How SAM helped a large organization customize its data reporting and share the workload
North Homes Children and Family Services
Based in Northern Minnesota, North Homes Children and Family Services offers a community-based continuum of compassionate care to children and families. They are a large organization with around 350 employees in multiple offices. They provide not only adoption and foster care services but also adult and children’s mental health services, residential programs, and more.
The organization is driven by the belief that every child and family deserves compassionate care and support. They are committed to making a positive difference in the lives of those they serve in whatever way they can.
The Challenge
North Homes’ SAM administrator, Steve Smuk, describes a time when they were bursting at the seams with paperwork. Drawers were overflowing, and there were some case files that were literally six inches thick.
In the world of foster care and adoption, the paperwork piles up and just keeps coming. If you request documents from someone, they may send you 300 pages — and it has to go somewhere. This creates not only a storage problem but also makes it hard for social workers to find what they need.
The Solution
Steve knew that going paperless would make things easier for everyone, so he started researching various software solutions. There were several factors that went into North Homes choosing SAM, but the one that resonated most with leadership was the price. Other agencies cost a lot more, so SAM jumped to the top of the list. But they also love having control over what forms look like, how data flows throughout the system, and the built-in reporting module.
Initially, some people in the organization were concerned about the change. There are those who like the comfort of physical papers, and going digital means putting your trust in the system — that everything will be there and you’ll be able to sign in whenever you need to. However, SAM has proven to be a reliable method of recordkeeping, reporting, and more.
SAM’s auto actions are a huge time saver, allowing staff to communicate with everyone at once and get quick resolutions to problems. They also give you helpful reminders when expirations are up. The staff also loves that, as data is input into the system, SAM makes real-time changes for everyone to see.
The Results
SAM helped Adoption & Beyond enhance its professionalism and operate more efficiently, making the agency appear larger and Before SAM, everything had to be done manually. Having the ability to see data “at a glance” with little to no effort was a game changer. On the admin side, building reports took some getting used to but once they gained an understanding of how Report Builder functioned, the process became very quick and easy. They can now typically build a report in 5-10 minutes, which is helpful when looking for data insights for an immediate question or concern.
When it comes to state reporting, SAM has made it possible to submit quick and accurate reports without the use of manual tracking logs on Excel sheets (or the dreaded hand-written logs on paper). North Homes is audited by Minnesota DHS every year, and the feedback they’ve gotten from the state is that SAM is extremely easy to navigate. It really helps that SAM is so customizable in that the forms, fields, and links are labeled using naming conventions that the state understands.
Steve even uses it as a ticketing system for himself. He says they also use SAM to track vehicle repairs, upload invoices, and more. North Homes Children and Family Services has been working with InReach Solutions and enjoying the amazing support of their foster care and adoption agency software for years, and they look forward to continuing in the future.
