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Q&A
MOCS challenges and focus on technology stabilization
0:31:42
ยท
137 sec
Council Member Julie Won inquires about MOCS's biggest challenges for the coming year and how they plan to overcome them. Director Lisa Flores responds by emphasizing the focus on technology stabilization, particularly for the Passport system.
- Flores highlights a 40% increase in system activity and user growth to over 130,000 users
- Recent improvements include changes to the budget process in Passport, allowing earlier engagement with vendors
- The goal is to improve efficiency and meet appropriate timelines for contract processing
Julie Won
0:31:42
When it comes to new needs and budget requests on headcount or recruitment or attrition, what would you say that mock's biggest challenges are for the next year, and how how do you foresee that they can overcome those challenges?
Lisa Flores
0:31:55
Thank you for that question, Sherwan.
0:31:57
I think, we really want to focus on, when it comes to our technology, in stabilization.
0:32:03
As I mentioned earlier, we increased the volume of activity by 40% just in less than a year and added about 13,000 to 15,000 users.
0:32:17
And that continues to grow.
0:32:18
We have over 130,000 users in Passport.
0:32:23
And the complexity and the amount of workflows that exist in our system are probably not comparable to any municipality in The United States.
0:32:34
So I think really making sure that we are doubling down on stability of the system, continuing to look at our current workflows and make adjustments where necessary.
0:32:44
For example, one of the things that we recently did and again, thank you to your advocacy, Councilmember Stevens and others.
0:32:53
The last round where we did receive some additional new needs last year, we took a look at some of the pain points that we could address quickly in the system.
0:33:02
And one of those was doing the budget process in passport.
0:33:07
In comparison, just for a moment, if I may, in Accelerator for the nonprofit contracts and human service providers, you were able to begin your budget process in January or February.
0:33:18
So it gave you more time to engage with your provider, finalize that budget, and have it ready to go once preprocessing opens in May so that you were not so compressed in your already compressed timeline.
0:33:30
We just rolled out this February.
0:33:31
We made changes to Passport to create a budget readiness process to allow that similar process.
0:33:37
Last year, agencies were unable to do that process with their vendors until May.
0:33:43
So that really compressed the timeline for folks to get their contracts, over the finish line.
0:33:47
And so those kinds of changes that may seem small but are extremely impactful for the efficiency and ability for agencies with their resources to have plenty of runway to get work done and meet the appropriate timelines.