Florida Department of Children and Families Makes Rapid Integration a Reality
InterSystems' Ensemble Plus iWay Adapters Enable Composite Web Application Rollout in 90 Days
All too often, the typical view of government projects is that they take too long, cost too much and don't deliver results. Not so at the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), where a three-person team initiated an integration project that went from concept through development and
testing to Web deployment in just 90 days.
Our vision was to integrate the information from 59 disparate applications running on multiple platforms and accessing a variety of databases into a composite portal application that provides a single view of relevant data about each DCF client. The result of making that vision a reality is OneFamily, a Web portal
built on InterSystems Corporation's Ensemble integration platform and utilizing iWay data adapters.
DCF is the one of the largest agencies in Florida, serving a statewide population with a variety of programs designed to provide care and support for Florida's most vulnerable citizens. Numbering in the millions, this population includes abused and neglected children, the elderly and disabled, and those who are
physically and mentally challenged or substance dependent.
As a government agency, DCF is confronted by integration challenges that are as significant as they are inevitable. Agency programs are created as the direct result of legislation that typically sets very specific, tight deadlines for when the programs must be implemented. The result is that speed is the critical
success factor for developing and deploying the IT applications that enable the programs, leaving little or no time for long-term planning about the impact on system infrastructure.
Not surprisingly, therefore, DCF applications are running on platforms ranging from IBM mainframes to PCs. Data repositories include Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, InterSystems' CACHÉ, IMS, DB2, Access, and Visual FoxPro. That means service providers and caseworkers had no way to tie together all of the information
that is key to making appropriate decisions about how to best serve any individual client. The impact of this lack of a single view of all client data could be costly and frustrating, resulting in unnecessary duplication of services or failure to deliver all of the services to which a client is entitled. It could
also result in tragedy, illustrated by the case of Rilya Wilson, a 4-year-old placed with her grandmother by DCF. Wilson was abducted in 2001, and it was nearly 16 months before DCF was aware of what happened.
DCF opted to become an early adopter of Ensemble, which offers a complete range of iWay data adapters, and kicked off a development and deployment initiative in 2Q03. The development team created a test bed integrating information from five systems. The composite application was rapidly prototyped and, after a
series of reviews that included a presentation to Governor Jeb Bush, went live just 90 days after project initiation.
Ensemble uniquely offers the rapid, comprehensive solution we needed to integrate information and applications, create reports across our 59 systems and leverage new technologies that could easily combine legacy information with new screens. And, iWay's Intelligent Adapter for IMS provides persistent, real-time ODBC
connectivity to a legacy hierarchical database that contains all of DCF's client eligibility information. This information, which is stored in the largest IMS database in the world, is critical to every service DCF provides. With the adapter, the data can be accessed through the application, data or Web services
data exchange layer of OneFamily and incorporated in all 59 applications for seamless eligibility determination.
The single view of client data that Ensemble has made possible will enable DCF to take an holistic approach to care for our clients. Additionally, the combination of Ensemble and iWay adapters is delivering concrete returns on DCF's technology investment. With about 80 percent of needed information already existing
in DCF's legacy systems, the cost to rewrite all 59 systems would run to millions of dollars. By integrating legacy data with new screens accessed by an Ensemble-based composite application, DCF will save more than 90 percent of that potential cost. Based on the results of the pilot, DCF is moving forward with an
extremely aggressive deployment strategy to integrate the remaining applications under the OneFamily umbrella.
So, what began as an integration project has become an enterprise information architecture. It's a success for DCF and, more important, the clients whom we serve.
Ben Harris is deputy secretary, Operations and Information Technology for the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF). Glenn Palmiere is Information Technology director for DCF.
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