Through each project, we focus on achieving desired outcomes for children, families, and communities. Check out our Project Profiles below to learn more about the Ikaso approach.
Ikaso developed and supported a grant program to help a state client distribute targeted investments for community-driven mental health and substance use disorder care.
Ikaso partnered with a state health and human services agency to measure and share the impact of large-scale investments.
Transitioning a state’s temporary staffing and consulting services program contract to a new vendor, after supporting the procurement process.
Ikaso provides strategic and operational support to state leaders as they developed a spending plan under tight timeframes and continue to implement proposed activities.
Ikaso helped state leaders develop Objectives and Key Results to enhance collaboration across divisions and address agency priorities.
Ikaso helped state leaders address fiscal and operational challenges in tight timeframes.
We conducted data analysis, organization and process reviews, external benchmarking, and staff interviews to identify the causes of high turnover within a state department. We developed a path for improvement with 18 recommendations to foster team identity, cohesion, and purpose.
To strengthen early childhood care, Ikaso facilitated the development of a strategic plan with twelve goals, defined outcomes, and detailed action steps based on input from diverse, statewide stakeholders.
Ikaso partnered to support the transition of a statewide community resource and referral network from a non-profit organization into a state health and human services agency to better address heightened service demands among budget constraints. We built community rapport, ensured continuity of operations, and upheld state priorities — an approach that resulted in successful stakeholder engagement, budget analysis and cost-saving strategies, and contract review and negotiation.
Ikaso identified contracts where state and local purchases overlapped and found opportunities to modify state contracts to bridge local and State purchasing needs. In turn, this helped generate savings for the State and increased the purchasing volume in existing State agreements.
Ikaso helped a national philanthropic foundation collaborate with its grantee portfolio to develop a framework to determine human services grantee’s outcomes orientation. We, in collaboration with the foundation, engaged direct service and policy providers. We identified conditions that enable outcomes orientation and built a framework for evaluating provider progress as they move toward creating a fully outcomes orientation within their organization.
Ikaso worked to ensure the best service and health outcomes for a state’s most vulnerable populations, under a slate of multi-billion-dollar Medicaid managed care contracts. We helped develop a comprehensive slate of performance measures, addressing different areas of health outcomes measures with targeted incentive structures.
Ikaso helped a state client develop a central procurement organization from a clean sheet approach. We provided strategic guidance, both for rationalizing and improving procurement statutes, rules, and procedures, and for designing a purpose-built central procurement organization.
Ikaso helped state leaders address fiscal and operational challenges in tight timeframes in response to the public health emergency. We helped identify and implement program updates and new initiatives and renegotiate a suite of services contracts to align with program needs and ensure service levels were preserved, while achieving fiscal targets. We continue to support strategy and development of targeted division recovery activities and provide valuable insight through fiscal analysis of federal COVID-19 relief funding.
Ikaso supported the state’s application for a large COVID-19 grant and established a reporting process for monthly updates to the CDC. We developed reporting tools to track performance and funds usage and implemented a data collection process to develop monthly reports to the CDC.
Ikaso developed tools and processes to validate and quantify a state Central Procurement Office’s savings over time.
Ikaso partnered with a state’s child welfare agency to support end-to-end procurement and restructuring of their Resource Family Recruitment, Retention, Training, and Support (RRTS) program.
