It's so easy to get caught up on issues around platforms, devices, carriers, vendors, and every other supply side issue that goes on in the space.  I do it myself, as can be seen from many of the entries on this blog.

While my day-to-day work is based upon the end-user side of life (which I find to be one of the most exciting sides of the equation), even yours truly needs to sometimes be reminded of the power that comes from that type of work.  I got that reminder on Thursday morning when I heard Francis P. Allegra, CEO and Pat Smith, CIO of Florida's OurKids of Miami-Dade/Monroe, Inc.

OurKids is a private, non-profit foster care agency for Miami and Florida Keys.  Yup, not for profit.  They actually want to help some of the people who face the greatest needs and challenges.  Young kids who don't have adult family members who can take care of them. Ugh.  Stop and really think about that one for just one moment and consider how fortunate (most) of us were to be raised in happy, healthy and safe homes with our loved ones.  The fact that your older brother teased you incessantly does NOT count.

Here are some fast facts for you about foster care:

• 800,000 children spend time in foster care each year in the US
• 60% enter in response to a report of child abuse or neglect
• Average time in foster care is 28 months
• A child in foster care changes homes on average 1-2 times a year
• There's almost a 50% turnover in case management staff

Ya - that makes for a great environment to work in.  Foster care professionals have a very strenuous work environment.  Nevermind having to go to schools to see guidance counselors, teachers and principals, but it gets even more fun when you have to go to court to testify on behalf of the child.  Let the good times roll.  No wonder there's such a high turnover in case management staff.  Now imagine if you didn't have the tools to most effectively and efficiently do your job so you could actually focus on what matters.  The kids.

OurKids' CIO Pat Smith comes from corporate America and one day "tapped out" of that area so she could do something she found more gratifying.  Soon after joining OurKids, she (with CEO Allegra) launched a program to help the case management staff use technology - enterprise mobility technology - to spend less time doing paperwork and spend more of that time with the kids.  This is classic field service when we think about it in more mundane ways.  By leveraging a smartphone (Windows Mobile) and a laptop they have been able to accomplish (among other things):

• Better scheduling to know which kids need to be seen that day and by the end of the month (the kids need to be seen every 6 months)
• Reduced time filling out paperwork in triplicate (remember those carbon paper forms that never work)
• A way to track the children by taking a photograph of the child through the smartphone that also tags the photo with a timestamp and GPS location - which automatically gets uploaded to a central server
• Mileage tracking - Are the case workers really going where they say they are going?  (There are unfortunately bad apples in all sectors)

There were a bunch of other things that happened with the solution...as well as its own challenges, but the point is, technology not only improved employee satisfaction (they could focus on the kids) but it also improved the quality of care provided.  This is real stuff.  You can't put a true ROI to it because how do you measure the value of a good childhood?  It's priceless.

That said, Allegra and Smith did say there was a ROI.  Never again will there be a story in Florida like the one of Rilya Wilson, a child who was in foster care who is now presumed dead.  I guess enterprise mobility can matter.

Thank you Ms Allegra and Ms Smith for what you are doing for the foster children in Southern Florida.