Case Study: State of California, Department of Child Support Services (DCSS)

State of California, Department of Child Support Services (DCSS)

Consortia Project Leads (CPLs) – senior project management team to manage the activities of the county based child support consortiums to meet the DCSS objectives

The DCSS requested the assistance of PCG Technology Consulting (PCG TC, formerly Eclipse Solutions, Inc.) to provide a team of senior project managers to plan, direct, monitor and report on the activities to meet the department’s transition to a single statewide system while maintaining the systems required to support the ongoing child support operations.

PCG TC worked closely with all the groups involved in the California Child Support Automation Systems (CCSAS) Project: including all the divisions within DCSS themselves; the California Franchise Tax Board; the various consortia organizations, including vendors and County staff; and the Local Child Support Agencies, in order to:

• Standardize the scope of consortia services;
• Control consortia costs;
• Schedule enhancements and conversion activities;
• Maintain quality; Ensure effective communication;
• Perform issue and risk management;
• Manage consortia resource utilization (staff levels and performance);
• and Procure necessary goods and services (contracts and service agreements).

A chief goal of the CPLs was to develop plans and strategies to control maintenance and operation costs and achieve near-term DCSS objectives, while effectively transitioning the consortia to CCSAS.

The 4-year engagement was successfully completed and resulted in DCSS’s on-schedule transition from six consortia systems to a single statewide child support enforcement system that was recently certified by the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), eliminating federal penalties of $200 million annually.

Among the key achievements, PCG TC:

• Facilitated and coordinated the CCSAS detail design sessions that identified and resolved design issues and changes for the $2 billion CCSAS projects that included the child support enforcement system, the state disbursement unit, the consortia systems, and the various auxiliary DCSS systems.
• Directed maintenance, operations, and enhancement efforts on the consortia systems.
• Provided leadership and governance over the Local Child Support Agency and consortia level conversion activities.
• Assisted DCSS in establishing a new central financial management organization to address cross-county financial management and program operations.
• Provided project management, coordination, facilitation, communication, and direction to the existing Consortia Managers and their staff to achieve DCSS Program and CCSAS Objectives.
• Supported performance monitoring and reporting.
• Developed an integrated schedule and refined the solution design and architecture to minimize overall project timeline and budget while satisfying State and federal statute, policies, guidelines, and certification requirements.