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A Publication Featuring The Information Services Technology of Maine State Government
| Volume IV, Issue 6 | June 2001 |
By John Rioux
In 1997 the Bureau of Labor Standards ( http://janus.state.me.us/labor/bls/techserv.htm ) found itself facing an information technology (IT) challenge. The Productivity Realization Task Force review resulted in a reorganized clerical staff, which were in a relatively high ratio to professional employees. Our office automation application was in Oracle 6, a solid, but aging product, on a dying legacy system (CTOS). Designed for each division, it could not provide Bureau-wide features required by performance-based budgeting and "one-stop" service goals. Y2K was looming, and some hardware and software were not certified. Also, governments doing business on the Web was being discussed. Clearly we had to make changes.
See http://janus.state.me.us/labor/bls/blsmain.htm for links to Bureau safety and health publications, lending video library, and programs.
Our experience with office-automation programming indicated it is only successful when the process was taken seriously, and computerized systems were well thought out. The best economies would come from sharing code and consistent business processes. We realized keeping client software updated and consistent would be a challenge when we migrated from proprietary software to Windows. (The CTOS/Oracle 6 combination allowed all to utilize one software copy and we wanted the solution to include this timesaving deployment and maintenance feature.) We wanted to incorporate, and build upon knowledge and history from the current database, and to continue integrating knowledge from other sources (e.g. other State agencies) into our knowledge base.
What did we do? The first step was a comprehensive study of the office automation needs. Cathy Squires of the Department’s Office of Information Processing interviewed staff to assess needs. Although there were a few differences, which management resolved, we uncovered a lot of commonality among the various interests. For example, violations in the Workplace Safety and Health Division were (or could be) handled in essentially the same way as those in the Wage and Hour Division.
The rapid, consistent deployment issue was resolved by Citrix technology. By loading the Progress database client and screen files to a Citrix Server, we deployed Gen II with one load. The greatest advantage was not in the initial deployment, but in all those versions that came later as we made improvements. Today, we are never concerned with users having a faulty version of the client or the screen. We did have to worry about Citrix’s reliability, but that was resolved by careful transaction planning to ensure only a small amount of work is at risk should the Wide Area Network or Citrix server go down. Additionally we used Citrix to resolve an interim E-mail and Office Suite deployment. (We moved from Lotus to MS Office as part of that transition since the older Lotus was noncompliant.)
The programming went slowly at first. After consultation, we moved the project from Oracle to Progress so the programmers’ specialties and training could be best utilized. Oracle was initially chosen because of its Web potential, but that was a future need, which was not initially critical.
Another obstacle was resolved by defining our customer base and in having the programming accommodate the reality of employers and employees. With Gen II we have a single database of employers into which is fed information from various Department of Labor sources. We add companies who fit our, and the Workers’ Compensation Board’s definitions, but not their definitions (some companies go by many names, change ownership or have unusual relationships). Programming possibilities and making intuitive user interfaces enable us to serve companies more efficiently. The Board now uses the database to help in its employer identification and tracking.
The database is in full use today and only a few functions are left to complete. There are constant refinements as further shortcuts are realized and as IT-friendly law changes permit. A steering group meets periodically to prioritize corrections, enhancements and further projects. The group also makes decisions affecting all users, such as which changes are made to the employer database. One key reason Gen II worked well was that management placed so much initial reliance on the database, saying it was to be the primary source of information and processing.
What about the future? Well, a law change (if passed) will make it possible to apply for Minor Work Permits over the Web. Since primary customers of Minor Work Permits are school superintendents, we are conferring with the Department of Education (DOE) and their IT providers as to how we might use their existing access point to add our services to those already provided. Using the Web may present challenges for our Gen II database, but technology and programming knowledge has matured since we started. Hopefully the solution, whether through DOE’s access point, or a new one, can become a model for further Web applications with Gen II.
John Rioux is the Director of the Technical Services Division at the Bureau of Labor Standards. The Division provides customer support and statistical services to the rest of the Bureau. He has worked at the Bureau for 23 years, and may be reached with questions at john.l.rioux@state.me.us.
