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Posted Monday, January 4, 2010 by Team Northwoods

West Virginia Bureau for Child Support Enforcement Chooses Northwoods

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DUBLIN, OH—Jan. 4, 2010The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau for Child Support Enforcement (BCSE) has begun a statewide project to implement Compass® Software from Northwoods Consulting Partners, Inc. to provide efficiencies in document and client-flow management.

With over 450 employees and 53 locations statewide, the BCSE wanted to improve communications between its county and state offices, improve processing speed, and easily share documents between all offices. The BCSE also wanted to address the sometimes long lines and wait times experienced by clients in many of its offices.

“We are excited about the opportunity to provide better service to our customers through technology that will streamline our work and communication processes,” said Garrett M. Jacobs, Acting Commissioner, BCSE.

The BCSE carefully researched solutions to solve its document and client‐flow challenges. In the spring of 2009, BCSE issued a request for quotations seeking a technology solution that would meet these challenges and provide the highest return on investment for BCSE. The agency sought a company with extensive experience working with Child Support and Human Services agencies addressing the challenges they face. The BCSE also desired a ready‐to‐deploy solution that can be rapidly implemented in 2010.

Northwoods was awarded the contract in October 2009. The project will help the local BCSE offices schedule and serve clients faster. Workers will be able to scan documents at the point‐of‐ contact — greatly reducing the risk of misplaced or misfiled documents — and route documents to the appropriate case worker’s attention. Agency staff members will be able to instantly retrieve scanned client documents without leaving their computers. In addition, the project will improve the agency’s disaster recovery capabilities.

Even while providing workers with the tools they need to better serve the public, the project will also empower the clients themselves. Rather than waiting in a line to check‐in for an appointment or scan a document, clients will be able to do these tasks themselves through easy‐to‐use self service kiosks, thus freeing some front desk staff for other duties.

“It is an honor to be chosen by BCSE to assist them in reshaping the way they serve the people of West Virginia. This initiative is very aggressive and forward thinking on their part and should pay dividends for years to come,” said Gary Heinze, President, Northwoods. “Our success at Northwoods is measured by the success of our clients and partners.”

About the BCSE

The West Virginia BCSE is dedicated to promoting and enhancing the social, emotional and financial bonds between children and their parents. It is the State agency that helps the person caring for a child to collect child support from the child's other parent(s). The BCSE also helps divorced individuals to collect spousal support (also called alimony).

About Northwoods

Northwoods is a privately-held software developer and service provider helping state and county human services agencies improve client satisfaction, reduce costs, and increase productivity with our Compass® software suite. Over 100 agencies in 11 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands use Compass® software every day. Founded in 1999, Northwoods is headquartered in Dublin, Ohio. For more information, visit teamnorthwoods.com or follow Northwoods on Twitter @teamnorthwoods.