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Business Transformation
CPI/Lean Six Sigma Delivery
Program Management
Strategic Planning
Requirements Development

Human Performance Solutions
Talent Management
Organizational Development
Change Management
Policy/Procedure Development
CPI/LSS Process Improvement
Learning and Development
Communications Mgmt

Disaster & Emergency Solutions
Vulnerability Assessment
Critical Infrastructure Protection
Healthcare Planning
Emergency Planning
Surge Capability

CPS delivers training, coaching and mentoring, and deployment advising services to equip Army officials with CPI and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) concepts and tools to enhance enterprise performance, support institutional adaptation, and improve organizational effectiveness. Our team, along with our partner Accenture; provides Army training in accordance with the Army Systems Approach to Training for 5 Programs of Instruction (POI).

The CPS team of Army LSS- certified instructors conducts classroom training using the Army Program's of Instruction (POI) to include the following courses: Master Black Belt, Black Belt, Green Belt, Project Selection and Identification Workshop (PISW), Civilian Education and Project Sponsor Workshops. The purpose of this training is to develop the skills of the Army workforce in order to execute improvement projects that provide meaningful and quantifiable results. We also provide subject matter expertise on belt certification The team trains the following Army personnel: Executive Leaders, Project Sponsors, MBB Candidates, BB Candidates, and GB Candidates.

The CPS/Accenture team has provided Deployment Advisors (DA) to over 22 Army commands and organizations to support the Army CPI/LSS deployment. These advisors provide highly skilled coaching and mentoring to Army Deployment Directors and Senior Leaders. As a result, the Army has achieved substantial operational and financial benefits. We provide tailored support - both direct support to commands that require contractor DAs, and general support to commands that have their own organic DAs, but may require additional, periodic coaching, mentoring, and project execution support. Our team assists the Army in the execution of meaningful projects oriented towards its strategic and enterprise objectives, while facilitating the Army's rapid movement toward self-sustainment.

At the Program Management Office (PMO) level, we provide a team led by an experienced CPS Program Manager to advise the PMO on deployment strategy and policies, while assisting in the implementation and tracking of deployment progress across the Army.

CPS has provided support to the Business Transformation Agency of the Department of Defense in a number of strategic areas. As part of the ODUSD-BT Office Support Task, CPS Professional Services, LLC (CPS) provides direct on-site operational support to the Deputy Under Secretary for Business Transformation (DUSD-BT), the Business Transformation Agency (BTA), and the Deputy Chief Management Officer in planning and conducting a variety of events and in coordinating CPI/Lean Six Sigma Training. CPS provides event planning support and conduct of the Defense Business Agility Forum (Agility Forum), the Deployment Leadership Workshop, the DoD CPI Symposium, and the first Federal SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) Symposium.

Event Planning. CPS supports logistics and facilities for a variety of leadership workshops, symposia, conferences, and forums. For most events, CPS contacts potential venues, performs site visits, and briefs government senior executives and the Contracting Officer's Representative on possible event venues.

Depending upon contract requirements, CPS arranges scheduling of the event site, including contracting for facilities, arrangement for technical support, and planning of menus for breaks, networking receptions, breakfasts, and lunches. In addition to facilities management and coordination, CPS designs and coordinates with the BTA Communications or an outside vendor to produce event Programs, marketing brochures, event banners and posters, and other print material. For the Agility Forum and SOA Symposium, CPS arranges for videography and photography through the Army Multimedia and Visual Information Directorate (AMVID) or a third party vendor. CPS also manages the registration of attendees and communications with invited speakers.

Event Management. During the actual event, CPS manages event administrative activities. CPS pulls corporate staff to manage the registration of attendees, coordination of facilities technical support, escort of invited speakers, and set-up of posters, directing attendees to the event. In addition CPS works with AMVID (or third-party vendor) photographers, videographers, and the facility's audio/visual technical support to ensure all parties are able to perform their assigned functions with minimal difficulties. CPS ensures that speakers are provided a quiet area or room to finalize presentation preparation, as well as escorting the speakers to the auditorium or session breakout rooms. CPS personnel are always available to assist in attendees' and speakers' logistical needs, as well as answer questions. Where appropriate, senior CPS management were on-hand to escort invited dignitaries.

Web Development Support. CPS provides web development support to the CPI/Lean Six Sigma PMO. CPS develops and operates the DoD CPI/LSS Community of Interest (COI) knowledge base, on the Defense Knowledge On-line (DKO) knowledge management system. The web portal provides the DoD CPI/LSS community with information on LSS activity, up-coming events, LSS training schedule, and performance metrics. The CPI/LSS COI web portal provides two separate calendar/schedule capabilities. The CPS Event Planner updates and advertises forthcoming conferences, symposia, workshops, and forums on the Event Calendar, accessible from the Home Page. The CPS Training Administrator maintains a separate Training Page with registration information and a training schedule/calendar. The CPS/LSS training calendar identifies scheduled LSS courses, location, and instructors.

For the SOA Symposium, CPS coordinated with the BTA Communications group to develop a SOA Symposium web site, hosted by defenselink.mil public web site. Registration, particularly paid registration by non-government personnel, was handled via a link to a CPS hosted registration site. Payment authorization was handled through a secure third-party payment site, which accepted major credit cards.

Training Support. CPS provides training administrative support for the DoD CPI/LSS PMO. The CPS training administrator schedules instructors, classes, and classrooms. Classes are announced via the DoD CPI/LSS COI Web Portal. Attendees may register through the web site or by contacting the CPS training administrator. The CPS training administrator is also responsible for tracking number of registrations, cancellations, and no-shows. In addition, the CPS training administrator ensures that training material and pre-course work is made available to attendees.

CPS activities on this contract fully support SIN 874-1 Consulting Services task areas and provide the Business Transformation Agency consultation on process improvement and user interface design for the Joint Contingency Contracting System (JCCS). CPS provides testing plans, testing implementation, training program development and training delivery.

CPS was contracted to consult on the operations, maintenance, and development of the Joint Contingency Contracting System Software. The software serves as the primary centralized Web-based reporting and tracking tool. It is a real-time database for contract information and reporting, producing over 20 reports on demand.

CPS coordinated the work efforts of a team of consultants who tracked software changes, tested functionality, developed documentation, and trained government personnel on the use of the software. The consultants provided work strategies, audits of software function, and quality control services. CPS provided customized training as needed to the team and to the government's pilot program in the field while conducting real time testing. CPS subcontractor, IBM, continues to refine the software while it is actively deployed.

CPS has been working with The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) International Services (IS) on a variety of business transformation projects, including the tasks listed:

CLIN 01: Developing a Talent Management and Succession Plan:
The team researched both Foreign Service and Civil Service personnel systems. Through meeting facilitations and interviews performed by CPS Black and Green Belts, the team learned the regulations governing and duties assigned to Senior Foreign Service Officers. The Team visited Action Programs operations in Panama, Mexico and Guatemala, to conduct Subject Matter Expert interviews. Where several processes existed to achieve a common goal, best practices were selected. Functional descriptions common to each program were defined and workflows documented.

CLIN 02: Development of Alternatives to Increase the Efficiency of the MP&S:
CLIN02 focused on the administrative services provided by MP&S to IS Field offices. The same discovery process was used as in CLIN01, By documenting the current operational state and formulating an optimal future operational state using standard organizational development methods and Lean Six Sigma process improvement techniques, the CPS Team has been able to situate MP&S on a path to the business transformation it desires. The CPS Team identified a pivotal group, the Field Program Managers (PMs), who act as liaison between MP&S headquarters and the Field Offices. The CPS Team has developed a coaching and mentoring program for these key individuals.

CLIN03: Organizational Development:
Process improvement constitutes the major focus of the third CLIN. The CPS Team's approach represents best practices in organizational development. The first step is to discover and document the existing state. This allows the areas for process improvement to be identified within the As Is State. Then we apply CPI/Lean Six Sigma methodologies. The Team has been able to "unfreeze" the organization, in order to institutionalize new processes that are consistent with the desired Future State.

In order to "re-freeze" the organization officially within its new state, the Team has benchmarked best practices and provided a change management approach. The Team will continue the contract by completing the documentation necessary to satisfy the Agency's documentation needs to recognize the reorganization. As part of the "re-freezing" in the new state, CPS has continued teaching business protocols to management and key personnel within MP&S.

The Team coordinated a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) Training for ten key individuals to obtain their Yellow, Green and Black Belts, and continues to mentor these individuals in applying the principles of CPI/Lean Six Sigma for efficiency and effectiveness. The result has been individuals taking the initiative for finding ways to make processes more efficient reduce waste and maintain a higher level of accuracy in accounting and reporting.

APHIS International's mission involves combating diseases and pestilence overseas to prevent a pathway to American Agriculture. This program unit focuses its resources on the most serious threats, which may occur anywhere in the world. The decision on where to open, sustain or close an APHIS office rests on a number of important factors that can be classified as the ratio of "seriousness of threat" to "administrative feasibility" in setting up a worksite. These decisions were traditionally made through unstructured expert elicitation. In order to defend expenditures in tough economic times, management determined that a more systematic process should be developed to stack rank possible locations through an objective decision-making process.

APHIS turned to CPS to provide a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt to facilitate an executive meeting in Mexico City. The Black Belt prepared discussion points, provided briefing materials, and conducted a Vision, Mission and Goal Alignment session followed by a brainstorming meeting to gather decision criteria. CPS used these criteria to create a mathematical model involving the systematic weighing of factors to aggregate a score to support ranking. The resulting model was used to run "what if" scenarios supporting final decisions on which locations provided the best return on investment.

CPS has helped the APHIS International Services (APHIS IS) Management Policy and Services program unit develop a Concept of Operations to design, staff, support, and sustain an APHIS overseas workforce. The Concept of Operations was to include sufficient detail to expedite both routine and extraordinary critical processes and to allow successful implementation of procedures by individuals who are not necessarily the experts in each process. CPS Staff visited Indonesia, India, Thailand and Mexico to interview USDA and State Department Subject Matter Experts to develop more than eighty procedures covering Human Resources, Office Logistics, Information Technology, Finance, Budgeting and other management topics.

The original 2007 contract has been modified several times to allow CPS to continue to expand APHIS's library of supporting Standard Operating Procedures. A new contract has been put in place to help develop an APHIS IS internal policy development function.

The APHIS Security program unit needed information in order to make good decisions regarding its security program's knowledge transfer. The group needed to compare NIST knowledge requirements for each functional description against its current staff's level of mastery. The group also needed to discompose its current training resources into objectives to be mapped against NIST requirements. The ensuing Gap Analysis help to outline the Security Program's training development needs. CPS not only provided this background information but also outlined the new development needed through building learning objectives, creating a development framework, providing a training plan and surveying available resources APHIS could use to expand its security training program.