The success of DSS in a police organization. An evaluation study

Decision support systems (DSS) are widely used in both public and private sectors. The objective of our research is to provide knowledge about the actual use and impact of DSS in police organizations. The system that is evaluated in this study is a DSS, recently developed and implemented in the Police organization in Skåne. There is hardly any evaluation done on these systems when used in this particular context. This evaluation will be based on the information system success model of DeLone and McLean (1992). Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to measure the interrelated success factors of the model. Our findings show that system quality, information quality, user satisfaction, individual impact and organizational impact are at satisfying levels. The use of the system in general is low and more depended on external factors rather than system quality, information quality and satisfaction. We arrived at the overall conclusions that the DSS can be considered quite successful but on the other hand there is still room for improvement until it becomes fully functional

Too Many Teens: Preventing Unnecessary Out-Of-Home Placements

The child welfare system was created to care for abused and neglected children. But too often, teenagers are landing in the system because they simply aren't getting along with their parents. This paper traces Casey's efforts to learn from communities that are preventing teens from landing in the system by helping families while the teen remains at home. A survey of the states, interviews with experts, secondary research and visits to several communities show common elements of successful programs.The paper presents information on related laws and policies, funding sources and programs for families while including the infrastructure and services needed to support such initiatives

Improving Medicaid Managed Care for Youth With Serious Behavioral Health Needs: A Quality Improvement Toolkit

Profiles successful initiatives by Medicaid managed care organizations in a collaboration to implement systems of care emphasizing early identification, coordination and management, and various services and supports in the least restrictive settings

2017-18 VCU Faculty Handbook

The VCU Faculty Handbook contains information about the university, its campus and the surrounding community. The Handbook is not a complete guide to academics, research and other services, but is intended as a reference guide to orient new and continuing faculty to the university and provides additional sources for information. For detailed school or department information, please reach out to the specific departmental office. The VCU Office of Faculty Affairs is committed to updating the Handbook on a yearly basis

The World at our Doorstep

The Onondaga Citizens League studied the issues of refugee resettlement in Central New York. The purposes of the study were to first develop a clearer picture and understanding of the refugee dynamic in Onondaga County -- the needs, the service continuum and the opportunities new refugee populations offe and then to recommend programming and policies to help it be a more welcoming community. The lessons learned crossed sectors from literacy to public safety, and offer information both in process and potential.The community has a long history of welcoming people from around the world and has seen an increase in New Americans in the last four to five years, as global unrest has grown. The higher numbers, coinciding as they did with an economic downturn that hurt all residents of the community, made the refugee presence more noticeable and for some, more problematic. Underlying the study was an unspoken question -- does Onondaga County have the resources and the willingness to welcome this population in a way that helps them without negatively affecting others with human service needs? The actions recommended might be targeted towards helping this new population, but were built on the premise that by helping them, Onondaga County (and other communities) help themselves

Supply chain management: An opportunity for metaheuristics

In today’s highly competitive and global marketplace the pressure on organizations to find new ways to create and deliver value to customers grows ever stronger. In the last two decades, logistics and supply chain has moved to the center stage. There has been a growing recognition that it is through an effective management of the logistics function and the supply chain that the goal of cost reduction and service enhancement can be achieved. The key to success in Supply Chain Management (SCM) require heavy emphasis on integration of activities, cooperation, coordination and information sharing throughout the entire supply chain, from suppliers to customers. To be able to respond to the challenge of integration there is the need of sophisticated decision support systems based on powerful mathematical models and solution techniques, together with the advances in information and communication technologies. The industry and the academia have become increasingly interested in SCM to be able to respond to the problems and issues posed by the changes in the logistics and supply chain. We present a brief discussion on the important issues in SCM. We then argue that metaheuristics can play an important role in solving complex supply chain related problems derived by the importance of designing and managing the entire supply chain as a single entity. We will focus specially on the Iterated Local Search, Tabu Search and Scatter Search as the ones, but not limited to, with great potential to be used on solving the SCM related problems. We will present briefly some successful applications.Supply chain management, metaheuristics, iterated local search, tabu search and scatter search

Design principles of integrated information platform for emergency responses: The case of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

This paper investigates the challenges faced in designing an integrated information platform for emergency response management and uses the Beijing Olympic Games as a case study. The research methods are grounded in action research, participatory design, and situation-awareness oriented design. The completion of a more than two-year industrial secondment and six-month field studies ensured that a full understanding of user requirements had been obtained. A service-centered architecture was proposed to satisfy these user requirements. The proposed architecture consists mainly of information gathering, database management, and decision support services. The decision support services include situational overview, instant risk assessment, emergency response preplan, and disaster development prediction. Abstracting from the experience obtained while building this system, we outline a set of design principles in the general domain of information systems (IS) development for emergency management. These design principles form a contribution to the information systems literature because they provide guidance to developers who are aiming to support emergency response and the development of such systems that have not yet been adequately met by any existing types of IS. We are proud that the information platform developed was deployed in the real world and used in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. © 2012 INFORMS

The application of a business intelligence tool for service delivery improvement : the case of South Africa

Abstract: The global environment requires organisations to adapt and respond quickly to the complexity of its nature. Responding to such an environment depends on real-time information. In the last decade, organisations have relied much on human expertise to extract and analyse and process data into meaningful information for decision making. Many will probably agree with the assertion that the complexity of the globalisation has led to a complexity in modern data analysis, which encompasses different elements (technology and innovation, internet of things and influx of data to name but few), resulting in modern scientific problems. It is evident that organisational knowledge has become the enabling factor for decision-making in both the private and public sector. Yet, the study of the opinion that the advancement of technology and internet of things has complicated matters further for humankind to interpret complex and vast amounts of data at the speed required to keep up with the demands of the global environment in which they operate. Therefore, it is likely that the discovered knowledge may be inaccurate at times. In responding to these dynamics, organisations require computational intelligence systems to transform the data they acquire into real-time meaningful information in order to make informed decisions. ..D.Phil. (Engineering Management

Note: Finger Imaging: A 21st Century Solution to Welfare Fraud at our Fingertips

This Note describes the finger imaging process and summarizes the current New York Social Services law regarding public assistance. It also outlines the current finger imaging bill before the New York State Legislature. Part III examines and considers the two major policy arguments against the implementation of the program. Part IV outlines the legal controversy regarding finger imaging and addresses each express concern as well as constitutional issues. Part V compares New York\u27s finger imaging legislation with similar legislation already in place in California and argues that the New York program will be as effective as California\u27s. In conclusion, this Note urges the New York State Legislature to enact a statewide finger imaging requirement for public assistance and embrace the finger imaging system as an effective and proper method of combatting welfare fraud in the state

Note: Finger Imaging: A 21st Century Solution to Welfare Fraud at our Fingertips

This Note describes the finger imaging process and summarizes the current New York Social Services law regarding public assistance. It also outlines the current finger imaging bill before the New York State Legislature. Part III examines and considers the two major policy arguments against the implementation of the program. Part IV outlines the legal controversy regarding finger imaging and addresses each express concern as well as constitutional issues. Part V compares New York\u27s finger imaging legislation with similar legislation already in place in California and argues that the New York program will be as effective as California\u27s. In conclusion, this Note urges the New York State Legislature to enact a statewide finger imaging requirement for public assistance and embrace the finger imaging system as an effective and proper method of combatting welfare fraud in the state