Information Technology Support
of EEC’s System Building Efforts
May 8, 2012 EEC Board Meeting
Summary Presentation
EEC IT Strategic Visioning
•Commissioner Killins
defines Strategic
goals and direction
of the agency
•Commissioner with
Sr. Leadership
drives prioritization
of IT projects and
process
improvements
•Requests IT needs
through established
prioritization
process
•Supplies resources
to provide input on
business needs of
IT applications
•Very involved in
requirements,
testing, and
training phases
EEC
Leadership
EEC
EOE
Support
EEC User
Community
•IT Leadership
ensures alignment
of IT goals with EEC
Strategic Goals
•EOE/ ITD
Leadership provides
executive level
sponsorship and
oversight
•Provides feedback
on current IT issues
and on new
applications
•Involved in user
acceptance testing
•Presents comments
on application
usability and
rollouts
EEC’s vision for leveraging IT to meet Strategic Goals
involves support and feedback at the Secretariat,
Agency, and User levels
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Business Application Definitions
QRIS – Quality Rating and Improvement System
•Quality rating levels for early education and care and after school programs
PQR – Professional Qualifications Registry
•Information on educators such as their professional certifications and information about
professional development opportunities
Licensing Manager
•Information on licensed child care providers in the Commonwealth
KinderWait
•Application intake, eligibility determination and waitlist management
Unified System
•Provides an improved process for all Commonwealth children and families to access and
receive services
ECIS – Early Childhood Information System
•Single data store for child, family, program, provider and educator information
•Will assist in child outcome and program analysis as well as provide messaging capabilities for
families and providers
3
FY12 EEC IT Applications

KinderWait-childcare waiting list application

Web-based application implemented in August 2011 to replace a
legacy waitlist application
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•
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•
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Allows for ease of use: MA211 & families can also enter data
Application taking
Eligibility wizard
Waiting list system
Voucher Reassessment – streamlined VM process
Child Care Financial Assistance (CCFA)
Service
Web-based application that will improve attendance, billing,
payment, and compliance processes
 Collect uniform, universal, and high quality data on all children
 Reports and data from this application will support ongoing
research, policy decision making, and budgetary planning

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The launch of these IT Initiatives were born from
the strategic direction and visioning of EEC
FY12 EEC IT Applications cont’d
Enhancements were completed on our existing applications

QRIS
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
PQR
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5
Automate Level 1 verification for licensed programs in good standing
Added functionality that enables users to copy data from one application
to another
Enhanced Summary of Application Profile page to display list of standards
a program must achieve to get to the next Level by user role and status
of a QRIS application
Monthly emails to registrants and administrators regarding expired
registrations
Streamlined instructions pages and developed monthly instructional
emails to registrants and administrators regarding pending registrations
Enhanced matching criteria to prevent addition of multiple records for
registrants and non EEC programs
These modifications support the Agency’s vision
of improving applications based on efficiency
realization and user feedback
Implementation Lessons Learned
Past application implementations had several issue areas

Data quality
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Communication
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ISSUE: End users have felt unprepared by application implementations or did not
have the full set of expectations conveyed to them
LESSON: Constant communication is critical to the success of a project which also
includes thorough training and end user guides
HelpDesk

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ISSUE: The KinderWait implementation brought over family data from a legacy
system. A lack of full understanding of the data elements in the new system and their
significance led to data quality issues.
LESSON: Data conversion is an important part of many implementations and needs to
be handled with detail to attention and full understanding of system impacts
ISSUE: End users have felt lack of response from HelpDesk
LESSON: HelpDesk should be prepared prior to implementations to handle additional
user requests
In order to streamline implementations and also provide on
going user support the HelpDesk is streamlining its
processes by monitoring outstanding work orders and
ensuring cross training of its staff
Vision for the Future
EEC seeks an IT environment that will enable…
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Efficient and innovative technical solutions for
families, providers and EEC staff
Open and transparent engagement with
business sponsors and users of EEC to prioritize
initiatives
Accurate and timely data for policy making,
service delivery, and results evaluation
Streamlined applications that are appropriately
integrated and linked
Ease of Technology and Mobility
EEC leadership proactively seeks ways to increase
productivity through use of technology
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Mobile
Internet
Access
SSI Single
Sign In
Data Quality
Situation: At the Jan
2012 Region 1
meeting access to
the internet while in
the field was
requested
Situation: Users
were prone to
forgetting their
password and
usernames which
was creating a large
burden on the
HelpDesk
Situation: Legacy
systems have had
missing data and
incongruous data
making it a
challenge to run
reports and analyze
data in an accurate
and meaningful way
Result: Sponsorship
from Commissioner
Killins enabled IT to
provided each
region with mobile
Wi-Fi hot spots
devices for use in
the field
Result: Users are now asked
to enter their email address
twice (double entry) to
reduce errors. Screen
workflow was improved for
did you forget
username/password
screens. E-mail templates
were streamlined that
provide instructions to
users for their
username/password
Result: EEC and IT
stakeholders participated
in feedback for Common
Education Data Standards
CEDS version 2. All
applications moving
forward will utilize the
latest version of CEDS in
order to promote data
consistency and quality
within EEC and across
education agencies
Improved process and end user
benefits
Streamlined processes for child care systems
directly impact the field
• Field issues will be addressed by collecting feedback and improvements to application
workflow will be implemented
• Move towards web based applications to ensure ease of connectivity and support
• Ensure consistent rules and practices are coded in the system versus fragmented business
rules
• Ensure workflow and application rules comply with current regulations
CCR&Rs, CPs, and EEC staff will have positive impact from
improvements in IT Applications
• Applications will be provide built in help functions to improve end user productivity
• Provide reporting capabilities through the application (ie. This will assist CCR&Rs to manage
caseload)
• System maintenance will be less cumbersome with the move towards online applications
• Ability to upload documents into the application will assist in workflow, organization and
tracking of information
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Data Driven Policy Administration
EEC’s vision is to enable data driven management

Unleash the potential of existing data

Multi-dimensional views of data for
• All children
• By program setting, region, funding source, age group
• Assessment data coupled with parental consent
• Provider/Program
• Data on programs in QRIS
• Data on PQR registrants
• Data across time
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Combination of data streams for longitudinal
view
Coordination with LDS-P20 initiative and share
data across Commonwealth agencies
• EWIS report to indicate distribution of risk levels
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ECIS Implementation: Phased
Approach

Massachusetts has developed a high quality
plan to strengthen EEC systems and build
interoperability among them, with a specific
focus on data accessibility
•Linkage of EEC systems
•Single data source
•Reporting on children
demographic data and
enrolled programs
Initial System
Parent and
Provider Portals
•Web portals for parent entry of core
child data and assessments
•Web portals for provider entry of
screening and assessment data
•Ability to collect and report on nonsubsidy programs and children
•Report on attendance, age of entry
and length of engagement for
subsidy children
•Automated messages to
families or providers
•Report on status of children
across ages and over time
•Report on child outcomes
using formative assessments
•Executive level dash boarding
monitoring trends
Robust Childhood
Information
System
Linking it all together – EEC IT will
continue to ensure appropriate system links
CORI/
BRC
Manager
Licensing
Manager
Licensing
Manager
QRIS
CORI/ BRC
manager
EECRS
Incidents /
Complaints
PQ
Registry
Links from a Quality and
Program Perspective
Links from a Licensing Perspective
Licensing
Manager
CCFA
QRIS
PQ
Registry
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Links from a Financial Assistance Educator Perspective
Licensing
Manager
PQ
Registry
Prof.
Developm
ent
Calendar
Professio
nal
Certificati
on (TQ)
Links from an Educator Perspective