Maintaining app availability and reducing complexity at the IRS
Key takeaways
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) needed to ensure application availability for tax filing season and secure data sharing with programs such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The agency called on Maximus to support key activities, including contract management, project management, and technical expertise. Maximus also consolidated contracts to reduce complexity while maintaining service continuity and enabling new IT capabilities.
Integrating program management and introducing advanced IT capabilities
Situation
The technology infrastructure for the IRS is critical for supporting millions of tax returns and continuously safeguarding and securely sharing data with other government agency programs and services, including ACA. As the agency continues its digital transformation journey, maintaining availability of services and legacy data is crucial. However, the organization’s Technology Integration Office (TIO) had been juggling eight separate contracts including 11 IT projects across four agency branches, which escalated the complexity and costs of maintaining and optimizing these critical systems.
Challenge
The IRS needed robust IT operations and maintenance (O&M) to address compliance and security mandates and to maintain enterprise solutions. Plans also called for new development, modernization, and enhancement (DME) projects including application development upgrades.
Solution
Maximus provided:
- Contract consolidation
- Integrated program management
- Operations and maintenance
- Development, modernization, and enhancement
- Implementation of process automation, including CI/CD pipelines and automated software builds
- Development and launch of new API Gateway to enable application deployment to the cloud
Scaling efficiencies and enabling a digital front door for services
How We Did It
With a trusted partnership of 30+ years, the IRS teamed with Maximus to achieve multiple interconnected goals:
- Contract Consolidation and Integrated Program Management
Taking on the agency’s first large-scale contract consolidation for TIO, Maximus transitioned eight contracts under a dedicated integrated program management office. The team leveraged a clear transition plan and project charter; robust staffing; subject matter expertise and knowledge transfer; and agile operations and maintenance capabilities. - Automated and Streamlined Processes
Managing 50+ operations activities annually, Maximus reduced complexity and increased efficiencies. Tactics included automated on-prem application deployments; partner-managed cloud solutions to enable a robust digital front door for services; improved software development processes using a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®); and capabilities to support concurrent software releases to meet evolving needs. - New Application Development Capabilities for Rapid Modernization
Application development improvements included launch of an application programming interface (API) Gateway to streamline API development and launch as well as upgrades to address new features, cybersecurity concerns, and data access needs.
Results
- Scaled efficiencies and IT infrastructure capabilities
- Streamlined purchasing and contract management
- Streamlined management of 130+ IRS applications to support tax filing season
- Brought ACA applications into compliance and maintained availability for open enrollment
- Transitioned 11 previous contract projects within 60 days to maintain service continuity and ability to assess and pivot to new priorities as needed
- Improved data quality and performance, reducing application record errors by 50%+
- Provided back-end support that enables a cloud-based digital front door, serving 660M IRS site visitors in 2021 alone