Transition Services

• Client Stories
• Department of State

The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) “works to keep Americans safe at home by countering international crime, illegal drugs, and instability abroad.” INL is referred to as the J Bureau in the Department of State and is responsible for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights. INL operates in hot spots across the globe, combating crime and corruption in every major region including the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Today, Tsymmetry provides all of the Technology Division support for INL’s Aviation program (INL/A). Besides the traditional Data Center Support, Application Development, and Procurement Services, Tsymmetry’s role requires round-the-clock, hardened infrastructure and state-of-the-art technology that can not only withstand natural disasters, but also support rapid deployment of lightweight technology capabilities to remote and austere locations in the wild (jungle, desert, and mountain). These locations often support high-risk aviation operations such as aerial eradication and interdiction of narcotics, countering illegal mining and logging, and supporting embassies in high threat areas. What’s more, Tsymmetry’s technology organization, while headquartered in Melbourne, FL, has support offices in active regions including Afghanistan, Iraq, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, Uganda, and Kenya.

Tsymmetry was tasked with transitioning an existing IT services infrastructure support contract from a large business incumbent, who had held the contract for over 20 years. The transition had to be executed in six months without service interruption. At the time, IT services were scattered across various organizations and did not operate as a single, cohesive technology division. In addition, we were required to deliver at a lower total cost of ownership while sustaining and enhancing service levels. During and after transition, program-defined Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Acceptable Quality Levels (AQLs) had to be consistently achieved not only in a Contiguous U.S. (CONUS) environment, but also in numerous locations Outside the Continental United States (OCONUS).

We internally developed a draft Transition Plan and upon contract award worked with the Government to review and finalize. The plan outlined how we would work with INL/A and the incumbent contractor to ensure continuous operations of its global network and all of the associated IT systems and supporting functions, including the transition of all OCONUS locations. Our Transition Plan roadmap was commended by INL/A Leadership, and, per their direction, is now the Transition model for future contractor transitions.

“We involve Executive Leadership, as required, to ensure successful delivery of our critical Transition Services Programs,” says Todd Sickles, Tsymmetry’s CEO, who personally oversaw the complex INL/A transition.

Tsymmetry implemented new program tools and continuous improvement initiatives from its Transition Services Toolkit, including readiness checklists, health scorecards, risk registers, and organizational assessments to help achieve program SLAs and AQLs, improve quality, eliminate redundancies, and provide additional program visibility. Given the sensitive and critical nature of the transition, we mitigated risk by designing and developing performance measurement tools tailored to meet our client’s unique priorities.

Immediately following the completed transition, the DoS contracting officer wrote in a Contractor Performance Assessment Report (CPAR), “The contractor [Tsymmetry] performed the contract phase-in ahead of schedule and well within the estimated costs…I would recommend them for similar requirements in the future.”

Tsymmetry standardized the delivery framework through integrated processes, methods, tools, and metrics based on Information Technology Service Management (ITIL/ITSM) best practices and the Managing State Programs (MSP) methodology, which better aligned INL/A technology services with the rest of DoS.

“Our optimization efforts resulted in multi-million-dollar savings and made funding available for other high priority initiatives,” says Micah Haney, Tsymmetry’s Program Manager for INL/A.

Tsymmetry’s ongoing, continuous improvement initiatives have increased executive level program visibility, reduced incident response time, and improved client satisfaction.

According to a 2018 CPAR, “[Tsymmetry’s] employees are highly skilled and motivated to perform and ensure IT requirements are executed in a timely manner. Tsymmetry met or exceeded requirements of the Performance Work Statement (PWS)” and delivered all services “approximately 7% under budget.”

Tags: Global Operations, Management Consulting, Network Management and Maintenance, Operations and Application Maintenance, Remote Deployment, Technology Consulting

Related Capabilities: Transition Services, IT Transformation, Organizational Change, Cyber Security, Program Management