What is ARMS?
ARMS is a software program that keeps track of cases for victim advocates. It stores data in a database which can then be used to produce all kinds of reports, provide quick access to current and past cases, tracks contacts and services provided for victims and other clients and much more. It was designed specifically for victim advocates to use in their daily work instead of spreadsheets and paper forms. With ARMS it is possible to quickly produce reports to fulfill grant requirements.
A short history of ARMS
While working for the state of Utah as a technical specialist, Ron Weight, the creator of ARMS and owner of RC Computers, met with victim advocates while helping prosecutors with their prosecutor case management software. The advocates would use the prosecutor software to lookup cases that their clients were involved in and make a few notes, but it wasn't designed for their needs and was not helpful at all in creating reports for grants and office needs. It appeared that there wasn't much out there that they could use that would work for them and be affordable.
Posey Lake overview in southern Utah
Ron was just finishing his bachelor degree in computer information systems and needed to do a final project or capstone project as it was called. This project needed to be comprehensive and demonstrate the skills he had learned in school. It seemed the perfect solution to build a system designed for advocates and, if it turned out to be useful, to provide it at a reasonable and affordable price. Thus, ARMS was born. The project was successful in that the project reviewers thought it was wonderful, but it didn't seem quite ready for use by advocates.
The idea was left behind for a while, but he kept talking with advocates who needed somthing more than they had. After a few long meetings discussing their needs he sat down and modified ARMS to work like they wanted it to. ARMS was installed in a couple of offices and the advocates started using it and providing feedback. After a while, ARMS was ready for prime time.
RC Computers LLC was formed as a business so we could provide ARMS and perhaps a few other services to folks who can't afford custom software and don't have any off-the-shelve software that fits their needs. We put up this web site and advertised through word of mouth only since our budget is as tight as our users.
ARMS was originally built using feedback from advocates in Utah. In 2009, we attended the VOCA conference in Arizona where we hoped to introduce it to many others. While we did talk with quite a few people, it was difficult to really show what it could do in the limited time and the off the beaten path area where we were placed. Based on feedback received from several people working in situations that were different than those in most of Utah, we made some significant changes to ARMS to make it more useful for others.
ARMS will never be a perfect fit for everyone because of the differences in the way everyone does their work. We do offer customization to anyone who would like changes made to more closely match their needs. Please contact us if you would like to customize ARMS. You can download it here as a trial to see what it can do as it is now.
We will continue to work on ARMS as we receive feedback from users and keep that version seperate from any customized versions.