Government Technology - September 2007 - (Page 36)

In practice, however, losing that much institutional memory may have come at a heavy cost. “The amount of training was different for the contractor staff, who were brought on in great numbers,” Flood said, “but had almost no background knowledge.” Gumbert said getting staff — new and old — comfortable with the new program, when 32 some had been using SAVERR for 30 years, has been a huge challenge, but an unavoidable one. “I wish I could make it easy, but it’s just painful for the current staff,” he said, adding that the agency hopes to set up new training labs to help bring employees up to speed. C O N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E Things You Can’t Plan For Any large program like TIERS runs within some margin of error, said Accenture Senior Executive Dave McCurley. For instance, SAVERR had an error rate of 5 percent to 7 percent. But TIERS was under the microscope because of the hype associated with the call center switch. When the pilot indicated there were problems with the application, public outcry was swift because social services are of such vital importance and under such close watch by the media. Furthermore, it’s difficult to predict how employees will adapt to new programs and which mistakes they will make, McCurley said, explaining that those factors are why an agency starts with a pilot and makes adjustments to employees’ actions. “No matter how good a job you do of drawing up the process in a lab, [employees are] going to do what they’re going to do,” he said. “You really have very little control over their behavior.” The HHSC cut off its call-center contract with Accenture in March, and the controversy around TIERS and the push for private call centers came to a boil in April, with the release of Flood’s report and a series of legislative hearings. House committees questioned Albert Hawkins, executive commissioner of the HHSC, on management decisions and ultimately put the program under closer legislative oversight. “When you’re doing a project this massive, it’s a best practice to be sure you have a single point of oversight,” Flood said. “That oversight makes sure that the technology side of the house communicates with the business side of the house. So it’s not a tech marvel that produces nothing, and it’s not a tech flop that produces everything the business side wanted. It’s a mixture of the two.” McCurley said the project’s biggest problems didn’t arise from the scale of the program, but from how little wiggle room the company The Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System has issued $400 million in beneﬁts to Texans since 2003, and will serve as the technological foundation for a more integrated health and human services system by integrating the application process for more than 50 health and human services programs. had — due to detailed laws at the state and federal levels, and a very specific contract with the HHSC. “The challenge from our perspective was that the contract vehicle was very detailed and prescriptive,” he said. “It was very inflexible.” The oversight committee will hold public hearings to get input on the program, and come up with recommendations for the next Legislature by December 2008, according to a bill passed in May by Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs. The state rehired Deloitte to manage TIERS, and HHSC personnel handle call center operations. Deloitte declined to be interviewed for this article, citing a company policy against commenting on projects while under contract. Today, TIERS handles about 5 percent of the HHSC’s cases, according to Goodman, with pilot deployments in Hays, Williamson and Travis counties accounting for most of that. In January, the HHSC began a new Women’s Health Program and uses TIERS for enrollment. The commission also converted the state’s foster care records to the program in March. Still, the federal government is withholding approval of TIERS rollouts for food stamp programs in additional counties until new functions can be built into the program, including the ability to track historical records of food stamp fraud. Despite the struggles involved in launching the call centers, Texas officials remain convinced that their efforts eventually will pay off. “I think the future is going to continue to move in this direction, to more and more distance encounters and distance enrollments. It’s just getting the technology to a reliable state,” Flood said. “We were the test state.” People forget how big Texas is, and what a strain it can be when large numbers of citizens call in at once, Gumbert said, adding that he’s prepared to work on the program for a long time. “We’re taking small steps,” he said. “That’s the only way to do something like this.” To venture so far into uncharted waters, with so many people’s critical benefits on the line, is an inherently touchy proposition. As other states move ahead with similar programs, Goodman said all managers can do is prepare themselves to face inevitable challenges. “When you have a system that serves 30 million people and approves critical benefits,” Goodman said, “there is no margin of error.” CONTRIBUTING WRITER PATRICK MICHELS IS BASED IN AUSTIN, TEXAS. SEPT_07 36 http://www.govtech.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Technology - September 2007

Contents Point of View Big Picture ESRI Insert The Last Mile GT Spectrum Profile Nuclear Revival Way Back Machine Intel Insert Tale of TIERS Joining Forces Saving Seniors Site Seeing Quarter Miles Two Cents Products Signal: Noise Digital Communities Contents Our Road Ahead Course of Action Shared Interests Special Report: Foundation for the Future Using Wireless to Save Lives Smart Grids for Energy Conservation Community Governing and Wizards

Government Technology - September 2007

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