Nevada’s Clark
County Family Services Department is using IBM
business analytics software to improve the delivery of social services and
ensure compliance with new state regulations.
Eboni Washington, a supervisor in the IT department
who oversees the business intelligence management and performance management
initiatives for the Clark County Family Services Department, says IBM
has helped Clark County
generate more than $7 million in new revenue in less than 18 months.
IBM
announced its deal with Clark County
at the company’s Information On Demand (IOD) 2010 conference in Las Vegas on Oct. 25.
Clark
County is the 15th-largest county
in the United States
and provides regional family and social services to more than 2 million
residents. The Family Services Department is the local public agency charged with keeping children safe, as required by the Federal Adoption and Safe
Families Act. The department runs numerous services–from child protective
services to foster care services to adoption services–all of which require a
large amount of data input and access.
IBM
analytics has streamlined data access and reporting processes for the Clark
County Department of Family Services and helped the department closely monitor
case worker compliance with state policies and legislation more easily.
Previously, keeping quality of services on pace with the population growth in Nevada
was a significant challenge for Clark County, Washington says . The spreadsheet-based data collection process in place was time-consuming
and put a heavy burden on employees. With the added requirements of needing to
integrate with a statewide automated child welfare system and benchmark new
services, the department needed a solution that would make reporting easier,
help the department comply with new regulations and measure business
performance.
Lori
Higdon, a business analyst with the department, says Clark
County contracted with IBM
and PerformanceG2, an IBM Business Partner,
to eliminate multiple spreadsheets and hand-counting of information–practices
that led to confusion and errors. The staff no longer needs to manually keep
track of all their case management system information and, instead, can devote
time to providing services to families and children.
For more, read the eWeek article IBM Analytics Helps County Deliver Social Services.
