October 2008
Alliance Announces Promotions of Two Key
Staff Members
We are pleased to announce the promotions of two
key Alliance staff, Vianna Moody and Craig Keating.
Craig Keating is our new Engineering Director. Mr.
Keating's' short term objectives are to continue to
embrace and incorporate agile methodologies like
Test Driven Development and continuous integration.
This will improve our product quality and result in
enhancing AWARE and delighting our customers.
Vianna Moody has been promoted to Customer
Support Unit Manager. In this role Ms. Moody will be
streamlining our support processes and implementing
regular quality assurance reviews with AWARE
customers. She also has plans to implement a new
customer support system which will allow customers
to see their pending items.
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October 2008
Alliance is GROWING by leaps and bounds....
Alliance Enterprises, Inc., developers of the
AWARE VR Case Management System is proud
to announce the appointment of 6 new staff members
to our growing team.
In the Alliance Headquarters office Bobby
Johnson, John Quach, and Terry Hughes are the new
members of the Development Team. Also Ali
Mahak and Pat Cecil have joined the Quality
Engineering Team. Mr. Mahak is the new Quality
Engineering Manager and Mr. Cecil will be focusing
on introducing automated testing to our quality
assurance. And last but not least, Brain Miller
joins the Administrative Services Team as a
Financial Analysis.
This is a very exciting time for Alliance. The
company has had significant growth since it first
launched AWARE in 1993 with the
Washington State DVR and with the addition of the
new staff members will help continue that growth.
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October 2008
National Rehabilitation Association Training
Conference AWARE
Exhibitor Showcase
Alliance Enterprises, Inc. is participating in
this year's
National Rehabilitation Association Training
Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, October
23-26, 2008. As this year's sponsor for the
Awards Banquet, Lisa Gifford will be representing
Alliance with a short presentation at the banquet.
Alliance is also proud to be participating in the
conference exhibitors showcase. The Alliance
exhibit will include opportunities to view
demonstrations of exciting new AWARE v5
enhancements.
Along with Ms. Gifford, Cecile Bentley, and Chris
M. Pieper from Alliance are making the trip to St.
Louis to participate in the conference and catch-up
with new and old friends of the VR community.
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October 2008
Congratulations to Virginia DRS and DBVI on
their statewide implementation of AWARE!!
http://www.vadrs.org/ and
http://www.vdbvi.org/
The Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS)
and the Department for Blind and Vision Impaired
(DBVI) joined together in 2002 to replace the agency
systems with an Integrated Case Management (ICM)
system. With over 800 users this would be the
largest implementation of the AWARE
system to date.
The project involved the installation,
adaptation, and customization of the AWARE
Case Management System for four organizations within
the Commonwealth of Virginia: the Division of
Rehabilitation Services (DRS), the Division for the
Blind and Visually Impaired (DBVI), the Woodrow
Wilson Rehabilitation Center (WWRC), and the
Virginia Rehabilitation Center for the Blind and
Visually Impaired (VRCBVI).
Each of these organizations had unique business
processes and rules but shared a common fiscal
interface. For example, because they are separate
designated state units (DSUs), each division (DRS
and DBVI) generate their own federal reports. In
addition, each organization needed to have their own
rules and lookup lists (adaptation).
This is a great accomplishment, and all who
worked toward this goal should be proud!
Congratulations Virginia DRS and DBVI!
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September 2008
Six VR Agencies Successfully Transitioned
From AWARE v4 to v5!
We would like to congratulate Alaska DVR,
Maryland DRS, New Mexico DVR, Oregon DRS, and Idaho DVR for
their successful transition to AWARE
v5. This is a huge accomplishment for these agencies.
The transition involved team work and perseverance from
everyone involved.
The first release of AWARE v5 débuted in
July 2006. The technologies available to web-based
applications have improved dramatically in both performance
and capability. To take advantage of these technologies and
keep AWARE current,
Alliance rewrote he system from the ground up for
AWARE v5.
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August 2008
Alliance Enterprises, Inc. to host
AWARE Meet and Greet at
the 2008 RSA Fiscal and Data Conference
|
Download AWARE
Meet
and Greet Invitation
(Adobe PDF required) |
Join in on a great opportunity to
socialize and network with friends and colleagues
while expanding your ToolKit for improving VR
performance at the all conference
AWARE Meet and Greet
Reception.
AWARE Meet and Greet
hosted by Alliance Enterprises, Inc.
Monday, August 18,
2008 ~ 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Regency C&D (Ballroom Level)
Hyatt Regency Crystal Hotel, Arlington, Virginia
Come visit one of our demo stations and take a
tour of some of the many new features in the
AWARE v5 Case Management
System, socialize, participate in raffles, and
partake in a variety of hors d' oeuvres and
beverages.
See you there!!
This event is open to all RSA Fiscal and Data
Conference participants.
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August 2008
Special Presentation scheduled with Eric Damery of
Freedom Scientific
|
It is our special pleasure to welcome Eric Damery of
Freedom Scientific as our guest for the August
26th Accessibility Special Interest Group. Eric’s
official title is Vice President of Software Product
Management for the Blind/Low Vision Group, but we
know him as the Product Manager for JAWS! Eric
will join us from St. Petersburg, Florida, to talk
about the cool features of JAWS 10 (to be released
toward the end of August), the major innovations of
v8 and v9 (like document server and HTML
copy/paste), and his vision for the future of JAWS.
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March 2008
Florida DBS receives a 2008 Davis Productivity Award
 |
Florida Division of
Blind Services Director, Steve Ritacco announced
that they were the recipients of the 2008
Davis Productivity Award for the 'Client Rehab
Information System Team' on the
AWARE project.
Since 1989, the Davis Productivity Award program
has publicly recognized and rewarded state employees
and work units whose work significantly and
measurably increases productivity and promotes
innovation to improve the delivery of state services
and save money for Florida taxpayers and businesses.
This is the 2nd award they have won for their
AWARE implementation. The
first was the
Governor's Sterling Award.
Congratulations to Florida DBS and their success
with AWARE v5!!!
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March 2008
Alaska DVR Moves to Production with
AWARE v5
On Tuesday March 18, 2008
Alaska Department of
Vocational Rehabilitation successfully lead the
way as Alliance's first UMS customer to
transition to
AWARE v5.
Alaska initially implemented
AWARE v4 in
2004, replacing their old client-server case
management system.
Their v5 transition strategy
included a rolling transition with each of its 8 regions
receiving a full day of training broken into 2 parts over 2
days. Jane McIntosh, Alaska Department of Labor and
Workforce Development Program Coordinator commented
that their training went very well and that their
Users picked up AWARE v5
quickly and their feedback was positive.
This is a
big milestone for Alaska DVR as well as for
Alliance. We congratulate Alaska on their success and look
forward to working with them many years to come!
View Alaska DVR Customer Profile >
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February 2008
Kevin Spurgin achieves Certified ScrumMaster
We would like to congratulate Kevin Spurgin,
Alliance Deputy Chief Technology Officer, for
receiving his
Certified ScrumMaster Certification.
Kevin has taken on the role as an Alliance ScrumMaster and has helped lead the implementation of the
SCRUM framework to our approach to software
development. |
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January 2008
Alliance Receives Microsoft Gold Partner
Certification
 |
Alliance is excited to announce they
have achieved the Microsoft Gold Partner
Certification.
Gold Certified Partners
represent the highest
level of competence and expertise with Microsoft
technologies, and maintain a close working
relationship with Microsoft. |
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