Collaboration for the win! The Office of Data and Innovation (ODI) and Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) are proud to have earned a joint award for Best IT Collaboration. The award was announced at the California Government Innovation Summit in Sacramento on September 19.
The recognition is for our innovative, collaborative, and human-centered design work to modernize information flows into and out of the California State Warning Center.
The need
Cal OES IT was looking for ways to modernize information flows into the state’s Warning Center, considered the first line of response, and critical to recommending activation of the State Emergency Operations Center.
- At the heart of the issue were legacy systems and manual operations that the Cal OES office wanted to transform.
- The goal was to empower the team to adapt processes and systems to the changing nature of disasters, modernize information flows in order to better serve the needs of state leaders and public alert recipients.
ODI’s mission is to deliver better services to Californians through data, human-centered design, and technology. In partnering with Cal OES on this project, we wanted to help shape and support the procurement of a new system for the Warning Center, informed by human centered design and research findings.
The solution
Through a collaborative partnership, the teams relied on research, human-centered design, and a mapping of existing processes to write an outcome-oriented procurement solution. In short: it allows Cal OES IT to center its procurement not just on technical requirements, but on user needs, and allowing for scalability. In the end, the research results put the human element of supporting business processes and objectives first.
This award showcases the power of collaboration between technology and program teams. It also shows how user research and service innovation can complement IT to make decisions that drive better government.
This project was part of the Data and Innovation Fund (DIF). This is one way ODI helps the state improve services for all Californians.
Email dif@innovation.ca.gov to learn more about DIF or this project.