Child Welfare Systems Project

Project Background

A large state’s child welfare organization needed to modernize its legacy child welfare systems, including: 

• Case management system
• Licensing system
• Field automation system
  

Completing this project would help contribute to improving safety, permanency, and the overall welfare of children and their families. 

The goals of the state child welfare system were to:

• Reinforce the Integrated Core Practice Model (ICPM)
• Generate and maintain high-quality data that supports the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)
• Meet the Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) requirements for modularity, data quality monitoring, and data exchange 
  

The legacy systems were first implemented in 1997 and were functional, but did not meet Federal or State requirements. 

Elyon Strategies was brought onboard to assess the State’s efforts to complete the transformation of the child welfare system.

Project Approach

Elyon was the independent advisor for this project. The state was tasked with improving many aspects of the child welfare system, including adding:

• New mobile digital experiences
• Self-service capabilities for families and community partners
• Streamlined administrative workflows
• Underlying domain model to support program and practice improvements 
  

While the state was undertaking this complex project, Elyon, as the independent advisor, also had to:

• Ensure the state was equipped with the ability to readily extend the system as child welfare policy and practice evolved
• Use data and insights to independently assess if the project was on track to meet or exceed the project goals
• Assess the approach to developing the solution functionality and related data infrastructure 
• Recommend alternative approaches that would increase speed to value, reduce costs, or enhance the quality and usability
  

Our team had to assess the project’s ability to deliver product features and evaluate its process for converting data from the legacy database to the new system. We directly obtained user feedback in the context of intensive scenarios that could occur.

From here, we could delve into the in-depth discovery process and prototyping to begin exploring the opportunities reflected in the insights from the user research. 

Project Deliverables

The Elyon team assessed the new system technical architecture which includes Salesforce and a separate data infrastructure. 

Our team provided research, service design, user experience design, business analysis, and data science expertise to the product delivery teams which helped them fulfill their responsibilities. We also provided product strategy, architecture, engineering, and design expertise (Salesforce-focused).  

While the Elyon team worked on this project, we used our well-defined approach and in-depth roadmap to keep everything on track and running smoothly.

The primary responsibilities of the Elyon team for this project included:

• Performing an initial review and assessment of the overall resource strategy 

• Conducting an in-depth analysis using information and market solution data that was gathered through research
• Identifying and developing realistic alternatives, data-driven project strategies, recommendations, and solutions
• Presenting independent views, perspectives, alternative approaches, and supporting data to the project stakeholders
  

The team at Elyon provided the following on the Child Welfare Project:

• Conducted alternatives and related sensitivity analyses that supported independent recommendations on specific product strategies and optimized resourcing
• Participated in design and discovery activities to gain an understanding of needed capabilities and related functionality
• Performed detailed market research in the context of needed capabilities and related functionality 
• Identified alternatives to meet the needs, related costs, and schedule considerations
• Organized independent analyses using information and market solution data gathered through research
• Evaluated and provided advice regarding each end-to-end module 

The Outcome

Elyon independently evaluated the budget, resourcing strategy, transformation capabilities, and schedule. We identified realistic and data-supported means of reducing the cost and schedule and improving the project’s level and probability of success to its intended outcomes.

The initial review was completed swiftly within the timeframe set for us and the recommendations we offered were carefully considered and adopted. Elyon’s dynamic assessments continue throughout the project with our team offering timely insights and advisory services as the multi-year project continues. 

Transformation starts here

Elyon is a management consulting firm specializing in enterprise business design. Our purpose is to see executive burdens lessened and organizational order increased, with leaders and their organizations having more hope, more success, less despair, and human needs being met.

Our vision is to be your most trusted advisor as you seek to arrive at your full potential. We know your unique business, deliver insightful strategies, build great designs, and can skillfully navigate the road ahead together.

We inspire leaders to transform complexity into enterprise success.