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With a population of 464,000, Tulare County, California is one of the largest counties in the San Joaquin Valley. The Tulare County Justice Department consists of several county departments involved in the justice process such as Superior Court, DA, Probation, Public Defender, Sheriff and Agricultural Crimes.
With a population of 464,000, Tulare County, California is one of the largest counties in the San Joaquin Valley. The Tulare County Justice Department consists of several county departments involved in the justice process such as Superior Court, DA, Probation, Public Defender, Sheriff and Agricultural Crimes.
Sharing structured information
Integrated IT systems of different departments
Government and Defense
Fiorano SOA Platform
The criminal justice system in Tulare County functions like most local criminal justice systems across the US, utilizing an intricate communication network consisting of Court, District Attorney, Probation, Public Defender and Sheriff departments. With advancements in justice system technology, Tulare County decided to redesign its IT infrastructure to eliminate inherent communication inefficiencies.
IT project manager Alicia Beal, who was designated the task of finding a way to connect the systems, elaborates: "Implementing an integrated justice system is extremely difficult to say the least. The process involves systems that communicate differently; for instance, if you wanted to pass information about eye color, one system might call it "brown" while the other calls it "auburn". One of the biggest difficulties was finding a way to translate this information between systems."
Replacing the different systems would be a time-consuming and expensive process and would require the use of resources the Tulare County did not have available. Instead, Beal decided to bridge the systems with a Real-Time architecture for information sharing.
464,000
Residents served
With improved accuracy of Court documents,
data storage and real-time transfer.
The criminal justice system in Tulare County functions like most local criminal justice systems across the US, utilizing an intricate communication network consisting of Court, District Attorney, Probation, Public Defender and Sheriff departments. With advancements in justice system technology, Tulare County decided to redesign its IT infrastructure to eliminate inherent communication inefficiencies.
IT project manager Alicia Beal, who was designated the task of finding a way to connect the systems, elaborates: "Implementing an integrated justice system is extremely difficult to say the least. The process involves systems that communicate differently; for instance, if you wanted to pass information about eye color, one system might call it "brown" while the other calls it "auburn". One of the biggest difficulties was finding a way to translate this information between systems."
Replacing the different systems would be a time-consuming and expensive process and would require the use of resources the Tulare County did not have available. Instead, Beal decided to bridge the systems with a Real-Time architecture for information sharing.
464,000
Residents served
With improved accuracy of Court documents,
data storage and real-time transfer.
Eric Prosser, Head EAI Team, County of Tulare
Eric Prosser, Head EAI Team, County of Tulare
IT Project Manager, Alicia Beal and the IT team evaluated basic factors for many Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions and narrowed the choice down to few products. Following a stringent technical "proof-of-concept" to evaluate each solution's effectiveness, Tulare County eventually picked the Fiorano SOA Platform due to its ease-of-use, inherent design advantages and affordability.
As a result of the solution's scalability and flexibility, ongoing costs to maintain Fiorano SOA are significantly lower. Fiorano SOA's prebuilt adaptors are important to bridging and transforming processes without a need to fund risky, large scale rip-and-replace projects for application integration.
IT Project Manager, Alicia Beal and the IT team evaluated basic factors for many Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions and narrowed the choice down to few products. Following a stringent technical "proof-of-concept" to evaluate each solution's effectiveness, Tulare County eventually picked the Fiorano SOA Platform due to its ease-of-use, inherent design advantages and affordability.
As a result of the solution's scalability and flexibility, ongoing costs to maintain Fiorano SOA are significantly lower. Fiorano SOA's prebuilt adaptors are important to bridging and transforming processes without a need to fund risky, large scale rip-and-replace projects for application integration.
Tulare County's current architecture based on the Fiorano SOA framework functions in a two-step process. First, when an individual has to go to court, the District Attorney's office receives a packet of information regarding the case to help them determine whether they would like to prosecute or not.
The DA then files the claim using its internal data architecture, including the necessary data and documents for the Court to review. That information is fed into the Fiorano system, which translates the data and bridges the DA and Court electronic systems. Second, the Court can accept or reject the claim and shoot it back to the DA. If the claim is rejected, emails are sent to everyone involved explaining why the claim was rejected.
Tulare County is in the process of introducing the Fiorano SOA Platform into other areas such as integrated scheduling and financial processing.
"As we get more and more familiar with Fiorano SOA, we'll begin using it for more applications," remarks Beal. "Eventually, we'll extend the solution beyond the justice system and into other Tulare County departments. With Fiorano SOA, we are one of only a few counties in the entire state of California to integrate our electronic data system and IT infrastructure," Beal concludes.
Tulare County's current architecture based on the Fiorano SOA framework functions in a two-step process. First, when an individual has to go to court, the District Attorney's office receives a packet of information regarding the case to help them determine whether they would like to prosecute or not.
The DA then files the claim using its internal data architecture, including the necessary data and documents for the Court to review. That information is fed into the Fiorano system, which translates the data and bridges the DA and Court electronic systems. Second, the Court can accept or reject the claim and shoot it back to the DA. If the claim is rejected, emails are sent to everyone involved explaining why the claim was rejected.
Tulare County is in the process of introducing the Fiorano SOA Platform into other areas such as integrated scheduling and financial processing.
"As we get more and more familiar with Fiorano SOA, we'll begin using it for more applications," remarks Beal. "Eventually, we'll extend the solution beyond the justice system and into other Tulare County departments. With Fiorano SOA, we are one of only a few counties in the entire state of California to integrate our electronic data system and IT infrastructure," Beal concludes.
"When it comes to initiating a case in the court system, we've eliminated double entries that would often occur from simple oversight," says Alicia Beal. "Accuracy as a whole has improved. We've eliminated the potential for human error because the information is passed electronically, rather than being keyed into two separate systems by different people."
For the DA's office, the implementation of Fiorano SOA has been especially useful. The solution allows the DA to see Court decisions in Real-Time, thus greatly reducing the time it used to take for them to receive this information. Since data, documents and other relevant information is passed electronically, Tulare County has saved countless hours that would have applied to the physical process of passing papers back and forth. With electronic data transmission, Tulare County is also saving money on paper and ink that would have been used to record the tremendous amounts of data constantly passing through the justice system.
Fiorano SOA has kept the County of Tulare on the cutting-edge of enterprise technology, positioning their justice system as one of the more technologically progressive and forward-thinking. These changes have not only made our lives easier and our jobs more efficient; they have made Tulare County's residents' lives easier as well," says Alicia Beal, the Project Manager.
"When it comes to initiating a case in the court system, we've eliminated double entries that would often occur from simple oversight," says Alicia Beal. "Accuracy as a whole has improved. We've eliminated the potential for human error because the information is passed electronically, rather than being keyed into two separate systems by different people."
For the DA's office, the implementation of Fiorano SOA has been especially useful. The solution allows the DA to see Court decisions in Real-Time, thus greatly reducing the time it used to take for them to receive this information. Since data, documents and other relevant information is passed electronically, Tulare County has saved countless hours that would have applied to the physical process of passing papers back and forth. With electronic data transmission, Tulare County is also saving money on paper and ink that would have been used to record the tremendous amounts of data constantly passing through the justice system.
Fiorano SOA has kept the County of Tulare on the cutting-edge of enterprise technology, positioning their justice system as one of the more technologically progressive and forward-thinking. These changes have not only made our lives easier and our jobs more efficient; they have made Tulare County's residents' lives easier as well," says Alicia Beal, the Project Manager.
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