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The Agility Imperative: An Affordable Care Act Case Study

Staff, Appian
April 29, 2015

Across the public- and private-sectors, IT teams face the common dilemma of "doing more with less," while trying to meet demands for innovation and agility in the face of constant volatility. SERCO NA and Appian have partnered to deliver federal solutions predicated on immediate ROI through fast deployments, solution component re-use, minimal training requirements and easy operation.

To close out the first full day of customer presentations at Appian World 2015, Jason Adolf, Director, Business Solutions and Services, SERCO NA, provided a case study overview of how these elements came together in support of non-web applications (everything outside of healthcare.gov) for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SERCO NA was incorporated in North America in 1988, and is currently a $1.2 billion company with approximately 9,000 skilled and dedicated professionals. Customers of the organization include the Department of Defense, federal civilian agencies and the intelligence community, and SERCO Americas has in place a Special Security Agreement (SSA) from the Defense Security Service (DSS), which allows US-based groups to work on secure federal contracts.

Federal environment challenges include reduced budgets, dispersed workforces and uncertain futures - all leading to difficult process redesign adoption. For these reasons it can also be difficult for federal organizations to evoke change and redesigned business operations with enterprise IT. Adolf, who had worked with Appian on previous BPM projects, knew the BPM provider could deliver the solutions necessary to help reform aspect of the rapidly evolving health and human services updates.

"We are measuring success by the time that we save in seconds, not minutes," said Adolf. "That is the speed of delivery our customers demand, and Appian's case management solution helps us achieve this."

Immediate ROI through rapid deployment solutions needed to be easy and user-friendly to adopt, providing flexible IT solutions that give the control back to the user to make smart decisions from quick access to process and data.

SERCO NA is the Eligibility Support Contractor for the Affordable Care Act program, and the organization's Appian implementaion supports the enrollment efforts for millions of Americans. To get a sense of magnitude, this is a $1.25 billion over 5 year contract which includes all required and optional tasks with the ACA program.

"The consumer experience is extremely important to us," explained Adolf. "With Appian, we can support hundreds of data sources that are easily accessed when contacting consumers, which has led to enhanced user experience and collaboration."

-Mike Ingrisano, Media Relations Manager