Thomas Clarke
Paul Embley
Diana Graski
Jim Harris
F. Dale Kasparek
John Matthias
Jim McMillan
Larry Murphy
William Raftery
Larry Webster
Paul S. Zeigler
e-Courts West Conference.
The initial phases of a system development life cycle are the processes of planning and acquiring automation. These processes for courts consist of a series of well-defined and seriously considered steps that are fairly standard. Successful planning and acquisition processes usually begin with a strategic plan developed by court leaders to formally recognize the need for an automated system and define the goals and objectives of the project. This is followed by a “requirements analysis” or "needs assessment." The purpose of the analysis/assessment is to define currently existing manual and automated procedures and to identify future needs. In 2007 the National Center for State Courts, in conjunction with the South Dakota Unified Justice System, created a model Information Technology Strategic Plan for South Dakota, which is designed for use in other states. This document is part of this module. Once a court’s technology needs have been defined and established through a requirements analysis, it is important to identify an acquisitions team early on. This team should consist of the involved members of the court, such as the clerk of courts or a court administrator, who are spearheading the acquisitions project, an IT representative, purchasing agent, and lawyer. Since the main goal of this team is to obtain quality goods and services at the lowest cost possible without compromising needs, the first order of business for the team should be to research available alternatives, such as in-house versus vendor-developed software or whether to procure bleeding-edge, leading-edge, or even trailing-edge technologies.There are several methods of procurement used in the public sector. These include RFPs (requests for proposal), RFIs (requests for information), RFBs (requests for bids), and RFQs (requests for quotation). All are highly structured documents. In 2000, the Joint Technology Committee of the Conference of State Court Administrators and the National Association for Court Management appointed a subcommittee to develop a model RFP for the court community. With funding from a Bureau of Justice Assistance grant to the SEARCH organization and staff assistance from the National Center for State Courts, this model RFP document has been completed and may be found on the NCSC Web site. Once the responses to the procurement document have been received, the final steps in the acquisition process fall to the original members of the acquisitions team--the IT representative lends expertise to evaluate the responses; the court manager approves the results; the lawyer negotiates the contract; and the purchasing agent directs the buying process.
Links to related online resources are listed below. Non-digitized publications may be borrowed from the NCSC Library; call numbers are provided.
Presentations from CTC7, CTC6, and CTC5 regarding Acquiring Technology in the court community.
The perfect guide to all the steps essential to automating courts: planning, acquisition, development, and implementation. Publication is available for purchase through the NCSC Publications Catalog.
This report gives the findings of an assessment on the Michigan Court of Appeals' case management system.
This report addresses the technology supporting the court's business operations and its readiness for enhanced automated support of operations and integration with the city and the State of Washington.
Integrated Criminal Justice System Strategic Plan for FY2009 - FY2010 that promote efficient sharing of criminal justice information among criminal justice agencies.
A strategic plan model for other states. For this report twenty-one state and local court IT strategic plans and related documents were examined to produce a strategic planning process and plan template that can be adapted by any court to save considerable time and money in the planning process.