IRS RFI: Manager Rating and Tracking System (MRTS) Replacement

Notice ID:  051324

The Government has interest in and is seeking information regarding the capability of providing a system which automates Taxpayer Services’ (TS) pay band year-end process. It is an interactive server-based managerial rating and tracking system, which automates the process for establishing bonus pools, tracking manager ratings, and calculating bonus awards for the year-end pay band process.

MRTS is a Microsoft Access database developed internally by Taxpayer Services Operations Support (formerly W&I / WIOS) in FY-08 as an interactive server-based managerial rating and tracking system. The MRTS database currently resides on a SQL server owned by Taxpayer Services Research.

MRTS has 2 components: 1) the data system, which is housed on a Microsoft SQL Server, and 2) the frontend, which operates from inside of Microsoft Access. The Server manages the data. It tracks all interactions, stores changes, and maintains records.  In addition, the SQL Server also manages user permissions: it parcels out data according to user permissions and it will not allow anyone access to the data unless he/she has been made a member of the MRTS group via the internal application entitlement process.  The database does not interface with any other databases or applications. It is populated initially each year from a Focus Report furnished by Agency-Wide Shared Services (AWSS). The other component of MRTS is the frontend. The frontend creates a user-friendly interface and provides a user the framework for the MRTS management process.

The MRTS process consists of the rules and protocols for determining which user is responsible for a pay band employee and what that user can do regarding the pay-banded employee.  For example, when a pay banded employee has transferred from one organization to another during or shortly before the year-end process and responsibility for that employee needs to be transferred from one user to another; there is a protocol to accomplish this. The frontend structure of MRTS facilitates the protocol and the server accomplishes the transfer.

There are 4 frontend versions of the MRTS software:

1. MRTS-T3. This is the version the user who directly interfaces with employee data uses.
2. MRTS-T2. This is a user administrator version.  Users who have users under them have this version.  With this version the user can administer the permissions of other users under his/her purview.
3. MRTS-T1. This is a higher-level user administrator version. Users who have more than one level of users under them would have this version. The users who have this version would have users under them who have the MRTS-T2 version. Permissions are managed by the SQL Server and the frontend provides the user interface.
4. MRTS-T8. This is the true administrator version.  Only W&I HCO, Performance Management users have this version.  The goal is to be able to do everything that needs to be done using this version and that there would be no need for specialized expertise to manage the day-to-day operation.

Taxpayer Services has the largest number of managers in the Service (over 2,500 for FY22). All other business units are utilizing Excel spreadsheets to manage their performance management records. Successful implementation of this project may lead to scaling MRTS to include other business units in the IRS.

The solution will use a Power App and SharePoint lists to intake information from users making requests. The request information is then copied to a Dataverse table with automation. Processing and approvals are completed against the Dataverse table. Status changes are replicated back to the SharePoint list for users. Power BI reports are used to provide status reports to Request Support Staff and to users who submitted requests. Email statuses are sent to the requester’s mailbox. Staff uses Planner to track taskings and assignments within the process …

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