By Tacy Summersett

Hyper Care is the stabilization period after Go-live which focuses on customer support, data integrity, and system availability. The Hyper Care team is a group of MIDAS individuals located in Washington, D.C. who will provide technical support to national, state, and county office employees. In order to resolve issues, the Hyper Care team will leverage MIDAS program knowledge and experience from the Business Process Functional team, Technical, and Security teams. The intersection of various teams supporting Hyper Care aims to ensure that all questions and issues are resolved in a timely and effective manner.

Hyper Care is not a substitute for training; rather Hyper Care will aid users in technical issue resolution and questions regarding how to use the system. Post training, if an end-user has a question regarding the system they would leverage the processes, such as using the context sensitive help within the system to aid in answering on-the-spot questions. Additional support can be found in the web-based training courses. These courses include step-by-step system process simulations that can be reviewed as needed.

If an end user cannot find the answer after using the above processes, the end user can log a ticket using two separate methods. First, the end user can log a ticket using self service by:

(1)   Clicking on the TSD icon in the systems icon tray.

(2)   Selecting Remedy Self Service from the Customer Links drop down in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This will take the end user to the eAuth page to log on to self service using e-Auth credentials.

(3)   On the Service Request Management home page double click on the service for software issues. Note: There may be additional options to select from after selecting that service.

(4)   Completing the Self Service Intake questionnaire. Enter all required information and then click on the Submit button.

The second way to log at ticket is to call the FSA Help Desk at 1-800-457-3642.

For the MIDAS program as a whole, it is important to log tickets and use the hyper care resources to resolve any issues. Using the hyper care processes in place, the team will be able to gauge what is working in the field. The Hyper Care team is working hard to ensure that the solution will enable all end-users to utilize MIDAS efficiently.

By Elizabeth Miller

Elizabeth Miller
MIDAS Training Team Lead
Farm Service Agency

The MIDAS training team is hard at work preparing for the next round of training. As the system progresses so does the team’s ability to create and update training materials. The training team is working closely with the developers, testers, the functional team, and super users to develop training materials for farm records with GIS, business partner and product master.

Also during this time, the training team conducted three training sessions during the week of Jan. 21 for Washington, D.C., staff, including members of DAFP, DAFO, EPAS, OBF, and Farm Loan Programs. The training was conducted by the DAFP Business Process Owners and MIDAS team members through a collaborative effort. During the week of Feb. 11 a similar training was conducted for staff in Kansas City, MO. Both trainings were a huge success.

By Mary Porter

Mary Porter
MIDAS Business Process Owner
Farm Service Agency

Happy 2013 from Washington, D.C. I hope everyone had a joyous holiday. I was able to spend the holiday in my home state of Georgia. Talk about changing weather. It was like going from winter to summer, overnight.

I’ve been with MIDAS since June, 2010. Before joining the team, I was the CED in Terrell County, Dawson, Ga.  I have 33 years of service with FSA and was excited to become a part of ‘modernizing’ and ‘innovating’ the way we do business. When I began with FSA (ASCS back in 1979), we used addressograph machines, stencils, carbon paper, OCR fonts, and paper marketing cards. To be where we are today is quite an accomplishment. To get to where MIDAS will take us will be phenomenal.

I am the business process owner (BPO) of agreement modification. This process will be used when changes are requested to an agreement. For Marketing Assistance Loans (MAL), the MAL must have been disbursed before a change request can be initiated. It will truly simplify the way we process changes like marketing authorizations, succession-in-interest and transfers.

At the Super User Boot Camp in October, the participants were excited about the new processes. They asked a lot of questions and were engaged throughout the sessions. These users, along with the state trainers, will familiarize each user with these new processes and I’m sure everyone will be excited and energized as well. It’s a change from the way we do business today, but change is good; remember the carbon paper. Look for the updated agreement modification process later this year.

By Matt Kleski

Matt Kleski
Ohio State Office Specialist, MIDAS Change Agent, MIDAS Super User
Farm Service Agency

The MIDAS Change Workshop was presented in Ohio via LiveMeeting and Conference call for employees located in the county offices, and by live presentation to the state office staff. The workshop was presented twice in a statewide format on Jan. 8 and Jan. 10, 2013. All employees who expect to complete the end-user training were encouraged to participate in the workshop.

In Ohio, employees were encouraged to complete the Foundational Learning sessions through USDA Connect, but in many cases the Change Workshop provided the first avenue to see some of the functionality of MIDAS and ask direct questions about the system. Throughout the two sessions approximately 240 employees across Ohio participated in the workshop.

One of the obstacles present in any new system, not just MIDAS, is giving up a familiar system for a new system. In addressing this issue, the workshop provided a run-down of the common terms that will be used in the MIDAS environment. This was an important component of the workshop in order to prepare employees with the knowledge of terms they will be introduced to in further detail at their end-user training. With this approach, the workshop ensured that employees wouldn’t be starting from scratch learning the terminology and functionality of the system all at the same time.

The workshop also highlighted an introduction and sample screens of business partner, product master and workflow functions. An introduction to business roles and security roles, along with the distinguishing characteristics of the two was also included in the sessions.

In evaluating comments that came from the sessions, employees enjoyed being able to see what the system may look like and how multiple daily functions will be compacted into one operating system. This was the first time that many employees saw how office functions like viewing a business partner, or completing a farm reconstitution would potentially flow in MIDAS. While “change” can mean many things to many people, in the case of MIDAS it is moving the agency forward. This workshop began to bridge the gap between the unknown and unfamiliar with what will one day be the familiar and routine daily operations.