Update: 3:54 p.m. June 13. This article was updated to include price figures for the platform and quotes from the department.
The California Department of Social Services Office of Foster Care Ombudsman is in its first few weeks of using a new platform to manage its complaint system.
The office receives 1,400 calls a month, manages all the investigations that grow out of those complaints, and trains people involved with foster youth on youth rights.
The office built a Salesforce-based platform after viewing many demos to replace the previous enterprise solution. The system replaced the access database, which included recording information in several different places. It also reduced the amount of printing and paper use across the office.
Several Social Services divisions were involved in the build, including CalFresh.
The office went through the state Department of General Services to license the Salesforce software. The office put out an RFP that resulted in a contract with Slalom, which built out the system from business requirements to go live in about two months. Slalom staff worked in the office to handle bugs on rollout.
"Training for OFCO users is part of the new case management system contract and the two OFCO super users have spent time directly training themselves and staff...it is an intuitive interface and simple to use, so very low training cost," Trochtenberg wrote.
The system allows for up-to-date data analytics, showing trends and reports that used to take a week to build.
It also uses a single-sign-on component. Phase 2 will include an embedded agent for the virtual contact center that communicates with the platform.
The office is moving the platform to a mobile system as well, which will allow workers to access the system anywhere in the state. Portable devices will be assigned to staff members.
The office did not integrate its legacy system into the new platform but is finishing the investigations that were opened under the old system.
