Blog

Our blog isn’t about us. It’s about you. We discuss business challenges and real issues human service agencies and caseworkers face everyday. You’ll find traditional human services software articles about things like document management for human services and social work technology. But you’ll also find inspirational stories to boost caseworkers’ spirits and tools to help agencies find and gain support for technology in human services.

Team Northwoods's Articles

Team Northwoods
Our team of human services experts cover key topics and trends impacting the industry and help agencies gain support for modern technology solutions.
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Posted Thursday, January 27, 2022 by Team Northwoods

How Child Welfare Customers Say Traverse Helps Them Focus on Families

“If we can use our resources to prop the family up and mitigate risks to keep the children in the home, that's an agency win for us at all levels—financial, resource support, workload management. That's what we strive to do as an entire child welfare division.”

Hannah Webster, child welfare manager at Mesa County Department of Human Services, is one of many customers we’ve spoken to over the years to learn why their agency has invested in our document management, forms management, and mobility software, Traverse®, in child welfare.

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Posted Tuesday, December 14, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Readers' Choice Recap: Top Blog Posts of 2021

As another year comes to a close, it's time to recap our top blogs of 2021.

Below is a countdown of this year's posts that our readers found most insightful. Remember, you can subscribe any time to make sure you never miss out on future content.

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Posted Tuesday, December 7, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Links We Love: Best Practices for Modernizing Human Services Technology [Resources]

You want to read up on the important topics and trends impacting human services, but that’s much easier said than done when you’ve already got so much else on your plate.

Sound familiar? If so, we’ve got you covered.

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Posted Thursday, November 18, 2021 by Team Northwoods

How the Paper Shortage Could Hurt Your Human Services Agency

Cars. Coffee. Computer chips. Ketchup. There’s no shortage (pun intended) of items that have been hard to find, or more expensive to buy, over the past few months due to global supply chain disruptions that have resulted from COVID-19 and other factors.

But there’s one thing that human services agencies should be keeping an eye on as it could significantly impact your operational budget over time: paper and printing supplies.

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Posted Wednesday, October 6, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Solving Cybersecurity Problems in Human Services Before They Start

If you work in IT, the words “data loss” likely send shivers down your spine. If you work in IT for a human services agency, the stakes are even higher. No one wants to be responsible for a security breach or data leak that compromises your system integrity, threatens your clients’ privacy, or delays your agency’s ability to deliver services to the people who rely on you.

Of course, there’s the financial aspect to consider as well. Did you know ransomware victims in United States spent an average of $2.09 million in remediation costs in 2020?

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Posted Monday, August 23, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Build vs. Buy: Why COTS is the Smarter Choice for Human Services

Many human services agencies falsely believe their technology needs are so unique to justify building their own custom solution. In the long run, however, this could be a very costly mistake. A commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product that can be configured to meet your needs and evolve over time can almost always do the job—with a considerably smaller strain on resources and faster time to value.

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Posted Thursday, August 12, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Engagement vs. Efficiency: Which Matters More for Economic Assistance?

Economic assistance program leaders are typically motivated to modernize their technology for one of two reasons—improving client engagement or increasing caseworker efficiency. Both are important, but which one has a larger impact across the agency?

I’ll give you a hint … that’s a trick question! If you evaluate technology through just one of these lenses, you may inadvertently hinder your agency from realizing its full potential.

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Posted Friday, July 30, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Connect the Dots: How Traverse Supports Kinship, Trauma-Informed Care

Child welfare caseworkers need to know how technology supports their practice, priorities, and daily work. Otherwise, it’s just another obstacle standing in the way of their mission to help kids and families. Keep reading for a preview of how Traverse, our cloud-based document management, forms management, and mobility software for child welfare, supports kinship and trauma-informed care—two things we know caseworkers want to learn more about.

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Posted Tuesday, June 8, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Answering Your Commonly Asked Cloud Questions for Human Services

I recently read a Forbes article about government and the future of cloud. This line caught my attention:

“For many, cloud adoption is no longer an ‘if,’ it's a ‘when.’ The benefits of the public cloud are becoming too great to ignore.”

While I agree with this statement, I’m not so sure human services is as far along as other government programs. Human services is recognized as a top candidate for cloud migration, but there are still plenty of counties and states still in the process of wrapping their heads around what—if any—cloud-based technologies are right for their needs.

I know many of you still have questions and concerns about the cloud, so this post will help address them.

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Posted Tuesday, March 16, 2021 by Team Northwoods

Celebrating Social Workers: A Roundup of Resources You Need to Succeed

Social Work Month is one of our favorite months of the year. We love shouting from the rooftops about the superhero work you do to support and empower vulnerable kids, adults, and families. You are a shining light, a beacon of hope for those who need it, and we thank you for all that you do.

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