Page 16 - The MIL Connection: Spring 2023

employee stories

Case study

Process Improvement

What was the issue?
During MIL’s proposal ramp up process, we often partner with subcontractors who may offer skills which will increase the
likelihood of winning a contract. When our Proposal teams meet with SMEs, we require all content and edits to be accessed
in one document via SharePoint online using the collaborative tools of Microsoft. Granting access to external users would
require us to create a ticket to create a profile with Ntiva , who would in turn grant a password and access. However, as proposal
efforts often drag on for months to a year, subcontractors often did not keep track of credentials which required us to resubmit
a ticket with Ntiva to reset the password. The average turnaround time for EACH request (original and password resets) took
an average of 2-4 days depending on Ntiva ’s ability to contact the user when necessary. Given the nature of expediency needed
during the final days before a proposal deadline, this effort could often tie up 2-3 resources per request and cause additional
frustration during an already stressful time crunch.
Who did you engage with?

Rhonda Cadogan reached out to MIL’s Microsoft support team to see if there was an automated solution which would speed up
our internal ability to assign and reset passwords for external guests. Rebecca Helms, Nasir Abbass, and Jurgens Vestil devised a
simplified process and proposed the solution for approval from our IT leadership.
What did you do?

Rebecca, Nasir, and Jurgens met with Rhonda to gather the ideal requirements for a faster solution. Nasir then took those
requirements and created a simplified form using Microsoft PowerApps. We also gained approval to designate Rebecca and
Jurgens the main points of contact for assigning guest user profiles for external users. This removed the requirement to
complete a ticket with Ntiva and rely on their bandwidth to prioritize our requests. Additionally, once the form was completed,
it sent an automated message to MIL’s SharePoint Admin group where we could instantly see the request and assign the
credentials. All forms were then automatically sent to a centralized library where requests could be stored and filtered by user
name, company, proposal contract, and request date. This was a critical aspect of the process because it allowed any Admin to
quickly access credentials and reset passwords for users if they could not remember or find their credentials. Previously, each
user’s information was loaded into encrypted emails without any identifiable information in the subject line. Finally, once the
credentials were assigned, an automated email was sent to the guest user with complete instructions on how to access the site
AND a Quick Reference sheet explaining how to collaborate in Word while online. This final part took separate emails to each
user for each instance.

What was the impact? What barriers, challenges, or points of learning
The success of this project impacted several touch points did you identify?
within the process. We were able to: The biggest point of learning was simply a reminder to keep
it simple and use the out-of-the-box solutions on hand. Nasir
» Reduce the overall completion of a request from 2-4 days
down to approximately 10 minutes. was able to quickly research any technical challenges he
encountered and apply simple resolutions to Microsoft’s.
» Remove our reliance on Ntiva ’s Support Desk availability Oftentimes, people think a customized solution would provide
during critical turn-around times.
a more reliable process. But with the right people working as
» Store all the information in a secure, consolidated site a team and providing a variety of experiences and knowledge,
accessible by all SharePoint Admins—removing the need simply removing unnecessary steps and applying a simple
to research previous communications and the bottleneck process flow works best.
effect if resources were not available to assign credentials
with expediency.
» Automate the entire process for emailing instructions
and links to each individual guest user. No time study
was conducted on the time it took before this process, but
it is estimated that it reduced their email and output by
hundreds per proposal effort.

16 | the MIL connection | spring 2023