The Current Situation

1
The Current Situation

• 16 Different Reports
• From 55 County Offices
• Submitted Via 6 Different Methods
• For 10
  Different CDFA Programs

2
Food and Ag Code 2281 / Gas Tax Programs

• (1) Pest Detection
• (2) Pest Eradication
• (3) Pest Management Control
• (4) Pest Exclusion
• (5) Seed Inspection
• (6) Nursery Inspection
• (7) Fruit and Vegetable Quality Control
• (8) Egg Quality Control
• (9) Apiary Inspection
• (10) Crop Statistics

3
Current County Monthly Reports Submitted
4
County Survey of Reporting Methods (49 Counties
Responding)
5
Most Reports Delivered Via Paper or Excel
Spreadsheet
6
Heres the Situation . . .and Heres a Proposed
Solution
55 County Report Systems
User Access- Controlled Interface (Authenticate,
Authorize, Allow Access)
10 CDFA Program Report Systems
7
Responses

• Have you developed software to generate these
  reports for your county?
• Yes 18 No 25 In Process 2 Not
  Indicated 2
• Are you making (or would you make) your system
  available to other counties?
• a) Yes, for free 14 b) Yes, for a charge
  2 c) No 3 Not Indicated 1
• How long have you been using this system?
  (Average is 3 years, 4 months)
• 2 mos 1 6 mos 1 8 mos 1 1 yr 1 18
  mos 2 2 yr 4 3 yr 1 4 yr 1 5 yr 2
• 10 yr 1 12 yr 1 Not Indicated 1
• Do you plan to make any significant changes to
  your current system in the near future?
• Yes 2 No 16 Not Indicated 1
• Who inputs the information?
• a) One person 4 b) A small group 10 c)
  Each person enters their own 7
• d) Not Indicated 1
• How often is information input?
• a) Daily 13 b) Weekly 5 c) Monthly 8
  d) bi-weekly 1 e) Annually 1

8
Feedback

• Positive
• Interested in system for monthly reports and
  filing all reports via email
• On-line monthly reports are easy and convenient
  to submit
• Please accept all reports electronically
• Consider use of scanning technology to collect
  report information
• I am glad that I can email information rather
  than mailing it it gets there faster, plus saves
  on postage
• I enjoy using Excel spreadsheets to input the
  information, it looks better and they are easy to
  use
• We would like to see a standardized Web-based
  state supported system
• The goal of Madera County is to have an
  electronic system in place assistance from DPR
  to achieve that goal would be welcomed

9
Feedback

• Additional Comments
• Our current system is effective in gathering and
  consolidating the necessary data but is extremely
  inefficient in adapting to changes in the report
  form
• In order for this proposed concept to prove
  valuable, CDFA should consult with DPR to include
  Report 5 in the software package
• We have most of the reports in Excel but were
  unaware we could send in this format or to whom
  they should be sent
• If the pilot Weights Measures program is
  successful, we expect agricultural programs to be
  included
• Any reporting system developed by CDFA cannot
  impact the usefulness of reports developed and
  used by this office because of the review
  processes built into this system and the limited
  time available to staff inputting the information
  and reviewing it, a system requiring daily or
  weekly submission would be cumbersome and would
  diminish the accuracy of reports

10
Feedback

• More general comments / suggestions
• It is critical that CACASA members participate in
  the development of ANY electronic reporting
  system
• Reports should be designed to be reviewed prior
  to submitting. The GWSS on-line data entry does
  not allow for review of total hours before
  submitting
• We use Excel spreadsheets to tabulate some of our
  data, but we transfer the data to blank monthly
  report forms and submit paper copies or submit
  reports on-line
• Our spreadsheets are combined into a totals sheet
  so that we have quarterly totals
• The department has just acquired the Solano
  Countys software for all Ag programs the IT
  dept. is looking into the WM, as it is a
  separate program our IT dept. has set up the
  files for all staff to enter their daily work and
  time tracking info all reporting should be up
  and running by the end of August 2004
• Staff compiles data for reports and then
  transfers data to electronic forms supplied by
  the State, then they are emailed other reports
  are sent in via the mail crop reports are mailed
  out and are available on the county Web page
• Solano county has developed an effective web
  based system (Ag Track) they have made this
  available to other counties in the past I
  intend to meet with our IT Dept. this year and
  investigate the potential of utilizing this
  software in our County in FY 05-06
• Our system has proven to be accurate and saves a
  substantial amount of time iIt also provides us
  a means of reviewing data generated by each
  specific employee as a management tool
• This year we modified the program so that the
  weekly report data is saved directly on to our
  server rather than diskette this will reduce
  data download time we would be happy to
  demonstrate our program at our office

11
Advantages of online report submissions

• Cost savings by reducing preparation time
• Decreasing redundancy in the review process
• Timely flexible submission of report data
• Improving ability to evaluate program performance
• Enhancing accuracy of initial data capture
• Unforeseen benefits.?

12
Example Current Report 4 input Screen
13
What do we do next?

• CDFAs proposed to implement an online data entry
  reporting solution
• (which could contain an e-mail reporting option)
• Data collected must have value both to the State
  and the Counties
• There is a need to perform a complete review of
  many of the reports to
• determine the value to program management of the
  information collected
• Form review must be conducted both from a State
  program perspective and
• from a County management funding perspective
• Counties could agree to adopt the CDFA model for
  reporting
• As a group the county commissioners sealers
  could reach consensus on
• how they want information to be reported
• That decision would indicate how to proceed

14

• Produced at CDFA by
• Casey Estep
• Ron Flores
• Mike Hetrick
• Jeff Hillard
• Les Lombardo
• Ed Williams

15

• Created Entirely On Location at CDFA
  Headquarters, Sacramento, California
• September, 2004
• No templates were harmed during the making of
  this presentation