Training Results and Information Network (TraiNet)

The US Agency for International Development selected Devis to perform a wide range of data management services in support of USAID international training programs. In FY2008 USAID trained over 400,000 foreign nationals expending hundreds of millions in Federal funds. Training is distributed around the world and is managed by both Federal and contractor staff.

Challenge: Global Training Policy Implementation

• Support the implementation of complex policies that effect every USAID Mission, contractor, grantee, cooperative agreement, as well as US higher education institutions;
• Collect data that meet training data management requirements covered in ADS-252;
• Collect required data from USAID community re. funded training initiatives in-country (½ Million), 3rd country (10,000), and US (5,000);
• Implement strict post 9/11 student visa process in collaboration with DOS/DHS-ICE;
• Ensure that distributed USAID community, that includes inexperienced, non-native English speakers, are able to use reporting tools to provide high quality data

To meet these challenges, Devis built the distributed software systems, the central computing infrastructure (contractor owned and managed with USAID owning the software and data), and continually delivered technical user support and inter-governmental reporting. Support of data management services related to monitoring training programs included:

User Training and Helpdesk Support

Devis supported USAID initiatives by maintaining a global presence in the TraiNet user community. The TraiNet/VCS helpdesk was staffed with experts who possessed an average of 5+ years of experience supporting the application.

In a five year span the TraiNet/VCS help desk participated in over 25 TDY's world-wide. In addition to these TDY's, the help desk held quarterly training sessions at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington DC.

Global Support & Deployment of USG Funded Operational Activities

The TraiNet/VCS team are well trained, responsive, multi-lingual and fully integrated with the USAID policy team. TraiNet Desktop, TraiNet 2 and TraiNet Web were all deployed on a global scale. Ongoing support of deployment activities continued throughout the life cycle of the project. Reports performed on data collected by TraiNet allowed the client a clear view of how budgets, participants and programs are tied to USAID objectives.

Data Migration

The TraiNet application has undergone several database migrations to maximize usability and storage capability. Transition plans, database schema mappings and conversion routines played a large part in making each transition successful. The TraiNet team was able to successfully migrate data from historical applications, capturing information on programs that date back to 1959. The conversion program was written in Java and performed data validation checks to ensure that the integrity of the information matched the strict business rules of TraiNet Web.

Hosting/Managed Services

TraiNet and VCS applications were a part of the hosting and managed services provided by Devis. Responsibilities for this endeavor included: Database administration Application back up and data storage Hardware configuration, tuning and maintenance

With our technology partner Verio, TraiNet and VCS maintained a system uptime that exceeded 99.9%. The use of mirrored system drives, storage area network (SAN) technology, and staged on-site/off-site backups supported the project's business continuity requirements. The use of best practice configuration management between the production, testing, and development environments allowed rapid reconfiguration to recover from single function failures.

TraiNet and VCS were migrated to a virtualized server environment. This environment assisted with load balancing efforts and disaster recovery planning.

Rapid Response to Dynamic USAID Environment

The training for results subject matter expertise demonstrated by the above activities, allowed Devis to respond rapidly to any challenges USAID encountered in carrying out this objective. One such challenge was change in policy in the post-911 world.

The Patriot Act and post-911 security requirements lead to new Visa application tracking systems and procedures. USAID is the largest Exchange Visitor Visa sponsors in the Federal government. Devis designed a solution to allow distributed workflow approval for Visa applications that included multiple sponsor and USAID approval stages prior to electronic submission to the Department of State/DHS operated Student Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS). The Visa Control System (VCS), developed by Devis, integrated USAID systems data with SEVIS via a secure bi-directional link enabling stringent and time sensitive approvals to be accomplished in a secure and verifiable manner.

Utilizing the TraiNet application, USAID was already collecting a large percentage of the data necessary to fulfill SEVIS requirements. The challenge facing USAID was how a USAID employee on U.S. soil could vouch for participants that were being entered by contractors around the world. Devis created a unique audit trail to allow validation checks flowing from Contractor to Mission and finally to a US based representative. When a USAID employee submitted a participant to SEVIS, they know that the individual was checked and verified by at least three different people.

The combined solution of utilizing an application that was already collecting much of the information needed for the newly mandated SEVIS and creating VCS to allow participants to be validated by individuals in the field allowed USAID to continue to process J-Visa's throughout the change in policies related to 9-11.