated infant and child growth chart plotting and pregnancy weight gain grids and for the calculation of body mass index (BMI)
·  Supporting the ability to tailor Participant food packages to meet specific Participant nutritional risk needs
·  Availability of a Participant history to support improvements in measures of outcome and accountability
·  Enhanced ability to conduct nutrition or health surveillance and support for referrals
·  Enhanced reporting and ad hoc query capability
·  Strengthened audit trails, quality assurance and fraud and abuse prevention and detection
·  Streamlined processes for Food Redemption, Settlement and Reconciliation
·  Enhancements at the State Office level for more effective and efficient grocer compliance, financial and EBT management, and operations management
·  Improved Financial Management
·  Deployment as enterprise Web-based system

The NM WIC Program submitted to FNS the NM WIC IAPD for approval on January 9, 2014. The IAPD contained a detailed implementation plan for the best value alternative selected for the project as well as a request for funding for NM ELITE ($13,891,957) for the MIS portion of the system only. The New Mexico WIC Program did not receive FNS approval for the IAPD due to the need of additional detail on the project approach and budget since the project budget exceeded available federal funds. As a result, the NM WIC Program received direction and approval from FNS to join a Regional Solution led by Texas WIC Program and its procurement of a MIS/EBT system. FNS encourages multi-state partnerships and procurements. Participation in the Regional Solution reduces both cost and time frames of WIC project. Therefore, the NM WIC Program entered into a partnership with the Texas WIC program, through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), to join the Regional Solution and its efforts to procure a WIC system. The Texas WIC Program issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) with a Supplemental that included New Mexico. The NM WIC Program will award vendors based on the RFP.

Planned Start Date / Initiated 12/2013 / Planned End Date / Estimated 12/2017
Amount Requested this Certification / $ 200,000
Amount Previously Certified / $ 200,000
Remaining Appropriation not Certified / $ TBD
Total Appropriated Amount / $ 400,000

Certification History (Include any previous project or phase certifications and this request)

Date
/ Amount / Funding Source(s) (use specific citations to laws, grants, etc.)
12/18/2013 / $200,000.00 / FY 2012 USDA FNS Operational Adjustment FFY2013
4/22/2015(this request) / $200,000.00 / USDA FNS MIS and NSA FFY2014 Carryover

Appropriation History (Include all Funding sources, e.g. Federal, State, County, Municipal laws or grants)

Fiscal Year
/ Amount / Funding Source
FY15 / $400,000.00 / USDA FNS MIS and NSA FFY2014 Carryover
Proposed Major Deliverable Schedule and Performance Measure

Major Project Deliverable and Performance Measure

/ Budget /

Due Date

/

Project Phase

Develop Contract to submit to DOH, State of New Mexico, and Federal (FNS) Review / TBD / Target Date:
8/1/2015 / Planning
Overall Project Planning / TBD / Target Date:
8/1/2015 / Planning
EBT Vendor & MIS Vendor: Initiation, Planning, Integration / TBD / TBD / Planning/Implementation
EBT System Configuration / TBD / TBD / Implementation
EBT System Testing, Pilot, Site Preparation / TBD / TBD / Implementation
EBT System Deployment / TBD / TBD / Implementation
MIS System Configuration / TBD / TBD / Implementation
MIS System Testing, Pilot, Site Preparation / TBD / TBD / Implementation
MIS System Deployment to Sites / TBD / TBD / Implementation
Transition to Operations / TBD / TBD / Implementation
Project Close-out / TBD / TBD / Close-out
Budget
Comments:
Description
/

FY14 & Prior

/ FY15 / FY16 / FY17 / FY18&After
Staff - Internal
/ WIC Program & IT Staff / 0 / TBD / TBD / TBD / TBD
Consulting Services / Project Management & Project Business Analyst / 0 / $300,000 / $100,000
*ESTIMATE FOR PLANNING PHASE Only / TBD / TBD
Hardware / N/A / 0 / TBD / TBD / TBD / TBD
Software / Software Development & Licenses / 0 / TBD / TBD / TBD / TBD
Total / 0 / TBD / TBD / TBD / TBD

IT System Analysis (On this document, or as an attachment, provide a summary description of the technical architecture)

The WIC Replacement System vendors will provide a final summary description of the EBT and MIS systems’ technical architecture. This will be finalized during the planning phase.

Independent Verification & Validation (Include Status of IV V Process)

Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services are funded at the Regional level and the contract covering the New Mexico WIC Project is currently in place with a dedicated resource covering the New Mexico WIC Project and activities.

Significant Risks and Mitigation Strategy

Risk 1: Project Governance for the Regional Solution

Mitigation 1: Clarifying roles and governance with the Regional Leadership and consistent participation from NM representatives. Establish working relationship with Regional Project Director and NM Project Manager to offset any early indications of issues.

Risk 2: Funding timeframe requires lead state in the Regional solution to encumber funds by Dec. 2016

Mitigation 2: Assist Regional team by communicating with vendors about the urgency, communicating status with FNS representatives, and monitoring procurement at Regional and State of NM level.

Interoperability (Describe If/how this project interfaces with existing systems/Applications)

Interoperability will be a result of the FNS requirements and the use of industry standard technology. Specific interoperability with other systems will be researched during the Planning Phase.
Transition to Operations: (Describe agency plan to migrate project solution to production. include agency plans to fund and maintain this project after deployment. )
The transition to operations and application support plan for maintenance and operations will be developed with the vendors during the planning phase.

Revision: 6/18/13 Page 5