Director's Message

Oct. 13, 2006

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, Director

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it."

~Steve Jobs

Much has changed in the past 10 years in how DHS is organized, how we deliver services, and the types of services we provide. And, just as we aren't the same agency we were 10 years ago, we need to think about what kind of agency we want to be in another 10 years. Based on our best forecasts of demographic trends and the development of new technologies and ideas, what innovations might we make to more efficiently and effectively deliver services? How can we better organize and deliver services around the needs of our clients and communities and not simply organize around our programs?

As I mentioned last week, I believe we need to continually seek ways to add value to our processes. We need to focus on the desired outcomes and organize our systems and our service delivery methods to achieve those outcomes. In particular, we need to do this with an eye to future needs.

During the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to learn how the human services agencies in two states -- Florida and Iowa -- have improved their processes, enhanced service delivery and saved money, with impressive results. I am very interested in implementing aspects of these states' innovations here in Oregon.

Florida's Children and Families agency has implemented an application process that allows clients to apply online with one "application" for a variety of services such as Medicaid, food stamps and others. Remember that in Oregon, as in just about every other state, many individuals receive multiple human services yet apply for each program separately. This "system" (if you can call it that) flows from a "siloed" federal structure in which programs are not integrated and even have different definitions and requirements for how you count income.

The name of the system is Access Florida. "Access" stands for Automated Community Connection to Economic Self-Sufficiency. It's an approach that is at one and the same time a fundamental change and a very simple idea. They have created a unified, paperless application process. Clients can use self-service kiosks in local Children and Families offices to apply for benefits, report address and name changes, check the status of applications, fax and copy required documents, and access a telephone help-line. Office staff are available to provide assistance as needed. Individuals can also apply for services from home, at local libraries, community group offices, anywhere they can access the Internet. Working families no longer need to take time away from their jobs to come into offices to apply for services or amend information.

It is at this point in the conversation that someone will say, "great, but how many people have access to the internet and use a service like this?" The answer is that 88 percent of their clients now apply for services electronically. As a result, they have a more cost-effective and efficient paperless system. Clients are happier and receive better service, and it is all done using fewer resources than before.

Iowa's approach has been a bold reinvention of six agencies' processes that returned $22 million to the state's general fund in the first year. Those six agencies, which included Iowa's Human Services agency, were designated "charter agencies." They were granted special leeway to implement such changes as results-based budgeting and business process improvements, and to find other ways to reduce unnecessary bureaucratic processes. In return for this freedom to make changes, they had to agree to return $15 million in savings to the state; they were so successful they actually beat that amount by $7 million.

Florida and Iowa are just two examples of the many ways states are finding to streamline business processes to benefit both clients and taxpayers, and to reduce staff workload. I have already asked some teams to look at how we can use the best aspects of these innovations here at DHS.

I believe Steve Jobs was correct when he said an organization's ability to innovate is inherently about its people.  As such, I'm confident that we can and will continue to enhance our ability to meet our mission and better serve Oregonians.

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us