Maryland Department of Health (MDH) implemented a modern data center for Long Term Support and Services (LTSS)
Case Study: Maryland Department of Health (MDH) implemented a modern data center for Long Term Support and Services (LTSS)
Client Challenge
The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) implemented the Long Term Supports and Services (LTSS) system in 2012 and moved additional agencies to the LTSS during six years period. Future plans include doubling the user base. Due to a significant planned expansion of the user base and services available through the LTSS application, the MDH required an on-premise hosted solution, including an IVR to support the In-Home Supports Assurance System (ISAS), Level 1 Help Desk, NOC, and Tier 2 support for the provided services. This O&M provider would need to work closely with the software provider for releases (10 – 12 regularly scheduled releases per year along with ad-hoc releases), regression testing, Production implementation, and troubleshooting.
The LTSS application supports 42,000 Maryland residents who require medical care through Medicare. The system supports 3,500 users, with an additional 2,000 – 2,500 users, to be added over the next 12 months. The application and IVR are to be available 24x7x365 and only taken down for MDH approved maintenance. The system processes in excess of one million claims per month, interfacing with the Medicaid Management Information System (MMIS) and local hospitals.
The Solution
A modern data center begins with an agile infrastructure that can ensure a consistent and reliable experience as well as long-term business agility through resilience. This approach can give organizations the ability to reduce risk to business operations; operate more efficiently, and innovate by bringing new services to market faster.
Voyatek was awarded the contract in January of 2018 and implemented a FlexPod configuration solution, which provides two Production stacks and two pre-Production stacks in the Primary Data Center and a single Production stack in the Disaster Recovery Data Center. Voyatek also implemented a cloud-based IVR solution, allowing ease of transfer between the Production stacks and to Disaster Recovery as required. The full suite of services provided to MDH is listed below.
24x7x365 Service Desk/NOC and ITSM Operations
- Provide 24x7x365 Tier I and II Service Desk Operations for the complete MDH LTSS and ISAS environment – with multiple sites in Maryland and Illinois.
- Designed, implemented, and currently manage the complete ITSM operations for the LTSS and ISAS environment, including Incident, Problem, Change, Asset Management, and Service Reporting.
Provide proactive NOC monitoring for infrastructure and applications that are tightly integrated with the Service Desk processes. All ITSM processes are documented using ServiceNow, which includes custom development for ITSM processes and alerting integration continuously as part of process improvement. All the services are provided from our ISO/IEC 20000-1:2001 certified Service Desk and NOC operations in Columbia, MD. Unique to this contract, Voyatek provides personnel for the Tier I Help Desk for LTSS and ISAS users. Staff create initial tickets, conduct triage, resolve Tier I tickets, and escalate to the appropriate party when necessary (e.g., MDH, O&M Contractor, and/or Software Development Contractor). Tier I is defined as the initial receiver of inquiries from system users, either by telephone, web, or email.
Network and Systems Management and Dev Ops
- Designed, implemented, and manage the server and network environment for the applications.
- Provide ongoing storage management for the five environments
- Work with MDH and the current software contractor for the expansion of additional application modules and users.
- Provide ongoing support, including standard patching for all COTS products installed on all servers and all network devices in the hosting environment.
- Manage the software releases to the pre-Production and Production environments after confirming they have been tested and approved for deployment by MDH. Major software releases are planned monthly and require deployment planning and coordination.
Disaster Recovery
- Designed, implemented, and provide ongoing maintenance and support of the Disaster Recovery site located in Aurora, Illinois. It is a hot site utilizing FlexPod configuration and NetApp replication.
- Manage the software releases to the pre-Production and Production environments after confirming they have been tested and approved for deployment by MDH. Major software releases are planned monthly and require deployment planning and coordination.
Final Results
Voyatek acting as a trusted partner, implemented a smooth transition plan that is critical to a data center project and successfully delivered all implementation transition tasks for the MDH in a collapsed time frame with LTSS and O&M support going live in June of 2018. Additionally, Voyatek has successfully completed over 30 improvements to the LTSS system since project inception, enabling the user base to expand and take further advantage of the LTSS application. Voyatek continues to deliver on its promise of experience and innovation while helping valued customers navigate their digital transformation journey.
