it leadership in building a successful collaborative business environment

SAMIS – A Collaboration of Florida Special Taxing Districts

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Patricia K. Gehant, M.A. The Children’s Service’s Council’s in Florida have been collaborating on the use of a grants management SaaS software solution since 2001 which offers both transparencies of operations and accountably for $1.7 billion in public funds. This paper describes the product, the successes, and the leadership strategies employed during the 10 years of operation.

Mentor – Jennifer Fisch, CCIO, Children’s Board of Hillsborough County.

SAMIS-A Software Collaboration

Innovation is born from collaboration! Page 1

Table of Contents Project Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 3

The Partners .......................................................................................................................................... 4

Realized Advantages ............................................................................................................................. 4

SaaS or Cloud ........................................................................................................................................ 5

The Motivation ...................................................................................................................................... 5

The Role of Leadership in a Collaboration .................................................................................................... 5

The Collaborative Business Model ................................................................................................................ 7

Why a Collaborative is Successful? ............................................................................................................... 8

What is SAMIS? .............................................................................................................................................. 9

The History of SAMIS .............................................................................................................................. 11

Reason for SAMIS .................................................................................................................................... 12

The Operational Structure ...................................................................................................................... 14

The Fee Structure .................................................................................................................................... 16

Fee Model ........................................................................................................................................... 18

The Funding Formula .............................................................................................................................. 19

The SAMIS Environment ......................................................................................................................... 19

Definitions of Cloud vs. SaaS solution .................................................................................................... 20

SaaS Defined ....................................................................................................................................... 21

Cloud Defined ..................................................................................................................................... 21

SAMIS as a Cloud and SaaS Defined .................................................................................................... 21

Delivering Quality Service to the Customer ................................................................................................ 22

Enhancement Team Process ................................................................................................................... 22

The Enhancement Review Process ......................................................................................................... 23

SDLC Framework ..................................................................................................................................... 25

Collaborative Technology ....................................................................................................................... 25

The Partner Commitment to Accountability ............................................................................................... 26

Implementation of New Partners ........................................................................................................... 27

Future Projects of the Collaborative ........................................................................................................... 27

Business Intelligence ............................................................................................................................... 27

Online Learning ....................................................................................................................................... 28

SAMIS Operations at the State Level ...................................................................................................... 28



Expansion of Partnerships....................................................................................................................... 28

Attachment 1 – SAMIS Organizational Chart .............................................................................................. 30

Attachment 2 – SAMIS Feature List ............................................................................................................ 33

Attachment 3 – SAMIS Analysis of Costs Over the Life of Collaborative .......................................................... 35

Attachment 4 – Team Learning Scenario .................................................................................................... 38

Attachment 5 – SAMIS Business Intelligence Proposed Structure and Governance .................................. 40



Project Summary – The goal of

the paper is to describe how seven Children’s Services Council (CSC’s), special taxing districts in Florida, and one county government, shared the cost of developing a custom software application that resulted in increased accountability of over $1.7 billion dollars in public funds, and demonstrated the effectiveness of the services delivered to over 800,000 children and adults in Florida. Decision makers have access to county specific and real time information, are able to make informed decisions based on the data, impacting the quality of life of children and families by using the SAMIS Grants Management Application. The counties participating in this collaborative represent approximately 48% of the State population.

The paper will discuss the organizational and operational structure, the ability to replicate the project, and the leadership style required to manage a collaborative. The SAMIS Collaborative has operated since 2001 and has added new members over the years. This success was not without challenges for which the leadership negotiated changes in the operational structure. Today, the Collaborative continues to negotiate with potential new partners from around the State.

This paper outlines how a collaborative was formed and structured to take advantage of shared knowledge and reduce the overall cost of development and ongoing operations. The paper will also address the following factors:

• The history and description of the SAMIS Software Collaboration

• The evolution and decision making process of the collaborative operations

• The participant benefits and challenges with the partnership

• The underlying technology that supports the collaborative model

The replication of this model in other counties statewide is possible and the paper will discuss the various operational changes undertaken in response to the evolving needs of the partners and lessons learned for others considering a similar solution.

The SAMIS Collaborative leadership is currently evaluating the feasibility of operating through the Florida Children’s Services Council, the state association of CSC’s, rather than through the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas with the goal of expanding the opportunities to other entities for additional revenue. See Attachment 1.

SAMIS, a collaboration of governmental

agencies, can be replicated in other counties in Florida.

SAMIS – Collaboration of Special Districts

Throughout the report the reader will find examples of how innovation was born from collaboration and how technology, if effectively implemented, will expand knowledge with a high return on investment.



Throughout the report the reader will find examples of how innovation was born from collaboration and how technology, if effectively implemented, expands knowledge and action with a high return on investment.

The Partners - The collaborative is managed by the SAMIS Management Committee consisting of a representative from each participating CSCs: Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, Children’s Services Councils of Broward, Palm Beach, and Martin, The Children’s Commission of Jacksonville and the newest members (2010/11) The Children’s Trust of Miami and the Children’s Board of Hillsborough. Pending membership includes St. Lucie CSC’s. Palm Beach County Department of Community Services has joined the collaborative as a partner of the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County.

Future customers that can benefit include county and city governments, and community funding organizations that distribute funds to community organizations and require accountability for their expended funds, such as local United Ways. Community programs currently utilizing SAMIS include: child care providers, mental health counseling and residential programs, recreational, tutoring, and/or family therapy providers, etc.

Realized Advantages - The model has been continuously refined over the last 10 years of operation in response to the partner’s needs and lessons learned. Below is a list of the realized advantages.

– Provides a transparent and timely process of accountability for public funds

– Answers the question - Did the CSC/Agency make a difference in the individuals served by the program funded with tax dollars?

– Low cost to users - No added software or infrastructure for CSC or funded agencies

– Provides a high level of business continuity, security, and user access

– ROI is continuous from start of participation

– High rate of user satisfaction

– Leadership that supports the ideals of collaboration

SAMIS is an example of how innovation was born from

collaboration and how technology, if effectively implemented, expands knowledge and action with a high

return on investment.



The SAMIS software suite provides a cost effective solution for the collection and analysis of information from community service providers with various level of technology resources. The cost of operation is shared among the eight members at a rate that is far less than anyone CSC can operate a comparable network. The host CSC, JWB, benefited from shared costs of operations including such standard costs as internet service, data center occupancy, security, redundancy, network costs and shared database staff, and the cost of IT leadership.

SaaS or Cloud - SAMIS operates as a hybrid Cloud solution and also as a SaaS for other pending customers. Gartner defines the Cloud as a business function through the internet (email, storage, etc.) and a SaaS as the delivery of a custom application that uses a single set of code that is shared across many users (SalesForce.com, Google Apps, etc.) 1

What makes SAMIS stand apart is the collaborative management approach that responds to IT leadership hesitancy to move into a business model that moves resources outside the walls of IT control. SAMIS business model addresses the fear “If I cannot see it, how can I manage it?” IT leadership has input into the operations and software change process.

The Motivation for the development of the product arose out of efforts by JWB to solve a common problem shared by all the CSC’s – the production of timely and accurate data that reflected the true impact of CSC funds on the community. The genesis of the formation of the Collaborative was the need of other CSC’s to meet the same objective responsibly with public funds.

The Role of Leadership in a Collaboration SAMIS was originally not based on a model used by others and in 2001 there were no standards for operating a SaaS by one governmental entity (JWB) for four other entities. SAMIS Collaborative development was an example of an adaptive leadership challenge (Heifetz, 2002). SAMIS required experimenting and developing new ways to standardize a business process across multiple governmental entities and to design an effective operational model.

Each participating CSC arrived to the SAMIS collaborative from a CSC with a well-established system with defined structures, patterns of interrelationship along with individually held set of beliefs reflecting both their organizations and local

1 Gartner Presentation

Did we make a difference in the lives of children and families?



communities. The success of a new initiative was dependent upon the ability of the individuals to appreciate and understand the dynamics necessary to form a learning community that was able to efficiently deliver results, learn, innovate, and to conform to a new shared set of norms and behaviors.

The successful establishment of a new system of thinking must be future oriented. SAMIS has had consistent leadership over the ten years of operation in both the Operational staff as well as the core through leaders from the original five partners. It is this group that has perpetuated the original purpose through all phases of change. It is also this group that has to maintain an open mind and accept a plurality of voices to collaborate on new ideas that identified opportunities that lead to innovation.

Between 2001 and 2010 the members of the team remained stable, building positive relationships, establishing patterns of behavior and SAMIS system structures that would provide the desired outcomes. The SAMIS Management Group (SMG) became the team that designed the operations of the Collaborative. Each member brought individual learning experiences and past knowledge to the conversation in an environment with team norms of acceptable creative tension, trust, inquiry, and ability to transition from the current reality to the future desired reality.2

The main behavioral change that is necessary for successful participation in a collaborative partnership, such as SAMIS, is the ability to share control over all aspects of the operations. According to Heifetz and Linsky (Heifetz, 2002, p. 13) “without learning new ways – changing attitudes, values, and behaviors – people cannot make the adaptive leap necessary to thrive in a new environment.” The SMG exhibited the adaptive skills when new members joined the team after 10 years of operations.

The new partners that joined the Collaborative in 2010 entered initially viewing SAMIS as a technical solution and accepted the structure and behavioral patterns that currently existed. Members were oriented to the current SAMIS structures and patterns – fee structures, enhancement process, help desk support, infrastructure operations, etc. However, since all partners have an equal voice in the conversation, regardless of length of membership, the pool of experience and knowledge of the new partners has expanded the pool of new ideas as well as the process of establishing new relationships that support the principles of successful teams.

Over the 10 years of the partnership, leadership has proposed several new operational strategies to meet the customer where they are at that point in time. To maintain a healthy adaptive team, leadership must support a community of learning where all members feel comfortable offering ideas and fully participating in the discussions and decisions. The success of a collaborative is the healthy discussion of ideas and meeting the needs of all members. The learning community is best emphasized in the ability of the SAMIS leadership to adapt to change.

2 Module II, Understanding the Enterprise, Florida Institute of Government, October, 25, 2011

Successful Teams …..

• Build trust to enable collaboration and learning

• Accept levels of creative tension • Visualize • Inquire • Transition from current state to future



The Collaborative Business Model SAMIS operates as a business collaborative with a defined decision making structure. The model has been designed to provide all partners equal access to the application and equal input into defined management decisions. The model was developed based on the conversational leadership style and concept of learning organizations. Peter Senge, the Director of the Center for Organizational Learning at MIT Sloan School of Management, posts that as the world around us becomes more complex and dynamic, work must become more “learningful” and that it is no longer sufficient to have one person learning for the organization. 3 SAMIS Collaborative was designed to benefit from the shared learning experiences of all the members to respond to an increasingly complex world. Learning organizations are possible because we are all learners and it is our nature to learn.4

The SAMIS Collaborative has demonstrated the application of the principles of the learning organization through the business operational and governance changes implemented to accommodate the changing technology and needs of the partners throughout the 10 years of operations. Below is a summary of the key changes negotiated by the partners.

1. 2007 - Created the Operations Manager and Fiscal Agent roles to distribute the cost of the effort and to increase accountability by separating fiscal from operational functions.

2. 2007 - Modified the enhancement process from one cycle per year with all partners agreeing to the change to implementing multiple release cycles a year and providing a process for individual CSC changes.

3. 2008 - Established, as a of FY 09-10, a SAMIS Base Version, requiring agreement of all partners to any changes to the Base, thus reducing the impact of changes on individual Counties or agencies. The same code base is maintained but the functionality is not activated. However, the functionality can be made available at a later date.

4. 2008 - Changed the fee structure from all partners pay a share of all Group enhancements regardless of usage, to two fee groups for enhancement – Program/Fiscal and Measurable Objectives (MO) – billed based on usage. MO enhancements have traditionally been the highest cost features and have traditionally pull funds from either Fiscal or Program enhancements. Since not by all CSCs use MOs, it was decided to change the fee structure to accommodate this business process.

3 (Senge, 1990, revised 2006) p. 28 4 (Senge, 1990, revised 2006) p. 29

The team that became great didn’t start off great – it learned how to

produce extraordinary results. (Senge, 1990, revised 2006)p. 29



5. 2009 - The Hardware fee, previously a separate fee assessed annually, will now be taken from the SAMIS Reserve Fund rather than directly billed to the CSCs. This was implemented to address the changing economic conditions.

6. 2010 - The Licensing fee was eliminated for new members and an Implementation fee was developed. New partners are assessed $50,000 for implementation and enhancements costs. However, members entering the Collaborative after 2005 do not have rights to the reserve fund generated by past Licensing fees should the collaborative dissolve. All participating partners benefit from the use of the reserve fund and the hardware purchased.

7. 2010 - The contract was revised to allow partners to leave the Collaborative and still have access to the software with limitations on resale or profiting.

8. 2010 - The formula for distributing the costs was revised for FY 10-11 to remove the county population as a factor in determining portion of the fees.

9. 2011 – A new business model is being proposed which includes the Operating Agent being transferred to the Florida Children’s Services Council, (the state level association of the CSC’s) from the CSC level with management being moved to another CSC due to a change in priorities at the CSC level.

Why a Collaborative is Successful? The SAMIS Collaborative has been successful because a core value has been to engage the collective intelligence to solve problems. As the SAMIS Enhancement Flow chart demonstrates, conversation takes place on many levels and in a variety of environments. SAMIS Collaborative members are encouraged to obtain feedback from constituents in their SAMIS user communities and peers to create an opportunity to connect and discover new information, that can lead to innovation. The benefits of collaboration are dependent on the reason two or more groups come together. The SAMIS

Why is ÔÈÅ Collaborative Successful? 1. Shared mission – all partners need

the services and cannot afford to create or purchase independently

2. Long term stability in CSC membership, management and development staff

3. Technology that is flexible and scalable

4. Infrastructure that supports the process

5. High Return of Investment (ROI)



partners founded the collaborative to meet a specific set of goals outlined below.

1. Stabilized costs due to unspent funds being rolled forward and used by the group 2. Reduced costs of group enhancements 3. Reduced costs of combined operations 4. Reduced costs of hardware and software purchases 5. Reduced infrastructure cost to the end user 6. Reduced support costs 7. Share synergy of ideas and functionality

The original team of partners recognized the potential of a joint venture that would provide both benefit and efficiency of operation. The team came together because of the trust that existed between the individuals and that trust was respected throughout all changes. A system must make changes to remain relevant; the leadership group had that vision.

What is SAMIS? - SAMIS is a web based grants management suite that allows community

organizations to report to local governmental agencies how public funds have been expended. The data collected includes client level demographics, outcomes, and agency specific financial information. The SAMIS software application is delivered through a private Cloud/SaaS configuration to over 2,800 users in 785 locations in Florida. The cost of utilizing SAMIS by special taxing districts is based on the number of contracted programs entering data and the amount of contracted funds accounted for in SAMIS. The access fees are born by the governmental agencies, not user agencies, i.e., access to the application is

provided at no cost to community programs required to enter data.

The system currently manages $300 million annually in public funds, with over $1.7 billion since its implementation in 2001. The project is currently implementing two new partners with one partner beginning in July5. Negotiations are currently underway with three additional partners which will increase

utilization to potentially $375 million annually with over 3,400 users at approximately 1,000 locations in the State.

In general SAMIS offers the Agency user the ability to:

• Transfer client data electronically into SAMIS (EDI) • Retrieve all data entered - (reverse EDI) • Create custom queries to meet agency needs

5 Currently in the implementation stage are The Children’s Trust of Miami and the Community Services Department of Palm Beach County. The Children’s Board of Hillsborough County will start in October 2011.

SAMIS by the numbers…. In 2011

2,800 users $300 million managed annually $1.7 billion in public funds 785 locations in Florida 800,000 client records



SAMIS Value Proposition – Provide users timely access to information with ease of entry and retrieval with ability to manage quality.

• Customized Outcomes by the CSC and assigned to the program at the individual and group level • Paperless Budgeting Process

– Budgeting – Reimbursement – Budget amendments – Electronic transfer of funds

• Workflow accountability in the Budget, Reimbursement and Budget amendment process

• Generate CSC specific agency contracts – Contract with over 120 pages is generated in 5

seconds and includes the approved budget and all custom special contract conditions set forth by the CSC.

– Contracts include all measurable outcomes agreed on between the agency and CSC.

• Offers replicated database services to allow CSCs to pull any data out of the system and conduct individual analysis outside of SAMIS. This feature is the source of the development of the Business Intelligence strategy underway at the State level.

• Consolidated Reporting provides real time results from a single screen to all Program and Fiscal reports generated in SAMIS. This approach provides access to management information without needing detailed knowledge of or access to all modules in SAMIS. Report consolidation also allows for targeted access to reports, which protects the database from unauthorized changes and the unauthorized dissemination of

information. • The Security model provides granularity based on roles in the organization. The SAMIS Operations

team sets up each partner site providing access to the CSC Help Desk Administrator. Each partner controls access to their site (CSC), setting up permissions by agency, program, modules, and for reporting groups. The Password security forces the use of strong passwords and uses current password security standards of a regular reset and a “no sharing” policy. Only the SAMIS Operations team has access to all partner databases in order to provide technical support. A SAMIS replication database is made available to a limited number of staff at each CSC for setting up ODBC connections to pull data from SAMIS to integrate with other data systems.

• SAMIS has been designed to allow users to view the broadest range of data entered. The Consolidated Reports Module features an array of reports that are generated based on the various criteria such as Children’s Services Council (CSC), Agency, Program, Program Site, and Classifications of Programs; reports are rendered differently based on criteria. The defined report groups include Budget, Reimbursements, Adjustments, CDG, Attendance, Measurable Objectives, Workflow, Funding, Waiting List, Group Activity, Position Management and Utility.



User access can be assigned at the report group or individual report level. See Attachment 2 SAMIS Features List.

The History of SAMIS Five independent taxing authorities formed a data collaborative in 2001 under F.S. 163.62 which allows local governments to organize a data collaborative for the purpose of sharing information. F.S. Title XI, Chapter 125.901 was amended to support collaborative research activities by exempting CSC’s from F.S. 119.07.(1) “Personal identifying information of a child or the parent or guardian of the child, held by a council on children’s services, juvenile welfare board, or other similar entity created under this section or by special law, or held by a service provider or researcher under contract with such entity.”

Over the past ten years of operation, SAMIS has had several business model revisions as the partners grew and as the team generated new ideas. As a result, the learning community responded to new ideas and changing needs. Change does not require a threat that must be addressed6. Change can occur in teams that have created an opportunity to discuss ideas resulting in a better way – even if the current way works! The revisions in the governance of SAMIS provide insight into the life cycle of a collaborative team, and which if not addressed, would have ended the SAMIS Collaborative. There are no published examples of governments collaborating for over 10 years on the delivery of a software application where all partners have equal input on the design and functionality of the system. There are examples of government “sharing” resources (storage, internet connectivity, BC/DR, infrastructure, etc.), but these generally do not include shared decision making, e.g. The Lambda Rail, which has twelve (12) equity members consisting of public and private universities and colleges in Florida. The growth and development of SAMIS, includes challenges and successes, evolving the SAMIS collaborative to its current state. An increase in access to the internet and technology has lead SAMIS to be innovative in the accomplishment of common business tasks of governments. SAMIS has been a SaaS solution since its birth in 2001; when SaaS was defined as an ASP (Application Service Provider). JWB was fortunate to work with a team of professionals from the various CSC’s that embraced collaboration and helped shape the design with new ideas and focus. In addition, the process has benefited from the software development firm, Tribridge that understands the nature and value of collaboration and has been working with our team throughout the life of the project. The shared vision by the developers and partners, combined with the consistency of the membership, has been a critical factor in the methodical enhancement of the application that has led to the current design.

6 (Senge, 1990, revised 2006) p. 423



Reason for SAMIS Fourteen years ago, JWB became motivated to change after an Information Systems Review was conducted to determine how to improve the business processes of JWB. The RISC UNIX based server and “dumb terminals” in use were 10 years old and out of warranty. The data system used was a UNIX custom application for which no one employed at JWB could find manuals. Documentation was based on folklore passed down from staff to staff along with hand written notes. The staff was using an array of desktops, thin clients, and a mix of Microsoft, Uniplex, and other custom applications based on needs at the time. Eventually the Unix custom application was moth balled unofficially and 146 Excel spreadsheets were used to generate contract performance data. Some staff refused to use any technology at all because it was “too complicated.” In FY 97-98, at the time of the study, JWB distributed $42 million to community programs with all financial and performance information gathered in paper format. The requests for reimbursements were hand delivered to existing staff and consisted of 1-2” thick paper support documentation. Two JWB Fiscal staff took about 2 weeks to audit the documentation, request clarifications, submit for payment, and then an additional 1 - 2 weeks to process the payment in the accounting system, depending on questions, timely re-submission, and corrections. Checks were either mailed to the program or as many would do, drive over to pick it up to meet their payroll. To assist providers, JWB had a practice of providing a cash advance that allowed cash strapped agencies to request up to 1/10th of their annual allocation at the start of the fiscal year to provide cash flow until the first reimbursement was received at the end of October or mid-November. Performance data was provided in summary to the Board annually containing data that was 10-12 months old. Programs reported quarterly by responding to a series of summary questions that were printed and mailed to each agency by JWB – 144 program - on continuous feed carbon sheets from a dot matrix printer. Printouts, some 5-6 feet long, were mailed to each program in November, March, June and September for a response by the 15th of the following month. Once the reports arrived at JWB, one secretary spent a week separating the two remaining copies (one for data entry and one for the record) and entered the data into a custom application on a UNIX operating system. The secretary ran the quarterly summaries with the results distributed to 5 contract mangers to review the results with Agencies being called for clarification on any discrepancies discovered by the contract manager. While there were established norms for the review, not all staff applied the same rigor to the quarterly review. When the data was “confirmed”, the summary information was entered onto a MultiPlan spreadsheet (later Excel) for a different analysis. This was repeated each quarter with the year-end data reviewed by the contract managers.

SAMIS is built with public funds and our developer shares the same respect for the tax payer; we build what we need to be effective, efficient, and economical.



Contract Managers would read the reports each quarter.

The year-end program level reports were produced in paper format, which took a minimum of six months to analyze and then re-confirmed by the Contract Managers who provided corrections to the data entry clerk. The year-end report – Performance Analysis – required considerable labor to prepare and publish. The analysis and report preparation, along with any extended analysis, took another 6 months before the Board would see the preliminary data. Because of this process, funding decisions for the new fiscal year were made based on 10-12 month old data, best case.

JWB decided in September of 1997 to release an RFP to seek assistance in defining technology needs and determine the best strategy for solving the data analysis lag time. The process resulted in a recommendation to build a custom application, since there were no products on the market that met our needs. Between April 1998 and December 2000, JWB implemented SAMIS in over 150 programs. During this time the kinks were worked out of the application through a series of planned enhancements for which $ 554,191 was expended. SAMIS was introduced to other CSC’s in 2001 who inquired on the use of SAMIS and the discussion began to determine if there could be cost savings if a collaborative was formed. The primary goals of participation was to increase the information available to the CSC, reduce the time necessary to analyze and respond to the service trends, and reduce the cost of implementation. In addition, there was also an early recognition of the potential to share data across CSC’s to determine effective program models across Counties. JWB agreed to lead the formation of the Collaboration with five CSC’s in 2001. A key factor in the decision to form the collaborative was because a solid relationship of trust existed among the five partners which was developed through the many joint activites of the Florida Children’s Services Councils, a state association of CSC’s. In addition, the JWB executive leadership believed there was value added to both JWB and other CSCs around the State through the sharing of ideas and intellectual capital of staff. As a result of the partnership, the fees from participating counties supported an average of 85% of the cost of operation of SAMIS for JWB. Concurrently, the partnering CSC’s could not have implemented a similar system for an amount equal or less than their fees to participate in the Collaborative. See Attachment 3 for SAMIS Analysis of Costs Over Life of Collaborative.

The chart below provides a summary of the total investment in SAMIS by each partner since October 2001.



The Children’s Board of Hillsborough County will begin participating in the SAMIS in July 2011.

The Operational Structure SAMIS is currently organized under F.S. 163.62 which allows local governmental entities to share research data (SAMIS and others) without the confidentiality concerns of a public records request. In addition, F.S.125.901(a)(11) also protects confidentiality by stipulating that client identifying information cannot be distributed. The operational structure of the collaborative has changed over the past three years as the needs and desires of the partners have changed. The relationship of the members is set forth in the three-year contract that is amended annually to reflect any changes in the fees. The elements of the collaborative management arrangement are summarized below.

FY 01-02 FY 02-03 FY 03-04 FY 04-05 FY 05-06 FY 06-07 FY07-08 FY08-09 FY 09-10 FY 10-11

Pinellas $101,510 $98,627 $108,212 $96,171 $87,720 $91,720 $85,968 $65,254 $37,590 $32,799

Broward $109,265 $119,105 $127,610 $117,978 $127,469 $133,282 $131,835 $99,727 $59,699 $46,385

Duval $70,276 $69,920 $76,981 $75,048 $66,682 $69,723 $71,101 $53,969 $24,892 $21,434 Martin $17,132 $15,925 $19,357 $19,767 $20,453 $21,386 $25,162 $19,099 $11,723 $15,560

PalmBeach $101,404 $101,013 $112,254 $119,947 $115,614 $120,887 $101,407 $76,973 $35,335 $54,370

Miami $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $68,433

$0$20,000$40,000$60,000$80,000

$100,000$120,000$140,000

Total Contribution By CSC(includes hardware and capital fees

now funded through SAMIS reserve fund)

Pinellas

Broward

Duval

Martin

PalmBeach

Miami



1. The governing boards of each of the participating CSCs approve the three year contract outlining the partnership, which is amended annually to include the current year’s annual fee assessment.

2. The SAMIS Management Committee (SMC), which consists of the Executive Directors of the each participating CSC, approves the annual budget submitted by the SAMIS Management Group (SMG). This budget is the basis for determining the funds required to operate and modify or enhance the application. The annual budget is the basis upon which the fee distribution rates are calculated.

3. The SMG consists of two members from each participating CSC (a lead and an alternate) that recommends an annual budget to the SMC. This group also decides on the priorities for group enhancements.

4. The agreement allows a CSC to bring in a local funding partner (i.e., a County, United Way, other local entities that distribute dollars in the community) to operate through the CSC. Palm Beach Community Services Department, a division of Palm Beach County is a current partner and operates through the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County.

5. The SMG identifies and approves enhancements to the application. The SMG typically expands participation to SMEs when discussing enhancements or special projects such as an infrastructure review and design. For example, fiscal staff attends when enhancements to the Fiscal module are discussed, or research staff participates in Outcome/Performance Measures, and IT staff participates when discussing the infrastructure design.

6. Each CSC can enter into an agreement with the software developer for CSC specific enhancements for which the individual CSC Boards must approve. The enhancement cannot change the functionality of the base SAMIS code.

Recommends Budget

Approves Budget

Approves Contract CSC Boards

SAMIS Management

Committee (SMC)

SAMIS Management Group (SMG)

Enhancement Teams

Infrastructure Team

County Level Partner



The formula for assessing fees is the percent of each partner’s share of the total of:

• The amount of public funds managed in SAMIS

• The number of programs entering budgets

• The number of programs entering client data

7. The collaborative contract provides for the segregation of operations and fiscal administration providing checks and balances. Currently, JWB provides the daily operations management by providing the network access & management along with Help Desk support to each of the CSCs' help desk staff. Palm Beach County CSC is the Fiscal agent billing the partners for assessed fee and contract management with the developer agency.

8. The Director of SAMIS, a staff member of the Operations Agent, JWB, manages all activities of the collaborative including SMG meetings, enhancement process, implementation of new partners, solicitation of new partners, and interfaces with the developer and therefore approves all invoices. JWB, the Operating Agent, requests reimbursement from Palm Beach CSC, the fiscal agent, for allowable expenses based on the approved operations budget.

9. The current operating budget includes the cost of .80 FTE in FY 10-11 (.50 SAMIS Systems Administrator and .30 help desk support). The staffing pattern will change as of October 1, 2011 increasing to 2 FTE’s to support the expanded number of partners and the implementation of Business Intelligence and the move of the Operating Agent to the State level.

10. JWB and the Collaborative share a network infrastructure including bandwidth, security features and storage in order to create economies of scale. These costs are reflected in the budget. SAMIS supports between 20 – 40% of the cost of shared network resources.

The Fee Structure The SAMIS partners sign a three year agreement, with the fees updated annually through an amendment. SAMIS fees are assessed to each partner based on a formula that is agreed to in April of each fiscal year. The formula was designed to measure the impact a partner will have on network resources, i.e. the more funds to distribute, the greater the number of programs and users entering data, thus the need to consume a greater share of the network resources. In 2012 a storage fee will be included in the fee structure to allow partners to maintain multiple databases and data older than 10 years. Community-based agency users are provided access to SAMIS for free with all fees being assessed at the participating CSC level.

The fee schedule consists of three parts – Operations, Enhancements (Fiscal and Program/client level demographics), Performance Measures Enhancements, and a Hardware/Software Replacement fee. The hardware fee is assessed annually based with unexpended funds rolling over to the reserve fund and made available for future use. Below is a description of each fee type.



• Implementation fees have replaced the practice of charging a licensing fee, and began in FY 10-11. The fee is assessed to all new partners and supports the set-up costs and provides for the customization of SAMIS to meet the unique needs of the new collaborative partner. The fee includes operating staff travel and time to train and assist in the new implementation. New partners have 12 months to complete the “new implementation.” Any unused funds roll over to the fund balance of the SAMIS Collaborative that enables operational enhancements for all partners. Customization needs that exceed the original agreement are paid for by the partner.

• On-going operation fees are assessed annually to partners based on “system impact”; ad valorem tax revenue collection and the number of programs funded annually. Smaller CSC’s are able to participate in SAMIS at a considerably reduced cost. All partners participate at a fraction of what it would cost to independently operate. There are three classifications of fees:

– Enhancements – Modifications made to SAMIS that are agreed upon by all

members. The amount budgeted is based on discretionary funds available to the CSC’s and is determine in April for the upcoming fiscal year. CSCs are only billed if enhancements are undertaken. In addition, a recent change in the model created three classes of Enhancement fees – Program/Fiscal, Performance Measures, and Partner Specific. Operations – The cost to support SAMIS from the PEAK 10 data center, the infrastructure costs, and staffing for technical assistance and training to partners and users. The in-kind infrastructure support has been important to maintain a low cost of operations. The new business model will continue to negotiate a level of in-kind support from members to maintain the cost effectiveness of the model.

– Hardware/Software replacement – These fees are to support the continuous improvement of the infrastructure to providing a secure, efficient, user-friendly experience. The funds unexpended rollover to the next fiscal year to support a fluctuation in capital expenditures and provide stabilized fees assessed to each of the CSCs.



Fee Model

The reserve fund had grown substantially as a result of the original cost structure of license fees and cost savings over the first eight years of operation, which has provided an opportunity to cut back onexpenditures as CSC revenues declined. The SAMIS partners decided for FY 10-11 and beyond to fund the Hardware fees from the reserve fund therefore reducing the overall cost of operation. The reserve fund has been designated for capital expenditures only.

While traditional SaaS fees are assessed based on a per-user, per month utilization basis, the SAMIS customer base would not allow for the acceptance of this model. The community agencies that enter the required CSC data have a high rate of turnover in staff and despite efforts to educate users to NOT share user accounts, there is both sharing along with an average of 15-20% of the accounts inactive. The per-user metrics would therefore be skewed. The CSC is the actual client of the SAMIS Collaborative so the fees are assessed based on metrics that relate to the use or impact a CSC has on the system resources.

The impact on the operating cost is the amount of storage required for the database(s) and the number of potential support calls incurred annually. It was decided at the onset of the project to select pre-defined indicators that would reflect growth and impact on the operations.

Implementation • Enhancements• Set up activities

Annual Fees• Operating• Enhancement• Hardware/Software Replacement

Reserve Fund

Metered Rate

Funds Distributed in SAMIS

# Program Budgets

# Program entering client data 09-10



The Funding Formula The SAMIS formula, or Base Rate, considers the impact the partner will have on the system or load. The variables include:

1. The total funds allocated to programs 2. The number of programs entering Budgets 3. The number of Programs entering into CDG (client level demographics)

The formula is used to determine the portion each CSC partner will be assessed for:

• Enhancements o Program/Fiscal o Performance Measures o Partner Specific

• Operations

• Hardware Replacement See the formula break down in attachment.

The SAMIS Environment The SAMIS network is located at PEAK 10, a fortified data center in Tampa, providing 24/7 access to users with a guaranteed uptime of 99.9%. SAMIS was moved to a data center from the JWB offices in 2005 following a series of hurricanes in 2004 that required the turn down of the network to protect itfrom storm damage. SAMIS was moved at the same time the JWB network moved allowing for considerable cost savings all around.

The network consists of three separate environments – Production, Training and Testing – one a single domain that currently contains 16 separate SQL Server 2008 databases across the 7 partners. The web servers are virtualized using VMware and Hyper V Server 2008 R2 on physical hosts with a single physical SQL 2008 server with multiple NAS storage devices attached to it. The web application is written in .NET using IIS 6.

All users have access to all three environments that provide opportunities for training and testing scenarios and report generation. Each environment has identical features and functions to ease the transition between the sites with the training site being available year round to provide localized training to users.

CSC level users have access to a replicated environment and can choose to set up an ODBC connection from other reporting applications, e.g. Crystal, SQL Reporting, Targit, etc., that at allows for the custom analysis of their data. In this environment, tables are read-only but allow the user to extract SAMIS data to their network for customized reporting.



All users are provided access to a library of Microsoft Access queries to create custom analysis at the community or agency level. MS Access is generally a more affordable tool for community based organizations than Crystal or other enterprise level applications. In addition to this, there are numerous standard reports available in the SAMIS application that allows users to run the reports with filters for a customized view of the data.

Definitions of Cloud vs. SaaS solution SAMIS operates as a SaaS model, using Cloud technology to provide reliable access using a single set of code. SAMIS resources are delivered to the user from PEAK 10 Data Center sharing rack space with the Juvenile Welfare Board. It is the co-location with JWB that reduces the cost of operation for both JWB and SAMIS with both entities receiving the benefits of 99.9% availability at a reduced cost for both.

The definition of a Cloud and SaaS solution or strategy varies slightly based on the sources. Gartner and Foresters provide a definition that are mostly vendor agnostic. However, vendors are flooding the internet with free “Download Now” White papers that define SaaS and Cloud to heighten awareness for their product solution offered in the cloud or delivered as a SaaS. Microsoft, Dell, Sun, Brocade, HP, etc. are all distributing White papers that extoll the virtues of Cloud and applications that use the vendor’s solution.

Gartner defines the Cloud as a business function through the internet (email, storage, etc.) and a SaaS as the delivery of a custom application that uses a single set of code that is shared across many users (SalesForce.com, Google Apps, etc.) 7 From a management and staff perspective, I would add to the definition that with the cloud solution, the customer can maintain some management, monitoring and upgrade decisions, while with a SaaS the customer is a subscriber to a service and has no management responsibilities.

SAMIS initially began as a single tenant web based application deliver to community programs funded by the JWB. SAMIS was initially designed for agility and expansion in Pinellas County. However, the first opportunity was presented in 2001 when five other CSC’s requested to participate to create a multi-tenant application to other Children’s Services Councils in Florida arose. The Collaborative has grown along with technological advancements that have made development affordable.

SaaS and Cloud are definitions that can be applied to a growing number of business processes and evolving technology. SAMIS has been managed as both a Cloud solution and SaaS because of the unique relationship between the partners.

7 Gartner Presentation

Gartner defines the Cloud as

a business function through

the internet (email, storage,

etc.) and a SaaS as the

delivery of a custom

application that uses a single

set of code that is shared

across many users

(SalesForce.com, Google

Apps, etc.) 1



SaaS Defined SaaS is both a business model and an application delivery model (Software, 2008). SaaS provides the following benefits to the customer:

1. Use of the application on a pay-as-you-go basis. 2. Offers a subscription based fee structure. 3. Generally a repeatable revenue stream. 4. Eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer’s hardware. 5. Access to the application is through the Web, which allows anywhere access. 6. Ongoing support and maintenance, and upgrades are provided by the provider. 7. Custom functionality developed for one customer can be offered to all customers. 8. Protection of the intellectual property for the provider. 9. Stronger control of the operational control of the application environment. 10. Typically supports a multi-tenancy model - many unique customers using a single instance of the

code.

SaaS is an emerging and maturing business model with experts suggesting that there are four waves to the evolutionary model.

Cloud Defined Gartner defines cloud computing as "a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities are provided 'as a service' to customers using Internet technologies".8 Gartner suggests that there are five attributes that support the definition:

1. Services based – Consumer concerns are abstracted from the provider concerns through a service interface

2. Scalable and elastic – Services scale on demand to add or remove resources as needed

3. Shared – Services share a pool of resources to build economies of scale

4. Metered by Use - Services are tracked with usage metrics to enable multiple payment models. 5. Internet technologies – Services are delivered through use of the internet identifiers, formats

and protocols (Plummer, 2011)

SAMIS as a Cloud and SaaS Defined SAMIS operates as a private Cloud which restrict use to only similar businesses; in this case Children’s Services Councils special taxing districts. In addition, one partner is delivering SAMIS as a SaaS since they are a pay-as-you go and do not have any decision making authority on the management of the Collaborative; but do participate in the enhancement process. Future SAMIS partners will be delivered the application as a SaaS solution without any management input with the enhancements defined by the Collaborative Partners offered as an option.

8 Webinar presented May 5, 2011, Daryl Plummer, Gartner, Cloud Computing Strategies to Optimize Your IT Initiatives



Delivering Quality Service to the Customer

The ability to continuously deliver a quality internet based software application that addresses the business needs of the customers requires continual quality review comparing technology innovations to changing user business processes. The key to ongoing customer satisfaction with the product is the process used for responding to the need for changes.

The SAMIS application is continually being enhanced in response to user defined needs and diversity of business processes. The Enhancement process is an ongoing activity of the SAMIS Collaborative that identifies ideas with the principles of team learning and using the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process.

Enhancement Team Process The key to the success of any software application is the ability to provide the user a positive experience including both ease of use and relevance of feedback and to manage the speed of technological changes with a return on investment. The SMG have been challenged over the years with balancing function over form and assuring the effective use of tax dollars. The system structures that regulate the process have changed overtime to improve the effectiveness of the team and to reduce the cost of design and development. Many changes revolved around communication to ensure that all partners are satisfied with the final product. The Enhancement process is an excellent example of communities of learning that produces quality change. The Flow Chart in Attachment 4 describes the use of the conversational leadership style which allows for both group (all partners) and individual (one partner) to process the pending enhancement or system change. The process in place provides for understanding, acceptance and fidelity to the decision. The process allows for group discussions where all partners identify software enhancements that will improve the efficiency of their processes at the CSC as well as at the community agency locations. These discussions include key stake holders, the developer and the SAMIS management team. Two of the most important factors in successfully processing enhancement are the quality of the established relationships and the threshold for creative tension. The ability to translate the existing state of the software to the desired future state while maintaining the quality, is the final success factor.

The Shared Learning approach to leading the enhancement process provides synergy of the shared experiences. The SAMIS Enhancement Team practices the four core goals of team learning:

• Finding innovative approaches to problems by identifying joint solutions

• Increasing efficiency over time by reducing the cycle time for enhancement decision making

Collaboration generates ideas; ideas generate opportunity;

opportunity generates innovation; innovation generates

success! PKG



• Acquiring new skills and understanding best practices in data management and collection

• The ability to change norms and procedures over ten years and continue to successfully operate a collaborative

While there have been modifications to the review process over the years, the leadership style has embraced the core values of learning team principles, which include:

• All partners are equal regardless of tax revenues or fees paid.

• Creating a meeting that encourages input for all members and an environment where members are free to give an opinion without fear of reprisal.

• Conduct two face-to-face meetings per year allowing for relationship building. Every meeting will start with a “catch up” discussion of what notable activities have happened since our last meeting.

• Inquiry is encouraged.

• Open and respectful conversation is expected from all.

• Shared learning improves the operations and functioning of the software

The enhancement process has been successful over the past 10 years due to the longevity of the membership representing the partners, the SAMIS Operations leadership, and the developer team. The historical knowledge provides continuity for why things were done and at the same time creating a trusting environment open to hearing new ideas from newer members of the process. There is always the potential, with a group process, for the creation of “stew” (just a mass of food) when the menu calls for “shish-kabob” (nice structured array). The SAMIS Collaboration Enhancement process has been successful in creating a software application that improves the business process for almost 800 programs in Florida while increasing the accountability of public funds. Parameters for prioritizing the request are established in advance of the meetings. The Enhancement process provides for three levels of activities – Independent, Team, and Vendor processing. The Collaborative leadership must nurture and encourage full participation in each level or interaction.

The Enhancement Review Process Visualization is a major component of identifying enhancements along with the provision of detail design documents provided to all users on the SharePoint Site. White boarding is used during the face to face meetings when we discuss the enhancements and design the requirements.

A good leader will hear and react to the needs of the

team as they move through each enhancement process and work with the team to

make changes.



The review process currently in use is based on several previous modifications to allow for the continuous improvement in the efficiency of the process, supports independent processing by each partner, and effective participatory discussions and inquiry activities. Each partner is asked to independently rate the enhancements with their team based on need:

• Required for implementation ( the requesting CSC can purchase this with their own funds, if the group does not select it as a funding priority)

• Must Have = 3

• Nice to have = 1

• Do not need or want = 0

Using the results of the individual ratings, the group discussion focuses on reviewing the items that had the most interest (Required and Must Have). During the daylong meeting items are removed from the list because of information provided by other members, including better methods to complete the business process. One member removed an item from the list because another member offered a no cost solution. The newest members were able to learn from the challenges of older members of the team and accept the solutions. The team leader should invite members who have had similar challenges, to discuss the solutions used to solve the issue; offering a new perspective. With over 100 enhancement ideas posted each year, it is critical to create an environment of trust and communication to provide an environment where ideas are shared. Only approximately 25% of the enhancements are funded each year as Group Enhancements.

After the day long discussion, the developers are asked to review the final list and provide high level design and development cost estimates. In the past, the group would have come together for an onsite meeting to discuss the remaining enhancements on the list and attempt to create a consensus for which items to fund. Now the team is asked to individually rank the items remaining on the SharePoint list from 1 to xx. It is during this process that partners can remove a request from the list because the cost exceeds the efficiency desired.

The leader then provides an analysis of the funding options of all items on the list to the members identifying which items fall below the funding line. Partners have several options:

1. Support the ranking and funding strategy. 2. Move an item from above the funding line, to below the funding line. 3. Choose to fund an item independently or with a partner. 4. Negotiate with the team a change in the rankings.

Partners are asked to review and sign off on the design document from the developer stating that they have read and agreed with the specifications. This document will be used to remediate any confusion on who meant what during the discussions.

Once the list is approved, the rollout schedule is confirmed, and development begins. The developer rolls out the code to the SAMIS Test site first, where the Developer and the SAMIS Operations team will test. All partners are asked to participate in testing as the code is rolled from the SAMIS Test



environment to SAMIS Training and then to the SAMIS Production environment. The developer will make adjustments as necessary. The SAMIS Operations team works with the developer to identify scope creep verse “bugs”, and issues that need to be fixed prior to rollout to the production environment. The training documentation is drafted during the testing phase and completed either before or shortly after a Go Live date.

SDLC Framework

SDLC is a framework that describes the activities performed at each stage of a software development project. 9 The SDLC model, used by SAMIS, is a waterfall model which is a sequential design process in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the phases of Conception, Initiation, Analysis, Design, Construction, Testing, Production/Implementation and Maintenance. The waterfall development model originates in the manufacturing and construction industries: highly structured physical environments in which after-the-fact changes are prohibitively costly, if not impossible.10

The SAMIS Model is outlined below and is followed for each enhancement resulting in rollout of new functionality with very few incidents over the life of the project. The SAMIS SDLC model is outlined below.

SAMIS SDLC

Collaborative Technology The developer set up read only access to a SAMIS SharePoint site in 2005 to facilitate communication between all partners. In addition, final requirements documents, dating back to 2001, are also available and represent the history of the decisionmaking. Members are able to log in and access the written requirement specifications for all enhancements. Prior to this site, JWB had to email the materials to all members requiring multiple emails with large attachments. In 2007

9 Waterfall- Software Development Life Cycle(SDLC) condor.depaul.edu/jpetlick/extra/394/sesssion2.ppt 10 Wikipedia, Waterfall Model, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model

Requirements

High Level Design

Development

Testing

Detailed Design

Training/Documentation

Production

Maintenance



a list was added to the site allowing users to communicate enhancement ideas, bugs and fixes. In 2009 a JWB SharePoint site was established to manage the meeting notes, project calendar, training requests, implementation activities, and technical support requests to the

SAMIS Help Desk.

To increase learning opportunities webinars are held for the team to demonstrate what is available on each site and provide overview of the features and information available on the sites. The goal is to increase member awareness of the history of the changes and to gain a perspective on the opportunities of the group through continuous learning.

The Partner Commitment to Accountability SAMIS provides partners the ability to report on the expenditure of public funds in real time and account for the impact of funds in the community. SAMIS enables the partners to analyze how expended funds have improved the lives of children and families within their communities. The system is designed for easy data entry and retrieval by a wide range of skilled and non-skilled workers, e.g. social workers, data entry clerks, executives. Data integrity is a key objective of the application which makes an extensive use of field validations, including look-up tables, data-type restrictions, formulas, etc. The integrity in data provides for more accurate data therefore confidence in fiscal decision making. The reduced cost of operations provides each participating partner with more capability than they could have if they operated independently. JWB expended over $450,000 on

system enhancements in the first three years of sole ownership and $456,000 over the next 10 years as a member of the SAMIS Collaborative.11 Of the $3.7 million expended on the system since 1998, JWB only invested $1.2 million. In addition, the co-location of the SAMIS and JWB infrastructures at PEAK 10 data center allows JWB to offset 20-40% of the cost of operation, maintenance and communication costs.

11 Based on the contracted fees listed in the Three Year Statewide SAMIS Agreement, Base Rate Fee schedule, as amended annually.

A recent survey of Collaborative members found that:

The enhancement process was clearly communicated – 73%

Emails summarizing actions were clearly written – 63%

Conference calls were productive – 82%

Coordinator was respectful to the needs of callers – 92%

Participants were given an opportunity to provide input – 100%

The environment allowed for all opinions to be expressed – 92%

New ideas were solicited – 100% of Participants felt their ideas were heard by all participants – 73%



Implementation of New Partners The Implementation process for new partners is enhanced by the learning that occurred prior to this point including sharing business processes and roles.

The pre-implementation support model was revised from a demonstration of the application, i.e. jumping right in, to setting an implementation schedule, followed by classroom training for users to a more supportive and learning model involving two key learning and discovery opportunities.

• The SANDBOX concept was created to allow interested parties to “play” with SAMIS using a fake set of records. SAMIS staff then offer online meetings to demonstrate the functionality and provide insight as to how other partners implemented similar features in SAMIS. In this environment the new partner can learn the various features using their business practices rather than being forced to test a system using a set of unfamiliar practices. During this process the partner is encouraged to ask and try new and old processes to create the correct environment.

• Once the decision is made to move forward, a BOOT CAMP is held at which point the SAMIS team, along with the developer, engage with the partner to review critical decision points related to SAMIS set-up. Partners are invited to discuss their implementation and discuss lessons learned and strategies to avoid. For example, we will bring in a Ph.D. researcher to discuss best practices in setting up client level performance measures.

Future Projects of the Collaborative

Business Intelligence In FY 2011-12, a business intelligence solution will be introduced using SharePoint 2010, as a shared resource by all partners that will leverage the SAMIS databases and create a state level performance dashboard. See Attachment 5.

Business Intelligence is defined as a set of technologies and processes that allow people at all levels of the organization to access and analyze data. Without people to interpret the information and act on it, business intelligence achieves nothing.12

SAMIS has a rich repository of data captured over 12 years that can be exported to any number of business intelligence solutions and transformed into information that will lead to innovation. Regardless of the tools selected business intelligence is about the creativity in producing data that is valued by the culture of the organization and utilized effectively to make

12 (Howson, 2008) p 1

The delivery of data needs to be current and in a format that decisions makers can absorb.



decisions. The initiative is proposed to operate at the state level with the executive leadership from each partnership supporting staff efforts to create an effective and agile solution. Technology allows for each partner to operate an independent BI solution, while creating a data warehouse that will offer the ability to create insight on a problem when multiple data set are mashed up.

Business intelligence reveals the performance, operational efficiencies, and untapped opportunities.13 The SAMIS Collaborative is a natural environment to develop a BI focus because the business is to provide effective services (Performance), in a manner that efficiently uses taxes dollars (operational efficiencies), and look for new ways of creating a healthy community (untapped opportunities).

A business intelligence solution will fail if too much focus is on the technology rather than identifying the outputs and audience correctly. Business intelligence is 80% planning and 20% doing. The proposed idea for SAMIS BI is to develop “push boards” or dashboards that push information to audiences based on interest or need. For example, legislators can have delivered performance metric that reflect their districts, served by a CSC, while your retired neighbor will have delivered outcomes of local crime prevention programs.

Online Learning An online training strategy will be refined over the next year to include greater use of webinars providing generic SAMIS trainings. Partners will be provided access to Citrix Online Go To Meeting, Go To Training, and Go To Webinar licenses, to offer local training online trainings. The SAMIS operations team will increase the number of training materials available to the partners in the provision of local training. Online learning management systems were explored, but the staff resources required to develop courses exceeded the cost benefit; and training is local.

SAMIS Operations at the State Level The negotiations are under way to move SAMIS operations to the State level and potentially move the operations management to the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County CSC. The new arrangement will elevate the discussion to a higher level allowing for the successful implementation of a business intelligence strategy.

Expansion of Partnerships SAMIS is being reviewed by several local funders and community-based organizations that see SAMIS as a

database to provide the needed intelligence to make decisions, request funds, and market the

outcomes of services provided.

13 Howson, Cindi ,”Successful Business Intelligence”, page 1

“Just as the eyes are the windows to the soul, business intelligence is a window to the dynamics of a business. (Howson, 2008)”



For more information on this project contact Patricia K. Gehant, M.A., CCIO

Director of SAMIS Collaborative 727-647-0941

[email protected] [email protected]

FCSC Chair FCSC Executive Director

BrowardMartinPalm Beach Fiscal Manager

Children’s Commission

JWBOffice Space

Children's BoardOperations Manager

St. LucieThe Children’s Trust

SAMIS Management Committee –includes all participating CSC Ex.

Directors

SAMIS Management Groups –includes a representative from each

participating CSC

Broward Palm Beach Martin Children’s CommissionJWB Children's Board St. LucieThe Children’s

Trust

Palm Beach Community

Services Dept.

Enhancement Process –includes SMG plus subject

matter experts.

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Page 1

SAMIS Organizational Structure

Director of Business Technology Solutions

Prepared by P. Gehant May 17, 2011

SAMIS Business Information Analyst


Page 2

Monthly invoice

FCSC

Director of Business

Technology Solutions

Executive Director

TribridgePeak 10Go To MtgCommunicationsMaintenance AgreementTravel

Palm Beach CSC

Vendor payment

SAMIS Business Information

Analysts

SAMIS Team

CSC-Staffing Agent

SAMIS Staff are the employees of the CSC but work

for the FCSC

Prepared by: Patricia K. Gehant

Requests reimbursement

Requests reimbursement


Page 2

SAMIS Staffing

FCSCSAMIS Operating Agent

Director of Business and Technology

SAMIS Business Information

Analysts

SAMIS Team

CSC

Staff are employees of the CSC as a grant or enterprise activity.

Staff to FCSC

Palm Beach Fiscal Agent

SAMIS Collaborative

Members

Pay

SA

MIS

Fe

es

Req

uest

spa

ymen

t

Reim

burses

Monthly Operating

invoice

Review/Approve

Requests Payment

Pays bills

S A M I S A Grants Management Suite

SAMIS - A grants management suite that tracks community programs use of funds distributed by governmental agencies.

SAMIS is ... a software application used by local and special taxing districts to capture information from agencies that

receive public funds.

…accessed through a private Cloud providing 24/7access from any location with an internet connection.

… a SaaS (Software as a Service) model. located at PEAK 10 Data Center in Tampa as SSAE 16 certified facility with ISO 17799 security standards. Additional benefits of a SaaS include::

• Consistent network access • Rapid scalability • Elasticity of storage

... a Collaboration of governments sharing the cost of

operation and system upgrades providing a high return on investment to the community. Software developed by Tribridge.

... a Grant Management Suite that collects demographic .information on how funds are spent by the program.

... is able to record the outcomes of the clients in programs and report trends and service patterns of the population served.

... a source of Business Intelligence, and integrates with other data sources and tools..

List of Partners

Contact: Patricia K. Gehant, M.A., Director of SAMIS JWB Children’s Services Council of Pinellas County

14155 58th Street North Clearwater, Florida 33760

727-547-5678, or 727-647-0491 [email protected]

SAMIS is managed as a Data Collaboration under Florida State Statute, Section 163.62, which provides that agencies of local governments may establish a collaborative client information system in which state, local, and private agencies may share information. Members benefit by:

Reducing the time to manage an individual system.

Sharing cost between government of shared mission.

Stabilization of costs over time.

Sharing ideas for better results.

Information is protected from

disclosure under the Public Records laws.

SAMIS accounts for: • Over 1 billion in public funds since

2001, 350 million managed annually

• 850 ,000 client records

• 3,500 users

• Providing service in counties representing 48% of state population

• 1,000 program sites entering data

Results Outcome Outcome Generator Outcome Viewer Outcome Setup Reports

Administrative Modules Service Contract User Management CSC Customization

• Settings • Fields

Fiscal Customization • GL Accounts • GL Overages • Reimbursement Overages • Fiscal Years

CDG Customization • Client Identifying Fields • Outcome Measures • Settings • Fields

Fiscal Modules Allocations Budgets Reimbursements Budget Amendments Program Units of Service Position Management Request New Position Slot Reimbursement Manual Payments Program Funders Audit Work Papers Budget to Actual Reports Program Modules Client Data Attendance Group Activities Group Units of Service Volunteer Activities Analysis of Outcomes EDI Imports/Exports Data Cleansing Quarterly Commentary Results Outcome Reports

Contact: Patricia K. Gehant, M.A., Director of SAMIS JWB Children’s Services Council of Pinellas County

14155 58th Street North Clearwater, Florida 33760

727-547-5678, or 727-647-0491 [email protected]

https://share.jwbpinellas.org/Departments/IT/NeedsAssessment/Shared Documents/SAMIS savings_over_lifeJune2011 Page 1

Total Annual Fees (Includes Hard Replacement fees)

Fiscal Year Pinellas Broward Duval Martin PalmBeach Miami Total FYFY 97/98 $61,278 $61,278FY 98/99 $200,000 $200,000FY 99-00 $148,000 $148,000FY 00-01 $144,913 $126,913 $126,913 $398,739

Fiscal Year Pinellas Broward Duval Martin PalmBeach Miami Total FYFY 01-02 $101,510 $109,265 $70,276 $17,132 $101,404 $0 $399,587FY 02-03 $98,627 $119,105 $69,920 $15,925 $101,013 $0 $404,590FY 03-04 $108,212 $127,610 $76,981 $19,357 $112,254 $0 $444,414FY 04-05 $96,171 $117,978 $75,048 $19,767 $119,947 $0 $428,911FY 05-06 $87,720 $127,469 $66,682 $20,453 $115,614 $0 417,938$ FY 06-07 $91,720 $133,282 $69,723 $21,386 $120,887 $0 436,998$ FY07-08 $85,968 $131,835 $71,101 $25,162 $101,407 $0 415,473$ FY08-09 $65,254 $99,727 $53,969 $19,099 $76,973 $0 315,022$ FY 09-10 $37,590 $59,699 $24,892 $11,723 $35,335 $0 169,239$ FY 10-11 32,799$ 46,385$ 21,434$ 15,560$ 54,370$ 68,433$ 238,981$ Total CSC 805,571$ 1,072,355$ 600,026$ 185,564$ 939,204$ 68,433$ 3,671,153$ % Pinellas 22% 29% 16% 5% 26% 2% 100%Average Annual cost 80,557$ 107,236$ 60,003$ 18,556$ 93,920$ -$ 367,115$

2,865,582$

SAMIS Analysis of Costs Over Life of Colaborative


Total EnhancementsFiscal Year Pinellas Broward Duval Martin PalmBeach Miami Total FYFY 97/98 61,278$ 61,278$ FY 98/99 200,000$ 200,000$ FY 99-00 148,000$ 148,000$ FY 00-01 144,913$ 144,913$ Collaboartive 554,191$ FY 01-02 57,158$ 61525 39571 9,647.00$ 57,099.00$ 225,000$ FY 02-03 56,067$ 67,709$ 39,748$ 9,053$ 57,423$ 230,000$ FY 03-04 60,873$ 71,786$ 43,305$ 10,889$ 63,147$ 250,000$ FY 04-05 56,055$ 68,766$ 43,743$ 11,522$ 69,914$ 250,000$ FY 05-06 52,472$ 76,249.0 39,888.0 12,235.0 69,157.0 250,001$ FY 06-07 $52,472 $76,249 $39,888 $12,235 $69,157 250,001$ FY07-08 51,785$ 79,143$ 42,830$ 15,157$ 61,085$ 250,000$ FY08-09 31,071$ 47,486$ 25,698$ 9,094$ 36,651$ 150,000$ FY 09-10 23,390$ 37,763$ 12,946$ 7,530$ 18,376$ 100,005$ FY 10-11 15,535$ 21,802$ 8,729$ 7,643$ 14,936$ 31,355$ 100,000$ Total CSC 456,878$ 608,478$ 336,346$ 105,005$ 516,945$ 31,355$ 2,055,007$ % Pinellas 22% 30% 16% 5% 25% 2% 100%Average Annual cost 45,688$ 60,848$ 33,635$ 10,501$ 51,695$ 205,501$ Average before 138,548$

22%


OperationsFiscal Year Pinellas Broward Duval Martin PalmBeach Miami Total FYFY 97/98 -$ FY 98/99 -$ FY 99-00 -$

Pinellas Broward Duval Martin PalmBeach Miami -$ FY 01-02 36,306$ 39079 25135 6,128.00$ 36,268.00$ 142,916$ FY 02-03 34,838$ 42,072$ 24,698$ 5,625$ 35,681$ 142,915$ FY 03-04 39,626$ 46729 28,190$ 7,088$ 41,106$ 162,739$ FY 04-05 36,483$ 44,756$ 28,470$ 7,498$ 45,503$ 162,710$ FY 05-06 31,859$ 46,295.0 24,218.0 7,428.0 41,989.0 151,789$ FY 06-07 $35,859 $52,108 $27,259 $8,361 $47,262 170,849$ FY07-08 26,933$ 41,162$ 22,275$ 7,883$ 31,770$ 130,023$ FY08-09 26,933$ 41,162$ 22,275$ 7,883$ 31,770$ 130,023$ FY 09-10* 14,201$ 21,931$ 11,946$ 4,194$ 16,958$ 69,230$ FY 10-11** 17,264$ 24,583$ 12,705$ 7,917$ 39,434$ 37,078$ 138,981$ Total CSC 300,302$ 399,877$ 227,171$ 70,005$ 367,741$ 37,078$ 1,402,175$ % Pinellas 21% 29% 16% 5% 26% 3% 100%

* Reduced staffing to reflect increase knowledgebase/skill set at each CSC** Expanded consutling fees and operating costs to accommodate Miami joining collaborative

Lifetime Pinellas *** Broward Duval Martin PalmBeach MiamiEnahancements 456,878$ 608,478$ 336,346$ 105,005$ 516,945$ 31,355$ Operations 300,302$ 399,877$ 227,171$ 70,005$ 367,741$ 37,078$ Total 805,571$ 1,072,355$ 600,026$ 185,564$ 939,204$ 68,433$

Annual Average for 10 yrs80,557.10$ 107,235.50$ 60,002.60$ 18,556.40$ 93,920.40$

***Includes 10 yrs of collaborative only

PostEach CSC posts

enhancement request to Tribridge SharePoint List

10/08/10

RatingEach CSC rates all items

on the list using the 5=Implementation request

3=Can’t live without1= Nice to have0=No interest

10/15/10

PrioritizeSAMIS Management tallies

scores and sort list. Results posted to

SharePoint list on Tribridge site.

Order of scores is used to set agenda for

Enhancement mtg. discussion.10/22/10

Rank OrderEach CSC ranks requests

and confirm continued interest in request based on

the estimated price

Analysis of ResultsSAMIS Director provides an analysis of rankings with a comparison to the budget with recommendations for

funding source. 11/24/10

SAMIS Enhancement Mtg.discussion based on scores

starting with the highest.

During day long meeting group members add value by suggesting solutions other than code changes.Items removed from list that are no longer viewed as needed by the original requesting member.

10/28/10

SAMIS Enhancement Team Inquiry &

Discussion(Learning to produce

results)

SAMIS Enhancement Team Independent Processing

High level design and development cost estimates

are prepared by Tribridge (Developer) based on outcome

of meetings. The estimates includes shared cost of rollout

and training.List is posted on the Tribridge SharePoint Site for review by

team members.

Conference Call -Discussion of the design

estimates compared to the budget. Members

determine expected RIO and adjust the list.

11/08/10

Conference CallDiscuss and approve final

list of enhancements. Determine Fund source: Group, Implementation, CSC specific, or Fund

Balance.Confirm the list for

development12/6/10

Prepare Detailed Design documentation

Documents will define the functionality of the

enhancement requests. Documents posted to Tribridge SharePoint site for team review.

Vendor

Next Page

Team Learning Scenario GOAL – To identify methods to improve processing data in SAMIS Suite

Independent Process

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Keep Discard

Detail Design ReviewReview final design docs

based on expressed needs.January 2011

TestingSAMIS HelpDesk staff at

each CSC conducts testing based on script provided by SAMIS Management. CSC specific enhancements are

tested by sponsoring member.

Confirm Final Design Documents

Conference call to provide FINAL opportunity for discussion of specifications. Team restates

approval to initiate development.Finalize the timetable.

January 2011

Begin DevelopmentNo Changes can be made

without change request process.

January 2011

Remediation

Rollout

May or June

TrainingTraining provided to each

CSC Help DeskHelp Desk train users in

county.Training frequently offered after rollout to Training site

SAMIS Ongoing Support

TestingConference call to confirm

outcome of testing

SAMIS Enhancement Team Independent

Processing

SAMIS Enhancement Team Inquiry & Discussion

VendorIndependent Processing

SAMIS Management and Developer proposes design,

development, and rollout and training schedule.

12/20/10

Review and discuss timetableConsider date when

enhancement is required to be in production then the availability of

team to test and train users. (Includes both user training

materials and interactive sessions.)

December 2010

SAMIS Management Group (SMG) Meetings

Quarterly meetings or as needed to review1. Determine next enhancement cycle2. Review the process3. Identify new options/areas of innovation

(SMG consists of a representative from each participating CSC)

From page 1

SAMIS team at JWB and Tribridge conduct preliminary testing

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Roll to Testing Site

Roll to Training Site

Roll to Production Site

Shared Learning

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Page 1

FCSC Business Intelligence Model

CensusSAMISChild and Maternal Health

FCSC Dash Boards

SharePoint

School Juvenile Justice

FCSC Data warehouse

CSC Data warehouses

Other Data warehouses

Prepared by – Patricia K. Gehant, MA, CCIO

Send data to FCSC Dashboard

Send data to FCSC Dashboard

Transform Data Transform Data

Send data to FCSC Data warehouse for

integration

Send data to FCSC Data warehouse for

integration

Data at the county level and client level

FCSC Chair

Broward MartinPalm Beach Fiscal Manager

Children’s Commission

JWBOffice Space

Children's BoardOperations Manager

St. LucieThe Children’s Trust


Page 1

FCSC Business Intelligence Governance Structure

Prepared by P. Gehant, July 2010

FCSC Executive Director

Director of Business Technology Solutionsr

Business Intelligence Strategy TeamBusiness Information Systems Team (BIST)

The Firm

Research TeamSMG

Communication/Marketing

Policy Group

BI Strategy &

Infrastructure

CoordinationTechnology

OpportunitiesDelivery

Define framework,research questions, data

sources, message, advocacy

Director of Research, Broward CSC

Leadership, funding, and policy

TechnologyAudience

Opportunities

FCSC Leadership Team

Research Group CHair

FCSC BI Coordinator