Intelligent Workstation/Local Area Network
Description: In June 1996, the Social Security Administration
(SSA) awarded Unisys Federal Systems the Intelligent Workstation/Local
Area Network (IWS/LAN) program. This program included the installation
of 56,500 PC workstations and 2,567 laptops in 1,742 token ring LANs
in over 1400 sites throughout the United States and its territories.
The IWS/LAN program was designed to replace SSA's mainframe, dumb
terminal architecture with a distributed processing, client/server architecture.
The program was intended to be a stepping stone for IT goals of the
organization by providing end users with basic PC skills to support
future initiatives. At the conclusion of the initial contract in July
1999, nearly every employee in the agency had a workstation on his or
her desk and had received training.
Training at each site was a major component of this program. Learning
Systems International (LSI) was awarded a subcontract that included
the development and delivery of customized Commercial-Off-The-Shelf
(COTS) training to support the nationwide rollout of IWS/LAN. The training
required included both technical and non-technical courses that were
highly targeted to specific job classifications and functional tasks.
Additionally, all end-user courseware had to be adapted for accessibility
by Employees with Disabilities (EWD) using assistive devices. Specific
disabled populations included hearing impaired, mobility impaired, low
vision and blind users. In addition to courseware development, LSI was
responsible for all technical training delivery and for delivery of
end-user training in the Baltimore-Washington area. This five-year program,
re-awarded in 2000 for a three-year extension period, included the following
specific tasks:
"LSI not only meets all of
the requirements on the SSA IWS/LAN and other programs –
they bring creative solutions to the table that save Unisys and
our customers valuable time and money. They are experts in their
field and a trusted long-term partner that Unisys continues to
call upon for technical training solutions."
-Bill Koetter, Unisys,
Social Security Administration Contract Procurement Manager |
 Logistics
Planning and Program Management
Instructor Hiring Plan: Due to rigorous
installation and training requirements, it was necessary to describe
the processes that the Unisys team would employ to assure the availability
of up to 300 instructors at geographically dispersed locations throughout
the United States and its territories. LSI, working with Unisys and
its other training subcontractors, developed a plan that demonstrated
the collective team's ability to identify upcoming training needs
and staff appropriately.
Instructor Preparation Plan
(Train-the-Trainer): Equally important as the Instructor
Hiring Plan, the LSI-developed Instructor Preparation Plan established
the guidelines for instructor training and certification for the program.
LSI developed the Field Instructor Training (FIT) plan that included
completion of vendor-internal baseline training and certification as
well as IWS/LAN-specific instructor training and certification. Using
video in conjunction with paper-based materials and tests, Unisys was
able to document each instructor's skill mastery prior to deployment
to LAN sites.
Training Deployment Plan: The final management
plan for which LSI was responsible was the Training Deployment Plan.
This plan detailed the processes that were used to notify the appropriate
delivery vendor of training order receipt and advise SSA of each site's
instructor complement. Through a well-documented electronic communication
flow, Unisys demonstrated to SSA the team's internal procedures
that relied on a series of confirmation messages to make certain that
instructors were deployed to the right sites at the right time. Key
provisions of this plan included the procedures to be followed in case
of instructor illness or other circumstances that required rapid replacement
of trainers.
Customized
Curricula Development and Maintenance
- Software Support Training
- Operations Support Training
- Areas Systems Coordinator (ASC) Training
- Disability Determination Services (DDS) System Administrator Training
- Site LAN Coordinator (SLC) Training
- Basic LAN User (BLU) Training (including EWD)
Platform
and Desk Side Training Delivery
For IWS/LAN, LSI was responsible for all SLC and BLU courses
delivered within a 50-mile radius of Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC.
Meeting the demands of fulfilling variable instructor counts on a weekly
basis was particularly challenging. Not only was the required instructor
complement unsmoothed throughout the project, but a diverse mix of instructor
skills were needed at any given time. Since LSI delivered both technical
and end user training, LSI maintained a cadre of independent and on-staff
trainers to meet training delivery orders.
Multimedia
Development
A significant LSI achievement on this program was the
introduction of the Electronic Courseware and Interactive Training system
(ECIT). ECIT was proposed by LSI as an innovative solution to reduce
reproduction and distribution costs incurred by Unisys for the paper-based
training materials. To develop ECIT, LSI used COTS software to create
an integrated, electronic repository of all training material in an
on-line format. LSI upgraded the training materials by embedding interactive
practice simulations and a help system for real-time training and reference.
LSI's design strategy incorporated the use of a single interface
to any training curriculum. In order to ensure that ECIT met the needs
of all SSA employees, LSI conducted extensive research into the adaptation
of the material of for EWD. All material was accessible via alternate
input methods, such as mouse click, keystroke equivalents, and speech
input.
Intranet,
Web-based Evaluation System
LSI proposed and implemented a web-based intranet evaluation
tool that was designed to be accessible to every LAN user and training
facility SSA-wide. This tool allowed a user at any SSA or off-site facility
that had access to the SSA intranet to complete an automated evaluation
form during the training. LSI imported the data into a Microsoft Access
database to enable ad-hoc queries and routine reporting. The database
was published quarterly for review by SSA management personnel.
Help
Desk Support
In providing training help desk support, LSI was in a
position to synthesize information from field sites, field trainers,
and SSA regional training personnel into meaningful management input
for the program office.
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