Sacramento, California. May 30, 2012. Delegata, a leader in business transformation through management and technology consulting, is pleased to congratulate the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)for receiving the Best of California Leadership Award for Demonstrated Excellence in Project Management. The Best of California Awards program recognizes IT professionals in California state and local government for their dedication, hard work and contributions. The awards presentation was held on Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 at the 25th Annual Government Technology Conference (GTC) West in Sacramento, California’s State Capital.
While many submittals were received for the Best of California awards, only one was awarded in the project management leadership category. Karen Ruiz, Project Director for CalPERS Pension System Resumption (PSR) Project, was selected for the Demonstrated Excellence in Project Management Award. This award is presented to those who have shown extraordinary skill and responsibility in managing a specific technology-related initiative through all phases of development, from conceptualization to deployment, as well as vision and leadership demonstrated in the overall success of the project.
CalPERS, with assets of approximately $235 billion, is the largest public pension fund in the United States. As the PSR Project Director, Karen Ruiz was tasked with recovery of the $500 million PSR modernization initiative to provide a single solution platform for managing retirement and health benefits for more than 3,000 employers and 1.6 million public employees. She adopted and led the PSR Recovery Plan through its concept phase in early 2010 and subsequent requirements, build, test, conversion, and readiness stages throughout 2010 and 2011, successfully launching on September 19, 2011. Extraordinary skill and commitment were demanded to launch this very large, high-risk project.
“Karen established a new vision of collaborative development and led efforts to blend expertise across CalPERS and vendor teams to reach rapid results using agile approaches. No one deserves this award more,” stated Jacque Silver, Delegata Senior Program Manager and Senior Management Team member. “Delegata is very proud of the achievements gained for California through our long-standing partnership with CalPERS,” stated Kais Menoufy, Delegata President and CEO.
As a retirement and health system modernization initiative, PSR launched the new my|CalPERS application which replaces over 49 legacy systems and 60 support systems, serving as the single solution platform for managing retirement and health benefits for CalPERS members. The PSR project set the foundation for CalPERS vision to use the Internet as a primary channel for conducting its business and providing the convenience of employer, partner, and member self-service. “The PSR project is one of the largest initiatives of its kind in our industry and I was honored to work with extraordinary teams to achieve a successful end result. This Best of California award is a testament to the dedication and hard work of all who contributed to the PSR Project and my|CalPERS launch,” stated Karen Ruiz, CalPERS PSR Project Director and Best of California Leadership Award recipient.
The PSR Project created a technology infrastructure to modernize its legacy system platform for flexibility, expandability, and scalability to grow the business in the coming decades. The foundation includes an enterprise architecture, replacement of legacy retirement and health benefits and exchange systems, conversion of more than 50 years’ worth of data records and 80 million document images, an integrated corporate database, 108 interface frameworks, and an information management system. It also establishes an integrated business model, utilizing consolidated information and flexible workflow to combine products and services across previously-independent functional programs.
Delegata has a long history of successful partnership with CalPERS over the past 12 years. For the PSR Project, CalPERS partnered with Delegata to lead the PSR Project Office (PO) and Interface support efforts. Delegata provided incremental value to sustain CalPERS vision through its progressive realization and employed its best practices-based Diamond Methodology to help ensure a successful launch of the new my|CalPERS system.
About Delegata®
Whether it’s people, process or technology, Delegata is a leader in organizational transformation. Celebrating over 12 years of rewarding partnerships with clients and community, Delegata has also successfully expanded into the international market. Specializing in Program and Project Management, Enterprise Architecture, PMO, Organization Change Management, Technology Planning and Analysis, Application Development, Systems Integration, Technology Migration and Process Alignment, Delegata delivers award winning strategic solutions to its clients. Utilizing strong industry acumen and its configurable Diamond® Methodology, Delegata begins with client business objectives, aligns business, process, and technology components, and delivers tightly integrated solutions tailored to its clients’ unique environments. Visit Delegata’s website at www.delegata.com
