Accenture BPM Injects Ease Efficiency Government Agencys Online Application Portal

8/11/2019 Accenture BPM Injects Ease Efficiency Government Agencys Online Application Portal

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Business Process Management injectsease and efficiency into a governmentagencys online application portal


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Client ProfileThe primary mission of thisgovernment agency is to advancethe national, economic and energysecurity of the United States. Theagencys Loan Programs Office(LPO) was created to accelerate the

domestic commercial deploymentof innovative and advancedclean energy technologies at ascale sufficient to contributemeaningfully to this mission.Eligible clean energy projectsapply to the program and arerigorously evaluated acrossmultiple disciplines, includingtechnical, financial, environmental,legal and regulatory.

Business ChallengeThe LPO initially captured thehighly detailed and often sensitivesponsor and project informationfor the application using papermethods and legacy technologysystems. These were found to be

cumbersome and confusing for theapplicant and time-consuming forthe agencys staff reviewing theapplications. Many improvementswere needed for the LPO tocomply better with governmentalregulations and bring greaterefficiencies to the applicationprocess. Some of those areasof improvement were creatingperformance goals, revising loan

guarantee processes to ensureconsistent review, and enablingsponsor appeals.

To improve efficiency andprovide more transparency to theapplication process, the clientdecided to transform the loanguarantee application and approvalprocess. It sought to move froma series of highly manual steps of

data collection and review to a 100percent Web-based, automatedformat with front-end datacollection and back-end reviewautomation and it wanted to makethat transition fast.

The government agency wanted todeliver functionality on this newonline application portal in twomonths. Accenture was chosen

as the Systems Integrator on theproject as it had proven experiencewith managing complex portalslike the US Internal RevenueService website. In two months,Accenture would have to procureinfrastructure and software, createa prototype within three weeks,move into development and ensureproper hosting.

How Accenture Helped

Originally, the government agencyoutlined a structure that mirrored theprior serial evaluation process flow.Project sponsors would proceed seriallythrough a multi-step process fromthe first page to the last. After initialdevelopment and feedback, the approach

was found halting and rigid. Users neededmore flexibility which would also helpproject sponsors justify the investment inthe application.

Realize value faster

Accentures deep experience in businessprocess management (BPM) was avaluable asset and a great help inthe clients quest to understand theconnections between its applications andbusiness processes, and prioritize its IT

rationalization project accordingly.

As the project had a two-month deliveryobjective, the Accenture team made fourcritical decisions to help ensure success:

Create a senior team of professionals:

The clients portal project is as muchabout streamlining business processesas about creating an engaginguser experience. Having seasonedprofessionals on the project ensuredthat the right questions were asked

and the scope managed to meetexpectations.

Co-locate the staff: Given the time

restraints on the project, it wasnecessary that team members were co-located to streamline communication.Also, co-location enabled crosspollination of skills and knowledgesharing.

Manage scope: Accenture created two

buckets for change managementImmediate Requirements and Deferred

Items. Require product flexibility: The speed

of delivery required a tool suiteallowing extreme f lexibility with formsdevelopment, forms tied together withthe process model, a fully exposedAPI layer, and smooth integration withSharePoint.


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Documents

Accenture BPM Injects Ease Efficiency Government Agencys Online Application Portal