Overcoming Case Management Challenges in State and Local Government

Uncovering the root cause behind underperformance in SLED agencies.

When it comes to case management, state and local government agencies are contending with outdated legacy systems, operational inefficiencies, and widespread staffing shortages. These hard realities impact an agency’s ability to provide transparency and responsiveness to constituents, drain already too-tight budgets, stretch a burned-out workforce further beyond its limits, and result in less than-ideal experiences for citizens and government employees alike.

But while the need to modernize systems, streamline processes, and deliver better experiences is clear, the best way to do so remains elusive for many state and local government agencies. This is because even when an agency realizes that it is underperforming in key areas, it often doesn’t know what the root cause behind that underperformance is. And knowing the “why” behind a problem is the first step toward overcoming it.

Fortunately, the OPEXUS team routinely partners with state and local agencies to help them implement case management systems vital to highly efficient government. Based on our team’s firsthand interactions with these agencies and our public sector expertise, here are the biggest case management challenges we see in the public sector.

Top Trends

Aside from the challenges being faced in the public sector, these are the top trends among state and local governments.

• Increased Technology Spending: On infrastructure modernization, cybersecurity, and automation.
• Heightened Cybersecurity: Through security measures such as multi-factor authentication.
• A Focus on Digital Transformation Initiatives: These include cloud adoption, broadband infrastructure deployment, and empowering a remote workforce

The biggest case management challenges in state and local government

Outdated legacy systems

Agencies grapple with homegrown systems that haven’t evolved in line with agencies’ needs. They become unsustainable quickly, taking up IT time and costs to maintain security, build new business processes and requirements, and resolve support needs.

Manual, labor-intensive processes

A lack of automation results in needless fact-finding, mindless data entry, and avoidable human error—contributing to slower response times, heavier workloads, and increased staff burnout.

Incomplete software

Case management “solutions” built for the private sector fall short when it comes to providing local and state agencies with the government-focused tools, features, and capabilities necessary to drive efficiencies across highly specific public-sector workflows.

Rigidity of software

Software built for the private sector, with a few features and modules for public sector users thrown in, is likely to always be one or more steps behind ever-changing government requirements, such as those in the IIA Red Book and GAO Yellow Book Standards. And it can take moving mountains to make this kind of software compliant with government security programs such as FedRAMP and StateRAMP.

How state and local government agencies can rise above these challenges—and better deliver on their mission

Agencies such as the District of Columbia, Texas DMV, and Georgia DOAS are using OPEXUS case management solutions to increase productivity, respond to constituent needs faster, and improve working conditions for their employees.

Departments in your agency that benefit from the OPEXUS suite

• Office of the Inspector General
• Human Resources, Employee & Labor Relations
• Records Management
• School Districts
• Departments of Transportation
• Law Enforcement
• Etc.

Automation: Valuable in more ways than many know

Automation can play a vital role in virtually every aspect of an agency’s operations—from streamlining the workflows of case workers to helping HR departments review reasonable accommodation requests faster.

Using the latter as an example, the HR teams of some local and state government agencies use OPEXUS solutions to automatically route reasonable accommodation requests to the appropriate HR team member based on the input provided by the requesting employee.

Integration: A key ingredient of efficiency

Many state and local auditors and Offices of the Inspector General follow processes that require pulling in information from third-party tools. This lack of integration capabilities prevents the full automation of workflows that rely on these external sources.

OPEXUS solutions are interoperable between third-party tools, collect data from a myriad of sources (including transparency portals), and make all pertinent information readily available to authorized internal and external stakeholders. Doing so minimizes knowledge gaps, prevents information from being lost, and removes the need for manually importing and exporting data multiple times.

Configurability: Tailored workflows and fast adaptation, minus the code

OPEXUS solutions require no third-party support for implementation. They are ready to generate government reports out of the box, and they can create ad hoc reports as needed—without the need for in-depth custom coding.

Non-IT government users can tailor system fields, templates, drop-down menus, permissions, and more. And as government reporting standards change over time, OPEXUS solutions adapt easily to ensure continued compliance.

Built for the public sector: Tools and features for specific government applications

When used for government, software built for the private sector is like trying to push a square peg through a round hole. It just does not fit. Our team regularly meets with customers who have learned the hard way that technology platforms built for the private sector always come up short when retrofitted for a government agency. This is because these platforms usually tack on a few public sector reporting features as an afterthought. On the other hand, OPEXUS solutions are built from the ground up with the public sector forever at their foundation.

Security: More than just a checkbox

Our team expects StateRAMP and FedRAMP certifications to become standard for state and local governments because they offer a repeatable “do once, apply many times” framework. These certifications also allow state and local agencies to place greater confidence in the security of their chosen cloud vendors. Fortunately, state and local government agencies can save an estimated 30 to 40% on vendor assessments by switching to either a FedRAMP or StateRAMP framework.

The underlying infrastructure behind OPEXUS solutions already meet FedRAMP and StateRAMP certification requirements, and we work to ensure continued government-grade security compliance as new mandates and laws are passed.

Learn how your state or local government agency can gain operational efficiencies and deliver a better experience for all. Visit www.OpexusTech.com to get started.