CNAF turns to SAS® to Improve Service, Save Money

The Caisse Nationale d'Allocations Familiales (CNAF), the "family" branch of France's national social services program, manages a budget of 50 billion euros for 10 million beneficiaries. With a network of 123 Family Allocation Offices (Caisses d'Allocations Familiales or CAF) located throughout France to deliver legal, family and social services, CNAF needed a uniform IT architecture and a control tool for each of its offices. Turning to SAS to construct a Decision Information System (DIS) that would house all CNAF data in one DIS, CNAF was able to achieve significant savings.

"With SAS we are able to achieve a significant savings by streamlining costs between all CAFs and allowing a reciprocal approach in training and applications," according to project head Jacques Faveeuw.

A User-Friendly Approach
In order to implement a decision information system that provided user-friendly access and features for all users, the initial project for the CNAF was to install an information center by constructing a two-tiered data warehouse, with local and national data housed separately.

By implementing the data warehouse, CNAF was able to automate data gathering for all its sectors, including service rendering, social action, human resource management and financial management. In order to allow all CAFs access to production data as well as help non-IT users, project head Jacques Faveeuw implemented an institutional information dictionary that references the data and provides documentation intended for each individual user.

The data made available in the DIS centers allows analysis of key indicators, bolstering the reliability of the objectives and management principles established by the CNAF and the government.

Improving Data Quality, Empowering End Users
Before the implementation of the DIS, CNAF used approximately 50 different data gathering and information processing channels. By employing so many different systems, CNAF heightened the risk of poor data quality and duplicate records.

In 1998, the IT management of CNAF selected SAS to propose a unified system that would solve the issues of data quality and data duplication. SAS demonstrated to the different participants a planning tool that could be used for extractions in the DIS, enabling such tasks as tasks such as contact follow-up with the beneficiaries, human resource management, and financial management. The proposal also demonstrated the implementation of common tools for data storage and analysis.

Three years later all the CAFs acquired these solutions and successfully established a homogenous and coherent DIS system.

"We decided on SAS because of its complete, integrated proposal and its extensive features which allow the shared approach that we require." said Faveeuw.

Satisfied Users
In order to implement SAS, CNAF:

• Prepared an Institutional Information Directory (IID) to reference the data
• Gathered data by using data extraction procedures,
• Made data available in a decisional data warehouse,
• Promoted a data analysis tool (requester, statistical languages and management reports).

The decisional warehouse of DIS includes four "refinement" stages for the information. Thus, the data is warehoused in an information center that manages statistical data gathered at the local level as well as data gathered at the national level.

For the data analysis tools, the DIS had to take into account the disparity within the organization: the CAFs are diverse in size - some manage 5,000 beneficiaries while others manage 370,000 beneficiaries. All totaled, CNAF performs its analyses based on the management data of the 123 CAFs and for 10 million beneficiaries.

"An increasing number of users access decision making through help tools. At present, more than 1000 non-IT users make queries themselves or launch pre-established queries," according to Faveeuw.

"The SAS solutions range from handling a simple query for direct projects in the field to the production of control indicators for general management."

A System that Evolves to Meet Growing Needs
As a result of their SAS implementation, the directors, staff responsible for services, those in charge of studies and an increasing number of service agents can now make decisions based on objective data provided by DIS.

CNAF IT management expanded the project to provide everyone with tools that create reliable and coherent information in a common language.

According to Faveeuw: "Each time that an agent has a certain degree of initiative, he may make a decision because of the information available in the data warehouse. Therefore, he is inclined to use help tools in the decision making process."

In the future, CNAF plans to develop a Web architecture with multidimensional databases. It also plans to offer new applications to further strengthen relationships with beneficiaries while facilitating the decision making process for CNAF's management. The SAS solutions will also be used to assist human resource management and to develop experimental platforms based on Balanced Scorecard.

Highlights of the Decisional Information System with the SAS

• Control of management costs: CNAF is able to preserve a financial equilibrium in the payment of services and inform the Ministry when tracking the increase in service allocations.
• Improve beneficiary services for the CAFs: CAFs gained better knowledge of the populations, and improved quality of service (data on housing, household conditions, etc…), and management of basic information with the help of DIS.
• Improve the quality of the relations: CNAF now has the ability to analyze the relationship with and the profile of the beneficiaries.
• Anticipate indebtedness, borrowing: CNAF can analyze the population of beneficiaries, accompaniment (for example: access to property) and social role.
• Observe the convention of objectives and multiyear management.

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