Automating the Process of Working with Offenders

About Us

Solution Specialties, Inc.

Solution Specialties, Inc. is an Illinois-based Corporation that was formed to meet the case management needs of justice agencies. We are located in the Chicago metropolitan area and have been working exclusively with justice-related agencies since the beginning.

We are the largest provider of case management software in the State of Illinois, where our business began, serving more of the population than all other commercial systems combined.

But our experience and expertise extends beyond the borders of Illinois. Tracker is used by agencies from coast-to-coast, in a wide variety of programs and settings.

What Makes Us Different?

Our unique combination of experience in agency operations, the behavioral sciences, and technical skills allows us to bridge the gap typically found between those who create software and those who must use it to do their job:

It takes years to understand the subtleties and nuances behind the operations of most agencies that work with offenders. They are wrapped in legal requirements, political concerns, practical considerations, intervention philosophies and modalities, and local practices that have evolved over many years.

Likewise, it takes years to learn how to effectively apply technology to solving problems. But even experienced developers cannot solve problems they do not fully understand. They may not recognize the significance of a comment, nor realize that two seemingly separate things are really one and the same, or that the same terminology is used in different ways, sometimes in the same sentence. They may also think that two separate agencies will operate in the same way. It is difficult to communicate this complexity and have it fully understood by someone with no experience in this field.

Further, with the emergence of Evidence-Based Practices, it is more important than ever to incorporate the essential elements needed to facilitate outcome-based research. One must have a solid background in the behavioral sciences to successfully integrate these elements into a case management system. Tracker's underlying structure is geared to research, and it was designed to answer questions that have not yet been asked.

Solution Specialties Inc. has the necessary expertise in all three areas. Our president and founder has undergraduate and graduate degrees in the behavioral sciences. He has worked in corrections, community corrections, forensic mental health, juvenile detention, probation and court services, and residential treatment. He has also worked at positions from entry level to the director of a large probation and court services agency. He learned to program computers as an undergraduate, where the focus was researching and evaluating treatment strategies. Statistical analysis was essential to this work, and computers were a part of the training.

Tracker was originally created to perform grant-related outcome-based research for a large court services agency, but it had to fit seamlessly into the daily operations without creating additional work for the staff. When Tracker did so successfully, and even reduced staff workloads, other agencies wanted to use it for their own operations. This was the beginning of Solution Specialties Inc.

Tracker is a case management system that is built on top of a behavioral science research engine, that was created with an intimate understanding of agency operations and the process of working with offenders. Every aspect of Tracker's design addresses these competing needs in a balanced and practical way.