Making a Difference in Public Social Services

The Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) provides a variety of social services to the residents of Los Angeles County. DPSS’s Information Technology Division (ITD) provides computer systems development, support, and contract administration for the department. ITD is responsible for the development, maintenance and enhancements of the Department’s welfare-oriented applications. The Los Angeles Eligibility Automated Determination Evaluation and Reporting (LEADER) System automates administration of welfare programs in Los Angeles County (Cal Works, Food Stamp, Medi-Cal, CAPI and General Relief); including eligibility determination, benefit calculation, case maintenance and management/fiscal reports and controls. The LEADER Helpdesk application provides departmental users with an in-depth problem issue tracking, extensive categorizing of problem issues, and robust reporting capabilities. Its sophisticated knowledge management system provides the information needed to quickly solve problems. Frequent changes and enhancements made it difficult to provide up-to-date and stable services.

WATI worked with the Information Technology Division’s application development team in configuring the Oracle Teleservice software that was used to develop the LEADER Helpdesk Application. WATI setup screens for the LEADER Helpdesk application using Oracle Teleservice Software. WATI configured the Oracle e-Business Suite product to meet the Departmental business requirements. WATI designed, developed, and tested new web applications utilizing the Oracle database framework to extend the functionality of the existing applications. These new apps were developed within short sprints WATI’s team mentored to other team developers in adhering to coding standard and development methodology and assisted ITD staff in the maintenance and support of the Oracle software environment, applications and databases, including development of operational and system level documentation.