Modern Tribal Government Services Software
Case StudyElevating Government Services Delivery for Forest County Potawatomi
In line with these investments, FCP was ready to modernize the software used by their government services departments, to enhance their ability to serve tribal members effectively.
Challenge
The employees of the FCP’s government services were operating on outdated software solutions across various departments including Enrollment, Family Services, and Tribal Court. Within the Tribal Court, staff used a mix of disconnected systems, spreadsheets, and manual paper-based processes, which hindered their ability to manage case information and documents efficiently. Since the existing applications were reaching end-of-life and couldn’t meet the evolving needs of the staff, Tribal Council was eager to explore new technologies.
IT leadership had a vision for a modern platform that could be used by multiple departments, easily configured to support various internal processes, and compatible with common business applications like Excel, Word, and Dynamics CRM.
“My experience with working with the [Arctic IT] implementation teams over the years has been excellent. They listen to the customer, make adjustments as needed, and have given me the training and tools to support them after they go live. AIT offers training to the users, meets with our department regularly after going live, and provides a user manual for their system. They also record the training, which comes in handy with onboarding new employees.”
Solution
As the FCP was already familiar with Arctic IT as a trusted solution provider, they selected Arctic IT’s Tribal Platforms® software platform for a modern, cloud-based solution. The Enrollment, Tribal Court, and Family Wellness applications were deployed on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform in phases to meet the needs of the government services departments.
Enrollment was the first software deployed. Arctic IT migrated member data from Progeny and configured the application with the ability to track descendants, which was important to the FCP. Other key functionality built-in to the solution included:
- Member management for contacts and blood quanta tracking
- Membership change requests
- Military and head of household status tracking
- Ancestry reporting
- ID card printing
After the successful adoption of the Enrollment app, the Tribal Court app became the second software deployed. The solution was configured to the court staff’s specific processes to improve tracking of fines and fees. With native integration to Microsoft SharePoint, the solution provided a centralized platform for court case management, court case and staff scheduling, and document management. Additional functionality that enhanced staff efficiency included:
- Auto-generation of court documents, such as court orders and notices
- Secure court document upload to the court case record
- Court case documents are stored in SharePoint with indexable folders
- Court clerk dashboards
- Individualized judge dashboards
- Calendar-based hearing scheduling
Child support cases are a large portion of the FCP Tribal Court duties, so there was a desire to share contact information between the Tribal Court and Family Services departments for data accuracy. To satisfy this need, the Family Wellness app was the third software deployed. Prior to its implementation, the FCP Family Services staff relied on spreadsheets to track cases. Transitioning to a comprehensive case management system on Tribal Platforms delivered them greater capabilities including:
- Digital contact records
- Centralized case management (including ICWA)
- Case plan building
- Referral tracking
- Program management
- Mobile capture for case incident and investigation details
- HIPAA / HITECH compliant system
Across the departments, the Tribal Platforms browser-based interface gives employees a responsive user dashboard that can be used on any web-enabled device. A secure single-sign-on (SSO) ensures only authorized users have access to the data. Confidential, department-specific data entered in the system is kept secure via user role-based security – down to the field level.
Mary French, Systems Administrator for the FCP, added, “Tribal Platforms has given our departments a tool that organized what they had, allows them to add information relatively easily, and has the potential to do more in the future. The system is easy to use, can create useful reports, and we can easily export data as needed.”
Results
Tribal Platforms offers the FCP government employees a versatile and user-friendly modern solution, delivering these departmental impacts:
- Enrollment staff can efficiently generate reports and customize views for quicker access to data.
- Tribal Court staff have streamlined access to case information and documentation, consolidating everything in a single system.
- Family Wellness staff benefit from a centralized and flexible case management system that adapts to their needs.
Taking advantage of a cloud-based platform that meets Tribal Data Sovereignty requirements allows government services staff to securely access member and case data from anywhere, on any computer, tablet, or mobile device.
On-going updates and support from Arctic IT ensure business continuity and improved service availability for tribal members. “We rarely experience down-time. Arctic IT takes care of all the updates, fixes, and maintenance on the system. The system is very responsive and adding or removing users is not difficult,” said French.
What’s Next
A Tribal Platforms Education project for the FCP is currently underway. The solution is designed to track student records from pre-K through higher education. Education staff will be able to better oversee which students are being served and where they attend school, as well as manage applications for scholarships and other education-related assistance.