October 30, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs:
We are pleased to announce an update to the CWDS Planning Roadmap posted on the CWDS public website. The updated roadmap illustrates planned releases in the following systems: CARES-Live, CARES RFA and CWS/CMS. The updated planning roadmap includes CARES Version 1 (V1) milestone descriptions, critical training and implementation activities, and Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST) periods. In addition to the CWDS Planning Roadmap, we are posting a high-level roadmap focusing on the CARES V1 Project Lifecycle.
Accessing the new page:
- The CWDS Planning Roadmap and high-level CWS-CARES V1 Project Lifecycle is located under the ‘Stakeholder Resources’ dropdown, under the ‘Project Reporting’ link.
- Under ‘Project Reporting’ you will find the ‘CWDS Planning Roadmap & Timeline’ link.
Roadmaps are subject to change and will be updated as needed. For a more detailed status of product development please see our latest CWS-CARES Monthly Legislative Update.
Action Required
If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact CWDS Communications.
September 26, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs:
The Office of Technology and Solutions Integration (OTSI) has decided to phase out the use of WebEx and will use, instead, Microsoft Teams exclusively for all virtual meetings. Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) plans to make the move to Microsoft Teams by Monday, September 30, 2024.
Organizations will see many CWDS project meetings either updated or cancelled and rescheduled to make the change to Microsoft Teams instead of WebEx. This communication is being sent out to explain the reasoning of the updates to the existing meeting invites.
Recipients of “forwarded” meeting invites will not receive the updates to the meetings and will have the previous WebEx link on their calendar if they were not included in the invite distribution. If you have previously forwarded an invite to a meeting that has since been updated, please be sure to forward the updated invite to those parties, or work with the meeting organizer to add them to the invite’s distribution list, if appropriate.
Action Required
Please accept the updated meeting invites and remove the canceled meetings, due to the change from WebEx to Teams, as they are received.
Forward any updated meeting invites that you have previously forwarded, if the new recipients are not included in the meeting’s distribution. The other option is to work with the meeting organizers to add the appropriate people to the invite.
September 05, 2024
Communications
We are pleased to present the fourth issue of the CARES Compass, the two-page executive summary with upcoming project communications and brief informational highlights.
In this issue, you will find:
A Spotlight on Conferences: The CWS-CARES project has been involved in 2 conferences recently – the Probation Information Technology Managers Association (PITMA) annual conference and the 2024 CWDA Conference.
CWS-CARES: A New Way Forward: The second video in the CWS-CARES video series is now available for viewing. Read more on what this video covers and where you can view it.
Resources: Links to self-service resources such as the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), CWDS Bulletins, CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix, and the CWDS Glossary.
Initial Connectivity between CWS-CARES and CalSAWS: CWS-CARES successfully completed initial connections with CalSAWS, demonstrating connectivity and data exchanges between these two systems.
Upcoming Events and Communications: A list of CWS-CARES communications that will be released in the next three months.
The fourth issue of the CARES Compass is available here: Sept 2024 - CARES Compass - Issue 4
We appreciate your continued commitment to staying informed.
Action Required
If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Relations.
June 19, 2024
Communications
Child Welfare Directors, Child Welfare Director-Alternates, Tribal Leadership, All CARES SPOCs and Implementation Coordinators
Child Welfare Leadership,
Thank you for your staff’s continued participation in the design and development of CWS-CARES. Through lessons learned and feedback we’ve received from your organizations we have identified opportunities to improve the way we build and deliver CARES V1.
We recognize that our current model has created gaps in the user experience. To address these gaps, we are launching a more holistic approach to delivering CARES V1 while preserving the October 2026 Go-Live date and scope.
The holistic design approach considers all aspects from the user experience and functionality to the visual design. It ensures that every element works together seamlessly to achieve the desired outcomes.
Given the scope and complexity of CWS-CARES, it has been challenging to connect the user experience across service areas and functional areas of the product. The new holistic design process will increase early opportunities for users to provide feedback and offer a broader functionality preview during Extended User Scenario Testing (EUST). This allows design review participants to see the proposed user experience across an entire business process, rather than incrementally. It also helps teams identify interdependencies across business areas earlier in the design process and reduce the need for rework.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more information and a schedule to prepare for this transition. We understand that any change requires adaptation and with that said, we believe that the holistic design approach will improve the quality of our work and ultimately benefit CWS-CARES end users.
If you have any questions, please contact CWS_CustRel@osi.ca.gov.
May 21, 2024
Communications
CARES RFA Pilot Counties:
May 21, 2024 UPDATE: Salesforce identified the cause of the performance degradation and implemented a fix that resolved the issue. Salesforce has noticed a positive impact to the performance of its services.
The CARES-RFA application should now be returned to normal performance.
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Salesforce is experiencing a service degradation. This degradation may impact CARES-RFA. Users should be able to access the CWS-CARES application; however, some functionality may be unavailable or running at less than optimal performance. General and intermittent slow performance, timeouts, and connectivity issues are possible.
Salesforce is investigating the issue. Additional information will be shared as new updates are received.
Action Required
No action is required at this time.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
January 02, 2024
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The CWDS Project is excited to announce that Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) will soon be used by specific project teams and workgroups as a collaborative and interactive tool. MS Teams will support document collaboration and interactions between project teams and county personnel included in CARES-related workgroups, as well as core county constituents. The use of MS Teams will be implemented on a phased approach starting with the CARES Analytics Transition (CAT) Workgroup on 1/8/2024, followed by the Data Conversion Workgroup at a later date in January. Updated communications will be sent to provide specific dates as to when subsequent workgroups and service areas will implement the use of MS Teams.
Over the past few months, the CARES Data Infrastructure (CDI) lead engineer, Craig Woody, has worked with 50 counties to complete the technical set up of MS Teams in their county. In order for counties to collaborate with the CWDS Project using MS Teams, both the county and the CWDS Project need to set up a B2B (Business-to-Business) direct connect in their respective Azure Active Directory (AD). It is only Outbound access that the CWDS Project is requesting. The project does not require any Inbound access to a county’s tenant. This process to set up MS Teams can be completed relatively quickly via a meeting with the county’s technical team. During the meeting specific steps can be discussed and completed.
If your county is not actively working with Craig Woody on this initiative to set up MS Teams, we ask that you please do so in order to take advantage of this opportunity for collaboration. Please send Customer Relations an email if your county does not plan to use MS Teams for collaboration with the CWDS Project at this time. Customer Relations will document your county’s decision and/or identify a future timeframe to explore setting up MS Teams in your county.
Action Required
Please reply by 1/19/2024 if your county does not plan to set up MS Teams at this time or in the near future.
December 27, 2023
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
December 27, 2023, UPDATE: The connection issue with the CALS feature for CARES-Live has been resolved.
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December 26, 2023, UPDATE: The California Department of Technology (CDT) has reported that the issue that caused outages for multiple agencies statewide, including the CWS/CMS application and the CARES-Live applications, has been resolved. The CWDS Office has received confirmation that connectivity to the CWS/CMS application and most of the CARES-Live application has resumed. The CWDS team continues to work with CDT to resume connection for the CALS feature of CARES-Live.
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The CWDS Office has received multiple reports of an outage impacting the CWS/CMS and the CARES-Live applications. The CWDS teams are working with the California Department of Technology (CDT) on a resolution. Additional updates will be sent out as new information is received.
Action Required
CWS/CMS
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live
If users experience any issues with CARES-Live, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or the Service Desk via email at during normal business hours. You may also email after hours and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
December 26, 2023
Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
IBM has completed its testing of the Windows 10 SAC v22H2 version with the CWS/CMS application. They discovered no issues and are now supporting this version of Windows. The officially supported versions of Windows are now:
- Windows 10 SAC v22H2 (supported through October 14, 2025)
- Windows 10 SAC v21H2 (supported through June 11, 2024)
IBM is updating the CWS/CMS image with the latest patches and will be distributed soon for Dedicated Counties that request it. Dedicated Counties may request the image by submitting an IBM Help Desk ticket at 800-428-8268.
Action Required
Counties need to update all of their CWS/CMS workstations to a supported version.
December 26, 2023
Communications
CWS Directors, SPOCs and Technical Contacts in Affected Counties:
December 26, 2023 UPDATE: The California Department of Social Services (CDSS), the CWDS Project and IBM have decided that the safest option is to quarantine the identified infected and unsupported files in CWS/CMS. The files will not be deleted from CWS/CMS, but users will be prevented from opening the affected documents. The affected documents will be saved to a quarantined area of CWS/CMS on Saturday, January 6, 2024. If a CWS/CMS user attempts to open one of the quarantined documents, they will receive the following error message:
Please note that this DRMS 00122 error message is informational only and that the user will be able to continue to work in the CWS/CMS application after receiving the error message.
The CWDS Project and IBM are still looking to receive responses from the CWS Directors indicating their permission to permanently delete these files. Please contact CWDS Customer Relations (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov) by January 31, 2024, with your decision on whether to have IBM delete the files in a batch file deletion process.
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December 18, 2023 UPDATE: In the attached letter the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) has provided updated guidance to Counties impacted by the CWS/CMS infected and unsupported file cleanup effort.
Please contact CWDS Customer Relations (CWS_CustRel@otsi.ca.gov) with any questions related to this guidance.
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As part of planning for CWS-CARES V1, the CARES Data Conversion team has been performing incremental conversion from CWS/CMS data and documents into CWS-CARES. After the documents are extracted from CWS/CMS, they are scanned to ensure that no viruses are introduced into the CARES environment. During this process, it was discovered that, out of 73 million documents that are stored in the CWS/CMS database, approximately 2,400 documents are infected with a virus or malware. Of these 2,400 documents, 95% were last updated in 2001 or before.
Further, there are an additional 2,600 files that have an unsupported file extension.
Due to security concerns, these documents and files cannot be moved into the CWS-CARES application.
Please NOTE: These infected documents are stored in binary large object (BLOB) format on the mainframe in the Db2 database. As a result, these documents do not affect CWS/CMS data on the mainframe. However, if the document is opened, the virus can infect the user’s personal computer. Please ensure that you have a current antivirus operating on your workstation.
If you are receiving this communication, it means that your county is impacted by this issue.
For each affected County, we will send a report listing the infected files and unsupported file extension files, with additional details pertaining to that County. The reports will be sent to affected counties after the Kick-off meetings.
Please provide a point of contact including IT Support and Security Officer as appropriate and their information (Name, Email, Role, etc.) for the person that should receive your County’s report no later than 11/8/23. The report will be sent via encrypted email to that person.
Please use this form to provide the point(s) of contact: CWS/CMS Infected Documents/Unsupported File Extension - Contacts
Once Customer Relations receives the point of contact person’s information, they will be invited to the Kick-off meetings scheduled for 11/14/23 and 11/16/23. The intent of those meetings will be to review the next steps.
Action Required
Please provide a point of contact and their information (Name, Email, etc.), using the link above, for the person that should receive your County’s report no later than 11/8/23.
December 20, 2023
Communications
All Co-Existent County SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
December 20, 2023 UPDATE: This is a reminder, if you have not done so already, to please complete and submit the two following forms regarding the C Sharp (C#) Co-Existent In-County Image Testing no later than 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 20, 2023:
- Co-Existent County image C# testing confirmation form: https://forms.gle/WS71t4wxQdjEjMUZ7
- C# testing participants list form: https://forms.gle/uMBZgc1pgzHt86uQ6
Please NOTE: Some of the Counties that have confirmed interest in participating via the first form have not yet registered any testers via the second form. Please complete both forms. The list of registered testers is needed to create the login credentials for each tester.
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The CWS/CMS application is required to migrate from the existing Visual Basic 6 (VB6) code, which is no longer supported by Microsoft, to the C Sharp (C#) code. For this effort, the CWDS Office and IBM are conducting ongoing testing of the C# code for CWS/CMS in multiple environments.
The upcoming county test activity will test the C# code against images used by Co-Existent Counties. Participating testers will receive both broadly defined scenarios to test various areas of the CWS/CMS application along with a list of Incidents that have been identified in previous County Test Workshops (CTWs) that require retesting. In addition, testers will be asked to perform volume, robust testing of the C# code to see if it can handle various activities to support the way daily child welfare activities are performed by social workers.
Testing will begin on Monday, February 5, 2024, and will complete on Friday, March 1, 2024. The testing will occur within the County, isolated from the production CWS/CMS environment. For example, the test workstations could be used within a training room or set up temporarily in a conference room. The County’s IT support and Technical Contacts will need to work with the CWDS Infrastructure team to coordinate network and firewall configurations to be used during this phase of the testing.
Also, one additional workstation (not used by County testers) will need to be set up within the environment to allow IBM developers to recreate and test code changes. The County will need to provide remote access to this one workstation. Instructions on how to provide this access will be provided when Counties register to participate in this phase of testing.
A separate communication that will be sent on November 30, 2023, will explain the process that IBM will use to gather/identify the County’s image/software used on the CWS/CMS workstations. This will assist the IBM developers and testers when testing against the County’s specific CWS/CMS image.
Prerequisites for workstations participating in C# testing:
Test workstations (for both the County testers and the “IBM test workstation”) need:
- To be at the supported level for Windows;
- To have .NetFramework 3.5 and .NetFramework 4.8 installed;
- To have at least 8GBs of ram memory;
- To meet all the requirements found within the CWS/CMS Workstation COTS Install Options guide.
The CWDS Office and IBM appreciate your continued support in this necessary C# testing activity. Please complete and submit this form (https://forms.gle/WS71t4wxQdjEjMUZ7) by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 20, 2023, to provide your County’s response to this request for Co-Existent County image C# testing participation.
Counties will also need to identify the testers who will participate in this activity. This is required so that IDs can be created for each of the testing participants. Please complete this form (https://forms.gle/uMBZgc1pgzHt86uQ6) to identify each C# tester for this phase of the testing. The deadline to submit the participation form is 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 20, 2023.
Action Required
Complete and submit your form (https://forms.gle/WS71t4wxQdjEjMUZ7) for Co-Existent County image C# testing by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 20, 2023.
Complete and submit the form (https://forms.gle/uMBZgc1pgzHt86uQ6) to list the testing participants by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, December 20, 2023.
Send any questions that you have regarding this activity to the CWDS Customer Relations mailbox.
