{"id":2002,"date":"2016-10-27T06:55:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T13:55:06","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-05-31T17:54:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T00:54:30","slug":"new-normal-for-child-welfare-agencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/healthcare\/2016\/10\/27\/new-normal-for-child-welfare-agencies\/","title":{"rendered":"A new normal for child welfare agencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was hot in Phoenix for the Sept. 18-21 IT Solutions Management for Human Services Conference (ISM)<\/a>\u2014but not as hot as the interest in modernizing child welfare systems. In fact, my key takeaway from the largest conference of federal, state and local health and human services IT leaders was the overwhelming focus on improving the care and outcomes of children in need.<\/p>\n

As a Platinum Sponsor of the ISM conference for several years, Microsoft showcased how our common, off-the-shelf (COTS) software and cloud services can help empower child welfare workers to better and more easily track and manage their case workload, which can help keep children and families front and center\u2026 My colleagues Ruthie Seale, John Nelson, Drew Gervino and Tom Yang did a great job presenting \u201cA New Normal for Child Welfare Agencies\u201d to approximately 100 ISM attendees, featuring the Microsoft Services\u2019<\/a> child welfare solution and associated agile development approach. They shared how our modern COTS tools can be used to help child protection agencies to move beyond case management and improve efficiency, keep costs in check, make better decisions and adapt to new requirements. They also showed how our mobile solution helps to enable greater case-worker field coordination, reduce travel time and redeploy social workers where they are most needed. I\u2019m very proud that our technology can help improve child welfare outcomes. (To learn more about the impetus for child welfare system modernization, please read Ruthie Seale\u2019s recent blog<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In our ISM booth, it was gratifying to see a growing realization among state and local health and human services IT leaders that Microsoft software and cloud solutions\u2014already used by millions of public- and private-sector customers\u2014can easily be adapted to help meet their unique needs. The result: our health and human services customers can receive the same benefits of cost effectiveness, ongoing updates and innovation. This is a key differentiator for Microsoft since our solutions don\u2019t require costly custom development, for example:<\/p>\n