COTS, Open Source, SOA Trends Facing Human Services Agencies

1
COTS, Open Source, SOATrends Facing Human
Services Agencies

• Amy Santenello
• Sr. Manager
• Public Sector Product Strategy

2
A Shifting Focus in Delivery of Human Services
Program A
Financial Management
Workforce Management
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Implications

• Increased focus on cross-organizational
  requirements
• COTS
• Open Source
• Expanded need to access information outside the
  confines of an individual agency
• SOA

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Federal COTS Memo

• May 2, 2005- Memorandum No. IM 05-04
• Recognition that COTS products are mature
• Prior to selecting COTS, Jurisdictions should
  should conduct broad, in-depth business,
  technical and financial analyses that incorporate
  all human service agencies, both current and
  future.

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Key Questions When Evaluating COTS

• How frequently does the company upgrade its
  software?
• Does the company have an application roadmap in
  place?
• Does the company own its IP?
• Has the company been reimbursed for software
  licenses? (by what 100 of its customers?)
• Can you configure the system?
• To What extent are attributes configurable?
• Who is the companies go-to market partners?

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Ensuring the COTS Vendor is Committed to HHS..

• What is the companies presence in Government?
• What is the companies application roadmap as it
  relates to HHS?
• Does the company have any HHS customers?
• How many customers has the company gained over
  the last year?
• How does HHS fit into the companies growth
  strategy?
• What HHS enhancements has the company made to its
  products in the past year?

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Drive for Information Access
Industry Push to Leverage Standards and SOA to
Access information outside Direct IT environment
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SOA.. Enabling Industry Standardization

• Globalization Pushed Demand for Standardization
• Currently more standardization in getting a
  product from Honduras to Vermont (two high tech
  Mecca's of the world), than from one IT agency to
  the other

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SOA ITs Answer to Standardization

• Standardization within Middleware to enable
  Communication across Apps
• Standardization amongst Apps Vendors to Enable
  communication with Middleware
• Separation of business logic, workflow and rules
  from UI to enable consolidated portals

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Open Standards Enabling Open Source

• Benefits of Open Source
• No application license
• Built around the needs of a specific function
• Communal IP
• Disadvantages of Open Source
• No Application Roadmap
• Built to meet the needs of a specific function
• Requires On-going In-house investment
• No Guarantee of application currency

Open Source Is A Viable Option for Human Services
Agencies, But Must be Viewed in the Context of
Larger Strategy
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So Where Is This All Heading?

• Shift from Program Centric View To Information
  Centric View
• No longer about administration of Human Services,
  Its About Self-Sufficiency
• Requires Focus on Information Management
• Where does information reside, what standards
  need to be in-place to access information
• Drives Business Discussions Around Measurement,
  Workforce Planning, Outcomes
• Investment decisions COTS vs. Transfer vs. Open
  Source
• Identification of agency and cross-agency KPIs
• Results in a Heterogeneous IT environment
  consolidated through portals and roles specific
  dashboards