When the Department of Corrections was formed in October 1995 it had little in the way of IT systems, and no common system for managing offenders. IT strategies were developed in response to this situation, and a plan established for standard IT systems, as well as to implement a national system for Offender Management.
This system was based on package software purchased from a US supplier that was substantially modified to support CPS, PS and PPS in an integrated manner, as well as supporting the New Zealand environment. The Department commenced the development of the Integrated Offender Management System (IOMS) in 1997, and successfully completed the implementation of the package in 1999, on time and within budget.
Since the initial implementation of the IOMS system in 1999, the system has been progressively and successfully modified to support changes in legislation, business processes, and updates in the underlying system technology.
When the IOMS system was implemented it was envisaged that it would have a life of eight years. Prudent system management required that a review of the system be conducted near the end of its life (2006) to evaluate how well the IOMS system was performing and to define a plan for its future.
This changed, however, with the independent review carried out as part of the Department’s Output Pricing Review (OPR) in 2003, which recommended that the review of the IOMS system be brought forward to 2003/04. The objective of this review was to define the future direction of the IOMS system from 2004 through to 2012.
The review of the IOMS system was completed in four phases and has culminated in this report documenting the IOMS Strategy to 2012.
The first phase saw the confirmation and documentation of operational business processes in a standard format.
Phase two of the review mapped these processes to the IOMS system so that gaps in usability and functionality could be identified and quantified.
The third phase of the project was confirmation of Corrections’ long term view of offender management and documenting the impact of that on support systems. This included the identification of principles and guidelines for future systems’ development to ensure that the on-going technology needs of Corrections would continue to be met, and also a recognition that there will be on-going changes in business processes which will drive changes in IOMS.
The fourth and final phase involved determining whether the IOMS system itself could continue to meet the needs of the Department moving forward, or if the gap between the requirements specified by the business and the system was too wide. The previous three phases were integrated to provide a view of the life of the IOMS system over the next eight years. The output from this phase is this strategy for the IOMS system to 2012.
The IOMS Review Project has produced the following conclusions:
These findings have led to the development of a work programme that covers the years up to 2008 when the next review is scheduled. The work plan includes development or enhancement of both business functionality and technical functionality. The work programme for future years is focused around new and emerging requirements from within the Corrections business, and potential changes in processes over the next few years.
In summary, the review of IOMS has confirmed that IOMS should be retained as the Department’s core business system for offender management and continue to be maintained and enhanced to meet business needs until 2012.
The remainder of this report provides details of how the review project was completed and the process of discovering the findings documented herein.