TERMS OF SERVICE FOR
AFRS Agency Interface Testing (Updated 11/20/2017):
This Service is subject to and governed by the Customer's separate signed Master Services Agreement (MSA) or Customer Service Agreement (CSA) as applicable, with Consolidated Technology Services (CTS), calling itself Washington Technology Solutions or "WaTech" for short. The reference to WaTech means the same as Consolidated Technology Services. This Agreement is entered into between you and CTS for the provision of AFRS Agency Interface Testing. For the purposes of this agreement "You" and "Customer" are used interchangeably and mean the entity to which CTS is providing service. This TOS must be agreed upon before WaTech begins to provide this Service to You.
A. Service Description
The Agency Financial Reporting System (AFRS) is Washington State's central hub for accounting information. The AFRS mainframe application is owned by Office of Financial Management (OFM) and the agencies that use the application for consolidating their financial transactions at a state level. Watech is the hosting and service provider to OFM and the other agencies.
As an enterprise system that is used by all state agencies, AFRS has many interfaces with individual agency systems. From time to time, the AFRS system undergoes changes that require agencies to conduct testing to ensure interfaces and transaction processing is still accurate. Conversely, agency systems are often undergoing changes or replacement that require End-To-End testing with AFRS to ensure system interoperability.
This Terms of Service (TOS) document describes the process and cost associated with testing agency-initiated changes; referred to as AFRS Agency Interface Testing.
When AFRS Agency Interface Testing is performed, the following groups work together: the requesting agency, the Statewide Accounting unit within the Office of Financial Management, and the WaTech AFRS support team.
1. Engagement: Prior to any AFRS agency interface testing occurring, the requestor should submit a service request for Agency AFRS interface testing support to the WaTech Support Center. Email support@watech.wa.gov with the request at least one month in advance of any testing needed. Upon receipt of such a request, AFRS technical staff will contact the requestor to gain a high level of understanding around what is required and to explain some of the processes around AFRS interface testing. This initial contact usually occurs within a week of the initial request being made and typically involves an email and phone call of around 30 minutes.
2. Initiation: Once the initial consult with the requesting agency has occurred, and a brief set of requirements created; WaTech will contact Statewide Accounting (AFRS business owner) to discuss the approval, scheduling and resourcing of the request. If approval is given, WaTech will contact the requestor to discuss the details around the planned testing event. Note: At a minimum, WaTech will need to know: the type of testing (see Appendix A), dates for the tests to be executed, number of batch test runs required, and agency contact personnel. Note: Testing windows will generally be allocated on a first come, first serve basis and will most often be dedicated to support a single agency at a time. In situations where multiple agencies are testing concurrently, all parties (agencies, WaTech, OFM) must approve and agree that outputs from the tests will be made available including all agencies data. Reports and outputs will not be split by agency.
3. Schedule Changes: Successful AFRS agency interface testing requires adherence to an agreed-upon schedule. A processing window on the mainframe is reserved for the requestor for a set time period.
Within that window, a selection of days will be agreed where AFRS batch runs will be executed. For example: Run AFRS Monday, Wednesday, Thursday of the week beginning Nov 12.
Once the testing window is determined the actual run-times must also be set. AFRS batch runs will commence at 9:00AM on each morning of the agreed days in the testing window. If interface files are not received by that time the execution for that day will be cancelled and a cost of 4 hours will be incurred to cover the contract resourcing that has been brought in to support the run. To avoid situations of being charged for days when no data is to be processed it is incumbent on the requestor to notify the AFRS support group, by no later than noon of the previous business day, that the subsequent days testing is to be cancelled.
Additional runs beyond the approved window, will be treated as a separate work request and go through the same approval process. Extensions are not easily granted due to competing projects and support work.
4. Testing Support: During the AFRS interface testing event, WaTech will provide a contact person who will be responsible for executing the AFRS test jobs. This person will execute the AFRS batch runs (or pre-edit checks) at the agreed upon days / times and will provide the agreed-upon outputs once the batch runs have completed. This resource may be changed during the testing event depending on workload and availability with an equally skilled technician (when available). While these technicians have some knowledge of the AFRS associated business rules, they are primarily responsible for ensuring AFRS interface testing jobs complete successfully. Error resolution and un-expected result analysis will be limited. Agencies will be responsible for their own analysis and correction processes.
5. Highly Recommended: There are many aspects of an AFRS Agency Interface testing event that can go wrong, due to data preparation and processes that might been overlooked or not fully understood. WaTech highly recommends spending as much time as possible understanding the AFRS test environment with the assigned WaTech contact person prior to test commencement. This is critical to ensure that the approved testing window is used optimally and delays are not caused to the agency's project. Most importantly, customers should have resources available during testing to make adjustments to agency systems in situations where tests are failing or transactions are being rejected by AFRS.
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For example: WaTech will run AFRS at 9:00am every Tuesday and
Thursday picking up input files from SFT folder xyz for 2 weeks
commencing February 2nd.
B. Availability/Accessibility
This section is not applicable.
C. Charges/Cost of Service
1. Cost of Service
The Associated Cost for this service consists of two components: Professional Services, which is composed of personnel costs and Materials, which is comprised of machine time costs.
A. Professional Service Cost
Depending on the level of testing service requested (See Appendix A) the Professional Services costs will be calculated as the number of hours spent supporting the testing event multiplied by the hourly rate.
The billing rate of the WaTech AFRS agency interface testing support person is $150 per hour. This rate reflects initial estimates and will be re-evaluated after Q1 of the 2018/19 Biennium due to incomplete budget to determine hourly cost.
B. Materials
(Machine) costs vary widely depending on how many transactions are being processed and how much of the AFRS batch process is executed. The machine costs incurred by the AFRS support team in running the testing event will be collected on a job-by-job basis and charged back to the requesting agency as part of this service.
Note: Provision of the online (CICS) region for customer usage is not charged.
2. WaTech Estimate
Prior to starting any work, WaTech will provide a time and materials estimate with an estimated number of required hours WaTech will charge to set-up and support this service. The estimate is intended to provide information for planning only and is not binding. Your acceptance of the estimate is deemed acceptance of this Terms of Service in the event You did not accept the TOS online prior to the commence of work.
3. Invoice and Agency Payment
The invoice will reflect both Professional Services and Materials.
Within thirty days of the end of the calendar month that work was performed, WaTech will provide an invoice for payment for the amount due in the previous month. WaTech will track its time in 15 minute increments reflected on the invoice. Only the actual hours worked will be invoiced.
The invoice will also include the actual machine time associated with this service on a separate line item. The invoice will have instructions on where to direct payment. Payment is due within 30 days of WaTech sending the invoice to You.
D. Responsibilities
1. General WaTech Responsibilities:
- The following are provided by WaTech to support the delivery of AFRS Agency Testing Support Services:
- Organize initial meeting with requesting agency to gain high level understanding of testing needs
- Explain the options available around testing - See Appendix A
- Provide a cost estimate for testing support
- Take the request to Statewide Accounting for approval and scheduling
- Assign appropriate personnel and machine resources to the testing event
- Provide opportunity to discuss recommended best practices (post approval meeting)
- Publish the testing schedule (agreed days and times)
- Prepare AFRS test environment
- Execute event tests and correct any AFRS system errors - (data error correction will be the responsibility of the requestor)
- Communicate completion status of AFRS test executions
- Coordinate with HRMS staff (when necessary)
- Provide backup replacement technical personnel in instances where the WaTech primary contact is not available (or negotiate a mutually acceptable outcome)
- Provide issue resolution support post execution
- Provide billing to the requesting agency
2. Requesting Agency Responsibilities:
- Submit ESP ticket to request AFRS testing support at support@watech.wa.gov
- Provide technical contacts for communication prior and during the testing events (including those people who should receive test results)
- Provide business contacts for communication prior and during the testing events (including those people who should receive test results)
- Review testing options (Appendix A)
- Determine the number of test runs you will need for your chosen option and setup a weekly schedule.
- One run per day (i.e. 8 AM run time)
- Days per week (i.e. 2 days; Mondays and Wednesdays)
- Total duration (i.e. 4 weeks)
- Have facilities in place to connect to WaTech FTP servers to deliver input data
- Have ability to access and analyze outputs, including AFRS reports
- Have a clear understanding and commitment to the testing windows
- Be responsible for delays as a result of testing needs requiring additional time
- Be actively engaged in data error analysis and correction. For example - knowledge of how to use the online AFRS system to correct errors is highly recommended. (AFRS business can assist). WaTech staff will not alter agency data or interfere with processes such as releasing batches
- Provide billing details once work has been approved by OFM. (there is no charge for initial consultancy)
- Approval and payment for WaTech services
- For projects going to OFM as a decision package, include the cost of testing
E. Special Terms
1. PERFORMANCE MEASURES:
- Number of AFRS runs completed per schedule
Appendix A - AFRS Testing Options