CalWIN
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
CalWIN, the CalWORKs Information Network, is an automated information system to automate eligibility determination and case maintenance functions for specific county-administered social services programs in the state of California, including CalWORKs, Food Stamps, Medi-Cal, CAPI (Cash Assistant Program for Immigrants), General Assistance, and Foster Care.
CalWIN was developed by Electronic Data Systems (EDS), which also built, owns, and operates other major health and benefits information systems in the state. Under the CalWIN contract, state and county consortium pay EDS more than $800 million for the system. EDS is promoting the same technology in several states for proportionally equivalent fees; the Colorado Benefits Management System, now in operation, is one such variation.
CalWIN is a Windows-based software package radically evolved from its predecessor, the mainframe, 'green screen' style Welfare Case Data System (WCDS), also developed and maintained by EDS. Much WCDS core technology, including legacy COBOL code, was ported into CalWIN, but the latter system is far more complex. While WCDS had about 100 data collection and display screens, CalWIN has over 1,000. Transition from WCDS to CalWIN is complete, having taken place in phases throughout 2005 and 2006 in 18 counties representing 40% of the state's caseload.
Other automated systems used by the 40 non-CalWIN counties are: ISAWS (35 counties representing 13% of the state caseload); C-IV (Consortium IV -- four counties representing 13% of the state caseload); and LEADER Los Angeles County, managing 34% of the state welfare caseload.
CalWIN has been a spectacular failure as has the Colorado Benefits Management System (CBMS) project. The latter has been the subject of extensive investigation by the Colorado Legislature. It still has substantial problems as of March 2007. An extensive discussion of these two projects may be found at http://briefcase.yahoo.com/mrappeal in the Daily Recorder folder in the two series "How Not To Buy Software" and "Public Officials and Taxpayer Dollars." Following links included in these newpaper articles will permit you to view county employees complaining at length about CalWIN.
