Author Archives: sheilamvolante21

Driving Change at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 2021-22

Background 

JPL is a federally-funded research and development center managed by Caltech for NASA with more than 6,000 full-time employees and numerous subcontractors and affiliates. In 2018, JPL began long-term planning to retire its Exchange on-premises infrastructure and implement the collaborative capabilities of the Microsoft 365 Government Community Cloud. JPL’s ITSD (Information and Technology Solutions Directorate) had contracted Microsoft gold partner ITS Group to support its hybrid cloud architecture and ManTech International Corporation to support its Institutional Computing Environment, but to ensure a seamless and productive migration for its dedicated and diverse population of scientists, engineers, developers, designers, and other experts, ITSD needed additional support for end-user change management to bridge the exposed gaps in technology, process, and culture.  

Approach 

Seer Strategic Solutions proposed an adoption plan centered around a multi-phased program with rapid content development to create high-fidelity presentations, targeted communications, and a blended learning program – the last encompassing live webinars, self-paced video playlists from LinkedIn Learning, enablement checklists, online articles, and steady-state user guides uploaded to ITSD’s knowledge base. ITSD tasked Seer to design content that would demonstrate the business drivers for JPL and personal benefits for its user community to fully embrace the capabilities of Microsoft’s Modern Workplace, clear messaging around migration tasks and time frames, and best practices for the co-existence period between on-premises and cloud environments. Seer’s assets were required to synthesize NASA’s and JPL’s security protocols such as multi-factor authentication, mail encryption, and in later phases mobile device management required for access, data protection, and preservation of governmental and intellectual properties.  

Solution 

Seer joined ITSD’s program team to coordinate dynamic efforts over multiple projects that tested device configuration for multiple cloud environments, data migrations from legacy Exchange and Enterprise Vault, and identity management in NASA’s Active Directory applications (NAMS and IdMAX). Seer delivered webinars to ManTech’s Service Desk team and pilot members on the end-user experience and plans to deliver Train the Trainer to JPL organizational trainers, business administration managers, and subject matter experts for basic and advanced use cases. Due to privacy restrictions for usage analytics, Seer, ManTech, and ITSD co-developed pass/fail standards, evaluation surveys, and user forums to capture feedback on the migration experiences and deliver high-level reporting to JPL’s CIO. The program is still in progress with readouts expected at the end of JPL’s fiscal year. 

Seer Strategic Solutions is a digital adoption and change consultancy based in Las Vegas. For more information, please contact hello@seersolution.com or visit www.seersolution.com.

Partner-to-Partner Case Study: Google Migration to Microsoft 365

Background

 

The Miguel Contreras Foundation (MCF) is the nonprofit partner of Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. Operated by less than a dozen board and staff, it delivers programs that build access to good quality jobs and livable communities for underserved workers. Like many nonprofit orgs their size, MCF relied upon a mix of fragmented productivity tools like Google Workplace and Dropbox, so their team struggled to organize their information and collaborate effectively. For example, after staff would manually update their reports in Google Sheets, leadership would uncover discrepancies and stale data, which made it difficult for them to make proper decisions. As a result, their jumbled toolset failed to modernize operations, and the team felt overwhelmed, leading them to look for a product suite that could fulfill their needs.

 

Approach & Solution

 

Seer Strategic Solutions assessed the MCF organization and recommended the Microsoft 365 suite because of its integrated applications that improve communication and collaboration, manage data, and automate reporting within a single environment. Seer teamed up with Think AI’s architecture team to demonstrate advanced capabilities, design Microsoft Teams sites for each department, and plan an email and file migration that distributed documents to OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online based on contribution levels. Seer proposed a blended learning program that included custom learning artifacts and live training for Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Microsoft Forms, and Power BI.

Results

 

Think AI successfully migrated all mailboxes to Exchange Online, created five SharePoint sites, and configured Microsoft Teams for each department. Seer’s Adoption Consultant delivered four webinars, conducted five 1-on-1 white-glove calls for executives, and delivered a personalized training on Power BI. The entire project from kickoff to close took only six weeks. MCF’s Program Director confirmed that the board and staff adopted the new toolset 100% right after migration and identified additional unexpected wins. For example, user survey feedback reflected appreciation for staying connected on-the-go with the Microsoft mobile apps and identified additional demand for training and support.

 

 

Next Steps

 

Having met their success criteria for this first implementation, MCF is planning deployments for Dynamics 365, Power BI Enterprise, and several other Microsoft applications to continue strengthening its collaboration internally and services externally – improving its capabilities to achieve its mission of empowering working Angelenos.

Seer Strategic Solutions is a digital adoption and change consultancy based in Las Vegas. For more information, please contact hello@seersolution.com or visit www.seersolution.com.

Microsoft Partners Forge International Alliance for a New Approach to Business Applications

(Las Vegas, Nevada – November 4, 2021) In an effort to drive greater consumption of Microsoft 365 cloud services, Seer Strategic Solutions, LLC announced a new partnership today with ITSystems – a Microsoft Gold Partner based in Montevideo, Uruguay.

 

Founded in 2010 by Andres Barreiro and Marcelo Barberena, ITSystems is an IT service company that develops business applications on SharePoint Online, BizTalk, and custom .NET development. Certified by Microsoft in Application Development and Application Integration, ITSystems serves clients across North, South, and Central America.

 

According to founder Andres Barreiro, “Our signature strategy is to become one with our partners, and this is what we had in mind when joining Seer. The aim is to build a solid and long-lasting relationship that will translate into achieving our client’s goals and meet their expectations. We deeply believe in bringing added value to the table as we work together as a team that understands our clients’ needs and their end customer’s preferences.”

 

Based in the southwestern U.S., Seer seeks to pair its new Adoption-as-a-Service model with ITSystem’s development initiatives. Seer touts this model for emerging technologies, allowing organizations to contract expert consultants on a subscriptive service to ensure project success and maximize business value.

 

“Partnership with ITSystems allows us to positively impact users who want more out of SharePoint,” said Sheila Volante, Seer’s managing partner. “When users learn to streamline their internal business processes with these tools, our clients can unlock the full potential of the Microsoft 365 suite.”

 

Named a Top B2B Company by Clutch, ITSystems drives its developers to stay up-to-date with the latest tools and technologies, while maintaining three critical skill sets.

  • Problem-solving skills: The main thesis of software development is “solving some kind of problem.” Software development provides the solution to that problem.
  • Business skills: Any skilled software developer can develop software applications, but a great software developer is the one who understands the business significance of the software application.
  • Communication skills: It is mandatory for us to have English-speaking employees who can explain a concept or relay information clearly to their managers, other co-workers, and clients.

 

Seer partner Jason Price said, “Responsibility, reliability, and commitment – the core values at the heart of ITSystems make it an ideal partner to Seer.”

 

For more information on ITSystems, please visit www.itsystemsinnova.com.

 

For more information on Seer Strategic Solutions, LLC, please refer to our website at www.seersolution.com.

 

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