IRS – Taxpayer Advocacy Service (TAS)

RePoint Technologies was engaged by the Taxpayer Advocacy Service (TAS) of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to support their SharePoint initiatives.RePoint was initially engaged by TAS to create the TASIS Welcome screen application on SharePoint. This application is a Portal and Dashboard for all TAS employees. RePoint Technologies utilized and Agile Scrum methodology to gather requirements, design, and implement through the use of time boxed Sprints. RePoint was able to produce an application that integrates to other backend case management systems through the use of web services to create a Dashboard that meets the unique goals of the TAS group.

Within a couple months the TAS group saw the unique expertise of the RePoint staff and quickly engaged in more work. RePoint now helps TAS on all aspects of SharePoint, not just the initial TASIS Welcome screen. RePoint provides the expertise TAS needs in order to create custom/reusable workflows, customize InfoPath, provide Information Architecture to their SharePoint sites, manage their permissions per best practices, and much more.

Hearing about the success in the TAS group, other IRS components have leveraged Repoints technical capabilities. RePoint assists the global IRS SharePoint ecosystem on best practices and implementations for a multi-tenant SharePoint environment. RePoint is consistently requested within IRS to help on all aspects of their SharePoint implementation even though RePoint is specifically under contract to work with a single business unit to increase their SharePoint site collections.

Results

RePoint built TAS a Portal and Dashboard for all TAS employees that uses state of the art methodologies to give users a unique experience in SharePoint. RePoint implemented communication protocols, custom WebParts, link management through bookmarking, custom workflows, forms and more. TASIS is completely customizable by the end user. The end user can determine which “Widgets” (pre-defined custom WebParts) to add to their home screen and they can even utilize a custom favorite mechanism to organize the websites they use the most. RePoint increased the communication methodology for TASIS from an email based system to a completely online based system within the matter of months. Our unique Agile methodologies were consistently praised by TAS leadership and we were able to implement their requirements exactly on SharePoint.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT	Performed Project Management tasks as a cohesive team with IRS/TAS internal Project Managers. Created custom Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Form and Workflow for TAS to enter and track all technology projects in singular place. Provided oversight of the Task Order including high-level program management support. Ensured timely completion of project activities and deliverables within the general scope of the task order on time, while monitoring and tracking the availability of the funds for authorized work.
SITE CUSTOMIZATION	Created custom design from ground up, for the TASIS application, utilizing custom Master Pages, Page Layouts, HTML5, CSS3. Turned Adobe graphic designs into pixel perfect implementations on the SharePoint platform for the TASIS application. Utilized advanced JavaScript and CSS techniques including animation, masonry layouts and more to create an experience to engage TAS employees. Created custom look and feel for the TAS collaboration sites without modifying the Master Pages or Page Layouts. Only CSS and JavaScript were used to create a unique look and feel that meets the branding requirements and makes SharePoint “no look like SharePoint”.
SHAREPOINT DEVELOPMENT	Successfully developed over 10 custom WebParts for the Intranet Portal to meet the vision of the Communications and Liason group for TAS. Created a mechanism to allow end-users to add pre-defined WebParts to the screen for a personalized experience for each user. Developed a bookmarking feature to allow users to find and manage all the navigation/links directly within SharePoint. Developed over 10 different Forms and Workflow solutions to streamline business processes. Created rules, procedures and policies for SharePoint development within TAS to ensure consistency throughout applications. First business organization within IRS to deploy custom code to the IRS SharePoint Farm. Helped IRS headquarter level SharePoint team develop processes and rules for custom code applications to ensure security and performance.
Workflows and Forms	Created reusable branding and form templates for every business process within TAS for a consistent look and feel across all the business processes. Utilized SharePoint Designer for advanced Workflows scenarios. Created methodologies for consistent Workflow development (such as global setting lists, step lists and more) which led to around a 50% decrease in time to develop Workflows. Implemented Governance process and review checkpoints for every implementation to ensure consistency and best-practices for each project.