Does this picture look familiar to anyone that manages the IT at an agency?  If you so, you are not alone!  It's very common at a human service agency to have the IT operations shunned to a back corner of the office and given an empty closet to store all of your computer servers.  And very quickly this closet becomes your oasis - your happy place that very few people you work with appreciate!  Maybe you go in the server closet once a day to just check everything or do some back ups.  Maybe you go in there just to hear the gentle humming of the fans and relax your mind. Maybe you even take your lunch break in the server closet (this is not recommended!).  In any case, the server closet is your domain.  So knowing that, this headline might instantly make you defensive.  Listen, if anyone understands and appreciates the server closet, it's us!  We don't want to take away your happy place, but we do want to open your mind to the possibilities of what a cloud based dd provider software can do for your agency and the risks you mitigate by having it hosted in the cloud.  By the end of this blog post, my goal is to have you looking at your server closet in a new light - it's still your happy place but maybe it doesn't have all of those servers, just one.  What if you could fit a comfy chair in there?  Maybe you really could eat lunch in there, with a guest!  Let's find out how this is possible.

When you think about your career and your goals and accomplishments, how do you currently measure them?  Is that even something your concerned about?  Working in human services is naturally something that's hard to measure.  And it goes without saying that as you are providing services to your clients, working on goals is not cut and dry.  There are days that progress is made and days that working on goals regresses.  It's only natural, everyone is human.  But, over time (maybe 6 months, maybe 5 years) do you get satisfaction from seeing progress with goals that you are helping your clients work towards?  That has to be some of the most fulfilling parts of your job - your dedication and commitment to the people you help does make a difference in their lives!  We often ask our partner agencies what was most important to them when they purchased electronic records for their dd agency.  Over 50% of the time, it's too increase the quality of care.  This trumps more operational concerns from an agency standpoint such as compliance, cash flow and billing, increasing capacity.  At the end of the day, your quality care delivery is why your agency exists.  But, how do you measure that?  How can a software system increase quality of care?  There are many answers to that question, but today I am going to focus on one particular area: tracking client progress.

Overseeing the operations of a human service agency is no easy task.  Keeping your agency staffed with qualified employees, monitoring utilization of authorized units, forecasting financials, staying on top of changing regulatory requirements are a few of the many responsibilities of those that are managing the day to day operations.  I've seen first hand the balancing act that's required to do this and when managers or executives say they don't have enough time in the day to do their job, they're not kidding! One of the key tools in an executive or manager's toolbox is the ability to generate and view reports.  Through reports and dashboards you can quickly see the status of key areas to know how to navigate your employees, decisions and operations.  This is one of the biggest benefits to using developmental disabilities software, or an agency management platform, at your agency.  If you didn't have to spend to time creating reports or taking raw data and putting into excel spreadsheets, but instead had reports at your finger tips, how much time would you save?  And how much more accurate would your reporting be?