Article 2: Tackling Service Delivery Challenges from All Angles with OSDS

Introduction

Service delivery is complicated — sometimes infuriatingly so. Whether you’re a service provider buried in government hierarchies, a funder trying to make sense of endless metrics, or a person just trying to get the help you need, the system often feels like a never-ending maze. Each department, organization, and sector seem to operate with its own playbook, leaving everyone — on both sides of the equation — frustrated and underserved.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way? Enter the Object-Centric Service Delivery System (OSDS), a framework designed to cut through the noise and bring everything together. Think of OSDS as a master coordinator, aligning every piece of the puzzle to create a system that works seamlessly for everyone.

OSDS doesn’t treat service delivery as a set of disconnected pieces — it tackles the mess from three perspectives: vertical, horizontal, and cross-interactional challenges. Let’s break it down and see how OSDS is about building bridges, not patching holes.

Vertical Challenges: Bridging Internal Layers

Vertical challenges often arise from how funding, policies, and compliance requirements flow through hierarchical systems. Picture a waterfall of rules, funding streams, and paperwork that starts at the top (federal agencies) and cascades down through states, local governments, and finally to service seekers.

Take the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for example. HUD allocates funds through programs like Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and Emergency Shelter Grants (ESG), which address different aspects of housing needs. However, instead of pooling resources from these funding streams to create cohesive solutions like a “Housing Solution” framework, state and local agencies typically treat each funding stream as a separate program with its own administrative structure.

This programmatic breakdown isn’t based on outcomes; it’s designed to meet administrative and compliance needs. Agencies build entire management structures around these funding silos, reinforcing inefficiencies and limiting their ability to address housing comprehensively. As a result, resources are fragmented, duplication increases, and the focus shifts away from solving the actual problem — housing instability.

At the end of this funding waterfall is the individual — a person just trying to find a place to live. From their perspective, “housing” could mean shelter, transitional housing, rental housing, or even homeownership. Navigating the eligibility rules for each siloed program is overwhelming and time-sensitive, especially when housing insecurity is at stake. One county in the Bay Area even thought stapling multiple applications together and calling it a “consolidated application” was an innovative solution. It wasn’t. Asking someone for their name and address 90 times isn’t the customer-centric approach anyone needs.

The same structural inefficiencies affect workforce development programs. Federal and state job training initiatives often operate separately from local employment centers. As a result, job seekers are left to navigate disconnected resources, juggling separate eligibility requirements and applications across multiple systems. This fragmentation prevents communities from building a robust, coordinated pipeline to employment, leaving gaps in service delivery for the people who need it most.

How OSDS Helps

OSDS provides a solution by focusing on outcomes instead of funding silos. It allows agencies to consolidate resources into integrated frameworks like “Housing Solutions” or “Workforce Development Pathways” that address needs comprehensively, regardless of the funding source.

With OSDS, compliance is automated, freeing agencies from the burdens of manual tracking and redundant processes. Agencies retain control of their data and funding while collaborating across layers to meet shared goals. For individuals, OSDS eliminates the need to decipher confusing programmatic boundaries — they’re simply matched to the right solution, fast.

By shifting the focus from administrative needs to outcomes, OSDS transforms vertical systems into streamlined, efficient engines for delivering meaningful, person-centered support.

Horizontal Challenges: Collaboration Across Peers

Horizontal challenges arise when organizations within the same sector — like housing nonprofits, job training centers, or municipal programs — work in silos rather than together. Without coordination, the system wastes resources, duplicates efforts, and creates a fragmented experience for service seekers.

Imagine multiple housing nonprofits in one community. Each offers rental assistance, but none of them coordinate. Not only does this landscape duplicate services, but it also leaves critical gaps — like long-term housing stabilization — unaddressed. Worse, these organizations often compete for the same funding, treating collaboration as optional instead of essential. This creates an anti-competitive dynamic, where providers focus on securing funding rather than improving outcomes.

Similarly, in workforce development, local job training centers often duplicate efforts — offering similar programs like resume workshops, interview skills training, and vocational certifications.
Yet, these centers rarely coordinate with one another or with local employers. This disconnection means job seekers face redundant processes, missed opportunities, and uncoordinated transitions into the workforce.

For service seekers, these disconnected systems create endless frustration. They’re forced to retell their story at every step, fill out repetitive forms, and navigate conflicting eligibility rules. It’s exhausting and, frankly, demoralizing. Why are we making people choose between earning a wage to pay their bills and losing income just to beg for help — traveling from one ivory tower to another?

This lack of collaboration doesn’t just demoralize people — it drives up costs. Redundant services inflate operational expenses, while uncoordinated efforts fail to address root causes. The result? Higher long-term costs for communities and fewer meaningful outcomes.

How OSDS Helps

OSDS fosters collaboration by creating intentional systems of alignment and cooperation. It enables funders — especially municipalities — to gain a bird’s-eye view of services and resources, allowing them to implement community-wide strategies that drive meaningful outcomes. With OSDS, organizations can:

• Reduce Redundancies: By sharing data, organizations avoid duplication and focus on unmet needs.
• Streamline Client Pathways: Service seekers only need to share their story once, no matter how many organizations are involved.
• Encourage Shared Success: OSDS aligns efforts around common goals, fostering a culture of partnership and mutual accountability.

Think of it as a digital handshake between organizations. For example:

• Housing nonprofits can coordinate short-term rental assistance with long-term housing stabilization programs to form a seamless continuum of care.
• Workforce training centers can share data with local employers, ensuring job training programs align with real hiring needs.

For those worried about turf wars, OSDS even lays the groundwork for collaboration reward models, where successful partnerships unlock additional resources. This creates an environment where working together isn’t just possible — it’s rewarded and celebrated.

Cross-Interactional Challenges: Bridging Sectors for Holistic Support

Cross-interactional challenges arise when organizations from different sectors — like housing, workforce development, childcare, transportation, and food security — fail to coordinate their efforts. Here’s the thing: life doesn’t come in silos, so why should services?

Take the challenge faced by cities like Austin, where rapid population growth has displaced disadvantaged families. These families often need a network of support across sectors to stabilize:

• Housing services to find an affordable place to live.
• Workforce development programs to secure stable employment.
• Childcare and education support to ensure children thrive.
• Reliable transportation and easy access to transit hubs to connect them to work, school, and services.
• Access to fresh and healthy food even within the food deserts.

Without alignment between these sectors, families are left to juggle fragmented services, often falling through the cracks. For instance, a displaced family might secure housing on the city’s outskirts, far from jobs, schools, or public transportation. A lack of coordination between housing and workforce programs means the parents are unable to access employment opportunities near their new home, perpetuating the cycle of instability.

This fragmented approach perpetuates the revolving door effect, where individuals and families repeatedly cycle back into crisis services because their deeper needs weren’t addressed. It doesn’t just harm those directly affected — it increases costs for municipalities, which must spend more on reactive measures like emergency housing, unemployment assistance, and crisis care.

How OSDS Helps

OSDS transforms cross-sector collaboration by providing tools like the Client-Centered Collaboration Framework, ensuring service providers can align their efforts seamlessly. Key benefits include:

• Holistic Data Sharing: Secure, consent-driven access to client information enables organizations across sectors — like housing, workforce development, and childcare — to coordinate effectively.
• Integrated Service Pathways: Service seekers experience a unified system where services are aligned and mutually reinforcing, from housing to employment and beyond.
• Reduced Administrative Burden: Providers can access accurate, up-to-date information without duplicating data collection, saving time and resources.
• Outcome-Driven Goals: Agencies collaborate on shared goals like “family stability” or “employment readiness,” ensuring efforts align with measurable outcomes.

For example, OSDS could:

• Connect housing agencies with workforce programs so that families relocating to the city’s outskirts are matched with jobs closer to home.
• Ensure childcare providers and transportation systems coordinate to make services accessible to working parents.
• Integrate food security programs with housing and workforce efforts, so families don’t have to choose between paying rent and buying groceries.

The Client-Centered Collaboration Framework reduces redundancies and eliminates the need for service seekers to retell their story at every step. This means no more inputting your name and address 90 times.

By enabling collaboration and coordination across sectors, OSDS ensures that individuals and families receive timely, comprehensive support tailored to their unique needs. This approach doesn’t just save time and resources — it builds stronger, more resilient communities.

The Power of OSDS

Here’s the thing: OSDS isn’t about patching holes — it’s about building something better. By addressing vertical, horizontal, and cross-interactional challenges, OSDS transforms service delivery into a system that works for everyone.

It’s time to move past fragmented efforts and start collaborating for real change. The people we serve deserve nothing less.