By: Joseph Robbins, equivant Corrections Implementation Specialist
Software solutions are only as good as their ability to adapt, evolve, and solve challenges for users. As you are well aware, corrections facilities are stretched to the absolute limit. With ever increasing demands and staffing shortages becoming the norm, practical processes and useful solutions are crucial. But how do we bridge the gap between what your facility’s staff needs and what our developers deliver to ensure first-class, effective solutions?
It starts with our world-class team—composed of former corrections’ practitioners. Our Facilities team has nearly 80 years of experience working in the field from the bottom to the top, including special teams, assignments, and management. We combine this expertise with a commitment to listening to customers and communicating with our in-house team of software architects, engineers, and developers to ensure each solution is practical, effective, and makes your staff’s lives easier.
Below outlines how equivant Corrections software solutions are developed with you in mind.
- Collaborative Team: equivant Corrections practitioners and developers are not siloed. Developers without practical experience are not generating ideas in a box. Instead, we work together to ensure our enhancements meet the needs of our customers from specification to installation. And, service and sales staff members are regularly in contact with customers and prospects—listening to their needs, wants, and pain points. This culture of deep listening and respect for the roles each person plays in the ecosystem facilitates an innovative software development and enhancement process.
- Idea Generation: During our interactions with our customers and prospective customers, we listen to the challenges and pain points they face every day and then we spend time together discussing how we can help with those issues. We might even ask customers to participate on committees focused on helping us continue to be the gold standard in providing software solutions to correctional facilities.
- Refining the Request: Then, we submit our idea for the enhancement or new functionality to an equivant Corrections’ product manager who then initiates a process of refining the request until the finalized version can be turned over to our software development team. This in-house team of software engineers, architects, and developers then reviews the specifications, creating estimates and timelines and makes sure that nothing has been overlooked in the documentation. Only after the rigorous creation and review process has been completed, our leadership team will approve the plan for the development team to schedule and begin their work. Our product management and software development team follows an agile software development process that allows for flexibility and configurability to bring the idea to life. Click here to find out more about the agile development process we use to create our software solutions and revisions. (link to companion blog)
- Trial and Testing: Once the set of enhancements has been developed, they are internally tested multiple times before the new feature or component is demonstrated internally for review.
- Roll out and Implementation: Once our team has reviewed and approved, external stakeholders may be shown the new feature for feedback as well.
- Continuous Evolution: With three releases every year, the flexibility to make changes and enhancements is ongoing. We strive to provide the best, easiest to use, most practical software available to the market. That process and desire has no end date.
This process results in solutions with real impact for practitioners. Our staff has used this software (and other solutions) so we understand what you need to be effective in your day-to-day roles. As the Northpointe Suite has evolved over the years it has always been our practice to keep current with technological advances, while at the same time never losing our practitioner’s perspective to make equivant Corrections solutions simple to use and practical for today’s jails and corrections staff. The listening, collaboration, and drive to do better and be better from the practitioner’s perspective is what sets us apart from our competitors. It’s what our customers leverage to gain efficiencies and peace of mind. Our focus, every day, is to be your partner on this journey and to do everything we can to make these tools vital assets for you. To learn more about our solutions click here. To learn more about how our solutions are created and revised using our agile software development process, click here.
