OD_Reqs_-_Sec_Appendix_F_-_Recommended_OD_Enhancements_v_3__UPDATED_2-28-14.pdf

O&D Business Requirements

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 1 Appendix F

Appendix F. Recommended O&D Enhancements

The following list of FSA Recommended O&D Enhancements was compiled from two sources, including: 1) the “COD Ad-On Requirements” document provided by FSA; and, 2) input provided by FSA Subject Matter Experts and staff during the O&D To-Be interview process. The list of interviewed/consulted FSA SMEs and staff can be found in Section 1.2, Contributors. All of the items in this list, with the exception of the Program Compliance Enhancements (Items # 57 - 69), have been incorporated into the appropriate sections of this To-Be Requirements document.

1) Build, maintain, and support a Demo Site for existing Web Modules: O&D Web (cod.ed.gov), Loan Web Management Web Function (studentloans.gov), and TEACH Web Management Function (TEACH-ats.ed.gov).

a. The demo tool should be synched up with the development cycle similar to the CBT’s being in sync

2) Ensure O&D has the capability of retrieving and transmitting all loan and grant information (including origination, disbursement and adjustment records as well as p-notes) to Servicers and/or FSA staff at any time after the end of an Award year. If any data necessary to accomplish this task is in an archived state, the system must have the capability of retrieving the data within a 48 hour time frame.

3) Expand on-demand reporting and customization capabilities for ad hoc reports via the web.

4) Expand high-level reports and Total Access or other report system capabilities and functionality of O&D to include more available data fields.

5) Expand the capability of the on-line Web tool so that schools are able to submit multiple awards/records at same time rather than having to enter each award/record individually.

This will to provide schools with more efficient and flexible student aid processing options.

6) Modernize and develop a set of Direct Loan Tools for schools as a unique product in COD.

For example, the O&D system shall include a multiyear application for Direct Loans that allows schools to compare data from the SAS to loans and actual disbursements as well as cash receipts and refunds of cash from school records. Additionally, the O&D system shall incorporate a Disbursement Measurement Tool Report and certain Direct Loan lists with tolerances to assist schools with monitoring current operations, procedures, and program status.

7) FSA would like to migrate the eCB funding component to O&D so that schools and staff would only need to use one system. This would provide schools the ability to see all program funding and G5 funding changes in O&D, including campus-based.

8) FSA would like to require the new vendor to develop User Acceptance Test (UAT) plans, test scripts and cases, complete related UAT activities and documentation as well as the data to be used in UAT itself.

a. Additionally, FSA should have more capability to do more user acceptance testing and have more functionality for UAT’s. They would like to use their own tools to submit batch and data and have a true sandbox testing environment.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 2 Appendix F

b. FSA would also like to offer schools a more robust testing plan so they can test their systems before FSA rolls out the new release.

9) FSA would like to host the StudentLoans.gov and TEACH-ATS.gov within the O&D data center instead of the Virtual Data Center (VDC).

10) FSA would like to redesign the funding process for the Pell Administrative Cost Allowance (ACA). FSA would like the process of generating the ACA payment to be done using an obligate only method whereby the processing system creates a funding transaction and the school draws down the funds in G5.

11) Provide demo versions of the Applicant Web counseling tools that are available to third parties that do not have user access.

12) Ensure Websites are available for mobile applications.

13) FSA would like more transparency/insight into cost per each specific task, such as: design cost, development cost, and production cost, etc.

14) To satisfy the DL credit reform Cohort Issue, FSA requires that for Direct Loan disbursement records, the second and subsequent disbursement records needs to tag back to the allotment from whence the first disbursement record was posted if schools submit them in the second year of the award year. Currently there is only one allotment covering the entire award year which encompasses two fiscal years.

15) FSA would like the new system to have the capability to create funding transactions manually outside of the batch processing and program and award year parameters. This requires the DOS file to include some exception based programming to allow changes to allocation.

16) The new system shall allow for the full and comprehensive implementation of the Iraq Afghanistan Service Program (IASG) from beginning to end - starting with schools submitting origination and disbursement data via batch or through the web all the way through the funding process with a complete allotment and funding functionality.

17) FSA would like Ancillary Services to move within O&D, which would include the capability to receive, image and store paper promissory notes and send metadata to the O&D system.

18) FSA requires that all transactions (including award, disbursement and cash) be processed and reported in dollars and cents, beginning in the first new award year after the contract begins.

19) O&D shall process all financial transactions including negative drawdown adjustments coming in from G5. FSA requires that all financial transactions be automated to minimize manual intervention.

20) FSA would like to expand the existing Loan Distribution set-up to eliminate split borrowers.

21) FSA would like an automated feature to compare disbursement records in the O&D system to records sent to FMS by servicers. This is currently a manual process.

22) FSA would like to expand the use of the ESOA to Direct Loans and TEACH so that all programs are in sync.

23) FSA would like to revise the existing process for calculating unsubstantiated cash by basing the formula for calculating unsubstantiated cash on the last activity as opposed to the most recent drawdown.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 3 Appendix F

24) FSA would like the new vendor to generate School Account Statements (SAS) for all programs, including Pell and IASG, as opposed to only producing them the loan programs.

25) Refine the existing Customer Service process to view each program holistically. By addressing the school as a whole, the school support center can work multiple issues in multiple programs/award years concurrently thereby eliminating re-work and multiple outreach initiatives.

26) Improve the closeout functionality to allow schools to close out all programs and award years for Grant programs in addition to Direct Loans and Teach.

27) Improve the accuracy of the 30 day reporting requirement by utilizing the disbursement adjustment dates as opposed to only the original disbursement date.

28) FSA would like to add an automated function to the O&D Web Action Queue that prevents the Payment Analysts from resolving any new records until records from older award years are resolved.

29) FSA requires the ability to mail paper correspondence to foreign countries.

30) The contractor shall be responsible for building, maintaining, and supporting the electronic entitlement forms IBR/PAYE/ICR Request, Repayment Plan Selection, Forbearance, Direct Loan Consolidation Application, and the Deferment/Forbearance form. This responsibility includes the design of the e-form, processing, data storage, data transmission to the servicers, problem resolution, pre-production support, implementation support, production support, and customer service.

31) Ensure that the O&D system has an eligibility override flag for Direct Loans that will allow a school to submit disbursement information after a school loses Title IV eligibility via web or batch submission.

32) FSA would like to enable an interface with eCB to include Campus Based program school level awards and disbursement information in the O&D web school funding page.

33) The O&D system shall introduce an interface with eCB to allow the O&D to send Pell expenditure information to the eCampus Based system in order to populate the Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP).

34) FSA would like to ensure that O&D Web updates and retrieves information on a timely basis to allow users to access information in either real-time or near real-time.

35) Enhance the existing CBT’s to include more interactive functionality or develop a new training solution for schools and other users to understand the O&D Web and Applicant Web sites.

36) Improve the requirement for the amount of ad hoc audits per year. Ad hoc audits should be closer to 6 per FY and up to 300 hours of support for each ad hoc audit.

37) FSA would like to enhance or acquire a better ad hoc reporting tool. The current tool is not very user friendly.

a. FSA does not have access to the necessary data, tables, and capabilities in the O&D Reporting Module to run desired ad hoc reports. FSA relies on the vendor to produce many of the desired reports.

b. FSA cannot run massive queries due to size limitations imposed by the CIO and, therefore, FSA has to rely on Accenture to provide the information.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 4 Appendix F

38) FSA would like to implement and improve the existing version control requirements and have improved configuration management.

39) FSA would like to require the vendor to provide all SDLC required documentation and key system documentation, including detailed design documents, requirements plans, etc.

a. The vendor must be willing to provide additional documentation upon FSA request.

b. All documentation must be made available for sharing with other contractors and FSA Divisions (non-proprietary data).

c. The contractor should be responsible for preparing and providing a requirements traceability matrix (RTM) and requirements analysis plan. Currently, Accenture considers these documents proprietary and, therefore, does not share them.

40) Enhance the existing LDE functionality by reducing the amount of unnecessary and redundant data that is currently being housed within the LDE.

a. FSA would like to have more visibility into and access to LDE data.

41) FSA would like to require the vendor to provide real-time access to the vendor tracking system for change requests.

42) For change management requests, the vendor shall provide an impact analysis including level of effort (LOE) as requested by FSA.

43) FSA would like to improve/refine performance measurement through SLA’s and KPI’s.

a. For example, one KPI would address FSA’s need for timely submission (according to FSA’s standard schedule as specified in the Change Management Plan) of impact analyses and ROMs in response to change management requests. In addition, FSA would like to ensure that vendors actual cost is within a certain % of the estimated ROM/LOE (e.g., < 10% variance) for change requests.

44) The O&D system should discontinue receipts – they are not necessary anymore because records are processed and responses exchanged so quickly. FSA currently tells the schools that if they have not received information within 48 hours to contact the customer support desk.

45) Develop a more efficient way to inform schools and third party developers of system changes and process changes.

a. Comment: the existing Technical Reference is a very large document and sometimes is a challenging tool to inform schools and third parties of updates.

46) FSA would like to have one single point for posting notifications for schools to eliminate them from having to go through multiple systems.

47) FSA should be given more time for approval of the training documentation. Currently, FSA is only given 2-3 days when a minimum of 10 days should be provided for the first review.

48) FSA recommends strong language regarding security. i.e., “Provide adequate staffing and designate repercussions for not meeting these standards and requirements.” This work requires a Full-time security staff and should be emphasized.

49) For Customer Service, enhance email capability and enable live chat capability.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 5 Appendix F

50) For Customer Service, ensure call monitoring is performed using multiple methods.

a. Including the capability to monitor calls in Spanish.

51) For Customer Service, improve self-service capability specifically in regards to appeals. This may include Dynamic FAQ’s (see “Sergeant Star” model), Agent Avatars, Personalized Customer Portals or online self-help videos?

52) For Customer Service, improve disaster recovery and contingency plans and procedures.

53) For Customer Service, ensure that all lines are 508 compliant – Note: The existing websites may be 508 compliant, but the contact centers are not.

54) For Customer Service, FSA holistically would like to improve the existing Business Intelligence capability, FSA would like access to data for analysis, reporting, and improving service.

55) For Customer Service, FSA would like to impose a contract requirement for the vendor to notify and request approval from FSA of a location change due to the time required to move phone lines as it can take up to 6 months to make line adjustments.

56) For Customer Service, FSA would like to conduct 3 – 4 site visits of the vendor’s location per year.

Program Compliance Enhancements

57) Incorporate a function to allow an institution to create HCM2 or Reimbursement "submissions" that it plans to submit to a Payment Analyst, and identify batches or individual student records as part of those submissions. Payment Analysts shall be able to "open" a submission and view/tally all the records submitted under that submission in order to determine whether the school has properly accounted for its funds and included the appropriate amount in its formal request for reimbursement. Payment Analysts would also be able to search within a "submission" for specific records to approve/deny, and should also be able to view/tally the number of records approved/denied in a given submission.

Additionally, provide a function that allows easy identification of records (by batch and individual) submitted to O&D that is within a specific HCM2 or Reimbursement payment request. Payment Analysts need the ability to view how many records were submitted to O&D for the HCM2/Reimbursement payment request and the total of all records compared with the total recorded on the documentation the institution submitted.

58) Ensure that a Payment Analyst shall be able to consolidate multiple batches into one large batch that includes all the student disbursement records in a payment submission. If records submitted for a HCM2/Reimbursement payment request are part of multiple batches within O&D, there should be an ability to consolidate multiple batches into one batch in order to accept/reject all records at once.

59) Provide the ability to approve batches sequentially, out of date/time order. If records are mistakenly approved out of date/time order, an error message should be sent to the Payment Analyst only and not to the school.

60) Ensure that student disbursement records do not remain in the “Review” Status after the records have been accepted or rejected.

61) Ensure that the total amounts in the Batch Action Queue Summary add up correctly.

Federal Student Aid, O&D To-Be Requirements 6 Appendix F

62) Ensure that the Award year in the Action Queue search and individual student screens is defaulted to the award year previously entered, or remains blank so an award year may be entered.

63) Provide the ability to reject records in the Action Queue for closed award years, without requesting extended processing.

64) Provide the ability to view each student's Verification Status Code entered by the school in the Action Queue.

65) Disable the ability for HCM2 or Reimbursement schools to enter a Verification Status Code of "W".

66) Provide the ability for Payment Analysts to receive reports of any changes made to previously accepted disbursements by the O&D system.

67) Provide schools with a simplified guide/tool for entering disbursement records, such as a "Disbursement Entry Wizard". This would be a step-by-step, drop-down, menu-driven format.

68) Ensure the O&D system states if the award year is closed immediately when the Payment Analyst (PA) is choosing the year. If this occurs, the PA can then contact Internal Controls to request Administrative Relief or Extended Processing in order to re-open the year, and then the applicable records can be accepted.

69) Add a function to the O&D system to automatically reject any records waiting in the O&D Action Queue for longer than 30 days.

Appendix F. Recommended O&D Enhancements