CWDS Bulletins

CWS-CARES Scheduled Hotfix - Jan 24, 2024 | 5 PM - 6:30 PM

January 22, 2024 Communications

All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators, SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled a hotfix, CWS-CARES 0.11.2, to be deployed to the CWS-CARES production environment. The hotfix deployment will occur on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 6:30 PM. During the hotfix deployment, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will not be accessible for pilot counties Contra Costa, Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.

Action Required
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.

The Interim Process document is estimated to be posted approximately one week after the deployment of the hotfix. Once available, the document can be found here: RFA Application Process Release Notes and Interim Processes

Maintenance, CARES

Business Objects Server Rebooted

January 22, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and CAD Contacts:
It was observed that Business Objects (BO) applications were found to be unstable again this morning. The cause of the server issue continues to be under investigation.

The BO team restarted BO services this morning at 8:30.

BO applications are stabilizing slowly.   

The BO team is aware of the BO issues and is working on an upgrade to correct the issue. The BO team reached out to the California Department of Technology (CDT) Windows team last week and opened an active case to investigate the server reboot freeze during the weekends.

Action Required
Review scheduled BO reports today and tomorrow morning. Rerun the report jobs, as necessary.
Update, Announcement, CWS/CMS

Verizon High-Level Outage - RESOLVED

January 22, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts in Amador, Del Norte, Lassen, Modoc, and Trinity Counties:
January 22, 2024 UPDATE:  Verizon has reported that the fiber cut was repaired on Saturday, January 20, 2024, and that all services were available.
____________________________________________________________________________
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has reported a high-level outage impacting the Verizon network. This outage can cause a major impact to the CWS/CMS application, CARES-Live application, and other county services located on the impacted equipment.

CDT is working with Verizon to resolve the issue. There is currently no ETA for the resolution of this issue. 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 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.
Announcement, CWS/CMS, Outage, CARES-Live

Solicitation for County Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) for CWS/CMS Release 9.5

January 19, 2024 Customer Relations

The Child Welfare Digital Services (CWDS) Office is requesting county staff to participate as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in the Release 9.5 (R9.5) Business Needs Analysis (BNAs) meetings and Joint Application Design (JAD) to give feedback on issues. SMEs will participate in R9.5 activities, tentatively scheduled to GO LIVE in October 2024.

R9.5 BNAs will be held on January 30, 2024. SMEs will receive an Outlook invitation once all responses are received.

R9.5 JAD has not yet been scheduled, but SMEs will receive an Outlook invitation once a date is selected.

System Change Requests (SCRs) include:
The nine (9) SCRs listed below are newly proposed for Release 9.5:

  • SCR 8964 – Update CWS/CMS User Emails for CARES readiness (Data Quality) (Prioritized #1) - Application Support Contact: James Sidebotham

  • SCR 8965 – CWS/CMS User Emails must be mandatory (Data Quality) (Prioritized #2) - Application Support Contact: Nora O’Hara

  • SCR 8971 – Illogical Client Relationship Correction (Data Quality) (Prioritized #3) - Application Support Contact: James Sidebotham

  • SCR 8970 – Deduplication of Hearing Notebooks (Data Quality) (Data Quality) (Prioritized #7) - Application Support Contact: James Sidebotham

  • SCR 8967 – Duplicate Hearing Notebooks (Data Quality) (Prioritized #8) - Application Support Contact: Nora O’Hara

  • SCR 8972 – ACL 22-95 ICWA Mandatory Fields (Data Quality) (Prioritized #9) - Application Support Contact: Pravitha Kodiyanthara

  • SCR 8973 – ACL 22-95 ICWA Reminder (Data Quality) (Prioritized #10) - Application Support Contact: Pravitha Kodiyanthara

  • SCR 8853 – Validate & Cleanse Collateral Data Demographic Data (Data Quality) (Prioritized #13) - Application Support Contact: Gina Blakemore

  • SCR 8852 - Validate & Cleanse Reporter Demographic Data (Data Quality) (Prioritized #14) - Application Support Contact: Kim Carpenter

The SCRs listed below were covered during a previous BNA. A brief meeting will be held to ensure nothing has changed:

  • SCR 8960 – Other Child in Home Name Fields (Data Quality) (Prioritized #4) - Application Support Contact: Colin Kelley

  • SCR 8961 – Other Child in Home Name Fields Data Population (Data Quality) (Prioritized #5) - Application Support Contact: James Sidebotham

  • SCR 8954 – Service Provider NPI Data Batch Update (Data Quality) (Prioritized #6) – Application Support Contact: James Sidebotham

  • SCR 8943 – Expand Merge History Log (Data Quality) (Prioritized #11) - Application Support Contact: Kim Carpenter

  • SCR 8843 – Transfer Enrollments between DOE Schools (Data Quality) (Prioritized #12) – Application Support Contact: James Sidebotham

Counties are encouraged to register individuals with knowledge and experience working in the areas mentioned above. A mix of end users with casework or supervisory experience will also be very helpful.

Those who volunteer are welcome to register for one or more SCRs.

Participants will work with other County and State SMEs as well as vendor support staff.
We seek a diverse group of participants from large, medium, and small counties. The CWDS Office will work with SMEs to determine the details of participation.

If you have any questions regarding this recruitment, please contact OSI CWDS Application Support via email @ CWS_AppSupport@osi.ca.gov.
 
Action Required
Staff should submit a Release 9.5 SME Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential SME.
 
Link: https://forms.gle/mfQRVnpBzDFT16wa7
        
The forms should be submitted no later than January 24, 2024.

CWS/CMS, Release

Release 9.3 (15-day) Bulletin

January 19, 2024 Customer Relations
The mandatory VB6 version of Release 9.3 will be implemented on Saturday, Saturday, February 10, 2024.

Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:

The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, February 2, 2024, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release.  The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
  •  \CODEDIST\Staging\R93
Perform any necessary testing, but do not install countywide before February 10, 2024. The new release will not work with the database until then.

Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:

By Friday, February 2, 2024, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R92. folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.3 to take place on or after February 10, 2024.

Release 9.3 documents are located on the CWDS website. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches.
CWS/CMS

New Page on CWDS Website – CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix

January 12, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs:
The CWDS Office is pleased to announce a new CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix page on the CWDS Website. This new page will be implemented on January 29, 2024 and will allow counties an opportunity to view recurring CARES meetings that the CWDS Project hosts. The Meeting Matrix contains relevant information such as the Meeting Title, Purpose, Frequency as well as which CWDS team facilitates the meeting. The Meeting Matrix will be updated quarterly, or as needed, which will allow counties to have access to up to date CARES meeting information all in a single location. 
Beginning January 29, 2024, visitors to the CWDS Website will be able to access the new CARES Meeting Matrix by following these steps (See screenshots below):
  • From the Stakeholder Resources tab | CWS-CARES Users, then click the CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix link. The user will then be redirected to view the a PDF of the CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix.
  • The CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix will also be available via the search feature on the CWDS Website.
  • Additionally, the Meeting Matrix will be available via the CWDS Events Calendar page. A message will be added to the current CWDS Events Calendar page, this message will include a link to the CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix. The message will be as follows:
    Note: This page does not include CWS-CARES meetings. For recurring CWS-CARES meetings, please see CWS-CARES Meeting Matrix.  


Action Required
Contact the CWDS Customer Relations team if you have any questions.
Update, CWDS

CWS/CMS: California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin – SBCS Infrastructure Servers Security Patching

January 10, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, January 27, 2024, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM.  During the maintenance window, CDT will apply Standard Monthly OS Security Patches to SBCS Infrastructure Servers. There is no anticipated outage for this maintenance; however, CDT is asking that everyone log off from the Citrix SBC system, if not actively using it during the maintenance window.

Action Required
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.
Maintenance, CWS/CMS, Bulletin

CWS/CMS: California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin - SAFE Cloud Service Scheduled Maintenance

January 09, 2024 Communications
ALL SPOCs, Technical Contacts and CAD Contacts:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance of the SAFE Cloud service. The maintenance begins on Saturday, January 20, 2024, at 8:00 PM and concludes on Sunday, January 21, 2024, at 2:00 AM. The activity will cause interruptions in the SAFE Cloud service. Some Business Objects (BO) reports will fail to send, or automated scripts may fail to retrieve from SAFE during this scheduled maintenance.

Action Required
All users should logoff of the SAFE Cloud service prior to the start of the stated maintenance timeframe. Please check on your scheduled BO SAFE reports and automated FTP scripts. If needed, re-run the reports and scripts.
 
Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) to report any issues with your Business Objects content in SAFE.
Maintenance, CWS/CMS, CDT

Release 9.3 Informational (30-day) Bulletin

January 08, 2024 Customer Relations
The mandatory VB6 version of Release 9.3 will be implemented on Saturday, February 10, 2024.

Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:

The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, February 2, 2024, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release. The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
  •  \CODEDIST\Staging\R93
Perform any necessary testing, but do not install countywide before February 10, 2024. The new release will not work with the database until then.

Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:

By Friday, February 2, 2024, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R93. folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.2 to take place on or after February 10, 2024.

Release 9.3 documents are located on the CWDS website. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches.
Update

CWS/CMS Statewide Templates Update

January 05, 2024 Communications
All SPOCs:
The following CWS/CMS Statewide Template will be updated to its latest version on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. This form can be found under the CDSS radio button when generating a form.
Judicial Forms
  • AD513 (version 8/22): Nonminor Dependent Adoption Mutual Disclosure Agreement
Action Required
No action is required. If you have any questions regarding this form, please contact OSI CWDS Application Support via email at OSI CWDS App Support.
Update, CWS/CMS