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Keeping the marketplace fair for Hawaii's consumers and businesses is the mission of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA). To that end, the DCCA performs many tasks that include educating the public, generating reports and regulating industries through licensing.
DCCA services a wide range of industries and addresses needs through its divisions. They include:
- Professional and Vocational Licensing
- Business Registration, Cable Television
- Financial Institutions
- Office of Administrative Hearings
- Consumer Advocacy
- Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund
- Insurance
- Office of Consumer Protection
- Regulated Industries Complaints Office
Having a breadth of responsibilities and employing 400 staff, the DCCA depends on its access to accurate information within the agency. DataHouse has been working with the DCCA to install new technologies to increase business efficiencies.
Electronic Leave System
The DCCA had been using a paper-based method to manage leave requests for more than 400 employees across 12 divisions. The DCCA processes anywhere from 500 to 1,000 leave requests a month, with a heavier volume during holiday seasons.
The DCCA was seeking a more efficient solution - one that would reduce paper waste, overpayments and staff workload. The DCCA wanted the leave request system to also help managers ensure that each division would be well-staffed from day to day. In addition, they wanted to provide employees with the convenience of having access to their leave balances for personal leave planning.
System Reduces Workload Throughout Agency
DataHouse provided the DCCA with a central repository to which all members in the organization had access. Depending on their authorization level, DCCA staff members are now able to create, review, compute, track, and approve leave requests. The solution is based on the Lotus Notes Electronic Leave System (ELS), a comprehensive workflow solution designed to automate business functions and expedite the request management process. A Lotus Notes solution was a natural choice not only for its powerful workflow features but also because DCCA had already been using Lotus Notes for internal communication, such as e-mail, calendars and action requests.
To craft a system that was suited for the agency, DataHouse analysts and software designers engaged in planning meetings with DCCA. Based on this collaboration and an iterative building process, DataHouse created customized features within the ELS to effectively address the agency's specific needs.
The resulting system creates efficiencies for all DCCA staff:
- Employees - Automated functions allow DCCA employees to independently track their leave balances and view projected balances based on hypothetical leave. The system minimizes errors by preventing requests that are generated for ineligible days, such as weekends or regular holidays.
- Supervisors - Supervisors are now able to see who is in or out on any given day using the calendaring functions. They approve or disapprove requests, and immediately upon doing so, the status is made available to the requesting employee.
- Division Secretaries - Like supervisors, division secretaries also benefit from the shared calendaring functions. Workflow functions notify them via e-mail whenever an employee in their division receives final approval for a leave request. Additional features are available to assist them in keeping track of employees who are absent without prior approval.
- Personnel - Automated features eliminate personnel's need to manually input every leave request into Form 7 templates, which are detailed Microsoft Excel reports accepted by the Department of Human Resources Development. The ELS automatically posts approved leave requests to employee balance sheets, and built-in functions allow personnel to easily post requests into Form 7s. Extracting leave without pay and Worker's Compensation information and sending it to the fiscal office is done with the click of a button.
Policies and union contract rules are enforced by the system to eliminate the need for supervisors, division secretaries and personnel to check each request for compliance.
On-line Help
DataHouse provided comprehensive Help information in two separate databases - one for employees and the other for administrators and personnel. Users can easily find step-by-step instructions for various ELS functions by clicking the left-hand navigation bar. The system's extensive glossary helps users maximize the power of the application.
Quality Assurance and Training
To ensure that the system performs properly for daily operations, DataHouse's TestTeam conducted a formal two-week test based on documented test procedures. To help DCCA make the transition from the old system to the new one, DataHouse provided training classes for various user groups and training handouts.
DataHouse's partnership approach to designing, building and delivering solutions provides customers with the confidence they need to get new business initiatives off the ground and moving ahead.
Technology
The Electronic Leave System is a self-contained Notes-based application. Most of the processing is done using LotusScript and script libraries. Reporting is done through Notes documents, views, and exporting of data to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Tailored Solutions: For screenshots and more details about the customized features of the system, see the entire application brief. (This requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is free.)
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