A diverse Australian justice agency that works towards justice for all through safe, fair and responsible community outcomes, through its core civil and tribunal court services, recently completed a successful digital transformation project to improve efficiency and customer and staff satisfaction - leveraging the power of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and DXC core court case solutions for a fraction of the cost of traditional technologies.
Business challenge
Straining under the weight of paperbased and manual processes, the justice agency went to market for a digitised solution that would manage resources and the paper-based recording of case notes, judges’ interactions and the plethora of other supporting documentation that was becoming increasingly burdensome.
“The agency services a wide geographic area, and its justice supply chain comprises many stakeholders. Its court systems were very old, laborious and tightly siloed,” says Charles Hamilton, Senior Managing Partner in the DXC Practice for Microsoft, DXC Technology.
The legacy case management solution had been in operation for over 30 years and was beyond its use-by date to support such a complex paper trail. The processes to manage the assignment of courtrooms, judges and cases, together with juror management across courts, was becoming increasingly cumbersome and open to human error.
Faced with these issues, the agency realised it needed to implement a digitised solution with a web interface to simplify access for all internal and external court users and an automated workflow to streamline critical administrative activities. As a result, it went to market to find an integrated solution and modernise its outdated, manual-based processes.
The agency’s objective was to simplify and modernise the delivery of justice services to support its vision of justice for all.
Solution
Identified as the partner of choice, DXC Technology worked collaboratively with the agency to propose an industry specific solution powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365. Leveraging extensive knowledge and experience delivering to justice agencies across Australia and New Zealand, DXC Justice Case Management solution leverages Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement capabilities coupled with industry expertise, unique IP and proven methodologies from the DXC Practice for Microsoft.
Initially focusing on selecting, scheduling and paying jurors and managing civil court and tribunal cases, DXC Justice Case Management solution replaces over 50 existing applications for case or customer management functions across the agency.
The juror management system allows the agency to manage the entire jury process from one interface and provides integrations to other vital line-of-business systems, including the agency’s financial system, to enable and track juror payments for undertaking this critical public service role.
“It was built around Microsoft Dynamics 365’s customer service modules, as well as a range of Microsoft Power Platform integration components,” says Hamilton. “It allows for interagency information sharing such as identity checking. It also incorporates police checking procedures necessary before a juror is selected for duty and provides real-time visibility of where requests are in the review process.”
The civil case management system is much more complex, adds Hamilton. “It involves 21 different work products and enables the public to submit and access cases through a secure self-service portal. It then guides the public through application forms. It also allows for completed forms to be uploaded to enable the creation of electronic cases in Dynamics 365 for further review and processing by the courts.”
Key features of DXC Justice Case Management include the automation of case IDs, and case statuses, identifying and flagging vexatious litigants, processing fee waivers, providing electronic service copies of documents and allowing over-the-counter submission of initiating applications.
“The functionality of the case management system is extremely rich,” explains Hamilton. “It significantly improves the data integration and sharing of information with external agencies necessary to execute key civil proceedings.”
For example, the solution can digitally share data with credit agencies and residential tribunals to ensure relevant information is shared without user interaction causing data entry delays or errors.
The self-service portal also allows citizens to update their details throughout their journey with the court. “The system is sophisticated in that it allows the public to update their details in one place, and then automatically populates those new details against all cases that person is involved with.”
The following is a list of some of the other key capabilities built into the platform:
- Case linking: Removes manual processes to combine, link, and transfer cases to other courts with electronic case change logs and security to ensure users can access only relevant cases.
- Event scheduling: The court registry can efficiently create and capture pertinent information relevant to different court events, such as hearings and in-chambers activities. A workflow ensures consistency through different event stages; the right resources are allocated and booked for an event. Sends event notifications via email or SMS to case parties to let them know when and where to attend.
- Capturing proceeding outcomes: Judicial officers can capture their outcomes and decisions against an event electronically, trigger outcome and order templates, and generate court files. The officers can verify and sign orders using a strict security protocol.
- Civil enforcement: Delivers an online enforcement and warrant solution allowing the registry to interact with enforcement officers. Registry and judicial officers can create warrants and allocate them to an enforcement officer via the solution. Enforcement officers can digitally submit transactions taken for their enforcement officer report, and registry staff can approve reports.
- User collaboration: Allows for case management and collaboration by registry team members against cases. Features include case file notes, secure notes, annotation of court files, and case alerts
- Records management: Ensures physical artefacts and exhibits held by the courts are tagged, tracked and auditable electronically in the solution. Barcode scanning and strict controls around the disposal and tracking of evidence throughout different courts are managed as part of the case record.
Underpinning the entire solution is a security model that ensures each jurisdiction can only see the information relevant to their jurisdiction.
Results
DXC Justice Case Management went live in a series of staged go-lives, starting with jury management. This was followed by civil case management being delivered at the agency’s central court and then rolled out to regional court jurisdictions.
The solution delivers a secure, automated system that simplifies case initiation and processing, enabling information sharing, tracking, and data analysis. It is a modern and easily configurable solution that facilitates court work by streamlining case management.
“One of the key benefits is that court registrars will be able to schedule resources much more efficiently,” says Hamilton. “Previously, everything was on paper or in spreadsheets. Information was sent back and forth and then collated centrally, requiring someone to manage all the inputs on antiquated technology physically.
Now the new system gives them real-time visibility of resources, allocations and availability of courtrooms.”
Replacing paper with digital processes has led to significant productivity improvements with better access to core case material, reporting, analytics, and data security.
“With jury management, there was no unified view of where jurors sat in the selection process,” recounts Hamilton. “Data had to be moved from one system to another to gather the full picture. Now, the process is much more streamlined. End-to-end processes are integrated into one system where everything relevant to jury management can be viewed.”
Superfluous bolt-on applications, associated interfaces, and manual processes have been removed.
“It is a big leap forward in efficiency. In addition, it integrates well with the agency’s other enterprise systems and delivers on the benefits of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 application features.”
Better yet, the application platform can be extended through configuration to meet other agency requirements, says Hamilton.
“The application framework allows additional client-specific functionality to be implemented using configuration to the greatest extent possible. This approach reduces customisation efforts and risk, accelerating the creation of a flexible, scalable, upgradeable, and integrated solution.”