American agriculture, modernized

MIDAS (Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agriculture Systems) at USDA

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) created the MIDAS (Modernize and Innovate the Delivery of Agriculture Systems) project to simplify, integrate, and automate the delivery of federal assistance programs, which support 11 million farmers and more than five million farms across the country every year.

MIDAS is an SAP application that serves as the system of record for the agency and shares data with other applications on the agency’s www.farmers.gov mobile-friendly website, which serves as a one-stop shop for farmers looking to access key agency services and information.

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Image of wheat growing in a field

Services provided

  • IT Modernization
  • Application Development and Maintenance
  • System Analysis & Design
  • Configuration & Testing
  • Agile Development
  • Human-Centered Design

Success achieved

  • Roughly $4 million in savings
  • Faster workflow approvals
  • User satisfaction increased from 70% to 85%
  • Decreased wait times for customers
  • Increased productivity for staff

Providing maintenance and IT modernization to existing application environments

Challenge

Maximus was chosen as the agency’s partner on the MIDAS project, tasked with providing application maintenance, development, and support. In addition, we were charged with achieving a wide scale of technical objectives, ranging from the maintenance and modernization of existing applications to serving in an advisory capacity, guiding the agency on the development of new tools and solutions that allow farmers to connect with the agency’s information and services more efficiently.

Approach

To the project, we brought experience in broad, agency-wide modernization efforts, scalability, and expertise in system readiness and data management. Alongside this technical depth, the team brought new perspectives, approaches, and leadership to the enterprise initiative. We focused on:

  • Leveraging our SAP experience and field-tested solutions to drive efficiency and reduce risk.
  • Implementing Operation and Maintenance (O&M) support services across similar application environments, including highly customized SAP solutions.
  • Continually adding to our knowledge of the MIDAS applications and operations environment, and communicating that information with agency stakeholders.
  • Applying our experience with large and complex hybrid Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environments.
  • Deploying our highly skilled technical and operational talent with results-oriented mindsets.

The Maximus approach worked because it was reflective of the high level of customization necessary within the MIDAS initiative. We supported the preparation, blueprinting, realization, and go-live steps of each sprint, addressing individual software development requirements, as well as any necessary modifications of SAP business processes.

Results

During the entirety of the MIDAS project, Maximus partnered closely with agency staff to evaluate and address any unforeseen challenges, and to continuously improve the agency’s ability to deliver high-quality software application solutions that met evolving business requirements.

Our teams provided thorough project plans and detailed weekly and monthly status reports. Comprehensive reports and data outcomes were presented accurately to ensure agency leaders had a strategic and actionable understanding of program performance at all times.

We delivered leading edge technical solutions for all system enhancements and, as a thought leading partner to the agency, presented its leadership with options to simplify the complexity of its overall system architecture. Ultimately, this program provided the agency with reusable solution objects and reduced O&M costs.