Michigan Office of Children’s Ombudsman streamlines case management and improves compliance using i-Sight on Microsoft Azure

The State of Michigan Office of Children’s Ombudsman (MiOCO) advocates for families and children by investigating complaints about the Michigan child welfare system, providing helpful resources to citizens, and recommending improvements to the governor and legislature.

“The child welfare system can be complex and confusing, involving many different laws, regulations, and agencies,” says Suzanna Shkreli, Director of MiOCO. “Our office was created to help children by providing one place for residents to go when they have complaints or need information and to continuously improve child welfare systems in the state of Michigan.”

The team also investigates the deaths of minors who had contact with the system at any point in their lives.

“It’s our duty to find out if a death happened because an agency didn’t adhere to the law so we can make the system better through our review,” notes Shkreli.

MiOCO does all this with a team of just 14 people, fielding around 1,000 complaints each year, along with thousands of information requests. A team of three public intake and education analysts handles initial phone and web inquiries, acting on urgent matters and conducting preliminary investigations where needed. If a full investigation is called for, one of the team’s investigators takes over.

Striving to overcome productivity and security concern

Dynamic workdays at MiOCO include interviewing families and agencies, responding to requests for information, engaging with state executives and legislators, and reviewing case-related documents. The team’s productivity and ability to collaborate directly affects the lives of vulnerable children. Additionally, the sensitivity of its work requires strong data security and privacy protection. MiOCO must comply with rigorous security and privacy regulations, such as the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) and Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS).

Until recently, the team had to get by using a case management system that was far from ideal. Built on a traditional customer relationship management (CRM) platform, it made data entry difficult, lacked auditability and role-based security, and was inflexible and difficult to manage.

“The CRM just wasn’t adequate for our needs,” says Ryan Speidel, Deputy Director at MiOCO. “It really wasn’t designed for capturing the kinds of detailed information typical of our work. For example, the text fields were very small, making it difficult to enter, view, and edit data. There were a lot of fields we never used that could not be removed. When you are managing a large caseload, those user experience issues really add up.”

MiOCO also needed to improve the reliability and auditability of its data and protect against insider threats. For example, the old system did not allow for role-based controls, meaning that intake professionals and investigators could edit each other’s work. Without an audit trail, such actions could not easily be discovered.

The agency also spent too much time manually creating reports for department leaders, and team members couldn’t edit reports once finalized. That meant less information available to decision makers to improve the system.

“When an autopsy report or death certificate was released, we couldn’t go back and update it, resulting in our annual report showing indeterminate cause of death in a high proportion of cases,” says Speidel.

Additionally, MiOCO wanted to improve the security and efficiency of web-based complaint submissions, which were sent to a nonsecure mailbox and entered into the CRM manually. Speidel had some idea of the capabilities the MiOCO needed as he explored new case management solutions.

“We wanted an off-the-shelf system that was very user-friendly but could also be configured to our needs,” he says.

He found both in i-Sight, a Microsoft partner whose purpose-built case management system runs in Microsoft Azure for US Government.

Discovering the advantage of cloud-based case management

Comprehensive case management platform i-Sight streamlines investigative processes by centralizing case information, increasing productivity, and supporting secure collaboration. Structured workflows simplify tracking, managing, and reporting for complaints or referrals. As a configurable, no-code solution, MiOCO can tailor of workflows, fields, forms, and access controls to its needs.

“It was a very cost-effective way for us to get a customized complaint management system,” says Speidel.

To use i-Sight, MiOCO needed authority to operate from the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget (DTMB), which hosted the previous CRM solution in its own datacenters. The fact that i-Sight ran on Azure for US Government greatly simplified the procurement process.

“i-Sight opened the conversation with compliance and security, which gave me confidence right from the start,” says Speidel. “Their confidence in the compliance capabilities of the Azure cloud made me very comfortable to move forward.”

After choosing i-Sight, the configuration process began in October 2019 and lasted until March 2020. After a comprehensive round of user testing, the solution went live in June 2020—during a time when the team was working remotely due to COVID-19.

“Implementing the solution was easy because it just works,” Speidel says. “The user interface is simple and intuitive, and everyone picked it up right away.”
The system has shown consistent reliability and uptime, and MiOCO enjoys responsive support from the i-Sight technical team.

“With our previous hosted solution, the system would sometimes be unavailable, and we wouldn’t know why or when it would be restored,” says Speidel. “We haven’t experienced any downtime with i-Sight since we deployed it, which means our team can stay focused on casework.”

Capturing data and automating processes to drive more effective investigations

The solution helps the entire team work more efficiently so it can have a greater positive impact on the lives of Michigan kids. For one thing, it supports comprehensive data capture, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of investigations. Additionally, the agency’s director now has full visibility into each case, including review status and other project milestones.

“We can capture a slew of data we didn’t have before,” notes Speidel. “The interface is simple and allows team members to capture information in their own words.”

Automation also plays a role. To-do lists and reminders help everyone stay on top of their tasks. The system also automatically handles basic inquiries so staff can focus on investigations.

“Previously, we were producing reports by reading and highlighting individual documents and then compiling information into PowerPoint presentations,” says Speidel. “Now we can create more comprehensive reports with a few clicks.”

As a result, MiOCO has been able to handle the growing caseload—which has doubled annually for the past several years—without having to hire multiple new staff members.

Enhancing data integrity

Another benefit comes from built-in workflows, which streamline reviews and approvals and ensure proper oversight. By capturing user actions throughout the process, i-Sight supports the integrity and auditability of data.

“Using i-Sight, we maintain data integrity within our system across the entire investigation and review process,” says Speidel. “For example, previously there was no area for the ombudsman to document its review within the case file. Now, it’s all in one place.”

MiOCO also upgraded its public-facing complaint form using i-Sight. The old, unsecured web form is gone, replaced by a new tool that imports resident feedback directly into the case management system. The information is secured in i-Sight automatically, without a staff member having to manually reenter it.

MiOCO also uses role-based access capabilities in i-Sight to prevent unauthorized changes.

“We can lock down the frontend based on role, so the preliminary investigation can’t be edited by the analyst and vice versa,” says Speidel. “It’s one more way of ensuring data integrity.”

The MiOCO team is also better equipped to meet regulatory compliance requirements by using i-Sight, which features built-in FedRAMP and CJIS compliance functionality.

“Since i-Sight is hosted on Azure for US Government and built according to high security standards, we know we can meet the strict compliance requirements we are subject to,” says Speidel.

Advocating for children, supported by the right tools

Next, MiOCO plans to take advantage of the data analytics capabilities in i-Sight.

“We haven’t yet fully explored the data analysis, and we know we can use that to our benefit,” says Speidel. “Overall, this tool helps us stay on top of so many things we couldn’t before. It has made our jobs so much easier.”

The value of i-Sight comes down to helping MiOCO help kids. With better data, efficient productivity, improved collaboration, and a reliable, secure-by-design platform, each specialist in MiOCO is empowered to contribute their best on behalf of Michigan’s most vulnerable children.

“We lean into our role as advocates,” notes Shkreli. “Rather than sitting on our hands waiting for things to go wrong, we empower our team to make a positive impact by acting immediately wherever possible. Using i-Sight on Azure for US Government is helping us do that every day.”