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Monday, February 13, 2006

Ind. Courts - Plan to link 400 courts takes another step

Today the Indiana Supreme Court has announced that it is rebidding its statewide case management system project. The last word we had on this venture was on Oct. 24, 2005, when the Indiana Supreme Court's Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC) announced that it would "invite trial court case management system vendors to demonstrate their systems to the staff during the next several weeks." (see ILB entry here.) That announcement followed the JTAC announcement from late September of 2005 that it was terminating its long-time multi-million dollar contract with Computer Associates, because of the failure to develop a system.

From today's announcement:

Indianapolis, IN - The Indiana Supreme Court Division of State Court Administration today released a Public Notice of Contracting Opportunity (PNCO) seeking proposals which would provide Indiana courts and clerks with a 21st Century Case Management System (CMS).

“This undertaking is unprecedented in its breadth and complexity and encompasses all three branches of government. When completed, the CMS will fulfill the court's vision of an efficient, cost-effective and accessible statewide justice information system,” said Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard.

The Indiana Supreme Court's Judicial Technology and Automation Committee (JTAC), the Case Management System Executive Committee and the JTAC Statewide Governing Board jointly recommended the new procurement.

This PNCO is a continuation of an automation effort first started in 2002, when the Division contracted with a vendor for a statewide CMS. That contractual relationship was terminated on mutually agreeable terms with a significant refund of monies to JTAC. As part of that previous work, an extensive list of functional requirements for an Indiana CMS were defined. Special teams including technical experts, judges, clerks and key stakeholders have reviewed relevant portions of the functional requirements which have been incorporated in the present PNCO. * * *

Responses to the PNCO are due March 15, 2006. Finalists will then be asked to conduct on-site demonstrations that will last approximately five days. Neither the Division nor JTAC is obligated to award a contract in response to the PNCO.

The PNCO is a 148-page Word document. For easier access, the ILB has converted it to a pdf file, which may be accessed here. A look at page 4 of the document indicates that the Court is still looking to replace local courts' case management systems with this new system, rather than the approach of tieing together and unifying the county courts' information output. Here is JTAC's rationale:
A large majority of Indiana courts maintain their dockets on all of their cases using a computer program called a “case management system” or “CMS.” But in the view of the Supreme Court, there are at least four major problems with existing case management systems. First, a lack of consistency: existing CMS products differ from court to court. Second, many of the existing CMS products use outdated technology. Third, while the existing CMS products store court information, many do not manage it – for example, they do not automatically send out notices, or set up schedules of hearings or create reports. And fourth, most existing CMS products exist only for the courts – they are not connected to: law enforcement agencies; state agencies like the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV); courts in other counties (or cities, towns, and townships); or lawyers and the public.

The Supreme Court believes that these problems can be successfully addressed if all Indiana courts have a 21st century CMS that connects each court’s system with every other court’s and with those who need and use court information so that:

  • Indiana trial courts and court clerks are able to manage their caseloads faster and more cost-effectively;

  • Users of Indiana trial court information – notably, law enforcement agencies, state policy makers, and the public – receive more timely, accurate, and comprehensive information; and

  • The costs of trial court operations borne by Indiana counties are reduced.
The Supreme Court undertook a project to this effect in 2002. Following a competitive procurement, the Division entered into a contract with a vendor to provide and install such a system. By mutual agreement, the contract with that vendor was terminated in September 2005. However, the Court continues to believe that the acquisition and installation of a statewide CMS connected with those who need and use court information is in the best interests of trial courts and court clerks, users of court information, and taxpayers. Based on the Court’s continued commitment to a statewide CMS, its experience with the other vendor’s contract, and its assessment of CMS products available today, the Court has authorized the issuance of this PNCO.

The Division anticipates that the statewide CMS will use the successful vendor’s existing case management products with the capacity for necessary customization. Program management for the statewide CMS is the responsibility of the Division and JTAC, which will operate with the assistance of its employees, various elected officials, consultants and local governmental units. Other professional service providers may be engaged to provide such services that the Division finds necessary for the project to succeed. The list of functional requirements below is for ease of reference and should not be considered a definition or specific assignment of responsibilities. The precise scope of work will be defined during the selection and negotiation processes.

The Division seeks a full-featured CMS with training, deployment and support services, and the successful vendor will work closely with the Division to customize and plan implementation of the statewide CMS. The elements of a statewide CMS implementation will include the ability to integrate and/or interface with other state agencies including but not limited to the BMV, the State Police, Department of Correction, the Family and Social Services Administration, and entities under the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. The statewide CMS must also meet the functional requirements established by the Division (listed in Section M) and have the ability to comply with the State Board of Accounts’ requirements (which are available at www.in.gov/sboa/publications/). Furthermore, the statewide CMS must have the ability to interact and exchange data with other case management systems currently used in Indiana courts (identified in Section H. Interfaces) and ProsLink, a data management system developed by the Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council and used by most Indiana county prosecutors.

Although the Supreme Court has not required all courts to adopt a statewide CMS and is unlikely to do so in the near future, if at all, vendor proposals should include cost estimates that assume the installation of the CMS in approximately 300 courts of record in 92 Indiana counties and approximately 47 city, 27 town, and nine small claims courts. Costs for hardware, if provided by the vendor, should be separate from the overall CMS estimate. Submissions must also include a proposed deployment schedule that specifically describes the timeline, rationale, costs and other resources expected to be contributed by the Division, JTAC and/or local courts and clerks. The successful vendor will be required to adhere strictly to the negotiated budgetary levels and deployment schedule.

Note: See particularly the discussion on pp. 26-27 of the PNCO.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 13, 2006 04:25 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts