| North Carolina Customizes Their Information & Referral Agency with IRis |
|
“The response from the Bowman Systems team, the attention to detail and the When Eric Rodgers, Coordinator of Information and Referral Services for the Alcohol/Drug Council of North Carolina (ADCNC), came on board with the organization 18 months ago, his goal was to maximize call efficiencies by utilizing the best available I&R software. He explored a variety of alternative resources, and ultimately decided to upgrade the organization’s existing IRis 3.0 to IRis 4.0. IRis 4.0 is a database-driven software system specifically designed to help organizations “What I found was that nothing compares to the flexibility of IRis,” said Rodgers. “You just can’t beat IRis for the speed of provider displays. No other software could match the features we already had, and the 4.0 upgrade made things a lot more intuitive, especially with the ability to customize screen design for data collection and the ease with which you can build customized files and reports.” One of Rodgers’ favorite IRis features is the ability to dynamically change screen layouts ADCNC is not your typical I&R. “We are staffed with counseling professionals,” said Rodgers. “Our style is warm and friendly, and we make sure that no caller ever gets put into a queue, so there is no hold time. One of the most satisfying scenarios is being able to talk to family members that don’t even realize that they themselves need help because of dealing with someone extremely challenging; we are then able to provide a referral that they didn’t know to ask for.” Because of ADCNC’s focus on addiction, and a desire to capture accurate caller need data for reporting purposes, ADCNC closely analyzed the AIRS Taxonomy and determined additional codes needed to accommodate their level of detail. “With IRis we can easily add and adjust taxonomy codes to handle our specific needs,” said Rodgers. The net result of customized taxonomy codes and call screens is a reporting capacity for board members and grantees that clearly communicates the activity performed within the call center. Reporting has become a critical need because of the many grants and government officials involved with ADCNC. “We can create whatever data collection fields are needed, as well as illustrative charts that really demonstrate the impact of our organization,” said Rodgers. “The product is just part of the picture,” added Rodgers. “The response from the Bowman Systems team, the attention to detail and the willingness to work with us when things come up is invaluable,” noted Rodgers. “For example, we had a transition when I came on board, and all of my many questions were always answered promptly and willingly. You could tell that Janet Winston and Deb Petty both really wanted to help us.” To Download this Story, click here. |
manage Information & Referral/Assistance activities. The system, installed to a local file server or stand-alone computer, is used to organize service provider information, collect data about people served, refer people to service providers according to services needed, track needs/unmet needs, run standard reports, and create custom queries and reports. IRis 4.0 also includes a fully relational database designed to align with the AIRS-specified structure for sharing resource data in XML format. It is AIRS/2-1-1 Taxonomy compliant. The database allows for a virtually unlimited number of records without sacrificing speed.
on the fly throughout the application with the built-in Screen Designer feature. IRis 4.0 customers may design the screen layouts to their own specifications by creating new screens, activating user-defined fields, and moving them around with drag-and-drop ease. ADCNC uses this feature to have forms in place for numerous call types to insure easily captured, accurate data. 