Challenge

The General Services Administration (GSA) managed an outdated system throughout the federal government, consisting of over 16,000 user-generated ad hoc reports on a specific legacy platform. They aimed to transition these reports to a new platform to offer enhanced features and decrease overall expenses. Retaining all legacy reports on the existing platform proved to be excessively costly, with estimates reaching several million dollars due to licensing fees. However, concerns arose regarding the expenses associated with transferring the legacy reports to the new platform.

Solution

To address the cost concerns associated with migrating legacy reports, REI devised a solution by creating two intelligent bots. These bots efficiently generated 16,000 reports using a web interface tailored for the new reporting platform. They extracted metadata information from the legacy reports in JSON format and then converted it into the preferred structure for the new system. Furthermore, REI employed an automated testing approach to ensure data accuracy and seamless integration with the reports interface.

Impact

The implementation of intelligent bots led to a significant reduction in licensing costs for GSA, ultimately saving millions of dollars. Besides the financial benefits, this solution also decreased the time required for report validation. REI’s automation approach played a crucial role in guaranteeing a smooth system migration for end-users, further demonstrating the effectiveness of this innovative solution.