Department of Child Services Automates Executive Document Tracking and Review

Through the Golden State’s Health and Human Services (HHS) Agency, California’s Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) works with parents and guardians to ensure that children and families receive the financial and medical support that they need. The operational and administrative management of the program involves an intricate network of government employees that need to work together, along with service providers, to facilitate the delivery of critical child support services.

Committed to better serving the needs of children, DCSS recognized that it needed to automate its manual approval processes, especially amid the disruptions, slowdowns, and shift to teleworking created by the COVID-19 crisis. To expedite internal approvals that have direct and indirect impact on the delivery of child support services across the state, DCSS turned to SimpliGov, a leader in next-generation, cloud-based workflow automation and online forms built for government, to automate the department’s executive “Red Folder” document review and approval process and introduce online forms with integrated electronic signatures.

• Document approvals took anywhere from 60 to 90 days
• Folders were passed manually to as many as a dozen or more staffers for review
• No central tracking mechanism to see where red folders stood at any moment
• Folders often went missing
• Inefficient process saw documents get routed through several employees only to be deemed “incomplete”
• Lack of reporting capabilities prevented process improvement

• Integrated workflow automation, online forms, and eSignature solution purpose-built for government
• SimpliGov platform allows for simultaneous reviews and approvals
• Reviewers can tag other employees and ask for specific information or clarification through the system

• Approval process shortened from 2-3 months to 10 days
• No more bottlenecks—status of any folder can be accessed at any time
• SimpliGov platform implementation completed three weeks ahead of schedule
• Easy conversion to a remote process in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic