Wilson County Supports Workers with Modern Software for Social Services

Solution

Wilson County DSS has used Northwoods legacy document management solutions across several program areas since 2016. In 2020, recognizing that workers in child welfare and adult services could increase efficiency and streamline processes with a more modern and intuitive product, the agency migrated both units to our cloud-based, modular, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software, Traverse. Wilson County DSS utilizes Traverse’s document management, forms management, mobility, and case discovery features.

Traverse empowers Wilson County DSS’ workers with the right information at the right time. Social workers collect, view, and share case content from anywhere at any time using the web-based application and companion mobile apps. Traverse automatically analyzes the data and information collected to bring critical case content to light. Caseworkers understand the past and present to support informed, confident decisions for children, families, and adults.

"Traverse offers several features to support our social work staff. These tools offer immediate support and increase our capacity to work more efficiently and more effectively for our customers,” said Glenn Osborne, director of Wilson County DSS.

Glenn also noted several specific features that improve the quality of the agency’s casework, case documentation, and communication:

• Teams can stay connected whether they’re in the office or out in the field since staff are immediately notified when cases are assigned to them.
• Supervisors and quality assurance staff can provide real-time feedback and leave comments on workers’ in-progress forms and documents before submitting them into the record, which improves quality and completeness of information stored in the system.
• Supervisors can easily access their team’s caseloads in one location and see forms that need review or signature without workers having to email them back and forth.
• Workers can search by name, date of birth, or address to quickly find the cases they need, which also helps them avoid creating duplicate files.
• Social workers save time through the ability to “drag and drop” documents into the system. They can also copy an existing form, report, or assessment, update the information they need, and then create a new version to finalize instead of starting from scratch.

“If your agency is looking for a document management solution, we would absolutely recommend Traverse,” Glenn said. “Traverse captures the awesome work our social workers do every day with its easy-to-learn, worker-friendly, and reliable software. Traverse supports our team in providing quality and efficient services.”

Results

The agency has increased productivity by maximizing the innovations in Traverse that help child welfare and adult services teams spend more time making an impact on the community.

More quality time with families

"The families we serve need our workers time and attention,” Glenn said. “When our staff can spend less time focused on paperwork and administrative tasks, they can spend more time focused on the needs of the families we serve.”

Increased productivity from anywhere

Traverse also allows greater flexibility for social workers anywhere they engage families since it can be accessed by any internet-capable device. “From real-time communication on reports and documentation to the ability to provide our customers with access to needed paperwork, we've seen many processes improve and become more user-friendly over time,” Glenn said.

Improved collaboration between workers and supervisors

Quality supervision is a predictor of retention and Traverse supports this process in various ways. “Traverse streamlines the communication between workers and supervisors, allowing for a real-time interaction and document review,” Glenn said.

A world-class partnership between Wilson County DSS and Northwoods

Beyond improving efficiency in child welfare and adult services, Glenn says Northwoods helps the entire agency stay up to date with the ever-changing world of technology. “Northwoods is proven. They understand the value of our time and how we invest it,” Glenn said. “We appreciate the ability to provide meaningful feedback to Northwoods on the software's functionality and their willingness to hear our feedback and continue to enhance the product.”