CaRES

In 2014 the California Victim Compensation Board (then VCGCB, now CalVCB) selected ASDCom to modernize the core of its CaRES claim-processing system. Documented database and application-design flaws were making it harder to add new functionality or scale the system. Scope was deliberately constrained to architectural modernization — database, architecture, workflow, and UI changes to enable extensibility — rather than new functionality.

Under a CMMI-template process established with the Board’s CIO office, and with customizations to Team Foundation Server as the engineering backbone, we fielded a multi-role team:

• Program / Project Manager — leading client assignments across planning, development, QA, and reporting.
• Information Architect — owning project architecture and enforcing design/development best practices across the team.
• Technical Lead — building the data-extraction and reporting pipeline that fed downstream analytics.
• QA Engineer / QA Manager — requirements documentation, use-case development, system/regression/UAT cycles, liaison with business staff.
• Theme Designer — web UI rework to improve the staff experience.

CaRES is the system that stood behind the Board’s compensation decisions for victims of crime. Modernizing it responsibly — without breaking the live program — is exactly the kind of work we continue to take on. The patterns we established here (role-based portals, CMMI-aligned process, accessibility targets) became the foundation for the VCPMS product we later offered to other states.

A signed customer reference is on file with the California Department of General Services as part of ASDCom’s CMAS contract application (reference: CalVCB / VCGCB CIO’s office, 2015).