Companies like mine that build client management software for social service agencies should make it easy for those agencies to move from one vendor's system to another. The problem is that there are as many database schemas and proprietary binary data storage formats as there are client management software solutions. This presents two problems:1. Moving from an old to a new database often means having staff reinput data, giving control of client data to the software vendor rather than the social service agency.
2. Since client management databases currently don't talk to each other, agencies are often put in positions of having multiple client management systems, one for their agency then any number of other systems that their funders require they enter client data into.
The solution to this problem is technically simple, and politically difficult. Technically, the client management software industry should come together to build an open XML format to make data exchange between systems standardized. Politically this is difficult because unlike some other industries, social service software as a sub-sector is a disorganized hodgepodge of non-profit and for-profit entities, rather than a federated association of organizations.
Without an open standard for moving client data from one vendor's system to another, social service agencies will continue to waste time duplicating data into multiple systems and will never truly be in control of their own information.
(Photo by Free Henrik Holappa)
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