ACS State and Local Solutions (ACS-SLS) provides child support payment processing solutions to about a dozen states and handles about 50% of the child support payment volume nationwide. State child support contracts usually have short lead times (60-90 days from contract award to go-live) and require numerous customizations for each state. ACS was having trouble making all the required customizations in the short time period, and was also experiencing high maintenance costs. They needed a product platform that could be customized for each state, but also had a shared central core that would work the same way in each location. ACS decided to build a Java-based solution, and asked NVISIA to help with the project.

NVISIA was deeply involved in the entire project, from the feasibility study to installation and production support in three states (and even as far as interviewing potential ACS employees). The initial architecture was developed to be easily extendable, since each state has different business requirements. The system could not to be tied to any infrastructure product or OS platform, since each state determines the most cost-effective platform for their system. Another goal of ACS was to put most of the configuration information into the database instead of the code, so many state-specific customizations could be made without a new code release. These conditions made the application considerably more complex.

The KidStar development project met all the requirements, and has handled more volume than originally anticipated. After the initial development was completed and the product was delivered, the time and effort required to customize the product for the next state was greatly reduced, even as functionality was increased. NVISIA consultants spent considerable time mentoring ACS staff, many of whom were new to Java and are now supporting the application.

The financial and business benefits to ACS have been substantial, and will continue to grow as KidStar is installed in more states. It is currently running in 3 states, with 5 more states currently waiting. In all ways this was a business-critical application for ACS – the timeframe was very short, the quality had to be high (ACS is fined if the state finds any errors in the data sent to the state each night, or if the data is late), and the product needed be able to be expanded and modified for years to come.

Steve Walden of ACS said, "Of the tens of millions I have spent on outsourced development over the years, this is one of the only firms I feel has delivered value for me."