In a bid to improve efficiency and customer service, the Maintenance Enforcement Program (MEP) of the Alberta Ministry of Justice has taken a service-oriented architecture approach to transform a previously paper-based and error-prone business process to an automated workflow system.
Called the Maintenance Information Management System (MIMS), the Web-based system was developed using BEA Systems Inc.'s WebLogic Server and WebLogic Integration, a set of products that provided the Ministry of Justice new opportunities for customer service improvement, Alain Coulombe, senior manager, strategic business services with the Alberta Ministry of Justice, said in a statement.
MEP provides services that help citizens abide by the terms of court-ordered maintenance and support payments. The program is staffed by 190 personnel in Edmonton and services over 100,000 debtors and creditors.
The move to upgrade came from a decision to replace the ministry's outdated COBOL IDMS-based mainframe system, which has been running its MEP processes since the 1980s.
Currently, MEP manages approximately 50,000 case files. One of the challenges of the previous system was that MEP employees had to rely on manual data entry and a time-consuming paper-based system to enter and research information, respond to clients, and track individual cases. In addition, the system was slow, inefficient and prone to errors.
In order to match the right technology with their current business processes, MEP developed a framework for the new Web-based system that would also be integrated with an interactive voice response system from Avaya.B
After spending six months testing technologies from various vendors, MEP's tech team selected BEA WebLogic Server and WebLogic Integration.
"With tens of thousands of clients to support, the BEA business process management (BPM) capability was well-suited for our needs and offered a whole new set of customer-service improvement opportunities," said Coulombe.
MIMS also provided staff and clients with a browser-based interface and a secure user authentication mechanism.
Coulombe said that moving to the new technology enabled the ministry to engage in Web-based collaboration with other ministries and jurisdictions to help enhance collection activities and track delinquent debtors.
The MIMS implementation significantly decreased the manual and repetitive tasks being performed by ministry personnel, while automating workflows, streamlining processes, and improving customer service.
Tasks that had previously required manual action (i.e. tracking payments) are now completely automated.
With SOA as the framework for MIMS, BEA says the Ministry of Justice plans to leverage the technology to explore more ways to enhance collaborate with other ministries and government agencies.
Related content:
Four steps to innovative service transformation
SOA at work: Ontario's common components
Where to start SOA: Identifying the big business driver
icon.
