Key resources affiliated with the Amercian Probation and Parole Associated (APPA) visited New Dawn Technologies in July of 2010 to assess and provide feedback on their probation case management technology solutions. The following sections contain many of the APPA’s comments regarding how New Dawn’s business model, technical environment, case and person requirements, and other functional requirements benefit probation and community corrections:
Software Strengths
“In a side-by-side comparison of the software and the APPA functional standards it appears that New Dawn Technologies has adhered to the vast majority and in doing so they can be confident that there product is well postured in the marketplace and will meet the primary needs of most probation departments. These writers are not aware of any other case management production company that references or has integrated the APPA functional standards to this degree. This observance of these standards speaks to the character of the company in that they recognize the value of practitioner input and expertise in the development and promotion of their product.”
Document Management
“JustWare provides a solid foundation for document management. This platform allows for easy search, preparation, reference, importing and archiving. The catalog of report templates is also valuable as is the ease of customization.”
Robust search
“JustWare provides for a variety of search methods with the capability of identifying conjoined cases, events and persons. This is extremely important to probation officers in conducting their daily business. They are challenged to connect multiple and varied identifiers with multiple events and subject persons. This capability is important in identifying gang and drug activity where offenders are often collaborating.”
Financial management
“As public resources become more limited, more agencies are either being directed to or aggressively pursuing alternative revenue sources. Probation fees are becoming common and while good for revenue, can pose a management nightmare i.e. thousands of offenders making thousands of payments. Additionally, numerous other financial obligations are ordered by the court – most importantly, restitution. A strong financial system is required and automation of collection is considered a evidence-supported effective practice. JustWare clearly has benefitted from its work with the courts and offers a strong financial collection and accounting system that has all the elements necessary for audits and daily exchanges with offenders. It is no less competent in restitution account management and provides for hierarchy of payment disbursement and multiple victim/offender recognition.”
Strong audit
“User managers will find the system audit capabilities robust. The ability to document data account activity with a variety of user types is extremely important and can have major implications when cases go awry or unauthorized individuals are trying to access information. This audit strength can “save the day” when staff performance or integrity is at issue or privacy concerns are raised. The JustWare demonstration during the site visit demonstrated more than adequate capability.”
Report writer/ad hoc reporting
“Probation agencies have numerous and varied requests for specific baseline data, outcome reports and summary data. Data collection can create untold nightmares specifically for departments that do not have the resources or staff to collect and compile the information in an efficacious manner. These requests are not always predictable and may require multiple viewpoints or datasets from multiple activities and outcome measures. This information needs to be displayed in various views – including in tables and graphs for both individual caseloads or aggregately. Developing and writing these reports can be essential to the agencies credibility and financial stability. Many agencies do not have specific research positions on staff and struggle with these tasks. In light of budget reductions that most agencies are facing it is critical that they be able to produce data that can aid them in critical strategic decision making and for making a case for resource allocations. Additionally, activities and outcome reporting related to programming, grants, recidivism, etc. is becoming a requirement and most of the well-resourced or progressive agencies currently can do this. The graphical representation of a trend can be a powerful tool for guiding a policy decision. Successful grant writing is in large part determined by the quality and representation of baseline and outcome data. It is becoming an increasing reality that grants seem to be the only source of new revenue for many agencies. JustWare provides the solution to these challenges. The dynamic JustWare report generation capabilities offer vital accountability and reporting solutions for agencies of all sizes. JustWare and the related report generation solutions definitely should be emphasized in all of its software promotions because it clearly sets them apart from the competitors and the value of this software capability should not be underestimated. ”
Good customer retention
“Clearly the 98% customer retention rate is a strong indication of New Dawn Technologies’ success. As the probation product becomes more prevalent, similar rates should be reported but also customer satisfaction survey rates should be noted as well. Customer retention could be influenced by an agency’s willingness to abandon a major expense initiative rather than a confirmation of product satisfaction.”
