Quality and Productivity Commission 24 th Annual Productivity and Quality Awards Program Winning with Teamwork! 2010 APPLICATION WEB-WCMIS

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1 Date of Implementation/Adoption: 12/14/2009 Project Status: Ongoing One-time only Did you submit this project before? Yes No Executive Summary: Describe the project in 15 lines or less using 12 point font. Summarize the problem, solution, and benefits of the project in a clear and direct manner Following LA County s policy to reduce expenses the Internal Services Department (ISD) decided to decommission its outdated UNISYS Mainframe at the ISD Data Center. The challenge faced by decommissioning the UNISYS Mainframe was that it hosted Legacy WCMIS, a critical application that maintained over 12 million Los Angeles County welfare recipients records. In 2007 ISD, in collaboration with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), developed a project for replacing the UNISYS based WCMIS application with a Web based and more sophisticated application; Web WCMIS. Legacy WCMIS was owned by DPSS and used by other six County departments, among them DCFS, Community and Senior Services (CSS), and Child Support Services Department (CSSD). Implementation of the Web WCMIS application enabled DPSS to shut down Legacy WCMIS which saved DCFS $726,600 and DPSS $260,958 in tape backup, utilization and maintenance costs, justifying the move to a web based environment which is significantly more cost efficient. Additionally, the shutdown of Legacy WCMIS cleared the path for ISD to decommission the expensive UNISYS mainframe, which costs the County millions of dollars annually. (1) ANNUAL COST AVOIDANCE (2) ANNUAL COST SAVINGS $726,600 * (3) ANNUAL REVENUE (1) + (2) + (3) TOTAL BENEFIT $726,600 * SUBMITTING DEPARTMENT NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS (INCLUDE TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBER) SERVICE ENHANCEMENT PROJECT X Internal Services Department 1100 N. Eastern Avenue Los Angeles, CA PROGRAM MANAGER S NAME Ana Maria Correa, SSSD Division Manager Bruce Drury, Section Manager Art Movsesyan, Project Manager PRODUCTIVITY MANAGER S NAME AND SIGNATURE LINDA ESTRADA DEPARTMENT HEAD S NAME AND SIGNATURE TOM TINDALL DATE SIGNED DATE SIGNED TELEPHONE NUMBER (562) TELEPHONE NUMBER (323) TELEPHONE NUMBER (323) PAGE 1

2 Fact Sheet limited to 3 pages only: Describe the Challenge, Solution, and Benefits of the project, written in plain language. Include a discussion of the technology, links to the County Strategic Plan. The description should identify Performance Measures. CHALLENGE (suggest ½ to one page) DCFS, being the largest user of the Legacy-WCMIS application, was dissatisfied with the accuracy of the batch data updates from the State s CWS/CMS System into Legacy- WCMIS. The Legacy-WCMIS application had limited user access due to Unisys Mainframe Operations Scheduling. This limited access impacted the ability of the DCFS Child Abuse Hot Line Operators to perform case inquiries related to child and family members and respond expeditiously to the Mandated Reporters. On-line updates to case information were processed with one (1) business day delay requiring staff to wait 1 business day to validate changes. Also, DCFS was challenged with DPSS need to reduce costs by targeting shutting down the Legacy-WCMIS application as ISD was also targeting shutting down the UNISYS Mainframe at the ISD Data Center to eliminate outdated systems and reduce costs. Multiple Users: Further challenges included working with multiple Legacy-WCMIS system user departments in the County that tracked their welfare recipients cases and the services provided to them by the County. Every user department has its specific requirements and functionality regarding Legacy-WCMIS. This fact demanded that the ISD Developer team work with several customer teams simultaneously, analyzing and documenting the specification of their requirements, and finding solutions for the final integrated application. Data Volume: The Legacy-WCMIS had been in existence for over 30 years. During that time, Legacy-WCMIS had accumulated records for millions of Los Angeles County Welfare cases, making the application s database excessively large and complex. To meet demanding user requirements, the design, optimization, fine-tuning, performance and response time of the new database where challenged and tested numerous times to ensure its integrity. During data migration, corrupted data was analyzed and corrected to minimize records lost. SOLUTION (suggest ½ to one page) DCFS realizing the weaknesses of the Legacy-WCMIS and the urgency for DPSS and ISD to cut costs, decided to finance the development of a Web-WCMIS application. This Web-WCMIS application would more accurately process the State data, include more comprehensive features, more data entry fields, more sophisticated data processing capabilities, more reporting and auditing capabilities, have more user friendly interfaces PAGE 2

3 via the web, and ultimately be accessible to all users 24/7 via a secure Intranet environment. And, more specifically, increase the availability of current case information to its DCFS Child Abuse Hot Line Operators, and other customer departments Welfare Case Workers who also needed current and accurate information. DCFS and ISD led the challenge of coordinating and gathering the requirements from the various system users and major County departments that influenced the application s final design. This effort took great teamwork among the several LA County departments for the successful development and implementation of the Web- WCMIS application that was launched officially on December 27, During the stages of initiation and planning ISD and DCFS made a combined decision to preserve the main functionality of the original WCMIS online portion, but to completely modify its structure, design, and update methodology while improving its capability and features. The ISD team utilized such technologies as Microsoft.NET. modern control techniques, and AJAX for Web development. Online real time updates were introduced to enable accurate and current data viewing. The Legacy-WCMIS hierarchical database was redesigned into a relational database utilizing MS SQL Server database engine. Data migration and conversion, from the mainframe to the data server, was filtered and corrected data before loading it into the new database to achieve almost zero percent data loss. Multiple DTS Packages were created for implementing full WCMIS data conversion. CWS/CMS State batch updates were modified from flat file processing to Web-WCMIS initiating the data import of all daily updates. Added system features enabled keeping track of all online and batch transactions, viewing historical changes of every segment of a WCMIS case, viewing the results of batch updates, and a user s ability to analyze rejected batch records. The administrator s module allows for security and resource authorization, account maintenance, user activity tracking for audit purposes, and password updates. WCMIS Web database was installed on dedicated virtualized web server, and web application was installed on dedicated web server. Both machines are hosted by ISD Data Center. BENEFITS (suggest 1 to 2 pages) Monetary savings: Implementation of Web-WCMIS application allowed LA County to transition from the UNISYS mainframe environment to more modern and more cost effective server-based technology; historically, mainframe operations require a lot of manpower and financial resources compared to more lightweight servers. See cost avoidance chart below. PAGE 3

4 Timely Information: WCMIS Web online updates work in a real time mode and are applied immediately when users submit the changes with the update screens. This makes information available in a timely manner. That also minimizes the possible data entry errors, and makes it easier to keep the case workers documentation filing up to date. Since thousands of online transactions are submitted daily, the new online updates made dramatic time and effort savings for the WCMIS users. Improved Batch Updates:Web-WCMIS initiates a connection and imports all updated CWS/CMS case or person records. This method is more efficient enabling County developers more control over the data required or pulled, eliminating the dependency on State technicians. This process more accurately synchronizes WCMIS and CWS/CMS databases increasing reliability of the system. Convenience and Accessibility: Web-WCMIS incorporates the newest Microsoft.Net web development technologies, enables automatic error validation, easy to follow instructions, and streamlined data entry and screens workflow; increasing productivity and reducing mouse clicks and keyboard entry. Online Training and Documentation: Web-WCMIS offers online tutorials and videos with very detailed step-by-step easy to follow instructions and visuals making learning Web-WCMIS very simple and readily available. County training coordinators can organize their own training sessions using the provided online training material. New Features: Historical case changes tracking; Analyzing and Auditing tools ; Administrative tools which allow system administrators to manage user accounts, track user activity, manually or automatically reset passwords, and generate repots. These capabilities eliminated the dependency of user departments on centralized ISD support; enabling them to maintain their own user accounts and have their own monitoring tools. PAGE 4

5 Cost Avoidance, Cost Savings, and Revenue Generated (Estimated Benefit): Use this form and provide details on the estimated/actual benefits. As a suggestion, work with your fiscal staff. Cost Avoidance: Anticipated costs that are eliminated or not incurred as a result of program outcomes. Cost Savings: A reduction or lessening of expenditures as a result of program outcomes. Revenue: Increases in existing revenue streams or new revenue sources to the County as a result of program outcomes. (1) ANNUAL COST AVOIDANCE (2) ANNUAL COST SAVINGS $726,600 * (3) ANNUAL REVENUE (1) + (2) + (3) TOTAL BENEFIT $ 726,600* SERVICE ENHANCEMENT PROJECT Decommissioning the Legacy-WCMIS has reduced costs to both DCFS and DPSS by the following sums since FY08/09 (the savings County-wide are even more substantial and not addressed here): AMOUNT PAID IN UNISYS MAINFRAME SERVICES FY 08/09 DCFS* $726,600 DPSS $260,958 FY 09/10 DCFS* $363,300 DPSS $130,479 FY10/11 DCFS* $0.00 DPSS $0.00 AMOUNT PAID IN SERVER SERVICES FY09/10 DCFS* $20,000 DPSS $0.00 FY10/11 DCFS* $40,000 DPSS $0.00 The retirement of the Legacy-WCMIS application paved the way towards the targeted shutdown of the UNISYS mainframe at the ISD Data Center. That will allow the County of Los Angeles to make even garner larger savings in millions of dollars annually in the near future. FOR COLLABORATING DEPARTMENTS ONLY (for single department submissions, do not include this page) DEPARTMENT NO. 2 NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS Pamela Jacobian, DCFS, Information Systems Supervisor III Bureau of Information Services Department of Children and Family Services Imperial Highway, Room 501 Norwalk, CA (562) Jacobp@DCFS.lacounty.gov Patricia Ploehn, Director DCFS PAGE 5

6 DEPARTMENT NO. 3 NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS DEPARTMENT NO. 4 NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS DEPARTMENT NO. 5 NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS DEPARTMENT NO. 6 NAME AND COMPLETE ADDRESS PAGE 6