A new normal for child welfare agencies
It was hot in Phoenix for the Sept. 18-21 IT Solutions Management for Human Services Conference (ISM)—but not as hot as the interest in modernizing child welfare systems. In fact, my key takeaway from the largest conference of federal, state and local health and human services IT leaders was the overwhelming focus on improving the care and outcomes of children in need.
As a Platinum Sponsor of the ISM conference for several years, Microsoft showcased how our common, off-the-shelf (COTS) software and cloud services can help empower child welfare workers to better and more easily track and manage their case workload, which can help keep children and families front and center… My colleagues Ruthie Seale, John Nelson, Drew Gervino and Tom Yang did a great job presenting “A New Normal for Child Welfare Agencies” to approximately 100 ISM attendees, featuring the Microsoft Services’ child welfare solution and associated agile development approach. They shared how our modern COTS tools can be used to help child protection agencies to move beyond case management and improve efficiency, keep costs in check, make better decisions and adapt to new requirements. They also showed how our mobile solution helps to enable greater case-worker field coordination, reduce travel time and redeploy social workers where they are most needed. I’m very proud that our technology can help improve child welfare outcomes. (To learn more about the impetus for child welfare system modernization, please read Ruthie Seale’s recent blog.)
In our ISM booth, it was gratifying to see a growing realization among state and local health and human services IT leaders that Microsoft software and cloud solutions—already used by millions of public- and private-sector customers—can easily be adapted to help meet their unique needs. The result: our health and human services customers can receive the same benefits of cost effectiveness, ongoing updates and innovation. This is a key differentiator for Microsoft since our solutions don’t require costly custom development, for example:
- Dynamics CRM can be used for to engage social-services clients, improve support, efficiently manage case-worker deployment and make it possible for case workers to manage their relationships on mobile devices—all while helping to reduce costs, increase productivity, and enhance client experience and satisfaction. Dynamics CRM already is being implemented by Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas to administer their Women, Infants and Children (WIC) programs.
- Our trusted Azure and Azure Government solutions can help state and local health and human services leaders leverage the cloud while remaining compliant with critical government mandates. (Please learn more about our commitment to compliance at the Microsoft Trust Center.)
- There was strong interest in Power BI and the Cortana Intelligence Suite. Several state and local officials were astonished to see how these predictive analytics tools can help transform and mash up data, uncover new insights, and assist in making better and faster decisions.
- It was a lot of fun to see customers become excited about Surface Hub, an incredible tool that improves collaboration and enhances idea generation, especially among dispersed, statewide health and human services teams.
ISM also was a great forum to collaborate with Microsoft partners who are offering innovative solutions on our Dynamics CRM and Azure platforms. Here’s a partial list:
- CareDirector, with their Dynamics CRM-based child welfare solution that’s been proven in the UK and Ireland.
- Diona, with their health and human services-specific enterprise mobility solutions for agency caseworkers, clients and service providers.
- Eccovia Solutions, offering their SaaS-based case management system that’s useful for child welfare and other health and human services scenarios.
- Foster Care Technologies, with their leading edge foster-care placement solution.
- InRule Technology and their business rules engine that can be deployed on Azure.
- Tetrus, with their interoperable foster-care placement infrastructure, which uses national standards and is being deployed to all 50 states as part of the APHSA/Children’s Bureau initiative.
I encourage all health and human services professionals to take advantage of two free opportunities from Microsoft: our Power BI trial and case management eBook. Just like the ISM conference in Phoenix, these offers are hot!
