ARETGroup

 Adopting new technology can transform how human services, justice, and health agencies collaborate to engage communities and transform lives. Technology has evolved and most legacy data systems fall short of supporting today’s multi-disciplinary and interagency teams—limiting their ability to coordinate care.

This piece explores key considerations for technology adoption in cross-sector environments, from ensuring data ownership and interoperability to maintaining compliance with HIPAA, CJIS, and FERPA standards. When formed cross-agency partnerships among justice, health and human services agencies, seek to integrate case management, field notes, and forms-based process management. A well-planned technology adoption strategy helps teams avoid costly implementation mistakes, maintain compliance across frameworks such as HIPAA, CJIS, and FERPA, and ensures that digital systems genuinely enhance coordination and collaboration.

Due Diligence
When selecting a technology vendor for collaboration, the first step is to carefully review the vendor’s background. Request a case study or list of references from other agencies using the same tool. Ask questions about previous vendor experiences, governance, and ongoing support. Vendors who can clearly explain their policies, standards, and service commitments will always be stronger partners.

Pricing Models
Pricing models can vary substantially. For example, case-by-case or daily rates for data use may seem flexible up front. In practice, this leads to unpredictable costs that spiral as usage grows. When a company appears inexpensive upfront, expect hidden expenses such as case-by-case pricing, egress or exit penalties, or service fees. 

What you need is:

• Stable, transparent pricing that reflects long-term value rather than short-term transactions.
• A clear sense of how costs might change over time (e.g., user growth, storage expansion, or system integrations).
• An understanding of the total cost of ownership, not just the initial setup or license fee.

Evidence-Driven Data Solutions
Successful interagency and multi-disciplinary teams technology adoption requires expertise at the design stage. Look for a comprehensive team with subject-matter expertise and experience to advise on a range of processes, including aligning data definitions. To ensure the final product reflects your team’s actual workflow, you will also want to look for configurability as a core product feature.

Interoperability

Despite current legal and compliance frameworks, some are looking for a universal solution that links many systems together. This is simply not the best for most interagency partnerships, particularly teams seeking to protect the confidentiality of vulnerable human subjects. Rather, think of the daily workflow as involving at least one independently managed, essential software application. Configure your system to avoid duplicate data entry that is required in agency systems and capture only essential program information. 

For new and/or emerging teams, the first stage of managing interoperability is to focus on capturing undocumented or poorly documented information. 

Data Ownership and Access

When adopting new technology, data ownership and access control should be top priorities. Your agency must retain clear ownership of all usable data—including case records, activity logs, and outcome metrics. Equally important is understanding where and how your data is stored, especially when systems operate across multiple agencies or vendors.

Be cautious of proprietary or closed systems that make it difficult to export, share, or integrate data. These platforms often provide only limited “what you see is what you get” access, restricting long-term usability and interoperability.

Every interagency technology adoption plan should include a clear data exit strategy, ensuring that information can be securely extracted in open, machine-readable formats if program needs, partnerships, or vendors change. This proactive approach protects your agency’s independence, compliance, and long-term data value.

Privacy Concerns

Compliance with various interagency standards can be difficult to find. Technology compliance with HIPAA, CJIS, and FERPA should be clear to all partners. Where privacy and data protection are core principles for partnership, agencies should ask for a plain language privacy policy. Additionally, prefer systems that can easily yield de-identified information, including personal identifiers or health records, from relevant records. Ensurance of de-identification cuts costs and time and provides a clear framework for interagency partnership in management, storage and export.

Interagency Collaboration Context

Community engagement is an increasingly important technology feature. Look for systems that allow secure, role-based access and information sharing with all partners.  In some cases, collaborator access must be designed carefully to ensure that external partners can work with data without risking exposure of sensitive records.

Quality Controls

Finally, your interagency technology solution should have strong quality controls built in, aligned with good documentation standards. Data validation at the point of entry can prevent errors before they compound into flawed reports. A reliable system must maintain a comprehensive audit trail. This means every data entry, change, and transfer is logged in a way that is transparent and reviewable.

Conclusion

If you are engaging in a program or project that involves interagency or multi-disciplinary teams involving networks of justice and community partners, consider Co-Responder.

ARETGroup Co-Responder is an evidence-driven data collection and management solutions built for interagency collaborations across justice intercepts. See a recent article for more information on community response intercepts.

To learn more about what to look for when selecting an AI tool, see this webinar offered by the IJIS Institute entitled, “Evaluating AI for Public Safety: What to ask in every product demo webinar.”