OKDHS Recognized as 2012 Computerworld Honors Laureate

OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS) has been named a 2012 Computerworld Honors Laureate by Information Builders, an independent leader in business intelligence (BI). OKDHS was honored in the “Human Services” category for its use of BI technology to help caseworkers provide better family services.

The “Human Services” category recognizes organizations for the innovative use of information technology to develop or deliver public programs providing food and nutrition, child support, housing, transportation, mental health or other social services to people in need. 

“I am very proud of the project team and their efforts surrounding business intelligence solutions,” said James Randell, OKDHS Data Services Division Director. “The Computerworld Honors Laureate is a well-deserved award for all their accomplishments.”

One example is how workers in the OKDHS Child Support Services Division used Information Builders’ “WebFOCUS” BI platform to keep track of thousands of child support cases. By using the platform, they were able to get more child support dollars into the hands of needy families to help pay bills, provide meals and receive health care.

"WebFOCUS” helps caseworkers maintain a history on each child support case and enables staff to access data within a series of performance measures. Information can be trended and viewed in multiple formats allowing workers to further analyze cases and identify priority work efforts.

Using virtualization technology, OKDHS’ Data Services Division was able to build new environments to support the development lifecycles. Starting with a terabyte of data, five years of case information is now available to the new BI environment and child support case workers. Information which was previously accumulated and distributed manually is now extracted from the case system and loaded into the BI environment on a monthly basis.

“OKDHS Data Services will continue to expand our use of business intelligence solutions, within a virtualized environment,” Randell said, “in an effort to leverage efficiencies that technology has to offer.”

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