When USIS Inc. decided to streamline electronic connections with
its 300+ clients, it relied on the proven software expertise of
StoneHenge Partners. The result: the time required to plug a new
client into its system was accelerated from six months down to two
weeks, a giant savings in efficiency.
Headquartered in Falls Church, VA, USIS is an information
and security services company serving human resources, insurance,
and government agencies. It is the largest supplier of background
investigations to the federal government, and the preeminent source
of criminal background checks and drug screens to businesses
nationwide.
The problem
Using a mix of high-security real-time gateways, USIS sells
personal information - criminal records, drug screenings and more -
to each of its 300+ clients. But adding a new client to its network
was a customized, labor-intensive effort that usually took five to
six months. This was a significant hurdle to growing its client
base and improving profitability.
USIS decided to build a single standardized gateway based on a
set of human resources electronic exchange standards, called
HR-XML, developed by the HR-XML Consortium. This would allow
clients to integrate with USIS more quickly and uniformly.
The solution
USIS defined its business requirements, then turned to
StoneHenge Partners to build a tool to meet the requirements. We
had a three-year history of trust with USIS earned through working
on multiple projects and staffing assignments. This tool, called
the Standard Integration Gateway (SIG), was designed, developed and
project-managed by a StoneHenge Partners team, then handed off to
USIS for user-acceptance testing and deployment.
StoneHenge Partners was engaged in mid-May, 2008. After 4 weeks
clarifying requirements, we began design & development on 6/18.
Using Function Point Analysis, we scoped the project in two phases
totaling 84 Function Points requiring 1,175 man-hours of effort.
The team was a project manager, architect, and two developers from
StoneHenge Partners, working with an architect, business analyst
and tester from USIS. We promised completion on 8/18, two months
away.
The result
Midway through the project, the project's business requirements
grew. Using Function Point Analysis, we scoped a third phase to
accommodate the new requirements, estimating it added 33 Function
Points that would require 461 more hours of work.
Phase 1 and 2 were code-complete on time. Phase 3, even though
it was added later and was estimated to be 11½ more days of
work, was delivered in 10 days.
By December, 2008, the project was tested and implemented by
USIS internal staff, and zero defects had been found that needed
StoneHenge fixes.