CIS 321 Case Study ‘Employee Benefits System (EBS)’ EBS Case Introduction In this section you will learn the background information that will prepare you to understand and complete each of the milestones of this case study. This information includes a history of the business, a description of the business’s current facilities, and the descriptions of the problems that triggered the project. General Company Information PRIVATEThe Conover Insurance Company, Inc. serves nearly 10 million customers nationwide, offering a variety of products and financial services, such as pension funds, annuities, automobile insurance, homeowner insurance, and life insurance products. More than 800 companies entrust Conover Insurance Company to manage their life insurance and other financial funds. Conover Insurance Company employs more than 4,100 people and reported 2002 revenue of more than $40 million. The Human Resources Department has become top priority in improvements for the coming year. The project’s objective was to significantly decrease processing time and increase the functionality in our current employee information benefits and services. In order to meet the new technology improvement addressing our current Human Resource processing, other departments, systems and/or business will be impacted, from with our company and outside of our company. Note: See the organization charts at the end of this document for more details. Case Background Information Systems (IS) headquartered in Orlando, Florida, employs approximately 4,100 employees throughout the United States. IS provides leading edge technologies, distributed computing, mainframe, micro, communication, and consulting services to its parent company Corporation, headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, as well as to external customers including the U.S. government. In addition, IS is responsible for the development and support of all the internal systems that support their day-to-day business processes and operations. IS currently operates in five sites across the nation and they are as follows: Sunnyvale CA Orlando FL Denver CO Marietta GA Valley Forge PA Sunnyvale, CA - 725 employees Denver, CO - 770 employees Valley Forge, PA - 1,056 employees Marietta, GA - 171 employees Orlando, FL - 1,475 employees Each site is responsible for servicing and supporting the customers in its region as well as its internal employees. IS has experienced a 15 percent increase in employees over the past two years, and long-range projections show that trend continuing for the next three years. Organization Structure The Conover Insurance Company contains the following departments on the organization chart below. Each department is structured based on the five site discussed in the Case Background section. Conover Insurance Company (CIC) CIC Life Insurance Human Resources Sales & Marketing Auto & Home Insurance Information Systems Payroll Health Care Services Corporate Management New Product Researc.

1. CIS 321 Case Study ‘Employee Benefits System (EBS)’
EBS Case Introduction
In this section you will learn the background information that
will prepare you to understand and complete each of the
milestones of this case study. This information includes a
history of the business, a description of the business’s current
facilities, and the descriptions of the problems that triggered the
project.
General Company Information
PRIVATEThe Conover Insurance Company, Inc. serves nearly
10 million customers nationwide, offering a variety of products
and financial services, such as pension funds, annuities,
automobile insurance, homeowner insurance, and life insurance
products. More than 800 companies entrust Conover Insurance
Company to manage their life insurance and other financial
funds. Conover Insurance Company employs more than 4,100
people and reported 2002 revenue of more than $40 million.
The Human Resources Department has become top priority in
improvements for the coming year. The project’s objective was
to significantly decrease processing time and increase the
functionality in our current employee information benefits and
services. In order to meet the new technology improvement
addressing our current Human Resource processing, other
departments, systems and/or business will be impacted, from
with our company and outside of our company.
Note: See the organization charts at the end of this document
for more details.
Case Background

2. Information Systems (IS) headquartered in Orlando, Florida,
employs approximately 4,100 employees throughout the United
States. IS provides leading edge technologies, distributed
computing, mainframe, micro, communication, and consulting
services to its parent company Corporation, headquartered in
Bethesda, Maryland, as well as to external customers including
the U.S. government. In addition, IS is responsible for the
development and support of all the internal systems that support
their day-to-day business processes and operations.
IS currently operates in five sites across the nation and they are
as follows:
Sunnyvale
CA
Orlando
FL
Denver
CO
Marietta
GA
Valley Forge
PA
Sunnyvale, CA -
725 employees
Denver, CO -
770 employees
Valley Forge, PA -
1,056 employees
Marietta, GA -
171 employees
Orlando, FL -
1,475 employees

3. Each site is responsible for servicing and supporting the
customers in its region as well as its internal employees. IS has
experienced a 15 percent increase in employees over the past
two years, and long-range projections show that trend
continuing for the next three years.
Organization Structure
The Conover Insurance Company contains the following
departments on the organization chart below. Each department
is structured based on the five site discussed in the Case
Background section.
Conover Insurance Company (CIC)
CIC
Life Insurance
Human Resources
Sales & Marketing
Auto & Home
Insurance
Information
Systems
Payroll
Health Care
Services
Corporate
Management
New Product
Research &
Development
Information Systems
Joe Turner

4. President
Jane Crawley
Vice President
Sunnyvale
Operations
Deborah Sellars
Vice President
Orlando
Operations
Bill Henry
Vice President
Marietta
Operations
John Jones
Vice President
Denver
Operations
Robert Smith
Vice President
Valley Forge
Operations
Jack Mills
Vice President
Human
Resources
Peter Crane
Vice President
Business
Operations
Lori Simms
Vice President
Customer
Relations
Frank Biaz
Vice President
New Business

5. Development
Sharon Jennings
Administrative
Assistant
Human Resources
Jack Mills
Vice President
Paul Jenson
Director
Sunnyvale
Human
Resources
Gloria Peters
Director
Orlando
Human
Resources
Eva Jones
Director
Marietta
Human
Resources
Danny Smith
Director
Denver
Human
Resources
John Cole
Director
Valley Forge
Human
Resources
Jennifer Fiskus

6. Manager
Compensation
Don Harris
Manager
Benefits
Dotty Jones
Manager
Employee
Relations
June Lang
Manager
Staffing
Dorothy Miller
Administrative
Assistant
The Problem
Due to the tremendous growth the company has experienced in
recent years, it has recognized that to ensure the continued
success of servicing internal as well as external customers, it
needed to develop a strategic plan and vision for the use and
modernization of its computing resources. The challenges of
creating centralized systems across all five IS sites to support
business practices that are common if not identical across the
sites further emphasize the need.
In January 2003 a strategic plan to modernize the company’s
resources was presented to executive management. This
document included a plan to reengineer the current systems to
use state-of-the-art technology and provide a showcase of
systems that eventually could be delivered across the whole
corporation.
The plan consisted of reengineering all systems related to
Human Resources, which included Employee Information, Time
and Attendance, and Payroll. The first phase is the development

7. of the Employee Benefits System (EBS), a system that will
house the repository containing the employee master data,
which is the foundation for providing a common set of
automated, integrated, platform-independent system solutions
for Human Resources. Several business processes/work flows,
procedures and forms need to be analyzed along with addressing
new requirements.
The new employee benefits system should provide the capability
for each employee to maintain his or her own information
regarding address and telephone number changes, beneficiary
changes, United Way deductions, and Savings Bond deductions.
Current practices now have each of these changes being
processed by an extensive manual effort in which Human
Resource administrators fill out forms and input the data. This
manual effort often results in a time lag of several days between
the time the employee submits the forms and the online update.
This delay caused several problems: employees were unable to
quickly locate other employees, company mailings were being
sent to the wrong addresses, payroll checks were unable to be
delivered, paper-based company telephone books were out of
date almost as soon as they were printed, and United Way and
Savings Bonds contributions were less than ideal.
By providing the capability for an employee to update data
themselves in real time, the problems mentioned above can be
reduced, if not eliminated.
The Objective
The new Employee Benefits System (EBS) should provide a
single central repository of employee information. The Staffing
Department provides new employee profile information and
employee status changes. The Staffing Department needs
staffing reports on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. The
employees provide employee profile changes on selected
information, as well as United Way and Savings Bonds

8. contribution activity. Although both are employee deductions,
the Savings Bond option is part of the employee’s
retirement/investment plan information. We would like to offer
other types of contributions in the future, such as Hands on
Atlanta, Aid Foundation, the Cancer Research Society.
The EBS system should generate on request Employee
Participation Reports for management, and Savings Bonds and
United Way Contribution reports for the Employee Relations
Department. The system must get the employee’s current salary
from the Payroll database in order to process contribution
activity only, not the entire payroll processing. Therefore, the
employee contribution activity records (and/or any other
deductions) are sent to the Payroll System. In addition, some
basic employee history information on job performance, ratings,
and departmental information will be collected for this new EBS
system. Finally, an employee telephone listing can be generated
for any employee who requests it. Some of the basic
information on this report will consist of Department, Job
Description, Site, Room, Building and Company Mail Stop data
(see screen exhibit).
The new EBS systems must be able to handle additional benefits
we would like to offer our employees. As part of the retirement
plan, employees can now sign up for the investment plan (401K)
and Company Stock Purchase Options and Saving Bond
deductions. In addition, the new EBS system will offer basic
life insurance, and short-term disability. Life insurance will be
offered based on the one times the employee’s annual salary, if
the employee is new, and two times the employee’s annual
salary, if the employee has five years of service or more. For
example, an employee with 7 years of service, earning $25,000
annually can elect to buy $50,000 worth of life insurance. For
short-term disability, we need medical information/confirmation
on pre-existing health issues before we can determine the short-
term disability approval or amount. Long-term disability is not
offered at this time.

9. We would also like new EBS system to know whether the
employee has elected medical coverage (health and dental),
although the processing and maintenance of medical and dental
information is outside of this new EBS system. The medical
coverage information will be sent to the Employee Health Care
(EHC) System. If the employees do not elect coverage with our
company benefit package, they must have proof of basic
medical coverage some where. In addition to medical coverage
selection information, the new EBS system will be collecting
basic spouse and dependent information to be sent to the EHC
system.
All employee benefit enrollments are the first of each year. If
there is a change in marital or dependent status during the year,
the employee can update their benefit information with proof of
the status change, accordingly. If a new employee wants to
purchase automobile, home and/or renters insurance with our
company, we want the new EBS to submit a notice to the Auto
& Home department to follow-up with that new employee
request for services.
_1387611752.vsd
Name
Title�
Name
Title�
Conover Insurance Company (CIC)�
CIC�
Life Insurance �
Human Resources �
Sales & Marketing �
Auto & Home Insurance �
Information Systems �
Payroll �
Health Care Services �
Corporate Management�
New Product Research & Development�

10. _1387611753.vsd
Name
Title�
Name
Title�
Information Systems�
Joe Turner
President�
Jane Crawley
Vice President
Sunnyvale Operations�
Deborah Sellars
Vice President
Orlando
Operations�
Bill Henry
Vice President
Marietta Operations�
John Jones
Vice President
Denver
Operations�
Robert Smith
Vice President
Valley Forge
Operations�
Jack Mills
Vice President
Human
Resources �
Peter Crane
Vice President
Business Operations�
Lori Simms
Vice President
Customer Relations �

11. Frank Biaz
Vice President
New Business Development �
Sharon Jennings
Administrative Assistant�
_1387611754.vsd
Name
Title�
Name
Title�
Human Resources�
Jack Mills
Vice President�
Paul Jenson
Director
Sunnyvale
Human Resources�
Gloria Peters
Director
Orlando
Human Resources�
Eva Jones
Director
Marietta
Human
Resources�
Danny Smith
Director
Denver
Human Resources�
John Cole
Director
Valley Forge
Human Resources�
Jennifer Fiskus
Manager

12. Compensation
�
Don Harris
Manager
Benefits
�
Dotty Jones
Manager
Employee Relations�
June Lang
Manager
Staffing
�
Dorothy Miller
Administrative Assistant�
_1387611748.doc
Sunnyvale
CA
Orlando
FL
Denver

13. CO
Marietta
GA
Valley Forge
PA
Sunnyvale, CA -
725 employees
Denver, CO -
770 employees

14. Valley Forge, PA -
1,056 employees
Marietta, GA -
171 employees
Orlando, FL -
1,475 employees
CIS 321 Case Study ‘Employee Benefits System
(ECS)’MILESTONE 5 – PROCESS MODELING - Part II
(Exploded
DFD)________________________________________________
_______
Part 1
Synopsis
1. Level 0 Data flow Diagram

15. T
he requirements analysis phase answers the question, ‘What
does the user need and want from a new system?’ The
requirements analysis phase is critical to the success of any new
information system! In this milestone we need to identify what
information systems requirements need to be defined from the
system users’ perspectives.
The Data Flow Diagram (DFD) is a graphical representation of
system which shows systems structure and components. The
DFD shows how the data transforms in the system, what the
source of the input is and what is the destination. Also, the DFD
presents data structure and how it’s stored.
In this milestone you will explode the Context level DFD to
Level 0 DFD to show sub-systems (processes). The Level 0
DFD shows internal data stores and how data flows through the
processes.
2. Child diagram definition
C
hild level diagrams show details and are built till needed level
of details is reached. First, we show the information system as a
single process on the Context diagram. Then, we decompose and
show more details until all processes are functional primitives.
Not all processes are exploded to the same number of levels-
it’s not required to explode all processes to the same level. The
main target is to reach the functional primitive which will be
translated into units of program code.
Objectives
After completing this milestone, you should be able to:

16. 1. Create a Level 0 (System) Data Flow Diagram
2. Create a Child Data Flow Diagram
Prerequisites
Before starting this milestone, the following topics should be
covered:
• Process Modeling - Chapter 9
Assignment
As a systems analyst or knowledgeable end-user, you must learn
how to draw data flow diagrams to model business process
requirements. The preliminary investigation and problem
analysis phases of the methodology have been completed and
you understand the current system’s strengths, weaknesses,
limitations, problems, opportunities, and constraints. You have
already built the Context models (Milestone 3) to document
business requirements for the new system. You now need to
build the Level 0 (System) DFD and corresponding process
models.
Activities
1. Develop Level 0 DFD. Make assumptions where necessary.
2. Draw one Child Diagram using the Level 0 diagram.
3. Continue decomposition of one process up to primitive
processes (Level 2, Level 3, etc.)
Deliverable format and software to be used are according to
your instructor’s specifications. Deliverables should be neatly
packaged in a binder, separated with a tab divider labeled
“Milestone 5-Part II”.
References
• Context Data Flow Diagram Narrative – Exhibit 5.1

17. Deliverables:
Level 0 Data flow Diagram
Due:__/__/__
Time:______
Child level diagrams:

18. Due: __/__/__
Time:_______
ADVANCED OPTIONS
Advanced option is to develop Child diagrams for all processes
in Level 0 DFD.
Child level diagrams:
Due: __/__/__

19. Time: _______
Milestone’s Point Value:
____
Part 2Synopsis
Each process from primitive DFD may be developed as the
individual module.
The software design technique which is based on the composing
software from separate, interchangeable components is known
as the module.
Modular design is a way to organize the complex system as a set
of distinct components. Components may be developed, tested
independently and then plugged together.
Modular design is supported by three types of logic:
· Sequential;
· Decision making or control;
· Iteration or repetition.
Sequential – execution of steps one after another.
Decision making - execution of step depends on results of
condition or set of conditions. Decision making is also called
the selection or control.

20. Iteration – execution of steps is repeated until the specific
condition changes. Iteration is also called as repetition or
looping.
In this milestone you will write the Structured English for
primitive process.
Objectives
After completing this milestone, you should be able to:
1. Write the Structured English for primitive process.
Prerequisites
Before starting this milestone the following topics should be
covered:
1. Child level DFD – Chapter 9
2. Physical level DFD – Chapter 9 and12
3. Structured English – Chapter 9
4. Fact-finding results – Chapter 6
Assignment
The goal of this part of project is to write Structured
English.Activities
1. Write the Structured English for one-two primitive processes.
Include sequential, decision making and iteration logics. Your
instructor will indicate what specific processes to document.
References:

21. Previous narratives and supplied forms
Templates
See on-line learning center website for the textbook.
Deliverables:
Structured English:
Due: __/__/__
Time:_______