El Paso County - AppCare Managed Services

About the Client

Founded in 1871, El Paso County lies in east-central Colorado and encompasses more than 2,158 square miles – slightly more than twice the size of Rhode Island. With the second largest county population in Colorado, El Paso County is located in Colorado’s 5th congressional district. The county seat is located in Colorado Springs – the second most populous city in Colorado. El Paso County is known for its vast natural beauty and mild climate.

Challenges the Client Faced

With limited access to qualified JD Edwards technical resources in Colorado Springs because of the specialized skill set and the high salary requirements, El Paso County was not able to justify hiring a full-time CNC resource. Even if they were able to hire a resource, it would be very difficult to keep the resource trained and current with all of the latest enhancements in technology coupled with the complexity of JD Edwards. They would also be challenged with supporting the system at night, weekends, holidays, etc. In order to help address these many challenges, El Paso County sought out a managed services partner to manage the CNC technical aspects of their EnterpriseOne system. The managed services partner would need to provide a pool of resources that could proactively support their system 24/7/365 with an in-depth knowledge of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne.

GSI's Solution

As part of their evaluation process, El Paso County put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to prospective partners. Based on the results of the RFP, El Paso County selected GSI to be their JD Edwards managed services provider because of the depth of their resources, experience, competitive pricing, and the size of the organization.

Today, GSI not only maintains the system, but also keeps the JD Edwards system current by applying the latest tools releases and ESU’s. “GSI provides a pool of resources that gives me access to a depth of knowledge that we previously did not have. It is critical that we have a stable system and after hours’ support. GSI has provided both at a great value”, stated Steven Armstrong, ERP Manager.

As an added benefit of GSI’s extensive resources, the County was able to tap into GSI skills outside of their immediate CNC responsibilities by leveraging their Oracle DBA and JD Edwards expertise and their understanding of the associated nuances. In another instance, El Paso lost a development resource, and GSI was able to step in until they were able to bring on another development resource. GSI has also provided web services custom development work with the pay stub application, and assist with an SSL Proof of Concept, helping El Paso County’s business operations run more smoothly.