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| The landing page for the new ebtEDGE |
In June, the State of California changed the vendor for Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) services to Fidelity Information Services (FIS). We had one of the most successful transitions of all the counties. I have heard horror stories from other counties about those first days of transition, so I want to say how thankful I am for having had such a positive and helpful group of people in our county that pitched in wherever and whenever necessary to make it go smoothly. Here are some of the people we should all be grateful for, and why!
During this transition, EBT card printer and PIN devices had to be tested and swapped out. Current active users of the prior system (EPPIC) were transitioned over and PIN users had to be hand entered. The new vendor utilized a new interface for users, security, ordering and problem ticket management. This required a large technical effort on the part of our systems group. The hours of troubleshooting and follow up and teleconference participation that was done by Peter Erskine was invaluable. His work with our downtown ICT partners even resulted in a document that the State shared with other counties so that their equipment could show connectivity. When other counties only tested one printer or PIN device, Peter (with the help of Joe Pendleton, Kym Hoffman and Luke Ramos) tested all the machines in all the locations.
The AOP supervisors were also very helpful in providing information and being flexible with the quirks of the new system. Brenda Dominguez, Martha Bright, Anna Ruiz, Claudia Velazquez, Maria Paz-Salazar, Debbie Lautieri, Martha Pulido, Christina Ranis, Patricia Gomez and Julian Valdez were all instrumental with their assurances of “not to worry” and “we can do this”. Even when I wasn’t so sure, they reassured me with their confidence and smiles.
The new system was not available to counties to “test drive” and some functions could only be accessed when the system went live at midnight of the Monday when we needed to utilize the system. This required our dynamic duo of Barry McCampbell and Carolyn Mausley to be up very early and hand enter PIN user profiles (and truly determining how good the documentation actually was). Carolyn had many calls and emails to the State to overcome the vendor’s technical hurdles, but when we opened for business, all offices had people who were able to help clients and PIN cards if necessary.
Gloria Gonzalez who held my hand through this and had all the historical EBT knowledge, knew everyone’s function so well that she was able to guide me in making better documentation and instructions. The transition would not have gone as well without her feedback and many hours on the phone.
Kudos and much thank to all of these great folks!