The Wyoming Department of Family Services gets support to families faster.
Wyoming DFS is a trailblazer.
Sometimes people need help. That's why the Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) is there, working with the community to build stable, nurturing families, helping them to be successful, together and safe.
"Wyoming families come to us when they're going through a challenging time, and they're looking to our agency for help," said Kristie Arneson, Senior Administrator in the Economic Security Division at Wyoming DFS. "Serving those families is at the heart of what we do."
Wyoming DFS centers their work on three guiding values, with the customer at the heart of them:
"We thought about our opportunities for success and realized that we needed to provide a consistent, easy-to-access way for people to both apply for programs and ensure that they are connected across the range of services available to them."
Roxanne O'Connor, Senior Administrator at Wyoming DFS
Wyoming DFS needed to respond to the community's needs quickly and securely.
COVID-19 acted as a catalyst for change as the team adopted the cloud. With the creation of new federal programs introducing the need for new systems, the DFS looked for the opportunity to digitally transform. “We realized we had an opportunity to take forward, future-looking action," said Arneson. "Over $400 million flowed through our agency for pandemic assistance, double our typical budget, and we needed to quickly get it out to people who needed it."
Due to a legacy system that was outdated and siloed, their data was decentralized, making it difficult to connect information that could provide comprehensive reporting and insight into DFS programs and provide for community needs. "The systems we had weren't built to be adaptable, so we would have to go in and modify them for new benefits. And, crucially, we also didn't have the ability to interact with families remotely the way we really needed to," said Josh Soffe, Supervisor of Software Development at Wyoming Department of Enterprise Technology Services.
The team also wanted to make accessing resources as easy and clear as possible for Wyoming families. "We wanted to reduce barriers to make it so that those who need help can easily get it in a way that's open and welcoming for them," explained O'Connor. Turning a largely manual process into a more user-friendly one also meant upgrading their technology. "A lot of our challenges were coming from old technology and our inability to service families the way that people are used to today," said Arneson. "We created workarounds, but it finally came down to us asking ourselves how we prioritize this and move forward."
The Wyoming DFS team's objectives were clear:
- Simplify access to help, providing one point of entry and access to all information provided across all programs.
- Provide an easier, more efficient way for DFS staff to do their job so that they can focus on the families and not the system.
- Connect internal and external partners with the ability to easily share data and provide information on a more real-time basis.
- Build an agile, scalable platform that could adapt to future needs.
- With the pandemic highlighting the urgency for change, the team moved to put their vision into action to keep meeting the needs of Wyoming families: they turned to the cloud.
Wyoming DFS introduces an agile, customer-first platform to help get assistance to those who need it.
The team deployed Public Sector Solutions for Grants Management on FedRAMP-authorized Salesforce Government Cloud Plus, providing a single, customer-first access point to DFS, the system is designed to streamline the process both for individuals seeking assistance and for those within DFS who are providing it.
"People don't necessarily know what they're looking for - they just know they need help," said Soffe. "By streamlining our processes onto one platform, we're making services more readily available to the people who need them."
The ERAP and other Department programs journey begins when an individual accesses the portal and creates an account by providing some basic data. Public Sector Solutions for Grants Management captures that information and creates a record in the system. Shield was added, to help bring an additional layer of security to the system and to help enable Wyoming DFS's compliance with the federal government standards. Depending on the type of support they are requesting, the portal guides the individual through the process to understand their eligibility for ERAP so they can apply as quickly as possible. Documents can also be uploaded directly, as a picture, a file or a scan.
Once an application across some programs is submitted, it's directed to the DFS staff via a workflow that guides them through the review, approval, and allocation process. The applicant is then notified by email and text with the details of the assistance they'll receive, which they can also access anytime within the self-service portal.
Additionally, the team has launched an online portal to champion the screening process for employment and volunteer opportunities. After a successful launch of the Central Registry online portal, the Central Registry Unit has reduced processing time from 12 business days to 1 business day. This is allowing providers and employers to onboard essential workers faster while focusing on safety in processes.
"Business drives our technology, not vice versa. Today we have the ability to do so much more than what we did before as an agency, and we're also facilitating better interaction across other state agencies, too."
Kristie Arneson, Senior Administrator in the Economic Security Division at Wyoming DFS
Agility results in more innovation and support for Wyoming families.
And as regulations change and new programs are developed, the system is built to adapt. "The platform enables us to turn on a dime if we have to. Our low-code, sometimes no-code, configuration gives us the opportunity to respond much more quickly," said Soffe.
And creating one source of truth means that real-time dashboards are providing valuable insight for decision makers. "Having our data in one place enables us to look at our programs differently," said O'Connor. "We can be more innovative now, which means better programs for our clients."
It's also enabled better knowledge sharing with community partners, other government agencies - and the people who are working directly with Wyoming families. Said Soffe, "DFS is spread out across the entire state in some of the most remote locations. By moving to the cloud, they can do their jobs from anywhere. It gives our users the opportunity to be more agile in their ability to assist families."
"Business is what drives our technology, not the other way around," said Arneson. "Today we have the ability to do so much more than what we did before as an agency, and we're also facilitating better interaction across other state agencies, too."
"It's opened the door to a different way of thinking about what is doable," said O'Connor.
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