History of MERS

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History of MERS

• Statewide public employee retirement plan serving
  governmental entities
• Operated under State government umbrella until
  1996
• Membership
• 1,900 individual bargaining units in 650
  municipalities
• 38,000 Active Members

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Employer Reporting Requirements

• Collecting data from Employers
• Wages
• Employers need to report only wages that are
  includible for pension benefits purposes
• Contributions
• Employers report what they are received in
  employee contributions
• Service
• Employers must determine whether each member has
  met the service requirement for the month
• Changes in Employment
• New Hires and Terminations

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The Problem

• Standalone application locally installed at each
  employer site
• Changes were difficult if not impossible to make
• Program produced file that was sent to MERS for
  processing
• Error checking limited without database
  connectivity

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The New Program - ePASS

• Why?
• Data Integrity
• Make employers responsible for data
• Better data means better service
• Paradigm shift
• Ease of rollout
• eBill application implemented in the prior year

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ePASS Functionality

• Membership Applications on-line
• Entering data into the application
• Upload file vs. Rollover from prior month
• Validation for high/low wage months
• Final month lump sum payouts
• Corrected reports
• Printed reports

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Project Details

• Project lifecycle of 7 months
• Project Team
• 4-6 Developers
• 4 Subject Matter Experts
• Beta Testing Group
• Customers tested at their home office
• Went live a month early
• One region came on each month

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Communication Plan

• Logo and Map on all mailings
• Announced in Newsletters and Annual Meeting
• Letter to collect contact information
• Brochure and technical specifications
• Website updated with current information

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Training Plan

• 1 Goal for ePASS develop an intuitive
  application that would drive the payroll
  reporting process
• Tools for assisting our users
• Comprehensive manual (70 pages)
• Quick start guide (7 pages)
• Instructional 20 minute Video (Captivate)
• Tips Tricks (latest ePASS updates)
• Help icons on every page in ePASS (RoboHelp)
• Dedicated ePASS expert to handle phone calls and
  emails

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Training Planwww.mersofmich.com/epass
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Quality Control

• Survey Monkey www.surveymonkey.com
• Monitored ePASS support
• 3 months after Go Live
• 1 year after using ePASS

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Security

• Initial concern during development
• The users ability to.
• Login legitimately from the web site and run
  malicious SQL scripts trying to return sensitive
  information
• Login normally through the web site using false
  credentials
• Use hacking tools to overload the server and open
  security holes to gain access

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Security

• Post Security Concerns
• Full Penetration test on entire network
• Used standard WHOIS queries
• NS lookups
• Basic IP address command
• Behavioral testing
• Watch out for dummy web sites asking your
  employees for their network id and password.

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Lessons Learned

• Communication is HUGE!
• Start early and continue throughout project
• Listen to your customers through focus groups and
  surveysand respond to them
• Make Big-Bang changes
• Changes that affect 70-80 of the customer base.
  Dont make changes based on the squeaky wheel
  syndrome. Make changes that make sense
• Education/Training
• Provide quick start guides, videos and on-line
  indexed Help iconsmost popular with payroll
  clerks. A full comprehensive manual no one wants
  to read
• Security
• Would recommend using a contact form versus
  displaying email addresses your website

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Questions