Usability and Scalability of Leading Enterprise Content Management Suite Critical to Rollout of Citizen Portal, Intranet Across Organization
Interwoven Inc. announced that California's Alameda County Social Services agency (ACSS) has gone live with Interwoven to power its citizen portal http://www.AlamedaSocialServices.org/ as well as its staff-facing site.
Alameda County Social Services is the first agency in the County to use a content management system, and one of the few social services agencies in the state to use a robust system like Interwoven. Commented Jim Damian, Web systems manager, Alameda County Social Services, "We want to become a national model, from an IT perspective, for implementing best practices for content management, and from a community perspective to be seen as a leading-edge social services agency dedicated to putting the needs of our constituents first."
Damian continued, "At ACSS, it's all about the spirit of involvement -- and every aspect of our organization is tied into decisions we make about how to better service the citizens of Alameda County. When it came to a content management system, we were looking for a technology partner who would truly grow with us and be with us for the long haul -- and Interwoven has proven to be that, and more. We've already seen tremendous success in working with Interwoven and building out our site, and we truly consider them the de facto leader in ECM."
Prior to selecting Interwoven, making changes to the County site was tedious and time consuming. Employees would first complete a change request form via a Word document, seek management approval, send to the Web team for HTML processing, who would then return the documents via a link for further edits and approval, and then finally send off to staging and production. Versioning and workflow were both enormous challenges for any Web updates to occur, and changes could take days and even weeks to effect. ACSS was in search of a system that could handle complex document management (with nearly 20,000 pages of policies, procedures, and forms on its staff-facing section alone) as well as a system robust and easy to use that would scale and grow with their future rollout plans.
After a complete review of competitive products, Alameda County selected Interwoven TeamSite 6.0 Content Server software to power both its public citizen portal as well as its secure employee intranet. Currently, users of the system include County social workers, executives, the public relations group, program specialists, and case analysts. TeamSite 6.0, the latest version of Interwoven's core content management offering, has a world-class user interface that extends content management access to all business users and enables them to maintain control and distributed ownership of content across the organization.
Connecting the Citizen Community
One of the improvements ACSS has seen since the site went live in January 2004 is the significant growth in e-mail traffic originating from an enhanced online self-service window called "Contact Us." Prior to Interwoven, social workers were limited in how far they could "reach out" to the community via what had been a fairly static online presence, but now, citizens can "reach in" interactively via the Web and get their needs met much more quickly.
One example of how the new system empowers the social workers to do their jobs better is a recent scenario where a citizen wrote in a request for assistance in finding local foster parenting agencies. Within 24 hours a social worker was able to respond by connecting the individual with the appropriate officials to help move the process forward. According to executives at ACSS, this is just one of dozens of examples that demonstrates how Interwoven has allowed them to model the Website after real-life, day-to-day operations -- interacting with the citizen community on a real- time, personal basis.
ACSS estimates that they will save upwards of $250,000 per fiscal year with the Interwoven content management system, and efficiency gains are already being realized with faster response times to constituents, sharing of information via the staff intranet, and repurposing content throughout both sites. Also, Interwoven's rollback capabilities help the County meet certain HIPAA and other regulatory requirements that govern accuracy of public information provided over the Internet.
"We're delighted when an organization can map a technology implementation directly to the benefit of individual citizens," said Kevin Hayden, vice president, corporate marketing for Interwoven. "It is heartening to see how Interwoven's leading ECM suite can affect change both inside and outside an organization so quickly, and with measurable benefits. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with Alameda County and other local agencies going forward."
Demonstrating Technology Leadership
ACSS realized that a sound technology and support environment were critical to the project's success, especially as new features are added and Website usage grows. In order to help manage the complexities and risks associated with such a significant technology undertaking, ACSS turned to Globix, a leading provider of Internet application and infrastructure services. Prior to the site's launch Globix provided document conversion and implementation services and is now responsible for managing the application. Globix works closely with the County's Information Technology Department who is hosting the production environment. Additionally, ACSS is in the process of transitioning to a .NET environment, and the Interwoven platform, with its open, scalable, services-oriented architecture, aligned perfectly with this strategy. ACSS has assembled a team of partners and a set of leading technologies to provide a robust, scalable and repeatable business solution for Alameda County and their constituents.
About The Alameda County Social Services Agency
The Alameda County Social Services Agency of California is comprised of 2,400 men and women working collectively and in partnership with community-based organizations to serve the needs of the community. Its mission is to promote the economic social well being of individuals, families, neighborhoods and communities. Services are provided through five departments: Agency Administration and Finance, Adult and Aging Services, Children and Family Services, Workforce and Benefit Administration and Policy and Special Projects. The Agency assists approximately 11.3 percent of Alameda County's residents. Benefits programs contribute over $278 million to the local economy through cash assistance and Food Stamps. Every month, more than 52,000 people receive CalWORKs (assistance for families with children), Food Stamps and General Assistance. Every month health insurance is made available to more than 78,000 people through the Medi-Cal program.
More than 11,000 frail, elderly and disabled individuals receive in-home care, adult protection and support managing their affairs monthly and 16,000 seniors will receive services through the Area Agency on Aging throughout the year. 3,700 children are in foster care. More than 1,600 reports of child abuse or neglect are filed with SSA each month. Emergency shelter is made available to 415 people nightly. For more information, visit http://www.AlamedaSocialServices.org.
