Child Care Administrator’s Improper Payments Information Technology Guide

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II. ADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES OF DIFFERENT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT APPROACHES

A. Introduction

As discussed in Chapter I, there are many different information technology (IT) investments that can help States prevent and identify improper payments in their subsidized child care programs. In order to assist State administrators in choosing the right solution, this chapter offers background about different technical approaches and specific strategies that can be used to identify and assess potential solutions. Chapter III provides guidance to States when they choose to procure the products or services of one or more vendors.

Once a State decides to acquire new technology to address the challenge of reducing improper payments, the path forward is more complicated than a simple choice between building the technology application under the control and leadership of the State Agency and buying the services or products from an outside vendor. The following explore the many variations that exist for basic IT investment strategies: in-house development, using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, and contracting out. No one approach is inherently better than another, and each IT investment decision requires a careful analysis to determine the best approach or approaches for meeting the objectives.

The growing utilization of Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) by State Agencies and their strategic partners adds a new level of complexity and opportunity to this decision because this system architecture allows for a mix of approaches to work together to build a process. For example, one State Agency may develop a web service that accurately associates a residential address with its appropriate county. Multiple programs and organizations could use this service repeatedly as part of their business processes, including a department of social services that may use it to ensure that individual cases are determined eligible for child care and maintained by the appropriate local department of social services, avoiding the unnecessary transfer of cases between local departments.

While this particular function may be web-based, an SOA technical environment allows for different technologies. An example would be for an existing agency mainframe computer, to perform the other processes, such as collecting demographic and financial information, calculating eligibility, and assigning a case to a worker.

Sorting out this complex technical environment and making a good decision require careful analysis and a basic understanding of the different IT investment approaches. This chapter describes and conveys the typical benefits, challenges, and considerations of the different approaches in order to provide a framework in which to evaluate solutions. The chapter also discusses strategies for identifying and evaluating different technology solutions. The intent of the chapter is not to promote one investment strategy over another. In fact, State Agencies responsible for the child care subsidy program and other human service programs commonly mix one or more approaches to meet their business and service objectives within their time and budgetary constraints.