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Past Conferences :: 39th ANNUAL ISM CONFERENCE (2006)
September 10 – 13, 2006
Minneapolis, Minnesota
This Conference has concluded. Please click here for presentations.
Hilton Minneapolis
1001 Marquette Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Tel: (888) 933-5363 toll free or (612) 376-1000
Fax: (612) 397-4875
Room Rate: $127.69 single and $150.29 double
Please reference ISM when making your hotel reservations in order to receive the group rate.
Hotel website: www.minneapolis.hilton.com
Hotel Reservation Deadline: Saturday, August 11, 2006 at overflow hotel
Overflow hotel: Holiday Inn Express, one block from The Hilton, 225 South 11th St. Advanced booking rate $90.95. Telephone 612-341-3300. Be sure to mention the ISM Conference.
Note: The National Staff Development and Training Association (NSDTA) will hold their conference concurrently at this location. Also, ACF IT Systems Meeting (formerly ACF Users Group) for government attendees only, immediately following ISM Conference.
WHAT IS ISM?
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
AGENDA AND SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
CONFERENCE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE CITY
PRE-CONFERENCE GOLF OUTING
We have a new name, IT Solutions Management for Human Services (ISM)!
ISM is the information technology affiliate of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and our name used to be APHSA-ISM. Now we are IT Solutions Management for Human Services (ISM). Our new name reflects the key role played by information technology in today’s modern organizations. We provide solutions that meet the mission critical needs of state and local government human services agencies.
For 39 years our annual conference, the premier human services information technology conference in the country, has been known as the ISM Conference. We want our official name to match what everyone already calls us. And we want to avoid confusion with APHSA, our parent organization.
Our annual conference attracts attendees from throughout the United States and a number of foreign countries. Attendees include agency executives and managers, CIOs, technical staff, program staff, high-level federal officials, and representatives from the many private sector companies that supply products and services to state and local human services agencies.
Each year the ISM Conference agenda is filled with the most current information essential for making effective technology decisions that support program and service delivery goals. We learn about innovative information technology implementations from around the country. Speakers and attendees share successful techniques to overcome the obstacles that often inhibit successful technology projects. Conference speakers have included state governors, top ranking federal officials, state legislators, agency CEOs and CIOs, and other nationally recognized experts in information technology for human services.
ISM board members include agency CIOs and high-level program people who work in information technology from California, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
“A Time of Transition: The Power of Partnerships”
The theme of this year's ISM conference reflects the increasing and varied use of partnerships both in the delivery of human services and in information technology used to support service delivery. Some functions traditionally performed by agencies are being outsourced; non-traditional venues are being used to increase client access to services; and partnerships are being forged more frequently with other governmental entities such as schools and juvenile corrections. Multiple agencies and programs at different levels of government (state and county), multiple agency technology organizations, multiple private sector entities, and multiple not-for-profits are collaborating on service delivery and IT projects in increasingly varied combinations. These partnerships present significant opportunities to improve service, improve the success of IT projects, and, perhaps, decrease cost. But they also present significant obstacles to success that must be overcome.
Starting early spring 2006, this section of the conference webpage will be updated frequently with information about conference sessions and speakers.
AGENDA AND SESSION DESCRIPTIONS
Agenda at a Glance - .pdf
Draft Session Descriptions
What follows is in draft form and will change as sessions are developed further. Watch for updates which will be posted weekly, as available.
General Sessions
Sunday Afternoon Interactive Workshop
Can this Partnership be Saved?
IT has revolutionized the way human service business is conducted. Yet, ensuring the success of IT initiatives in today’s fast-evolving, increasingly dynamic information technology environment has many challenges. Increasingly information technology initiatives require partnerships across agency divisions or with outsiders, including the private sector and non-profits. For these reasons, the theme of this year’s ISM Conference is “A Time of Transition: The Power of Partnerships”. How do we forge productive, meaningful partnerships? What defines a good partnership? How do we know when we’ve got one? How do we know when we don’t? How can we sustain a good one?
In this interactive workshop, models of good partnership will be presented and, using real-world examples, panelists will explore how to manage expectations, cultural impact, and risk. Participants will have the opportunity to work in small groups to review specific scenarios, brainstorm approaches, identify solutions, and then hear reactions to their work from a panel of experts.
Opening General Session: 9/11 and Katrina/Rita – Lessons Learned About Partnerships and Information Technology
It’s the five-year anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center and the one-year anniversary of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Natural or not, any disaster puts enormous pressure on the human services delivery system. The demand for services becomes much higher than normal. Agencies must continue to provide services, now needed more than ever, while the infrastructure – roads, power, networks, social order – has been severely compromised. Local social services offices are closed or destroyed. Many workers have difficulty getting to work. Managers must devise emergency exceptions to long-standing service delivery policies on the fly. To be successful, new partnerships between federal, state, and local agencies, as well as non-governmental service providers, have to be formed rapidly while existing partnerships are stretched beyond normal expectations. In this session, New York and Louisiana discuss their lessons learned as they struggled to deliver human services in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the Katrina and Rita hurricanes. They will discuss the effectiveness of new and existing partnerships, the issues around information technology, and the need for advance preparation.
Monday Afternoon General Session
What Does The Rest Of The 21st Century Have In Store For Human Services
The 21st century has just begun and, no doubt, we can expect a century of major social, economic, political, and technological change. What does the future hold for human services? How will decreasing budgets, staff reductions, and demographic changes affect service delivery? Is this an opportunity for creative improvements in access to services? Or will these changes threaten the safety net system which we now have? How drastic will the changes be? How should agency leaders prepare and respond to these trends? The answers to these questions will have a major impact on the role of information technology in human services. In this general session, a noted human services analyst and the leader of the human services agency in our largest city share their views of what the 21st century may have in store.
Tuesday Morning General Session
IT’s Role in Creating Partnerships to Protect the Homeland
Tom Ridge , the nation’s first Secretary of Homeland Security and two-term governor of Pennsylvania , delivers a keynote presentation following the 5-year remembrance of September 11, 2001. His discussion will reflect on the progress made to make America safer and the critical role that technology plays in forming partnerships to successfully achieve our national mission of strengthening the security of our country and our world.
Wednesday General Session: Future of Technology in Human Services
Information technology is one of the most rapidly changing aspects of life in the twenty-first century. It affects how we relate to the world and how the world relates to us; how we do our jobs; and how we get information. Additionally, it influences how we relate with others and how personal and national security are maintained. Technology governs the operation of organizations, including governments and their human services delivery agencies. Often, the pace of change in IT is nearly beyond our comprehension and we strive to understand it because of the potential and important impact of technology on service delivery, the nature of work in human services, and the way that consumers of human services apply for, receive, and benefit from services. In this session, representatives from two companies that track trends in information technology, Gartner Group and Forrester Research, will speak about future trends in information technology and, in particular, about the future of IT in human services.
Wednesday General Session: Federal Panel – Current Areas of Interest to the States and Locals
As the field of human services continues to progress and the federal government continues to make changes in programs and policies, the use of information technology to support them continues to evolve. This evolution of technology provides state and local governments the opportunity to be innovative in their delivery of programs and services. The federal administration of human services programs can have a major impact on the ability to use information technology in innovative ways. In this session, representatives from the Centers for Medicare Medicaid Services, the Administration for Children and Families, and the Food and Nutrition Service will provide insight into and discuss important issues common to their program areas that affect the use of technology to support service delivery. Topics covered will include the APD approval process, the use of commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS), federal legislation, cost allocation, and enterprise architecture.
Track 1
A New Look at Partnerships
Several key factors are driving the need for a new look at partnerships. They include the need to move beyond the culture clashes to effectively working with partners; the need to explore working in partnership within the agency, between IT and business, with other agencies, with the public and private sectors, between state and local offices, and within project teams. This track will explore successful methods for partnerships with for-profit, non-profit and non-traditional organizations, the opportunities for partnering, and real examples of practical solutions that worked and those which did not.
Session 1: Beyond Culture Clashes
We’ve all been involved in projects where people from different parts of the organization, from other government agencies, and from the private sector, didn’t see eye-to-eye on things like objectives, desired outcomes, strategy, schedule, and tasks. Sometimes this happens because of personality differences. But just as often it happens because of differences in organizational culture where, for instance, one culture is strongly oriented toward obtaining results quickly and another is oriented toward involving all possible stakeholders, even if doing so slows down the project. These “culture clashes” have the potential to wreck the project. They also have the potential make the project stronger because of the diversity of views and perspectives. Using real examples, this session explores how cultural clashes develop and play out in projects, techniques for dealing with them, how to minimize their potential to be destructive, and ways to turn them into positive contributors to project success.
Session 2: Partnership with For-Profits
Many critics of government want information technology to be “run like a business” because of the assumed efficiencies arising from the profit motive and using private sector methodologies. In fact, the private sector is already heavily involved is government information technology, ranging from body shop services, to development projects, to project oversight, and, at the other extreme, to outsourcing. This session will explore the issues of partnering with the private sector. How do you reconcile the profit motive with government’s mandate to deliver service to clients without concern for profit and to be accountable to taxpayers? How do you deal with different work cultures? How do you assure a quality result that meets government needs to serve clients when an outsourcer is responsible for performing all the work?
Session 3: Partnership with Non-Profits
The Bush administration has involved faith organizations more formally than ever before in the delivery of human services. Human service agencies are looking increasingly to other not-for-profit organizations for delivery of services in order to increase client access to services and to better use scarce resources. These partnerships with non-profits present a unique set of opportunities and issues for human services agencies. Some of them are related to information technology. How do these outside organizations get access to agency information systems? How is confidential data protected when it is being used by outside employees? How is consistent application of policy assured? How is HIPAA compliance assured. This session will explore these and other issues.
Session 4: Non-Traditional Partnerships
Historically, human services have been delivered directly by human services agencies or through contracted arrangements with outside entities whose missions are mostly human services-related, e.g. private mental health, private children’s services. It is now being recognized that these traditional partnerships between government human services and local partners are limited and do not adequately meet service outcome goals in an increasingly diverse and interconnected society. Increasingly, human services agencies are forging more formal relationships with non-traditional partners including corrections departments, public health, tribes, schools, immigrant support organizations, and juvenile justice. This session explores some of the issues around making these types of partnerships successful, including recognizing opportunities, creating relationships, and overcoming barriers to success.
Track 2
Session 1: Incremental Transitions Away From Legacy Systems
Session 2: Transitioning Workforce Skills and Succession Planning
In the ever-changing world of information technology, new technologies are continually replacing the old ones. This is truer than ever today as applications based on web technologies are replacing “legacy” applications, including COBOL and even some early client/server systems. The concepts and tools inherent in such things as relational databases and object-oriented development are very far removed from the what people used to the older technologies are familiar with and able to easily understand, thus presenting new, major challenges for both IT and program staff. Most public agencies are faced with the need to re-train existing staff and to acquire new staff with knowledge and skills in the advanced technologies being adopted. With the “aging out” of much of the IT and program workforce, agencies must begin to address the challenges of retraining existing staff and hiring new staff in order to create a workforce proficient in the new technologies. In this session, presenters will explore both these challenges and some techniques for meeting them.
Session 3: Making Transition Decisions and Building a Business Case
Options! Options! Options! In determining the future direction of information technology in human services, public agencies are faced with a variety of options for modernization of information systems. Choices range from a complete replacement of legacy systems to “sprucing up” of existing systems by web-enabling them, increasing accessibility, and improving the user interface. If the choice is to replace a legacy system, should it be through custom development, building a system using a framework, or “transfer” of a system from another state. Then, how do you make the business case for the approach you have selected? Should you even attempt to make these decisions on your own or should you enlist the aid of a contractor to guide you through the process? The list could go on and on. New Hampshire will discuss the options they considered and the cost benefit analysis they conducted. California will talk about their experience using a consultant to help evaluate the options and prepare a total cost of ownership analysis.
Session 4: IT Governance in a Time of Transition
Decisions about the future of human services information systems now involve and affect a wide variety of people, including, agency managers, IT managers, users, and other stakeholders. It seems like the bigger the project and the accompanying risk of an embarrassing failure, the more organizations want to be involved in governance and oversight. The organization structures of States vary significantly, but for many the number of players engaged in decision-making and oversight of major IT projects can complicate the process and impede a successful result if not managed carefully. Presenters from Pennsylvania and the private sector will discuss governance structures; the interaction of the State CIO’s office, the legislature, the budget and finance offices, the IT department, the program offices, and a variety of other oversight organizations; and will provide recommendations about how to navigate through the chain of command in order to maximize the chances of having a successful project.
Track 3
Session 1: A Day in the Life of the Technically Empowered Caseworker.
Cell phones, Blackberries, Laptops, Tablets, PDAs! Are caseworkers beginning to resemble Inspector Gadget? There is no doubt that many different devices are now available to human services caseworkers. But what’s the impact of technology on the caseworker or what could be the impact? This session focuses on how technology is changing the way caseworkers do their day-to-day jobs. People from Arkansas and Wisconsin will discuss how they are empowering their workers technically to free them up from confines of their offices in order to improve both accuracy of information and services to clients.
Session 2: Rules-Based Eligibility Systems: The Path to the Holistic Worker? The eligibility manual that’s a foot thick and requires a person with a photographic memory to use it effectively is a fact of life in today’s human services world, even if it is now on-line. But there may be another way to go. A number of states have implemented or are implementing rules-based eligibility systems. With the advent of these new systems, states are re-looking at their business and service delivery models. Can rules-based eligibility systems facilitate the introduction of a holistic worker-based delivery model? A one-stop shop? In this session, people form Delaware and San Diego County will discuss how they are redefining the roles and functions of their caseworkers as these types of systems are implemented within their states.
Session 3: What is Service Oriented Architecture? Like many examples of “the latest and greatest,” the term, “Service Oriented Architecture” (SOA), has been applied to just about everything. SOA expresses a business-driven approach to software architecture that supports integrating the business as a set of linked, repeatable business tasks, or "services." Services are self-contained, reusable software modules with well-defined interfaces and are independent of applications and the computing platforms on which they run. SOA is a style of enterprise architecture that enables the creation of applications that are built by combining loosely coupled and interoperable services. In this session, presenters from Rhode Island and the private sector will discuss how SOA is being applied within the human services application environment.
Session 4: Compare and Contrast: Open Standards, COTS, Open Source, and SOA
As so often happens, terms that sound similar, like Open Standards and Open Source, are frequently confused with one another. And how do Commercial Off-The-Shelf Software and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) fit into this picture? In this session two presenters from the private sector will discuss the differences between open standards, open source, COTS, and SOA. The presentations will define each of these terms and then apply them in a thought provoking way to human services. Since each has both positive and negative implications, depending on the requirements of an individual organization, the presenters will also explore the possibility of using them in combination in a hybrid solution in order to gain the advantages of each approach.Track 4
Regional Showcase – Spotlight on Minnesota
Sessions in this track will highlight several information systems developed and delivered by the State of Minnesota together with 87 counties and tribes. The shared purpose of the systems is to support collaborative delivery of a wide range of services to both providers and consumers of health care, economic supports and social services. The featured systems utilize mainframe, server, or distributed tier architecture approaches using portal development depending on the system requirements. An additional session will focus on the Minnesota initiative Drive to Excellence.
Session 1: Shared Master Index
The Shared Master Index (SMI) is a Web-based system designed to communicate across DHS Service Delivery Systems. The SMI will create a new common client identifier (ID number) for clients who are known to a number of DHS systems. Counties’ systems may also make use of the available data and functions in SMI, which will allow users to easily view an integrated set of client information drawn from each system to which the client is known. Statewide rollout occurred in the spring. This session will discuss creation and operation of Minnesota ’s SMI.
Session 2: Electronic Document Management Systems (EDMS)
EDMS is a multiple-phased program to deliver an enterprise solution to reduce paper storage costs, improve business operation efficiency and meet HIPAA requirements by converting paper records into electronic records for use in ongoing business processes as well as storage. Minnesota DHS and Hennepin County have employed electronic document management on a wide scale basis with significant results. Representatives from these organizations will share their progress and detail future efforts.
Session 3: Developing a Health Enterprise Partnership: Minnesota 's MITA Implementation
The Medicaid Information Technology Architecture (MITA) model promoted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) focuses system design on a thorough assessment and understanding of the health care business drivers. Minnesota 's DHS has adopted the MITA approach and is moving forward aggressively to build a health enterprise partnership. The partnership will link key health care business stakeholders in a process which provides an opportunity to explore and develop solutions to the challenges of delivering quality health care services. The presentation will cover efforts leading up to the development of the partnership, including the establishment of architectural standards, a Health Care Capability Maturity Model assessment, and governance structures developed to define and support priorities for the health care enterprise.
Session 4: Minnesota Drive to Excellence: Exploring the Roadmap -
Minnesota ’s Drive to Excellence began in 2004 with the goal of improving state government services by taking a more coordinated, government-wide approach to various areas. The Drive to Excellence Transformation Roadmap calls for a new state IT organization and an emphasis on services shared by multiple agencies and units of government. This session will outline both the future direction and immediate opportunities in the areas of Minnesota ’s enterprise architecture, enterprise security framework and enterprise e-government.
- State, Local, and Federal government
- CEOs
- Program managers who support or manage IT projects
- Program staff
- CIOs and IT managers
- Technical staff
- Project managers
- Governor's office
- Legislators and legislative staff
- Private sector
- Community Action Agencies and other non-profits
- Human services programs, including:
- TANF, Food Stamps, Medicaid, Mental Health, Public Health, WIC, Long-Term Care, HIPAA, Vocational Rehabilitation, SCHIP, Adult Services, Aging, Child Care, Child Welfare, Child Support
- Educators and juvenile justice professionals who are interested in connecting with human services
- Learn how technology can support partnerships and improve results obtained
- Learn how technology projects can become more successful through better functioning partnerships
- Learn how agency executives deal with problems they have encountered in implementing information technology initiatives
- Many educational opportunities
- Learn from your peers, and from national experts from both the private and public sectors
- See real-world IT solutions to real-world human services problems
- Interact with representatives from federal funding approval authorities
- Learn from the private sector who provide IT products and services to human services
- Connect with your counterparts from your part of the country
- Interact with people who are dealing with the same problems you are
- Discover the latest technology offerings
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: AUGUST 22, 2006
Click here for the registration form.
| Attendee | Vendor | Exhibit Staff | Spouse/Guest |
| Early: $300.00 | Early: $450.00 | $150.00 | $50.00 |
| Late: $350.00 | Late: $500.00 | $200.00 | $50.00 |
Contact Information:
Sharon Thompson Henson
(202) 682-0100
Sharon.Thompsonhenson@aphsa.org
CONFERENCE SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
This conference provides an excellent opportunity for people from the private sector to network with and learn from their state and local government business partners and to discuss information technology issues in human services that affect both the public and private sectors. The heavy educational component of the conference allows people from both the private sector and the public sector to learn together. The conference is supported, in part, by private sector sponsorships described below.
Contact Information: Mary Beth Peters (573) 751-4435
Our current sponsors include: Click for sponsor list
Limited sponsorship opportunities remain!, please contact Mary Beth Peters for further information.
Minneapolis, Minnesota - MS Word
4th Annual ISM Golf Outing - .pdf
Sunday Morning, September 10, 2006