City of Berkeley: IT Strategic Plan
December 1, 2020
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to recommend the services of ThirdWave Corporation (“ThirdWave”). The City of Berkeley has worked directly with Roy Hernandez and his team at ThirdWave since 2016 on multiple large citywide and department level projects. Briefly, these projects include:
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Needs Assessment and Project Management Services for the City’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software and neighboring applications—discovery, business requirements, RFP development, and vendor analysis
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Established a five-year Digital Strategic Plan for the City of Berkeley
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Established a Technology Service Fund for the City’s IT Department
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Training and certifying City staff to use the Rapid Workflow® methodology
Each of these projects were high-priority, high-risk, and overdue at the City of Berkeley. ThirdWave delivered their services on schedule and on budget, and consistently exceeded the scope of work to ensure the City received clear documentation, accurate feedback, and quality analysis in support of each project. This included as many in-person one-on-one meetings as the City needed, late-night phone calls to review RFPs and business analysis documentation, as well as in-person support at our City Council meetings.
The five-year Digital Strategic Plan that ThirdWave produced was not your average mission statement and SWOT analysis, but an invaluable artifact that documents actionable technology projects, their timeline, and estimated budget. The City was able to use this breakdown developed by ThirdWave to transparently request funding and provided a structure by which we can provide updates to our community.
The Rapid Workflow® methodology used and taught by ThirdWave is also highly effective. After experiencing Roy’s fluid and clear Rapid Workflow® sessions, he seamlessly taught our staff how to execute the Rapid Workflow® methodology to document business, technical, and functional solution requirements. To this day, staff continues to save the City thousands of dollars across multiple large citywide projects by defining their requirements before procuring technology solutions, and we continue to bring back Roy to certify new IT staff in the Rapid Workflow® methodology.
The most critical component of ThirdWave’s value to the City is the collaborative relationship they were able to create with our departments. Roy and his team at ThirdWave were and continue to be responsive to the City’s specific needs. ThirdWave has not only completed a successful scope of work with the City of Berkeley, and has become a trusted resource and partner with the City of Berkeley. Thank You!
Sincerely,
Savita Chaudhary
Director of Information Technology
City of Berkeley
City of Costa Mesa: IT Strategic Plan
August 13, 2019
To whom it may concern:
Please allow this letter to serve as my recommendation for Roy Hernandez and his company, ThirdWave Corporation.
It was a genuinely pleasurable experience working with ThirdWave. For the past year, Costa Mesa IT department has worked with ThirdWave Corporation to assist us with the department’s strategic plan initiative. ThirdWave’s strategic planning experience made it a very reliable partner for us. The IT Department looked for a provider that would assist us in writing a strategic plan. Among the vendors that could possibly meet our needs, the IT department selected ThirdWave through a request for proposal process. As expected, ThirdWave brought expertise in strategic planning and project management.
Part of the project was to hold Rapid Workflow workshops to gather mission critical business functions for each City department. Over thirty business process-modeling workshops were held with each stakeholder to capture our business and service delivery challenges, and to highlight where we could improve through policy change. With this book of processes, all departments will be able to articulate our business and technical functions for any subsequent projects.
ThirdWave remained flexible through the entire information gathering process. As workshop dates and times changed, ThirdWave was able to work with other departments to fill the gaps.
I highly recommend ThirdWave Corporation for your Strategic Planning initiatives. The IT department of the City of Costa Mesa had an excellent experience with them. The strategic plan will be a blueprint of IT initiatives for many years to come.
Sincerely,
Steven Ely
Information Technology Director
City of Costa Mesa
City of Centennial: Business/IT Strategic Planning
April 11, 2015
I appreciate your note and for all your work performed for Centennial. I could have not been more impressed with you and your team and truly believe we are better set up today to succeed in supporting the organization and community needs today and in the future. Thank you for the quality work and unbelievable professionalism. Talk with you soon!
Elisha Thomas
Deputy City Manager
City of Centennial
Greetings Roy (Carnac The Magnificent):
I wanted to share with you that our City Council saw its way to approving our request for approximately $2.2M for the first 2 years of IT Strategic Plan projects. We collaboratively made some minor changes, but for the most part, kept the Plan intact. I want to thank you for an outstanding engagement, your diligence to detail and a high-value set of deliverables.
Please don’t be a stranger and feel free to touch base from time to time. I’m sure I’ll be in touch with a question or two along the way – given the ground we need to cover, perhaps even a future engagement if you’re willing. You did an awesome job Roy, which will make my job going forward that much less stressful. Thanks again for everything!
Kindest Regards
Scott Blumenreich
Chief Innovation & Technology Officer (CITO)
City of Centennial, CO
City of Coronado: Business/IT Strategic Plan
June 9, 2014
To Whom it May Concern:
We selected ThirdWave through an RFP process to provide IT Strategic Plan services for the City. What set ThirdWave's proposal apart from the rest of the responses was their depth of experience in the public sector and their effort to understand our core municipal processes. Besides using standard surveys and executive and management interviews performed by most strategic plan consultants, ThirdWave also ran Rapid Workflow(c) business process reviews that covered core business processes and self-identified "problem areas" in a few departments. These process workshops were very helpful in gathering data to augment the IT Strategic Plan but also provided staff an opportunity to collaboratively identify areas of improvement.
ThirdWave effectively managed deliverable dates and deadlines, were available for project update phone calls and emails as needed, they stayed on budget and on schedule, and they provided detailed summary of the hours and deliverables completed as part of each invoice they submitted for payment.
We would recommend ThirdWave to anyone looking to have a thorough assessment completed by a very responsive, professional group.
Sincerely,
Brian Lewton
IT Manager
City of Coronado
July 29, 2013
I wanted to thank you so much for your time in listening and helping us to become a better place to work. You are the greatest…
Please let me know if you need anything.
Brenda Bridgeford
Office Specialist
City Clerk's Office
City of Coronado
City of Lancaster: Business/IT Strategic Plan
April 21, 2020
ThirdWave presented a proposal that was very responsive to our RFP. In the interview, they demonstrated a keen understanding of the project, the current knowledge level of the organization, great flexibility to insure that the end product would be in-depth and practical no matter what they encountered during the engagement. Their price was very competitive and the depth of practical and theoretical experience exceeded expectations and that of their competitors. The commitment was made that the project would be conducted by the principals.
ThirdWave's project management capabilities are disciplined and rigorous. They make great effort to fully engage the client and its various participants in developing an appreciation for every phase of the project, securing buy-in, and creating common understandings of the expected outcomes and results. In doing so, they create a positive sense of collective ownership of the project. This raises the energy level and engagement of the various entities involved in the project. Clear, consistent, and regular communication and coordination was the norm with the Project Manager throughout the engagement.
The Rapid Workflow methodology is a tight and deliberate analytical process that fully engages the client. In our case it produced quick and dramatic opportunities for improvement that were enthusiastically embraced and implemented. These products were so well received that we had numerous other work units requesting that the effort be undertaken for them. We extended the scope of the work to accommodate the increased demand. The methodology applied by Third Wave's highly skilled analysis was accurate, insightful, and easy to implement.
ThirdWave produced a very high quality product that was consistent in identifying a complete set of strategies and tactics that was useful in the near term and long term. Thus the report had a multi-year application and offered a variety of options. It was technically and technologically accurate; it offered state-of-the-art options.
ThirdWave produced the desired product within budget and adhered to short-term, intermediate, and final schedules.
The entire organization was impressed with the level of excellence and knowledge that Third Wave brought to the assignment; an outstanding experience. They were very easy to work with and very adaptable to a variety of organizational needs. I would not hesitate to engage this firm for this assignment again as well as a variety of complex systems analysis and problem solving assignments.
Robert S. LaSala
County Administrator
Pinellas County, Florida
City of Lancaster: IT Strategic Plan
August 8, 2019
To Whom It May Concern,
I am Timika Hite, the Senior IT Analyst for the City of Lancaster and I am writing to recommend ThirdWave services for an Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP). This is the second time we have engaged ThirdWave to help us develop our ITSP. ThirdWave has vast IT Strategic Planning knowledge and was beneficial in helping us move forward in our new technological future.
ThirdWave performed to the scope of work, while also being flexible to changes as requested by the City. We performed 16 Rapid Workflow workshops, which allowed us to see where our bottlenecks in processes were and how to remedy them.
This is the second time ThirdWave has performed an ITSP for us, because we were pleased with the work performed by them and the thoroughness of their job. ThirdWave is the perfect company to perform your ITSP if you are in the market for a plan that will help move your city forward.
I recommend ThirdWave as an IT Strategic Plan expert and a partner to cities.
Sincerely,
Timika L. Hite
Senior IT Analyst
City of Lancaster
City of Pearland, TX, IT Strategic Plan
July 20, 2023
To Whom it may concern,
ThirdWave was contracted to help the City of Pearland develop a 5-year IT Strategic Plan. They did exceptional work and delivered a very thorough plan as well as presented their findings to the City Council. They collaborated and interacted with various departments to collect information related to their department's understanding of their technology needs as well as the challenges that those departments were facing related to current technology. They were extremely professional and always prepared for meetings.
ThirdWave always remained positive and worked cohesively with the entire project team as well as all relevant stakeholders throughout the project. They were committed to providing a quality product and provided drafts early to the project team. ThirdWave was extremely easy to work with and they were always available to discuss any details about the project.
ThirdWave delivered the project on time and within budget. Even when there were minor changes to the deliverables, they were more than accommodating to address them within the given budgeted amount and worked to ensure the end results matched the City's expectations.
There were no change orders or amendments to the contract. The City of Pearland requested additional work that ThirdWave was happy to include at no additional cost. They were willing to do the additional work without impacting the budget and knew it was essential for the accuracy of the strategic plan.
There were no delays or problems with the project that were driven by the contractor. ThirdWave ensured the city would stay on schedule and were willing to adjust their own schedules to accommodate the organization.
On a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate them a 10. They were extremely professional and a pleasure to work with. In fact, we have reached out to them for additional work to be performed on our internal business processes so that we can get the most out of the technology we acquire.
We would absolutely work with them again. The volume of information and justification for the strategic plan goes beyond what others have shown as examples. The level of detail is extremely beneficial for our executive leadership team to digest easily. They were committed to providing their entire work product so that the City could review the data and see how they came to their conclusion.
Sincerely,
Daniel McGhinnis
Chief Information Officer
City of Pearland
City of Las Vegas: Business/IT Strategic Plan
September 24, 1997
In 1995, the City of Las Vegas undertook a critical self examination of its information technology environment and architecture. This process, entitled "Inner Look" involved City employees at all levels in evaluating our management of technology.
As part of this process, the City realized industry expertise was requisite to moving forward. Accordingly, in May of 1995, the City of Las Vegas hired ThirdWave Corporation to develop a Strategic Information Systems Plan. The choice of ThirdWave was competitive, with several factors influencing our final decision.
The City was looking for a partner in this relationship. We didn't necessarily want to emulate what other cities were doing; we wanted to do it better. We realized that we were at a critical juncture, with aging legacy hardware and very basic software. We wanted our move forward to be visionary; to create an environment which was consistent with the personality of our community.
ThirdWave Corporation was ideal to our situation. We reached agreement wherein they would develop the Strategic Plan for the City and, in fact, that our contract would terminate at that time. We felt that we were obtaining a level of creativity that was unique to our City. And. most importantly, we agreed that whatever we decided should be related to a compelling business purpose.
At the end of this engagement, we contracted with ThirdWave to continue with the City as our "integrator"; a relationship that is nearing finality. We made that selection based on our satisfaction with their efforts in developing the Strategic Plan, and we have been quite satisfied with the effort to date.
We anticipated a high level of concentration from ThirdWave Corporation to the City's needs and we haven't been disappointed. As partners, we have developed the architecture for a City-wide integrated system that will serve this City for many years to come.
Steven P. Houchens
Deputy City Manager
City of Las Vegas
August 23,1995
With ThirdWave having completed three quarters of its contract with the City, I'd like to Offer some feedback. As the co-chair of the information systems team, I have worked closely with you and your representative, Robert Aguilar, and have only praises to pass on- Not only have you proven yourselves technical experts again and again, but as importantly you have consistently provided the highest level of customer service— attentiveness, responsiveness, flexibility, concern...I could go on. I would like to commend Robert on his efforts which have gone above and beyond the stipulations of the agreement, benefiting the City and its staff in numerous ways including financially and educationally.
It was a stroke of very good luck when the City of Las Vegas found your company, I won't hesitate to pass on the highest of recommendations for ThirdWave, Roy Hernandez, and Robert Aguilar.
Michaela D. Mezo
Senior Management Analyst
City of Las Vegas
City of Newport Beach: Business/IT Strategic Plan
January 23, 2012
ThirdWave provided a proposal that covered the basis RFQ requirements for the IT Strategic Plan that we requested but they also went above and beyond in their proposal in their inclusion of a thorough Business Process review in the form of 32 business process workshops. These process workshops were very helpful in gathering data to augment the IT Strategic Plan but also provided our staff a great opportunity to question how we currently are doing business and highlighted areas where we need to improve. The process map documents that we received from this process have helped us in other projects. In addition these maps will also provide great help as we begin looking to get new software applications and we need to understand how our work processes happen so we can determine how to automate them.
ThirdWave did a great job of providing a Project schedule with deliverable dates, assignment deadlines, and identifying who would be responsible for each task. Roy was always available on short notice to discuss any issues that might arise and was very flexible in adjusting his schedule to accommodate the many wrinkles our staff timelines would create. Roy also was able to communicate clearly when he needed more information or felt it best to modify the original project timetable based on the information and circumstances that occurred over time.
As mentioned above the Business process workshops with the rapid Workflow methodology were a key reason that we picked Thirdwave for our project. The workshops ran very smoothly and effectively despite the large groups that we would have attend. The process to gather the data was interesting and engaging to our staff and the resulting process map documents are great tools to educate us on our processes.
We had no concerns about the quality of the work produced. The work was always turned around very quickly in a draft form that we were able to review and comment on before the final documents were compiled. We were very happy with the quality of work that Thirdwave produced.
ThirdWave stayed on budget and on schedule. Our City had some resourcing delays on our behalf which caused some delays but there was not issues on the part of Thirdwave. Thirdwave provided a very detailed summary of the hours provided and the deliverables completed as part of each invoice they submitted for payment.
ThirdWave met all of our expectations in their work to produce an IT Strategic Plan. They even exceeded our expectations with the ease that they accomplished the 32 process workshops. We recommend ThirdWave to other agencies and would retain them again for future work.
Rob Houston
Assistant to the City Manager
City of Newport Beach
City of Pasadena: Business/IT Strategic Plan
ThirdWave recently completed an enterprise IT Strategic plan for the City of Pasadena. Our project had a number of objectives, including:
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Examining ways to enhance public access to information and services;
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Developing an IT investment strategy fostering enhancement/replacement of aged systems;
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Developing a plan with an enterprise focus to integrate existing modern and new systems; and
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Maintaining our flexibility to incorporate emerging information technologies to meet public and City needs
ThirdWave’s work on this project represented a tremendous value to the City. The firm undertook an extensive effort to understand our IT needs by conducting and analyzing the results of 16 department director interviews, 32 Rapid Workflow workshops focusing on combination of department-specific and enterprise business processes, IT focus groups, and online surveys of both City staff and the community. While ThirdWave applied a well-develop methodology to the Pasadena project, the result was hardly cookie-cutter. The City of Pasadena received an IT Strategic Plan from ThirdWave that is tailored to our specific needs and challenges.
In addition, ThirdWave’s budget and schedule for the project were designed to fit out requirements. We were limited in both funding and time for this project, but ThirdWave delivered on budget and on schedule, completing the extensive data gathering and analysis noted above in a few short months. The resulting citywide IT Strategic Plan met our project objectives, and will be extremely helpful to the Department of Information Technology and the overall City organization for years to come.
Given the City’s very positive experience working with ThirdWave, we wouldn’t hesitate to look to ThirdWave for assistance in future IT planning efforts.
Diana Neff
Interim CIO
City of Pasadena
City of Pasadena: Business/IT Strategic Plan 2
To Whom it May Concern:
The City of Pasadena engaged with ThirdWave to conduct a technology needs assessment and develop a comprehensive 5-Year IT Strategic Plan. The project was completed successfully, on-time and on-budget. The project steering committee, which included a cross section of City department heads and the City Manager’s office were happy with ThirdWave’s performance and thoroughly impressed with the amount of work completed and associated documents produced from the engagement.
No formal changes were made to the original contract. ThirdWave was able to meet the City’s aggressive time schedule. Additional assessment and analysis work were added under a separate agreement, including additional Rapid Workflow sessions and an evaluation of IT staffing levels.
Roy Hernandez was the face of the project and worked with the project steering committee exclusively. Frank De Windt participated in many of the Rapid Workflow sessions and individual interviews. Other ThirdWave staff participated behind the scenes and were not typically on-site. Overall, the project committee was thoroughly impressed with Roy and Frank’s depth and breadth of technology knowledge and experience and were beyond satisfied with their service.
The IT Strategic Plan offered by ThirdWave is different than a typical IT Strategic Plan in that it produces actionable projects and initiatives centered on delivering value to the departments/agencies of your organization. The Rapid Workflows will be one of the most valuable artifacts produced because it shows the current state of your business processes from end-to-end and is a necessary step in any business process transformation.
We wish we could hire Roy and ThirdWave to be on staff with our City permanently. Since the original engagement we have brought ThirdWave back to conduct additional Rapid Workflow sessions and help our customers define their requirements before acquiring technology solutions.
Roy Hernandez and the entire ThirdWave staff were professional, detailed and insightful throughout the engagement. Use the Rapid Work Flow process everywhere you can to document business processes from a business centric view. The sessions encourage cross functional collaboration, uncover immediate improvement opportunities, potential technology solutions and benefits.
Phillip Leclair
Chief Information Officer
City of Pasadena
City of Pasadena: Business/IT Strategic Plan 3
May 10, 2011
From my perspective you and your staff were outstanding. Thank you for your help and assistance.
Phillip L. Sanchez
Chief of Police
Pasadena Police Department
City of Sacramento: Digital Strategy
June 2, 2014
Thirdwave recently completed the development of the City of Sacramento’s Digital Strategy that serves as the framework for how technology services will be managed and delivered throughout City. Thirdwave was selected for this project over three other proposals due to their comprehensive project management methodology and information gathering approach, 25 years of experience in developing strategic plans, and past proven track record with other City of Sacramento projects. Included under the project were 30 business process Workshops, IT focus groups, executive management interviews, IT static skills assessment, and on-line staff survey.
Working under an aggressive timeline, Thirdwave delivered the project on-time and exceeded project expectations. Among the several information gathering exercises performed by Thirdwave, their patient Rapid Workflow business process Workshops were instrumental in providing a self-contained assessment of specific business challenges that addressed problems, impacts solutions and benefits. This unique process helped identify business inefficiencies that formed the basis of the Digital Strategy recommendations and technology initiatives to address these issues. Thirdwave's unmatched data driven process and technical experience provided a foundation for supporting the formal project recommendations and implementation plan developed from the project.
In summary, | am extremely pleased with the services provided by Thirdwave. Their vast experience in developing organizational IT strategic plans came shinning through in delivering an exceptional product that the City will benefit from for years to come. Roy, you and Thirdwave team are truly remarkable and have been a pleasure to work with. Thank You!
Sincerely,
Maria MacGunigal
Chief Information Officer
City of Sacramento
City of San Jose: SVIT Infrastructure Master Plan
April 20, 2007
Roy Hernandez, the president of ThirdWave was the project manager for our project. His strengths are project management and developing multiple stakeholder IT master plans. He uses a structured method of interviewing that 1) immediately drills down to the problems and issues that need to be addressed, 2) quantifies the amount of impacts, 3) draws out solutions from the user perspective, and 4) summaries the benefits. He understands the need to develop the master plan from political, operation, and management viewpoints. He also clearly understands how to develop a master plan that executive staff can embrace and understand.
Ken Salvail
Transportation Manager
Department of Transportation
City of San Jose
City of Santa Ana: IT Strategic Planning Project
September 18, 2015
To whom it may concern, ThirdWave was selected for the IT Strategic Planning project for their superior scores on their proposal. An eight-member evaluation committee representing the Police Department, the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Agency, the Community Development Agency, the Public Works Agency, the Planning and Building Agency, the City Manager’s Office, the Personnel Services Agency and Finance and Management Services Agency rated the proposals using four criteria:
1. Sample IT Assessment and depth of references 2. Experience of the firm and technical expertise of assigned staff 3. Total cost and description of all costs 4. Proposer’s processes, approach and work plan
The focus of the evaluation process was to select the proposal that provided the most thorough and competitive assessment as set forth in the RFP. ThirdWave exceeded each of the RFP requirements and was invited to a clarification interview and oral presentation and was advanced to Phase II of the process. In Phase II ThirdWave was evaluated on 4 areas outlined in the RFP and a final score was derived across each criteria. Using this methodology, ThirdWave achieved the highest numerical score. The City then made a recommendation to the City Council to execute an agreement with ThirdWave.
Regarding Project Management capabilities, ThirdWave came to the City with a demonstrated history of success with technology strategic planning and our expectations were very high. ThirdWave exceeded the City’s expectations and demonstrated unequivocally why their work product is second to none. ThirdWave’s approach is well thought out and although they have completed many comparable projects, the City received deliverables and attention that addressed our specific requirements. ThirdWave’s Project Manager, Roy Hernandez is very skilled at understanding an organizational culture and engaging in a way that is attentive, professional, and effective. Considering our project kicked off at the end of the calendar year, we were faced with an aggressive start. Roy managed the competing demands on time and resources very well and ensured we stayed on course and exited each phase with momentum to tackle the next.
ThirdWave is a highly qualified firm with an extraordinary track record of accomplishment. The Rapid Work methodology used by ThirdWave is an enormously effective and industry accepted methodology that our City staff experienced as very logical in drawing out needs, exploring requirements, and identifying constraints. This structured approach sounds good on paper, but when matched with the deft execution exhibited by the ThirdWave team, and Roy in particular, wonderfully achieved the goals of being responsive to the City’s specific needs and facilitating the participatory process we strived to create.
ThirdWave produced solid deliverables and performed a broad assessment of our IT resources and requirements which successfully guided the City to develop a culture of innovation and efficiency, obtain clear direction regarding the City’s current and future IT needs, and, importantly, charted a roadmap to execute on these opportunities to extract the greatest value from our investments in IT.
ThirdWave’s approach to defining the phases of the project and providing a detailed payment schedule was highly effective in delineating the milestones, breaking down the project cost by deliverables, and outlining every task and subtask corresponding to each phase. This descriptive and transparent approach enabled our stakeholders to adequately articulate the progress and expectations every step of the way. The monthly status reports allowed us the ability to efficiently plot the progress made, ensure the deliverables completed met our expectations, and address any outstanding issues and their impact on technical, cost and scheduling requirements. Schedule integrity was maintained throughout the project as a result of ThirdWave’s meticulous attention to planned activities.
Overall, ThirdWave’s strengths lie not only in facilitating productive collaboration, but also in executing the consultative process with tact and professionalism. City staff was very engaged in the process which was a product of ThirdWave’s technology pedigree and experience completing comparable projects for organizations of our size and complexity. Should the City have needs that our aligned with ThirdWave’s expertise, we would not hesitate to recommend them for future engagements based on our extremely positive experience with their firm.
Best,
Haney Mustafa
Project Manager
City of Santa Ana
County of Stanislaus: Business/IT Strategic Plan
October 19, 2000
This certificate is presented to Roy Hernandez in appreciation of your contribution to the development of Stanislaus County’s Technology Strategy.
Reagan M. Wilson
County of Stanislaus
Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District: IT Strategic Plan & Roadmap
July 20, 2020
ThirdWave performed an IS Strategic Plan (Plan) for GGB and completed the work on time and on budget. The initiative took 5 months during the COVID-19 pandemic and a lot of things changed. Roy, ThirdWave consultant, was not able to travel on site during the lockdown. This would normally have caused issues or challenges, but looking back, none of this affected the project. The team sustained the work quality, made sure of their availability, achieved great engagement with GGB staff, and delivered a great outcome. Overall, it was a great success. The Plan was adopted by the GGB eTeam as of July 15th, 2020. As the GGB CIO, I was extremely impressed with the work ThirdWave delivered.
Quality of the work product
All together ThirdWave delivered a total 152-page two volume GGB IS Strategic Plan, another 55-page booklet for Rapid Workflow® Diagrams, one comprehensive budget spreadsheet for all IS projects, 5-year prioritization and funding needs, and a 37-slide presentation. The amount of work was tremendous. All products were high quality and all information was captured thoroughly and accurately from a series of activities: a GGB District-wide survey, 8 management interviews, 4 IS focus group workshops, and 18 Rapid Workflow workshops. Everything in the documents is backed up with detailed information provided by District staff – from the executive level to SMEs. Information was documented, organized and graphically analyzed where appropriate. This made it easier to read and understand what the information means. The tremendous amount of details captured in the Plan are also helpful for seeing where the analysis and recommendations came from. I’ve received positive comments from the GGB eTeam executives for the rigorous methodology ThirdWave used and the outcome. We now have a good Plan and a guideline for IS to march down the road in the next 5 years.
Rapid Workflow® Process Mapping
Overall ThirdWave conducted 18 Rapid Workflow workshops for GGB. 34 staff attended these workshops with 64 attendance that many attended more than one. The workshops were extremely helpful for understanding the business’ ask. They captured ‘as-is’ business processes for business requests that weren’t captured before. We now have a booklet that anytime down the road any of us can refer to for any of those processes. Detailed impact and benefits were discussed and documented, which can help conduct a future ROI analysis if needed. Staff was very engaged through the exercise. The Rapid Workflow® methodology is a thorough and mature process. It does the legwork for future IS work based on identified requirements. The data collected paves the road for either an RFP or initiating a project. What staff liked about it, other than the fact that they felt heard during the exercise, was that they didn’t have to do any pre-work or after-work for these workshops. It usually takes 5-10 minutes for people to be fluent with the method, but it was quite natural. 16 out of 18 workshops were finished on time and wrapped up successfully. Two needed follow-ups, mostly because of additional areas that needed to be addressed. Overall, the Rapid Workflow® process mapping was an effective methodology and a big help for me and IS to understand the Business’ ask, and a big help to business units for documenting and organizing their requirements.
Project Management, communication and coordination
Being the CIO of GGB, I saw the need for me to take on the role of the Project Manager for the IS Strategic Plan. Working with Roy through the whole exercise, I’d say that I like what I’ve seen for how Roy and ThirdWave managed the project and conducted their communication and coordination. The ThirdWave team is very responsive. The team came up with a thorough project timeline, and did a good job following the timeline. All communications were professional and well thought out. Roy does a great job managing and facilitating meetings and workshops. My IS team is very vocal and has a lot of thoughts and feedback, which I appreciate. Roy handles his interactions very well which is not always easy. It all comes from his decades of years of experiences.
Keeping the Project on Schedule
The ThirdWave team, and Roy, did a good job keeping the project on schedule. With the big impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the project finished only 2 weeks later than the original timeline. The quick turnaround time and a lot of after-work-hours and weekend time from Roy and Aymee (Business Analyst), definitely contributed to the on-time delivery of work.
This is one of the best delivered projects I’ve seen and a great relationship I’ve built with Roy and Aymee, working together through this project. I enjoyed working with them. The team is flexible, responsive, and professional.
Roy provided a lot of great input for me for all things related with strategic planning. I was able to leverage ThirdWave’s decades of experiences and make decisions on how to move forward with GGB IS in a great manner. I also appreciate that Roy always provides a well-balanced input and feedback when I discussed GGB IS challenges with him. This helped me form a good vision and strategy leading the IS team and delivering the best service to District customers. I’d definitely recommend this firm and the team to my industry peers and other organizations.
Fang Lu
Chief Technology Director
Golden Gate Bridge, Highway & Transportation District
Las Vegas WPCF: Business/IT Strategic Plan
March 6, 2000
I am writing this letter in reference to the work done for HDR by Third Wave Corporation, and specifically by Roy Hernandez . HDR is the prime contractor to the City of Las Vegas for the design of S80.000.000 in improvements to the City Water Pollution Control Facility(WPCF). Third Wave was retained by HDR to provide assistance with computer systems integration. Their first project for HDR was to develop an Information Technology Strategic Plan for the WPCF. This work involved an assessment of existing conditions, interviews and workshops with staff and the development of a plan to address future information technology needs.
Third Wave carried out this work in a competent and professional manner. The work was finished on time and within budget. The City is pleased to have a plan in place that will allow them to continue their modernization efforts at the WPCF. Third Wave has been retained to continue this work and to provide actual system integration tasks as recommended in the strategic plan.
The individuals we have worked with at Third Wave arc knowledgeable and experienced in computer hardware, software, systems, networks, communication, systems integration, and applications development. Third Wave worked well with the other consultants and team members and helped bring cohesion to the team. Roy Hernandez is a skilled mediator and problem solver.
I would confidently recommend Third Wave, and Roy Hernandez, to any municipality that is considering the development of an Information Technology Strategic Plan.
David Pivclti
Senior Vice President
Project Manager
HOR Engineering, Inc.
Port of San Diego: Business/IT Strategic Planning
ThirdWave’s work for the Port of San Diego has set a bench mark for what we look for in a culsultancy services. Roy and his team bring professionalism, technical expertise, customer service and project management to all they do. Our technology strategic plan was easily adopted by Senior Leadership and our Board of Directors. One VP commented that in all her years of working with service providers, ThirdWave ranks as one of the best.
The methodologies utilized in the process provide solid fact based data to make decisions. The Rapid Workflow methodology approaches technology from a business process perspective and Roy is a master facilitator. Prioritization of projects was accomplished through solid criteria. We gained insight into our business process, the needs of our customers, best practice processes and a roadmap of projects to execute over the next 3 to 5 years.
The project was accomplished on time and on budget and some additional scope was added with ease. Overall it was a pleasure to work with Roy and his team.
Deborah Finley
Director
Business & Information Technology Services
Port of San Diego
Port of San Diego 2: ITSP Implementation
June 6, 2012
ThirdWave Corporation assisted the Port of San Diego in assessing the needs of our Technology Systems and later with the implementation of our Technology Strategic Plan. Throughout the process Roy the President/CEO, proved himself to be very knowledgeable. Any questions or concerns we had were answered thoroughly as we were walked through the implementation process.
From our experience, it is very apparent that the ThirdWave staff as a whole is very focused on anticipating and meeting customer service needs. The entire set-up from start to finish was done smoothly; all the while Port Staff was kept well-informed of every aspect of the progression of our project. Technically, ThirdWave has established themselves as being technologically exemplary, from a business stand-point they have performed well above our expectations.
Karen Porteous
Executive Vice-President
San Diego Unified Port District
State of California DOIT: California IT Council Appointment
December 15, 2000
On behalf of the Administration of Governor Gray Davis, I cordially invite you to participate on the California Information Technology Commission (CITC). The CITC is one of the principal advisory bodies to the Director of the Department of Information Technology (DOIT) on information technology (IT) issues. The Commission advises in areas including, but not limited to, long-term IT trends and strategies, key information technology policy issues, strategic technologies that should be pursued, and practices in both public and private organizations, as well as other technology issues affecting California government.
The CITC was established under the mandate of Senate Bill 1, Chapter 508, Statutes of 1995 and reenacted by Assembly Bill 1686, Chapter 873, Statutes of 1999. This bill is the enabling legislation that establishes the Department of Information Technology as a cabinet-level entity. The membership of the CITC is drawn from IT experts in the private and public sectors, and academic, non-profit and other non-governmental organizations who are all key stakeholders in the efforts and initiatives that the DOIT is pursuing.
Your expertise and long-standing involvement in the California community is well known and acknowledged in the IT and business industry. We are requesting the participation on the CITC of either your chief information officer or chief technology officer. At times we may focus on special areas where it would be appropriate to bring in expertise throughout your organization, along with your primary contact.
We look forward to your participation in the CITC, which plays an important part to bringing information technology to Californians in a manner befitting our entry into the 21st century. We will contact you in the next two weeks to confirm your acceptance of appointment to the commission. Thank you for your consideration of this important role.
Elias S. Cortez
Chief Information Officer/Director
State of California
California Department of Information Technology
Westlake Village: Business/IT Strategic Plan
October 9, 2014
Roy-
Thank you for a great project. I am very happy with the process and outcome and learned a lot along the way. You handled every curveball and challenge we through at you with grace and professionalism. It was a pleasure.
Talk to you soon,
Kerry Kallman, MPPA
Senior Administrative Analyst
City of Westlake Village